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‘Stranger Things’ Shows Its Age in a Final Season That’s Outgrown Its Core Appeal: TV Review Netflix Review (variety.com)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/television@piefed.social
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[–] 6 points 11 months ago (12 children)

It's Big Mouth. Godawful bullshit cartoon about 11-12yo kids hitting puberty, guided by "puberty demons" that essentially force sexual behaviours onto the kids that they otherwise wouldn't do.

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  • [–] 12 points 11 months ago (5 children)

    Big Mouth is the sex education we should have had as teenagers

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Have you seen the show Sex Education? I feel that one did it really well without being overly crass, and it was also a pretty good show too.

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Sorry but no.

    I'm sure it tackles potentially important issues, but 90% of the show was crass sex jokes played on underage kids.

    And while I do understand that most kids go through puberty quite early - much earlier than laws would have you think, really - but depicting them the way BM did was often very clearly minor sexualisation.

    Also just FYI the internet is still bigger than the US. I grew up in Hungary and got a pretty solid sex education, starting from grade 4 through 8, addressing both the more clinical side as well as the personal side of things, without necessitating the constant depiction of 11-12yo kids (cartoon kids are still kids, sexualising them is still paedophilia, period) masturbating in various fucked up situations... So please don't start talking in the royal plural. "We" might cover the US, but outside your third world shithole, there do exist countries that aren't ass-backwards and have proper sex ed.

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago*

    Two things:

    1. Not from the US either, thanks. Ironic that you assumed I was. We did get sex ed from about age 9-10, but it was not in the same breadth or depth as this show.

    2. I would interpret it as explicit rather than sexualised. They are horny teenagers, and the show doesn't shy away from how that affects thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. The characters are also really obviously cartoon caricatures in appearance, and behave in massively exaggerated fashion. It goes so far past reality that I'd say only cultural hangups or predispositions could make one interpret it as actually sexualised.

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    I think you missed the point. The demons are a personification of their inner urges. The arguments the kids have with them are a metaphor for how confusing and awkward it can feel to balance those urges with outwardly trying to appear "normal" at that age.

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago

    I got the point. My issue with the show was the constant over-sexualisation of minors. Almost every single episode was "main character, 11yo boy, jerks off in most inappropriate places/in most inappropriate ways, gets caught, learns life lesson".

    The issue isn't even the excessive masturbation, but the excessive need to depict it. First time funny, second time funny, third time (we're still in the first episode!) eyebrows get raised, but when he's jacking off on-screen for the 50th time and we're barely halfway through the first season, now that makes me think "hey maybe the writer's not so disguised fetish is watching kids masturbate"... and that thought isn't really without reason, is it now?

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  • [+] -6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Ah so it's a Christian guilt cartoon. Makes more sense. They do like to sexually objectify their pubescent children after all.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago

    No it's the opposite really. In the worst possible way.

    Look I'm not someone squeamish about sex, I'll gladly discuss it, but I draw the line at the level of excessive depiction of child sexualisation Big Mouth was doing. I do understand the need for depicting a certain amount of it, given the whole show is about kids coming of age, going through puberty, and representing their thoughts and inner battles regarding their urges Vs what society accepts - after all I was too once a horny 12yo - but simply the amount of sexualised scenes the creators jammed into it was just too much.

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