I'm from Argentina and I went to a catholic school. My uniform included a skirt which normally would be rather short, above the knee. I cant' tell you how many grown men cat called me when I was as young as 12. Something happens to your brain when you grow up in that kind of attention since very young
Ugh, I never understood school uniforms. In Brazil we had to wear some super tight flare pants as uniforms. Me and some other girls wore our school jackets wrapped around the waist to hide our butts even during summer
@@v_vlps to be fair, the nuns at my school didn't like us wearing the skirt in that length. But I understand why we did that, we wanted to look like the teens from tv and wear mini skirts and look cute, not to attract men. We were too innocent to know better
I'm from Argentina too and i also went to catholic school. I experience the same thing and i was only 12 years old. From 12 to 15 i was catcalled, I was just a kid but those men didn't care.
I'm so glad my parents didn't put me and my sisters into the Catholic school where I live. They had this dress code for girls where they could only wear underwear under their skirts. No shorts or any undergarments. This was a open door to pedophilia and assault, this dress code made me sick. Also the fact this was for elementary kids.
I'm from Panama and this happened to me too even way after I stopped hemming my skirts in school!! I've pretty much never been catcalled again once I graduated and don't have to be walking around in school uniform. I remember guys would honk at me while I walked from my house to my psychologists office 💀💀
I’m a muslim middle eastern woman and I absolutely love the symbolism of this movie and I’m amazed by how the perceptions of women have also been culturally enforced in a different country as well, especially when it comes to The Madonna and The Mistress i.e which woman is worth respecting based on how modest she is I love this video essay so much as it really taps into the anxieties of being a teenage girl trying to navigate a world that tries to speak for her
I'm Muslim too and thank allah there's no double standards in our religion, like both men and women are supposed to have s*x inside marriage only and never hinted that women and men who don't follow this are less important or should be disrespected
@@zizojaezekeom3565 As a Muslim woman, it's empowering being able to directly tell a man to say 'astaghfirullah' when he is casually talking about the haram stuff he has done, in particular in relation to s*x-related haram stuff. Or tell him directly to 'fear Allah'. Btw to any non-Muslims reading this- 'astaghfirullah' means 'I seek forgiveness from God'.
@@zizojaezekeom3565 unfortunately our culture has completely warped our religion. especially in middle eastern and south asian countries. the perception of girls and men is hypocritical at best and fatal at worst. it’s actually a lot worse than western media and this movie depicts. child marriages are still going on, female genital mutilation, honor killings, these things are deep and dark and perpetrated by men. men who do all this in the name of a religion they’ve made up in their own head. and the worst part is larger society doesn’t seem to be getting better, but to be deteriorating to their level.
I still remember the first time a man gave me “that” look. I was 12 wearing a ruffled pink skirt and I remember I never wanted to wear it again after that. It was my favorite skirt and I’d owned it for 2 years, but the first time a man looked at me like that in it I could never bring myself to wear it again. It was so fast, but I think that was the moment my innocence started to be stolen from me. I couldn’t be a carefree little girl anymore because men started to look at me sexually.
That’s absolutely horrible… I know what you mean sadly. When I was 11 there was a man staring at me from a car and I stared back at him, thinking I ‘won’ because he looked away. I even bragged about it to my mom and she was a little shocked but just said sternly ‘don’t do that again’. I didn’t understand why at the time but then a year later I was out doing my paper round with my brothers and suddenly there was a weird man on the opposite street staring directly at me, he was practically foaming at the mouth, which gave me a very bad gut feeling. And what did my brothers do? They cycled away laughing, leaving me there because I didn’t have my bike with me so I just screamed as loud as I could and ran after them. Hoping that man wouldn’t catch up to me. When I finally got home, one of my brothers made a joke about how that man probably wanted to rape me. I was flabbergasted that a grown man would want to do such a horrible thing to me, a 12 year old kid who even looked much younger. I was terrified but above all disgusted that my own brothers treated me that way after such a traumatic event and made fun of me. That’s why I will never trust a man, not my friends, not even my family or partner. Time and time again most of the men in my life have showed their true, misogynistic s*x obsessed selves. If I had male friends, they would always at one point or another make a vulgar joke at my expense and then I was the stuck up one for reacting angrily. It’s truly disheartening how all the men are inherently the same and honestly do not care about women, they just want to use us for their needs and if we do not comply then suddenly we’re not interesting anymore. Sadly in my culture I will have to marry eventually but I will always put me first before I let a man attempt to ruin my life. It’s exhausting always having to be on guard as a women, always looking over your shoulder because the men you least expect will try to harm you. I wish there was a way for men to feel genuine empathy for us and be able to put themselves in our shoes. There is a reason why fathers are usually protective of their daughters, they know how their own kind can be yet instead of raising their sons to be kind to women, they think protecting the daughters is the only way to solve this issue. What a cruel joke this life.
