“Katherine gets an Abortion”
My mother is very angry. My mother thinks that in between “Waitress” and “Knocked Up” it has been a very bad summer for feminism. And she is not alone.
All across the web people have been decrying “Knocked Up” for not even mentioning abortion. The closest it comes is “Schashmortion.” And while I sort of agree with these statements I still enjoy the films. Ever since Bitch railed against “sex and the city” because the dynamic of over-worked-and-unwilling-preggers Miranda versus really-sweet-and-femme-and-wants-to-be-a-mother-but-can’t Charlotte I have sort of shrugged my shoulders when it comes to feminist responses to narrative. Yes “Sex and the City” played up the fact that Charlotte was the cliché perfect mother but was sterile and that Miranda was having an unplanned and out of wedlock baby. But it played it up because it was interesting and good drama. If Charlotte got what she wanted (baby, perfect husband) and Miranda got what she wanted (career, career) it would have been really fucking boring.
Same with “Knocked Up.” If Katharine Hegel had got an abortion the movie would have been over. Even if it was a movie called “Katherine gets an Abortion!” it would have either been melodrama, or.. over. Abortion is either a really easy decision (in which case, there is no movie) or it really really isn’t. And when it isn’t it is still not drama because inner turmoil is not interesting to watch. It can work in novels, in memoirs, in poetry but not in film or theatre.
That was my real problem with “Knocked Up.” We never hear Katherine’s reasons. She thrusts this decision upon Seth Rogan and watching him react for two hours is hilarious. But she remains a cipher and her motivation unknown.
The closest I have ever seen a narrative about abortion come to working was written by my dear friend Rachel. And then, the conflict was that the main character was pro choice but was choosing to have a baby. And it only lasted ten minutes. Her ten minute play is the ten minutes that were missing from “Knocked Up” for me.
I think Feminism has kind of fucked itself over when it took its hunt for sexism into drama. It is one thing to point out stereotypes in advertising but when it comes to theatre/film/tv all criticism seems to lack even the basic understanding of what is needed to tell a good story. When Joss Whedon was accused of being sexist and homophobic for killing off lesbian Tara Feminists did not understand that his motivation was not misogyny but a desire to keep things interesting (and break the audiences hearts). To paraphrase Rich Juzwiak some times a dead girl is just a dead girl; not a stand in for Womankind.
Which doesn’t actually explain the fact that Abortion has been absent from the movies since the 80s. Dirty Dancing and Fast Times At Ridgemont High both have abortions as plot devices. Why not now?
And that is a valid question. Abortion is enough a part of every day life that it should have popped up. Are studios really that afraid of the Christian right?
Was there an earlier version of the script where abortion was mentioned and then it was cut? That’s what interests me.
Okay, so say I was to write “Katherine gets an Abortion.” How would I make it dramatically interesting, full of conflict and humor? Katherine wants an abortion but her dad won’t let her. There are parental consent laws in her state. Well, I suppose we could make a road trip movie. ROAD TRIP. Katherine and her girl friends drive to California to get an abortion and on the way they (fill in the blank here). Actually this could make a kind of interesting movie. But it has already become a movie about something other than abortion. Friendship or love maybe with a commentary on the rising price of gas. Abortions just in the attention grabbing title.
UPDATE: I realize that there is a more recent movie that has an abortion in it than the pair of 80s comedys listed eariler. "High Fidelity." Its just a moment but it is there and a part of the plot.
Are there other movies that have abortions that I just didnt notice?
All across the web people have been decrying “Knocked Up” for not even mentioning abortion. The closest it comes is “Schashmortion.” And while I sort of agree with these statements I still enjoy the films. Ever since Bitch railed against “sex and the city” because the dynamic of over-worked-and-unwilling-preggers Miranda versus really-sweet-and-femme-and-wants-to-be-a-mother-but-can’t Charlotte I have sort of shrugged my shoulders when it comes to feminist responses to narrative. Yes “Sex and the City” played up the fact that Charlotte was the cliché perfect mother but was sterile and that Miranda was having an unplanned and out of wedlock baby. But it played it up because it was interesting and good drama. If Charlotte got what she wanted (baby, perfect husband) and Miranda got what she wanted (career, career) it would have been really fucking boring.
