The protesters outside the clinic where I work have a sign with that quote on it. I've been thinking about letting Dr. Seuss's widow know about it.

Go to http://www.pluggedinonline.com/ - which is a religious media review site - and look up the review for this movie:

http://www.pluggedinonline.com/movies/movies/a0003955.cfm

They seem to imply that Dr. Suess intentionally wrote those words for pro-lifers, which, as is mentioned, is completely wrong.

Are there any links somewhere that show Dr. Suess to be against this interpretation of his words? I'd like to e-mail the site and let them know what a mistake their interpretation is.

Also, I'm not sure why I even LOOK at that website ... morbid curiosity, I guess. It amazes me how bland and ... pure (for lack of a better word) that they want ALL movies, music, tv shows, etc. -- no mentions of sex (especially before marriage!); no drugs; no cursing; etc. Essentially, they want to ignore real life. I find it so odd.

Thanks for the link! I think my favorite line is, "What's so irritating about this casual slap at daughters is the sense that the makers of the film didn't really mean it." Because they so seldom do "mean it" in the sense of doing it intentionally, and explaining to people why that doesn't actually make it better for my daughter to see daughters so disregarded all over pop culture is often frustrating.

Here is a NPR article that interviews Dr. Seuss’s window and her lawyer. Hope it helps!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88189147

Thanks, Jolynn! That's poifect!

It irritates me that they are using someone else's words for THEIR agenda, especially since Dr. Suess himself made it pretty clear that wasn't what he meant. Don't they realize he was pretty progressive, himself? Sigh.

Yeah! So worth a listen. "We are HERE! We are HERE! We are HERE!" was so inspiring. And to hear a man say it... aw, Peter Segal, you are raising your daughters right.

Jennifer
About-Face

I have a 4 year old and we've been watching the VCR of the Grinch that Stole Christmas and, lo and behold, the original Horton Hears a Who cartoon is on that tape as well. I remember being scared shitless as a kid by the Wickersham Brothers. Now I understand why.

Totally agree, Dr. Seuss used to be a political cartoonist for a left-wing newspaper.

The story was written in 1954, before the debate for abortion rights. In fact Phillip Nel, Dr. Seuss’s publisher, said that Horton Hears a Who is about democracy and that fact that every voice, no matter how small, needs to be heard.

Anytime, Marileec, anything I can do to help shut up those anti-choicers.

yay Peter Sagal!
pedgehog, a regular protestor in my area hits all the anti-choice trends. He reads horton hears a who while pacing back and forth in front of the clinic. Not outloud though---- cause he has red tape over his mouth.

Slightly off-topic, but The Onion has weighed in on the Seussified movie industry. http://www.theonion.com/content/node/76857

Funny.

Also, Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel, the biography of Dr. Seuss, goes into the political subtext of several of his books (The Sneetches and The Butter Battle Book stick out in my memory). I'd be surprised if the movie industry was able to adequately represent any of the subtexts. Condemning, say, the anti-Semitism of the Nazis (Sneetches) would be just too darn controversial for The Kids.

The first born of the mayor is the new mayor of Whoville. The first born was the only son, followed by 96 daughters.

So far, so bad, I agree.

But give them a little credit for a scene in which the current mayor reviews the portraits and accomplishments of past mayors, which included women Whos!

And the brilliantest scientist ever? A woman.

So while I agree it's REALLY hard to make it past the 1 son followed by 96 daughters premise, the filmmakers did make some really endearing points that a person is a person, no matter their gender identification.

I am in love with Peter Sagal.

"Here's a father with 96 daughters, 96 amazing, beautiful, unpredictable, mysterious, distinct, glorious human beings... but gosh what in the world is he going to care about?"

"We are here!" Damn right.

That really made me cry. I feel like I've been shouting "I'm here!" at my dad my whole life and he can't hear me because of his inability to believe that as a woman I can ever amount to anything; that I'm ever worth listening to.

I'm really glad Peter Sagal's daughters are going to get the chance to have a good relationship with their dad and to know he respects them.

It's cathartic to have a cry sometimes. :)

Pup, MD, I can't really find that comforting. This is fucking 2008* and we have to be greatful that sometimes it's acknowledged that women can be accomplished human beings for 2 second within a plot that pretty much tells us we're not?