I completely understand and it's the most devastating feeling ever. As a girl who had precocious puberty, my girlhood was ripped away from me at just 8 years old. Just 8 years old
it's disturbing how fitting the topic of this video is to something happening in my country. Recently a lot of stories have been coming out about underage girls "dating/having sex" with grown men. I'm talking about 14-16 year old girls and men in their mid 20s-30s. People are making fun of the girls, mentioning how they look "old", "too sexy", "they dress like whores", "kids are scary nowadays". When someone pointed out that it's a very fucked up thing to say, these people throw a tantrum and start ranting about how "these girls aren't innocent" and that they "absolutely know what they're doing and they're fooling you too if you feel bad for them". One thing that also stood out to me is how a lot women use the stories as a vehicle to show people how "innocent" and "quirky" they were at that age. They're boasting about how they didn't know what a dick is at the age of 15 under a post of a teenager being forced to have sex with a 25 year old guy. It's like they're trying to deliberately put themselves in the "Madonna" category, and they enjoy being the "pure" counterpart, and I think they'll be happy with the validation. Well, at least until a guy zooms in on their profile picture and tells them they're sluts because the way they wear makeup is "tempting" (an actual thing btw)
I’m Japanese and I’ve seen the exact same reaction regarding “papa katsu” (japanese slang for having a sugar daddy). So many people belittle or blame the girls when it’s obvious that the grown men are taking advantage of them. It makes me feel sick in the stomach reading comments like those, but seeing people like you expressing the same concerns as me gives me a glimmer of hope for our society lol.
Are you talking about Brazil? Seriously, here is the same thing you said in this comment. 12 year old girls are groomed by 30 year olds, and everyone blame the girls "for the way they dress or how they act" i hate this country.
@@moonamoonz no, I'm from Indonesia, but God, the fact that it happens there too (and in a lot of other places) is disgusting. It's just so weird to me because people here are so damn prudish that they think kissing your partner on the cheek in public is violating their human rights, but would happily make comments about an underage girl's private parts and laughing about it the moment the story about her being groomed comes out :/
i'm from brazil too, and some would think that because people here dress more freely and are more sexually open, these things wouldn't happen... but it is the exact same bullshit, everywhere
I can explain how Valerie watched Hedvika and her husband in the bedroom. In the book, Valerie uses her earring to turn into mist which scares off the priest who was attacking her. In this state, she enters the wedding which scares off the guest. Hence why the scene before the wedding showed a crowd freaking out and screaming about a plague. The movie doesn't explain this well (I like the chaos of it tho), so I understand the confusion lol. I love your content. I'm happy more people are talking about the movie. BTW I found Helter Skelter through you, then watched and loved it!
Ah thank you so much for this!! I figured it was some sort of unexplained magic as the film is pretty chaotic haha, I appreciate your explanation. I would love to know your thoughts on the book. Did you enjoy it? Is it very similar to the film?
@@FinalGirlDigital I read it two years ago, so my memory is a bit blurry. I really liked it. I saw the movie first and I thought it captured the book mostly well. There were some elements from the book that weren't in the movie or depicted differently. 1. Hedvika's husband thinks she's had sex before because of the bite on her neck, but believes her and/or promises not to tell anyone. When Valerie visits Hedvika, Valerie heals her with the earrings. 2. The men who try to attack Orlik with whips are described as working for the Constable. 3. The ending was much more simple. As the family was leaving the house it collapses, then we flash forward to Valerie with Orlik by a lake with their parents. No trippy dream sequence unfortunately. 4. Valerie is 17! 5. As I said before Valerie turns into a mist to escape the priest, I believe she did the same thing at her burning as well. 6. Eaglet is named Orlik (I don't understand if the movie changed this or if the english subs got them wrong). Those are the major differences I can remember from the top of my head, my copy is not with me at the moment. It was a short, but fun read. Very gothic vibes. I highly recommend it. :)
@@dylanrose8202 Thank you so much!! Lol I was actually confused by Eaglet/Orlik’s name. In the movie they are very obviously not saying Eaglet but that’s what the subtitles referred to him as, perhaps it’s the English equivalent of the name. Also sorry another question! Did you read the book in Czech or English?
The wine that is spilled on the flowers around Hedvika(?)'s wedding might also be symbolizing the blood soiling marital sheets, which is something that is even checked for in certain cultures to verify purity before "de-flowering". Really cool, multi-faceted symbolism. Also, this video is amazing. Thanks so much for posting !!
That's what I was thinking i even saw this somewhere in a literature work of one of the authors of my country not sure where as I saw it a long time when I was in high school but the scene literally described how the white sheet has to be shown through the window with blood as to prove the" innocence" and now lost virginity of the woman and the in laws I think wanted to see this as proof idk I need to make research as to prove the accuracy and who the author is and how was this work called but it was definitely smth like this and if we think about the obsession from society (especially men)about women and their "innocence" is definitely very creepy and if it can stop somehow that would be great literally whoever is working toward or wants to work towards this change I'll be very grateful If it's successful and if we can change some other things alongside this it would be truly amazing ✨️
I remember first learning about that from reading Othello in school. It's been a few years now since we've gone over it but I believe it's mentioned that Desdemona has a handkerchief covered in strawberries, which was later a symbol of blood on marital sheets.
yes! when i read a book awhile ago they used blood forming a heart on her sheets after making love to a older male to show her innocence was taken away. So i thought ur exact comment when i seen the same.