Same with “Knocked Up.” If Katharine Hegel had got an abortion the movie would have been over. Even if it was a movie called “Katherine gets an Abortion!” it would have either been melodrama, or.. over. Abortion is either a really easy decision (in which case, there is no movie) or it really really isn’t. And when it isn’t it is still not drama because inner turmoil is not interesting to watch. It can work in novels, in memoirs, in poetry but not in film or theatre.
That was my real problem with “Knocked Up.” We never hear Katherine’s reasons. She thrusts this decision upon Seth Rogan and watching him react for two hours is hilarious. But she remains a cipher and her motivation unknown.
The closest I have ever seen a narrative about abortion come to working was written by my dear friend Rachel. And then, the conflict was that the main character was pro choice but was choosing to have a baby. And it only lasted ten minutes. Her ten minute play is the ten minutes that were missing from “Knocked Up” for me.
I think Feminism has kind of fucked itself over when it took its hunt for sexism into drama. It is one thing to point out stereotypes in advertising but when it comes to theatre/film/tv all criticism seems to lack even the basic understanding of what is needed to tell a good story. When Joss Whedon was accused of being sexist and homophobic for killing off lesbian Tara Feminists did not understand that his motivation was not misogyny but a desire to keep things interesting (and break the audiences hearts). To paraphrase Rich Juzwiak some times a dead girl is just a dead girl; not a stand in for Womankind.
Which doesn’t actually explain the fact that Abortion has been absent from the movies since the 80s. Dirty Dancing and Fast Times At Ridgemont High both have abortions as plot devices. Why not now?
And that is a valid question. Abortion is enough a part of every day life that it should have popped up. Are studios really that afraid of the Christian right?
Was there an earlier version of the script where abortion was mentioned and then it was cut? That’s what interests me.
Okay, so say I was to write “Katherine gets an Abortion.” How would I make it dramatically interesting, full of conflict and humor? Katherine wants an abortion but her dad won’t let her. There are parental consent laws in her state. Well, I suppose we could make a road trip movie. ROAD TRIP. Katherine and her girl friends drive to California to get an abortion and on the way they (fill in the blank here). Actually this could make a kind of interesting movie. But it has already become a movie about something other than abortion. Friendship or love maybe with a commentary on the rising price of gas. Abortions just in the attention grabbing title.
UPDATE: I realize that there is a more recent movie that has an abortion in it than the pair of 80s comedys listed eariler. "High Fidelity." Its just a moment but it is there and a part of the plot.
Are there other movies that have abortions that I just didnt notice?
posted by Lark(e) at 2:38 PM
7 Comments:
Citizen Ruth.
There, I solved all your feminism problems.
Knocked Up was a movie "about" having a baby, as soon as you really delve into abortion, it becomes an abortion movie. And Judd Apatow obviously didn't want to explore that part, he wanted to explore the story between a man and a woman having a baby that don't know each other.
Different story, not a more or less feminist one
oh. yeah. citizen ruth. I forget about that one. oddly.
I've thought about this a lot actually, and I'm suprised that Citizen Ruth really is the only movie that really deals with abortion.
I agree with you that Knocked Up should have had 1 scene with the guy and girl talking about it, that's all that movie needed, maybe instead of the two scenes where each of them discuss it separately, but thats still arguable.
Nevertheless, there aren't any mainstream movies that deal with the issue. I think you should write one.
Dude, seriously, I get too bored and I will totally write a comedy-roadtrip-abortion movie. just you wait.
it will be like crossroads. only with dead babies.
ill write that with you. i love dead babies.
do you think we could get brit spears to reprise her role?
make this a sort of unoffical sequal?
Or do you think she loves the live babys too much now that she has two little muffins of her own.
i think we could get her as the dead beat trailer trash mom that the preggers girl meets along the way that makes her want to get an abortion.
btw, im watching alexander right now (yes, thats how bored i am). its kinda gay. kinda really gay. kinda gay like 300 was gay, but this is like really gay. cool blood. but wow.
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