Film: Ice Age

I saw Ice Age 2: The Meltdown. I liked it. It's pretty funny. Since I've suffered through a few of quite terrible kids' movies, I was surprised how good this one was. So I recommend it and suggest that you go with a couple of 6 year olds. Their laughter is infectious.

The movie, however, is mildly sexist. (I heard that groan: here she goes again, the humorless, killjoy feminist!) Well, it's mild. The boy woolly mammoth rescues the girl woolly mammoth, who, of course, was too stubborn to listen to his good advice and got them all in trouble (women!!).

On the other hand, there seems to be an attempt to counter the "Hottentot Venus" racist discourse (huh?!): the boy woolly mammoth pays the girl woolly mammoth the highest compliment a mammoth can pay: "Your Butt," he says, "is huge." Considering that the girl woolly mammoth is "played" by Queen Latifa, an African American,I thought that was interesting. Or maybe I'm just seeing things? Academics are often accused of that, you know.

"The Hottentot Venus" was a South African woman, Sara Baartman, who was brought to England and France in the 19th century and was exhibited naked to the public as a "freak" because she had big buttocks (which was characteristic of women in her tribe). Often described as "sullen," Baartman was miserable, became an alcoholic and died, probably of syphilis, 5 years later, at age 26. But Napoleon's Surgeon General dissected her, and cut out her sexual organs and pickled them in a jar. He also pickled her brain. The two jars and her skeleton were displayed in France until 1976. Post-apartheid South Africa asked for the remains of Baartman, who finally was given a decent burial in her homeland.

How the heck did I get from The Ice Age into "The Hottentot Venus"?!

Anyway, all the kids in the theatre cared about is that "he said 'butt'". That was hilarious.