@guitarszenhow can we control the way people treat us. You may say “work on yourself” but a lot of this comes from people who don’t even know us. Go to any of the stories people have shared in this comment section, a lot of assaulters are strangers. I’m not even sure I understand what you are getting at because even if someone had a story like this from someone they knew, it’s not as if they ever deserve it?
@guitarszen what alpha male podcast host are you imitating in this argument? Kindly tell me what you meant by how we need to change. You also seem a little offended, even though I didn’t immediately attack you and gave you a chance to explain what you meant. Fym I am the one operating on my feelings 💀 may I add, I do not have a personal experience related to this topic. I’m speaking as an objective observer
I cried 11 minutes into this video. I literally feel like this describes everything I feel and everything I've felt. My 13 year old birthday was marked by an old man explicitly sexually assaulting me at a bakery. Days after, I had to protect myself and my friend from 5 men who were trying to lure us to go with them into an empty parking lot of a mall at night. Months after I was followed on another shopping mall. On the streets, I can feel old men's gazes burning my skin and it feels incessantly awful. Teachers, uncles, cousins, I can't look at them anymore without being alert. Boys at my school who were nice before became monsters, the way they talk about girls now became so weird and creepy, when my body grew they couldn't stop but remark it in some way, I hate feeling this way and I hate the way that my whole life and worldview is simply shattered just because men do not see me as someone anymore, but as something.
i'm really sorry all that bad stuff happened to u. it's a sick sick world. i understand feeling unsafe around men now because of those things. i can't even really sit with my uncles or teachers alone bc it's always a thought in my head of what could go wrong. i hope in the future things get better for u and that ur able to find peace and comfort in ur own body :(
EVERY woman has been preyed on by old ass men in their youth. But I wanted to say how eloquently you put the end. Men see us as something. Not someONE.
(Please read the whole thing, I start off with a phrase you have probably heard a lot, but please just read all of it.I hope this helps you.)As a man, Its important to understand that most men are not like that. Further, you need to stay away from those generalizations about men because that can lead to radicalism, which is extremely dangerous. I was an incel once because I though women only viewed me as an object and would never love me, however I got away from that through therapy and learning that most women are not inhumane. You've had some horrible experiences that I won't understand as I have never been through them myself, but you can't let them color your view of all men. That kind of thinking messed me up and it will mess you up (I'm serious, the catastrophizing could have k**led me if I dindn't detach from that stuff.). If you have any arguments/questions I'm happy to hear them out. Wish you the best.
@@ByAnyVotesNecessary fr dude? a young girl venting about her SA and being afraid for and her friends lives and you just go "b-but not all men! woe is me🥺" Time and place.
@@ByAnyVotesNecessary while i can somewhat understand what you're trying to say, it doesn't have any similarity to being an incel, and in this particular case, radicalism. she's venting about SA and just feeling uncomfortable around the men in her life. she's not generalizing all men and saying they are all predators because yes we know NOT ALL MEN. however, being an incel is far more dangerous than a girl speaking up about how she's afraid to literally be assaulted. an incel hates women for "not loving him" and there's plenty of instances where [incel] men kill, r@p3, and SA women because of that radical idealogy. women become afraid of men in their life after being taken adventage of, and (most often) men are just afraid a woman won't like them or will laugh at them. i'm only speaking from the female perspective, and i'm also aware SA and being an incel doesn't just apply to women/men. i'm glad you've changed and taken a different direction in life and i hope this doesn't come off rude or demeaning to those experiences.
The point of a girl’s world becoming monstrous around her has recontextualized Silent Hill 3 for me. The game follows a young girl, whom I can only assume is between the ages 15-17, whose whole world begins to devolve into a hostile alien place around her. Granted, she is the reincarnation of a supernatural being and even carries the unborn fetus of an ancient god in her body, but I think that adds to it. She’s approached by multiple strange adults who try forcing an identity and expectation that she doesn’t want for herself onto her, the one who will birth the new god. Even the line one of the adults says later, “They look like monsters to you?”, can allude to the girl seeing the world around her as something so much more frightening and unsafe than the strange man asking the question. Sorry for the tangent, Silent Hill 3 is my favorite piece of “growing up as a young afab person is literal fucking hell” media
It’s so weird how so many men actually say and believe and really really think that women are not sentient and don’t have their own dreams to pursuit and they can just be used like a slave to their desire like they’re not actually just like them (humans and alive) just because of a physical body
It explains why men say women's lives are so easy bc they just can find a rich man and raise his kids and be happy for life. But if you ask them if they'd do that, they wouldn't... they genuinely see women as not having their own dreams and goals and think that every woman would be satisfied by being at home for the rest of her life. To be CLEAR, this is not to say women who choose to be stay at home moms are not fulfilled. It is pointing out that those men think that women aren't capable of wanting anything else.
You sound like you don't talk to a lot of men. The normal average man just wants a woman that is loving, caring, and loyal. Nobody is saying you cannot follow your dreams or pursuit a goal, we just don't want a girl boss that has an attitude, entitled, and combative. It's sad cuz whenever we tell women this, they think all we want are slaves, we don't, we just don't want an annoying bi**h. Just like how women don't want d**kheads.