*swearing and rant not directed at you, but at the misogynist assholes who wrote/directed/etc. And pretty much misogynist assholes everywhere.

I am in love with Peter Sagal.

"Here's a father with 96 daughters, 96 amazing, beautiful, unpredictable, mysterious, distinct, glorious human beings... but gosh what in the world is he going to care about?"

"We are here!" Damn right.

I love this part best:

"That's rotten!" cried my daughters.

So cute and awesome. :)

I preface this by saying that was a great essay. Peter Sagal said good things.

However, this guy is NO feminist hero. The comments he made during the Spitzer brouhaha on women (on NPR's Talk of the Nation, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88106710) and his misogynist attitude in his book on vices--a Fresh Air interview is still up at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15320313. You have to listen - the excerpt from the book is the same on both pages. Thanks, NPR, for thinking prostitution is just a "vice" and an example of "people behaving badly." Whatever your stance on the sex trade or women who engage in prostitution, this interview is pure hell. Allow me a brief quote from him on Spitzer: "I work for a public radio salary, so I myself have never played in the realms of the Emperor's Club..."

It gets worse/better but I have not the patience today.

This really, really bothers me - that the heroes of cartoons are almost always men. Oh sure, you had the Disney princesses, but they had to be rescued by men. Look at every Pixar movie, and you'll see that the star is a guy - sure, a guy who might get help from his romantic interest, but in the end HE is the one who saves the day, HE is the one who learns the important lesson. Why aren't we telling girls that they can be the stars of their own lives?

Not only that, Sophia86, but when women are the hero, the fact that she is a women if often something of a plot point. In any vaguely realistic historic setting, that is a given, but in fantasy worlds in which the authors have control, sex-indifference would be closer to the point of feminism than the more popular, "A woman? Being a hero? How CRrrRAaaAAAaazzZZzzZyYyyYyyY!"

Go go Peter Sagal! I love the bit at the end where the girls are all, "eh...not so sure about Voldemort, dad."

sophia86, that's why my favorite Disney movie by a mile is Mulan. Note that Disney never dresses her up for the Princess line. Ugh.

I am glad I am not the only one who was completely put off by this part of the movie. Like in Ratatouille how the one female chef is merely the love interest, and there are NO female rats. Yeah, fuck you, Pixar

It not just cartoons though. I can think of many films that appear brilliant on the surface, about saving humanity, etc., but the hero is always male, the female characters merely supporters.

And one of the few times a woman does get to save the day, in Children of Men, she gets to do it by having a baby! Great.

I've Always loved "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me." Learning that Peter Sagal is everybit as awesome as a feminist as he is a humorist makes me warm and fuzzy inside!

I call shenanigans, laurakeet. I heard no misogyny in that interview.

The only thing I *don't* love about Wait Wait Don't Tell me is Peter Sagal. He's no feminist icon, that's for sure. Every week he's got something that makes me cringe, whether it's slut shaming or general condescension.

If he had said something like "Buying women is dehumanizing, so I myself have never played in the realms of the Emperor's Club..." I might be more impressed. But implying that the only reason he doesn't visit high-priced prostituted women is b/c he can't afford it, well, I call that misogyny.

Paula Poundstone. Now there's a feminist for you.

Wow, wow. That's a wonderful rant, and the last part about the daughters shouting just kills me. I think it's great commentary on how important it is for girls to see charactarizations of females who take charge in their lives and perform heroic acts. That he has the daughters say, "We're here!" speaks to the need for acknowledgement that girls are part of society and have abilities and talents to be nurtured. This acknowledgement needs to come from fathers and mothers, as well as from the creators of media like "Horton Hears a Who", all of whom influence girls' perceptions of themselves and their roles in the world.

I think one of the ideas behind males always being the heroes is because producers believe that girls could relate to a male hero, but boys couldn't relate to a female hero. I think that might even have been the reason JK Rowling wrote "Harry Potter" instead of "Harriet Potter." There was a fear that her book would not be mainstream for both sexes.

Of course, the fact that the hero is ALWAYS male only adds to this idea, and perpetuates it. Just look at the whole stigma around "chick flicks." Any movie with a female lead is considered a "chick flick" except for maybe Kill Bill. It seems that the only "traditional" girly movies I find tend to have a good following among men is "When Harry met Sally" and "Love Actually". why? because they have male stars as well! It's ridiculous.

