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Dimentio
14th February 2011, 15:50
How much is the "image of the oppressed" relevant in the support and treatment they receive? If the individual is a "bad" or "good" individual, should it have any meaning?

For example, think for example of an unemployed mom who has two jobs but yet is unable to pay her rent and is thrown out on the street, and she is also a kind person who never would hurt anyone.

Think if she had been hitting her kids, smoking pot and constantly invited men home to her apartment to have sex with her (we assume that she still has two jobs).

Or for example, if a mentally disabled person is treated badly on their day-care centre, does it matter if the person is an autistic savant who only speaks Klingon and draw Star Trek figures, and never would hurt anyone, or if it is a sexually aggressive 130 kg guy who was taken in for masturbating in the public?
HalPhilipWalker
17th February 2011, 02:44
The important part is making people understand that they are oppressed. Unfortunately I think it does matter to a lot of people that the people they help be "deserving" of what good things might come to them. But a realistic portrayal of the oppressed would not sugarcoat the image of the oppressed. The lives of the oppressed should be represented for all the gritty realism that it entails.
OhYesIdid
23rd February 2011, 17:26
The important part is making people understand that they are oppressed. Unfortunately I think it does matter to a lot of people that the people they help be "deserving" of what good things might come to them. But a realistic portrayal of the oppressed would not sugarcoat the image of the oppressed. The lives of the oppressed should be represented for all the gritty realism that it entails.

I think this is at the core of modern capitalist society: the belief that someone can "deserve" to not only be born poor but to also live and die as such.
Still, I think late twentieth century cinema went to a lot of effort to trie to schock the liberal eites into socialism, through such unyielding, aggressively appaling realism, and I think history has proven this doen't work. Worse yet, it may numb people to the horrible realities faced every day by the working class.