Beautiful. I am proud to be a woman, once a girl, and soon to be a crone. There is a very unique strength within the female being, and it is beautiful. I hate how we are treated at times within society but I wouldn't choose any other path but womenhood.
really? you must like to look over your shoulder and always have to be aware of your surroundings. watching what you say around men and be good at gauging if and how mad they could potentially become. ok with having one of your hits make him laugh but if he hits you even once he could put you in the hospital. must not worry at all about being assaulted on a date. blamed for all his bad choices. being weak, shamed and not believed isnt a path anyone wants to be on. or are you trying to romanticize that if we suffer all that and dont end up dead, then we must be strong? thats sad.
@GotoMaki4Micah Wow... lol. You must do yoga because THAT was a stretch. Lol. Listen, if you are uncomfortable with yourself, with your body, with your lot in life, and ultimately being a woman (if you are) then THAT is sad. Not only am I a woman but I am a black woman which comes with its own set of challenges. However, I don't live my life in fear nor do I see myself as a victim. I am FULLY aware, actually hyper aware of the risk and disadvantages of being a woman. However, those things do not take away from all the good that comes from being a female. You should always be cautious, be smart, and be aware but you should never allow idoits to live rent free in your head 24/7. Enjoy your life, live by your own path and be happy.
@@OBGSupaDupa It's not that I don't believe you, but I have a hard time thinking about what good comes from being a woman and I would like some concrete examples. Also, what do you mean by 'unique strength within the female being'?
10:30 I couldn't agree more. I didn't feel like I'm becoming a monster when my body was curving and my privates started bleeding. I felt like I was being thrown into a den of monsters as punishment for no longer being a child by some arbitrary standard. And unlike most pubescent girls, I haven't endured SA or even s*x**l harassment by the adults around me, only policing meant to prevent that. Also, a significant amount of Hedvikas are Valerie's age. It's disgustingly normalized to force sexuality upon children, as long as these children are female.
Sorry, but sexuality is also forced onto male children, have y'all forgot how men were brought to hookers so they could lose their virginity as soon as they reached the age of 17, 18 or even 15? Hell, for most young men, the pressure of finding a girlfriend once they enter puberty comes from their parents, and with the peers that already got one bragging about it, it becomes clear that they won't become "real men" and have value until they manage to attract a woman and lose their virginity with her if possible. With the sheer amount of men and women treating virgin men as losers, to the point where the incel community was born to cope with it, I simply can't understand how y'all think that sexuality is only forced upon female minors.
@@Snormite You do know the boys are pressured into BUYING sex, they're not the ones PROSTITUTED from the moment they look vaguely near puberty. Boys aren't wedded to grown women and expected to fulfill their sexual needs. Boys aren't objectified by grown women all their life.
Sociology and society is too scared to tackle things like that. It would require to much inward inflection. Reminds me of Joseph smith, the Islamic boi Mohamed Christopher Columbus etcZ man have ALWAYS been like vicious predators in the past. Most man being aware of their subconscious ferocity decided it best to marry their daughters to neighbors instead not out of any good will for their daughters but to ensure the least amount of exploit of pride from themselves.
There's a painting where Mary is visited by the archangel, and she's all curled up looking frightened. When Valerie "sees" the consummation, she looks a lot like that painting. Interesting.
I strongly believe that anyone who can't attract women of their own age is just intimidated by them, because they know that older women easily know how full of shit they are. Edit: cos I need to say this apparently. By not the same age I meant 30 yos lusting after teenage girls who just graduated highschool. Not 30 yos lusting after 25 yos or 40yos lusting after 30 yos. The older you get the less the age gap matters but don't stand there pretending you can't see the real issue.
The way these “alpha male” types describe their ideal woman always sounds more like they’re describing a child than an adult woman. It’s very concerning to me
@@madeofmeats Men tend to desire child like women because they’re easier to control and trick . Men don’t like strong , independent or intellectual, women or women within their age group because they’re less submissive. They use up a young woman then throw her away when she gets too old and used up . Then move on to another this just shows how disposable women are in men’s and society’s eyes . When a woman is young they’re desirable to the world no matter how she looks . Her youthfulness is what attracts men and society it’s an endless cycle .
It surely couldn’t be that younger women generally have less complications during childbirth, and male attraction primarily stems from the woman’s ability to successfully bare children…. Even though rationally it should make no difference due to medical advancements and IVF, attraction doesn’t seem like something you can rationalize. It would definitely be more rational for men to be attracted to women of all ages, but people don’t get to choose their preferences, the same way women prefer taller men opposed to shorter men even though rationally it makes no difference in todays world. I don’t think projecting malice and character flaws to either sex’s biological preference is constructive.