Isn't that line more about not discriminating against someone who looks different?

I aggree with his point that not enough women/girls get to save the day (with the exception of Lyra in the His Dark Materials trilogy),but I hate how he drives his point in by calling the son uninteresting and boring and basically not worth it. While I understand that women have been the neglected sex when it comes to adventure movies and whatnot, I do not think the point should be made by pushing down men as well. And I say that as a daughter who yelled "I'm here" (what a great part) to her dad most of her life.

I remember the creepy anti-abortion guy in Jesus Camp using that line.

"sophia86, that's why my favorite Disney movie by a mile is Mulan. Note that Disney never dresses her up for the Princess line. Ugh."

If only that were true, BWrites. Unfortunately, Disney *does* dress Mulan up for the Princess line, even though she is about as far from a "princess" as a Disney heroine can get. All the merchandise of her features her posing demurely in the bridal get-up she wore for maybe five minutes at the start of the film, instead of as the armor-clad, sword-wielding warrior and hero that was her true self. Way to miss the entire point of your own movie, geniuses.

"Of course, the fact that the hero is ALWAYS male only adds to this idea, and perpetuates it."

Indeed. That's one of the reasons I liked the RPG video game Final Fantasy 6. The primary hero (of the 12 main characters) is female. :) As for the other 11, 8 are male, 2 are female, and 1 is unknown - but those 2 are one of the toughest warriors and a small girl instead of just the usual girlfriend objects.

Meanwhile, from the article:

"'How come Trinity can't be the One who defeats the Matrix!' I yelled."

Did anyone else here who saw Matrix 1 think the ending seemed like a gender-swapped version of Sleeping Beauty? :)

I recently bought a shirt from Kohls with Seuss's line "A person's a person, no matter how small" on it, knowing that the anti-choicers had appropriated it without permission. Now when I wear it and friends--who know my firm pro-choiceness--ask about it, I can explain to them the qualifier: It has to be a person first.

Holy crap, Mina, I'm totally with you on the RPG thing. Knights of the Old Republic is also awesome for the male/female option for the main character. Female gamers are so frequently overlooked :(

Also, Sagal's rant made me cry.

I saw Horton the other day and loved it... on first thought. On second thought i realized, that the only femal character with more than an unimportand siderole is this nagging kangaroo. Calling everything off the mainstream anarchy? Cool... thats on hell of a female role model *puke*

The thing with the daughers didn come to my mind... thank you for showing it to me!

I saw Horton the other day and loved it... on first thought. On second thought i realized, that the only femal character with more than an unimportand siderole is this nagging kangaroo. Calling everything off the mainstream anarchy? Cool... thats on hell of a female role model *puke*

The thing with the daughers didn come to my mind... thank you for showing it to me!

"Holy crap, Mina, I'm totally with you on the RPG thing. Knights of the Old Republic is also awesome for the male/female option for the main character. Female gamers are so frequently overlooked :("

I used Google to look for amateur-made RPGs with female main characters by entering the search terms "she" and "site:rpgmaker.net" then checking those pages.

Meanwhile, I mentioned this on another thread but just in case you didn't read it there:

"They have several progams with which you can create [a video game]. My personal fave is still RPG Maker 2000 (since I'm a total n00b at this). It's fun to play with even if I never actually complete a game. Other options include

"RPG Maker 2003
RPG Maker XP
RPG Maker VX
ika
Sphere
some more I just found listed here: http://rmlist.rpgsource.net/ (though some of the links are outdated)"

Does anyone else see some irony in the fact that we are lionizing Peter Segal, a man who wrote one feminist film review, while ignoring, for example, the Women Film Critics Circle, who have been doing this since 2004, and have 69 posts on their blog calling out sexism in film?

96 who-daughters, one who-son.

45 women film critics and scholars from around the country, one Peter Segal.

I've never even heard of the Women Film Critics Circle, but NPR is very well known. If you count action by any obscure group as newsworthy, you could make a bunch of posts about support for any position conceivable.

NPR doing this is more newsworthy because they're more mainstream.

A person's a person, no matter how small,
Except when that person's not a persona at all!

(apologies to Dr. Suess, but not to the pro-lifers)