Porky's (1982) and Straight Outta Compton (2015)

After analysing both Porky's (1982), one of Canada's highest grossing movies (US$109.4 million at the worldwide box office), and Straight Outta Compton (2015), which made US$202 million at the worldwide box office, I noticed some similarities. Both of these movies adeptly address racism: white racism against African Americans in the case of Straight Outta Compton and racism against Jews in the case of Porky's. The writers and directors of both these films must have felt strongly about the oppression of these two groups of people. Another observable similarity is the sexualization of women and girls throughout these movies, which in several scenes is pornographic. These filmmakers could recognize the oppression of their particular group but were completely oblivious to the oppression of another: women. They are far from being alone in this; their myopia is fairly generalized. In Canada, for instance, hateful comments are still regularly made about women without being sanctioned, whereas the same type of comments about Jews, blacks or other racially defined oppressed groups would immediately be condemned.  

 © 2017 Alline Cormier