@@willhogtieyou4752 Not you looking for loopholes to try and defend Pedophilia. You're saying this yet there's tons of men out there who actually date women in their age range and would get disgusted with going after a teen. You're just a pedo.
i think there's an archetype that eaglet falls into as the "false hero" nice guy of this story. The young man who is not fully sure of himself who wishes to protect Valerie from the predatory men who stalk her but really is just as predatory and creepy as the rest and only wants to keep and hide her innocence for himself. Seeing this character meander around Valerie guising himself as the nice guy, one of the "good ones" and the other girls especially near the end filled me with uneasiness and repulsiveness as I've seen this type of boy before. The overly protective boyfriend or the nice guy who thinks he's owed something for doing the bare minimum
i got my period at 9 years old, while in 4th grade. At the time, I didnt get why my mother was so horrified at the idea of me having a period at 9, but later, as my body began to grow and curve, I was quick to realize why. At 12 i was cat-called and when i finally had a girlfriend, who i thought was genuinely interested in me, turned out to only be interested in my body. I was always called "too mature for my age" and was told that i looked "older than i was" because of my physical appearance and personality, as i was forced to grow up way too quickly. Although I love the thought of a film that explores this concept, i dont think im ready to watch something like that just yet, i really want to applaud you for your wonderful analysis!
This is so beautifully made…it is true…as you grow older u don’t necessarily change but u are forced too by a patriarchal society…i wanna watch this now
When I was 13 I had a dark feeling come over me. It was as if I felt the shift in an instant. At the time I didn’t know what it was. I felt a cloud of doom, a sense of guilt, and as if I had done something terribly wrong. it really confused me at the time because I didn’t understand what the shift in energy was.
Same. I was endlessly self concious and anxious, while being extremely guilty constantly. It was horrible, but alas! it's all a part of growing up and it's a journey through puberty.
I remember exactly the moment I became "sentient" and suddenly felt so dirty when I thought over how men treated me when I was a child. I was 14, but I was a victim of CSA when I was below 10. during my puberty I simply couldn't accept and develop my sexuality, feeling that if it felt so wrong then it must be wrong. I am still fighting, now 25 and with some boyfriends and girlfriends behind me, none of which took my virginity because I am disgusted and scared by my feminine urges and everything that comes with it. I hope I'll get better with therapy and if anyone has a similar story, we're push through it together sister!
@@p0lyblank I'm sorry to hear that. For me, I realized that something was changing. When I was 14, wearing shorts was not an option for me anymore. I was being seen differently, so I associated being feminine with being weak or an object. I survived becoming a tomboy; I wanted men to see me as a 'bro,' not a piece of meat. I always said I hated my periods and being a woman. Now that I'm older (43), I know that what I actually hated was how I was being treated. I lost my virginity at 23, making sure the man who was with me loved me. Now I'm accepting myself as a woman. I've been studying my periods and learning about being a human female, I communicate to my boyfriend all my findings and he knows this is important for me. I'm not going to have children, but I try to talk to younger people about this because I think it's the only escape for us is to learn to love what we are despite this male social structure. We are not a piece of meat, we are not hysterical, we are not crazy, we are not whores, madonnas, even, witches, or maybe yes we can be all at the same time, but only if we want to!
Same, I couldnt even fanthom all the horrible things women have to suffer but still I remember that feeling of doom and mourning of childhood at 12 years old
that feeling happened to me when i was 8... i got molested then by a relative. since that moment i started trusting men less, way less. i feared him immensely and since avoided him entirely. i still do. i haven't seen his face in over a decade. i still remember how the energy felt and how terrifying it was. i hate this world.
This made me feel very validated. Being a girlwoman is such a weird and contradictory experience. I also still remember the first time I noticed the men around me turning into monsters... It's so heartbraking when you realize what is happening, and that you have no control over it and you can't stop it, and if you don't want to completly lose yourself in an attemt to shield yourself from male violence... you will expierience it to some degree. Also, NOONE ever told me about this, before I experienced it! WHY did nobody warn me!
Exactly!!!!! Same with my experience!!! No one tells you!! I had to process it over the years to understand what happened to me. I wish I had someone who cared about me tell me!! Anyone!!! 😢
God that quote from Sophia Tolstoy made me tear up. This movie always reminds me of this movie ive seen exactly 1 time and its called Ripe. I think you would like it.
When I first read that Sophia Tolstoy quote I literally thought about it for months 😭 Is the Ripe film you’re talking about from 1996? I’m adding it to my watch list:)
That's when I got most catcalled because there was a public trendy discussion about how wrong it is, some men realised it is disliked so they started doing it just fto spite women.
This is one of my all time favourite films, and I’m glad to see another person who understands it rather than just seeing certain scenes and thinking it’s just some creepy old man’s fantasy (as I’ve seen some people in Letterboxd reviews say). I adore everything in this film from its visual aesthetic to its social commentary to its surrealist and dreamy atmosphere, so I hope this video helps introduce it to new viewers! Such a good video, thanks for making it!
Yeah I actually didn’t realize how many people didn’t like this film until I read the letterboxd reviews while making this video lol! I think there are some aspects that are definitely male gazey but I think writing it off completely as a creepy male fantasy is discrediting the work Ester Krumbachová and the work she put into making the script incredibly nuanced. This has been one of my favourite films for years for all the reasons you listed as well! I’m glad you enjoyed the video☺️
@@FinalGirlDigital Definitely. I just watched your video on Daisies, and I was wondering if you’ve also seen the 1978 Czech Beauty and the Beast film? I’m watching it right now and it’s reminding me a lot of The Little Mermaid and Valerie and Her Week of Wonders so I thought I’d mention it here. Keep up the great work on your videos!
I don’t think I had heard of the Czech Beauty and the Beast until now! I just googled it and it looks absolutely beautiful, I’ll have to check it out. 70s Czechia really knew how to make a stunning, whimsical, and enchanting movie 😭
@@FinalGirlDigital There’s another film from the same director called Morgiana that looks absolutely stunning. It’s on TH-cam but without English subtitles. It’s available on blu ray here in the UK, but I’m not sure about the US. I’m probably going to create a Letterboxd list of as many of these European fantasy films as I can find, hopefully other people will comment some suggestions I haven’t even heard of before too
Watched this movie when I was 15 and I used to hate it. I tought that it's indeed "some creepy old man’s fantasy", but thanks to this essay I can finally understand this movie in a correct way
Im halfway through, but around minute 20 when you mentioned older women sexuality I started remembering all these movies that use older womens naked body to scare the audience, showing that aging in women is horrifying.. like The Shining or AHS murder house Moira... it's so sad that they use plder womens bodies as something to scare the audience...
Videos like these help me get comfortable in femininity in a way I never got to when I was young. Because I was told it was expected and it was forced, I ran from it. They turned it into a weapon, and wanted me to be them. But girlhood, femininity and womanhood isn’t bad, or scary, or for simply others that I’m not allowed to be in simply for not following certain expectations. I like who I am, and liking this part of myself. Plus I love being introduced to movies like these, it helps.
I got my period at 10 yo. In the span of a year, I reached complete growth. I was literally a child with the body of a grown woman. Men started to look at me even earlier than that, and it disgusted me to my core. But then the brainwashing from society as a whole began, and I convinced myself that it was normal and even good for old creepy men to desire me. The fact that I am on the autistic spectrum didn't help, because I tend to get things literally - I wasn't equipped with the knowledge I needed to get the shades and nuances of the very dark message that was forcefully being imprinted in my head. "Be sexy, be desirable, be meek, be grateful for the attention" was the message that came from every angle; even the "good" men I knew were terribly sexist; even the women in my life went along with that, apparently gladly and happily. I forced myself to get up with what I perceived to be the norm, losing myself a little by little. It's only been a couple of years now that I'm coming back to myself and shedding the persona that others had constructed on me. It's incredibly painful to see how nobody has little girls at heart, not even the people who *should* love and protect them. Before puberty you're a promising human being - as soon as puberty kicks in, you're just another woman, and your ambitions and talents don't matter anymore. You're just meat. That's what it feels like - you lose your inherent humanity, because the world is male, and males see you as a sex thing. And you can either get along with it and be accepted, or be an insufferable, unfckable bitch - which is the utmost unforgivable sin in a society based on males' whims and desires. And then we fake not to know why young girls are more and more identifying as nb, as trans men, as queer... In a world that hates women and sees us as things, who - given the chance - would in their right mind chose to live as a woman in a world of disgusting, entitled men?
Wow… This really struck me, you couldn’t have said it better. It’s so awful and disgusting how women are forced to accept misogyny because men aren’t expected to ever change. Instead of teaching young boys how to treat women, we are teaching young girls how to protect themselves but still look attractive to these ‘dangerous’ men while growing up because otherwise we won’t be able to have children. In my culture, if a woman chooses to stay single at an old age then automatically it means she’s lazy and selfish. While if a man is unmarried then he’s just a poor guy who wasn’t able to find a normal woman. I see this with my niece who is unmarried at 42, everyone in the family is starting to despise her and push her to marry the leftover men who have been divorced or have several wives. Why can’t she live without a man? She isn’t even able to have children so all a marriage will do for her is make her miserable and a slave to a man until she dies. Why should she want that as her fate? Meanwhile her older unmarried brother is just seen as a man who is taking his time and ‘waiting for the right woman’. My own mother told me how her former classmate got pregnant at 15 by her old pedophile uncle. Everyone was blaming her for ‘probably seducing him’. Why would a child want to seduce a disgusting man older than her father? No child is interested in a s*xual relationship with an adult unless they are literally manipulated and brainwashed to think that that is what they should want. Why was nobody blaming HIM for grooming and r*ping his own niece?
This is one of the things that drive girls to become anorexic. Starving themselves means that their curves will disappear and periods stop. I would have become anorexic if I hadn't been so greedy.
@@catherinebirch2399 yeah... I've been on both ends of the spectrum in search for invisibility - I've been a binge eater and then I've lost a ton of weight being orthorexic. Unfortunately, no method worked in keeping undesired men at a distance. They don't care, we're not human to them. We are just non-player characters in THEIR story, and they're the protagonists. It doesn't occour to them that we are the protagonists in ours. We're stage props, nothing more.
regarding the end, i hope you are not using this argument to be transphobic and deny the existence of trans people because they are very much real. Yes, due to what u mention some girls may mistakingly think they are trans men while they arent, but not all. Actual trans people do exist because they are born like that
@@catherinebirch2399 that's what happened to me. my first relationship was with a boy who only saw me for my body and would emotionally manipulate me to get it. He knew I was a hopeless romantic and used that to get what he wanted. when I finally gained the strength to leave him I became anorexic. I subconsciously wanted to get rid of the parts of my body he wanted in hopes that I would never encounter a man like him again. it didn't work of course.
To be honest my favorite part of the movie was that at the end Valerie didn’t have her first sexual experience at the hands of a rapist, but instead with her friend Hedviga at her own choice.
So if a young adult female sleep with a 14yo girl, everything is fine, it's was her "choice", but if an adult man does the same and she consents he still a criminal that deserve to be punished? Can't you see the hypocrisy here?
Is that all you’ve taken away from this conversation? You’re ignorance us showing so please just leave. Obviously it is wrong in both cases and that is such a horrid example to use. You act as if both wouldn’t be prosecuted and more realistically like the man wouldn’t get away with it my my forcing the girl into silence. There is no hypocrisy when there is clear favoritism towards men.
Wow, this video was just incredible. Its one of the hardest things to accept in life, being unable to deeply relate to things I haven't experienced. Boys and girls experiences can certainly cross over, but they will always be different, for a multitude of inherent, unchangeable reasons. I can sympathize and feel pity, but I cannot cross that barrier into understanding exactly what it means to grow up as a girl in a world thats seems designed to prey on you. Not that this doesn't happen to boys also, but its mostly a girl experience. So when I come across videos like this, which enlighten me to what girls and women uniquely experience, its so interesting and eye-opening to me. I never saw the connection between the story of Eve and how even the interpretation of that story led to many of the problems girls suffer today. It makes me wonder if things can ever change for the better. Still, this video was very well done and I learned a lot from it. I'm probably gonna dive through the rest of your catalogue now, and will be back to see what you put out next.
The first sin, that mentioned in Torah and Bible putting the blame on Eve. While in the holy Quran we find the story of Adam & Eve completely different, yes they ate from the forbidden tree in heaven but it wasn’t Eve mistake! It was Lucifer who seduced the both of them to eat from it lying to them and saying they’d be immortal if they do so. While God warned them not even to come close to that certain tree, and God’s warning was for their own benefit only. And when “they” made the mistake and disobeyed God’s order. But relented afterwards (except Lucifer because he was proud) God simply forgave them but placed them on this very earth we’re living on today. And God made a promise to Adam and Eve and their children (all humanity) to be returned to God at the day of judgment, when our exam results will be out! So our life in this earth is only temporary, our real life hasn’t begun yet. We were given free will and rational thinking and free to choose good from bad and to live according God’s order as in his messengers’ message.
And as a female we appreciate the fact that your aware of the struggles of entering womanhood. We see tons of males shove it to the side as a "disgusting" concept, and to see that your at least genuinely trying to comprehend is such a refreshing thing ❤ I hope more men could be like you
11:00 =True...Twelve years old... At that time I was struggling with insecurities as I was bullied in elem. I matured with a mindset that I am way too weird and odd to have a boy have interest in me... At that time I didn't mind as I was slowly easing to the idea. It hurts at times but it was alright. Then an elderly priest came in and started giving me gifts. I never had anyone have an interest in me before so I didn't see the signs as they are. Three months in and my mom started giving me weird looks every time I tell her and show her what the elderly priest gave me every time we meet. She tried to warn me that something is wrong but at that time I wasn't weirded out as my mom wouldn't spell out to what that "something" is. A month later, I was (technichally) SA-ed in the confessional. I am still a virgin but the old priest tried to give me what I now know as a French kiss. At that time, I don't know what is going on but I do know its not good so I kept my mouth closed and eyes shut the whole time... Ugh... Thank God I did that, he tried to put in his tongue but my teeth barred it. After all that, all I felt is disgust... I was young at that time and I grew up with the mindset of trying to reach sainthood (complete opposite to what I am now). My mom gave me a choice-Fight or forgive. At that time it was forgiveness and I prayed for him to change.... That was a mistake. Four to six years later, I saw another girl run from the priest side of the confessional. I don't want to look anymore... I know he was there. I had forgotten the incident entirely and that moment was a reminder of my inaction... I was already 6 years too late to prevent this... I don't know what to do anymore... My life was already a mess at that point (Internal Family Feud between parents), and this would just be another mess I can't take on. To my knowledge that priest doesn't show up anymore to our now parish. Thank God for that...
I am so sorry you went through that. I want you to know nothing that happened was your fault and I admire your vulnerability with sharing your story. Perhaps there are some SA supports in your area, like a helpline or something, that could get you connected to some resources to help you out. I wish you the best!
It's not your fault and not your guilt, you wanted to help but you were raised to forgive, because you are already deemed a sin as a girl, you have to forgive all men who are born already worthy, and "superior." It's a sick way of thinking, I'm sure there were others before you, and if you remove one common denominator (the priest) it would be of no occurrence.
They just transferred him someplace else where he could get away with his abuse. It happened thousands of times in the US, and I'm not exaggerating. The adult victims all came forward, men and women alike. The "church" is not what they told you it is.
That's crazy! Religious leaders shouldn't be just blindly trusted to be alone with kids like that. They should especially take precaution against these people cause they will be desperate, cause they aren't allowed to have sexual relations like normal people right?! I'm a muslim and I've heard a few stories abt hazrats molesting children, (Hazrats are allowed to marry btw) because parents trust these people blindly, is why this is happening. So disgusting!
I saw the burning at the stake scene on an art Instagram page I follow and I would’ve never thought that the movie behind the short clip would be so intense, stimulating, dreamy and relatable and now I definitely want to watch this movie. Only thing is, I wish there was more details surrounding her father being the constable because it struck a chord with me being my father’s only daughter but our relationship being jeopardize and eroded due to me going through puberty and becoming an young woman. He would inquire and insinuate if I was part-taking in salacious activities and even shamed me despite me never doing such a thing and hardly being a teenager/preteen. And it never stopped. It is quite repulsive how an adult can ironically destroy a child’s innocence by attempting to pull the curtain on what they assume is said child being secretive but was really pure naïveté and actual innocence. Watching this at this moment has pretty much cemented how I’ve felt about femalehood as of late and I’m growing disgusted with male/misogynistic behavior and the amount of disrespect I have and will face due to merely being a woman. I am feeling bitterness towards the world and it’s unfair treatment towards the beings that bring them into this world. My heart aches… Anywho, great video! I’ll defff check this movie out! Thanks for putting me on
As much as I'd like to,I don't think I have the stomach to ever watch this movie as it hits way too close to home. Coincidentally or maybe not,my chronic mental illness started when my menses did and I know I'm not alone in this,I was a very perceptive child so I learned the horrors early on,choosing to keep my childhood innocence.The takeaway here is,you can't have your pie and eat it,whichever archetype you choose to perform,comes with it's own set of scary consequences. Wearing white,means you settle for a life of isolation and misunderstanding.
I have watched this film many times as I understand czech and I have to say, its not really a difficult watch. english speaking fans will say it is as a way to gatekeep it (which i find quite disrespectful since they dont understand what was happening in czechia at the time) but in reality, its not massively scary or upsetting, although it does take a jab at christianity, its actually quite vague and confusing because its avante garde. Its mostly just a middle finger to censorship at the time because czechoslovakia was under communist regime
I remember being 13 when I was first cat called. I remember the girl telling me before I left to literally get lunch telling me I looked much older for my age, I remember what I was wearing (a grey shirt half shirt with a grey jacket and grey pants that were high enough so you could barely tell the shirt was a half shirt, all very modest and nothing to look at as they were something you'd jog in) I remember walking to get my lunch, then walking back when a man honked at me to get in his grey truck. I remember all this, and I remember how I felt. I wasn't shocked at the fact that a 40 y/o man was catcalling me, I was a bit startled but not terrified, I do remember thinking something that still makes me sick to this day, I thought "Now I'm finally a woman" and a grown man who could've been my dad catcalling me made me, a child, feel good about the situation.
That scene where Valerie bleeds on those white flowers, reminds me of that scene from The Company of Wolves where the girl-wolf is comforted by the priest and then you see the white flower slowly turning red.
You said it so perfectly. It was word for word what I said to myself at my young age “being preyed on by men who I thought had my best interest at heart “❤️ and with that I felt my innocence was shattering bc of what I couldn’t deny but also that I needed to protect myself
funny how i first fell in love with valerie and her week of wonders and daisies when i was a young teen, maybe 14/15, at the height of experiencing and questioning this transition. i never knew they were written by the same woman! thank you for a captivating video
The predation of men started on me really early,pre-puberty actually. I was r*ped when I was really young,teacher in kindergarten SA me and so on. Then I hit puberty at 10, I didn’t know a thing about puberty but my mom told me I wasn’t a little girl anymore,I have to cover myself more, I shouldn’t be alone with men…I felt disgusted in myself. I didn’t understand why is there so many new rules imposed upon me. Being treated like that by men wasn’t something new to me but that frequency actually increased. One night I was coming home,3 grown men started to follow me, I was so so scared, I was 11. My teacher told me I was seducing him,I was 14. I still mourn the innocence I never had.
Wow... that is all so heavy, I'm so sorry this happened to you. You deserved so much better in your young life 😞 My heart goes out to you, I sincerely hope you can find help for your situation, and surround yourself with kind and supportive people. Take care 🫂❤️
In the book Valeri was 17 and Hedvicka was younger than her. in fact in the book Valerie seems to have spent most her life and time with her grandmother. Valeri rembers hedvicka as a little girl in the book .a baby virtually so you understand how isolated she has been but not isolated. In the book as well Hedvika's husnand knows she is only marrieing him for his land and money but he hopes she could grow to caire for him. If i rember in the book he even says when he passes it will all be hers and then she could marry somebody of her chooseing but that he makes him feel like a young man and is sad he could not be the man she wanted in every respect. it makes you feel some sympathy to him and as the book progressed and we see her again she seems to have gotten used to her much older husband even releaved when he returns home from a trip. Valarie by the end of her week of wonders finds her real father and meets her mother , granny forgives all and they go together to live in a castle in the woods all as a happy family. Valerie and Orlik in the novel definatly thoigh by the end still have feelings for one another that go beyond brother and sister.
i cannot believe this video does not have more likes, this was amazing. it was so well put together and opened my eyes to so many things. it helped me fully understand the rage i have for men. i hate that this is reality for young women and i feel like we are CONSTANTLY being reminded of it.
@harsh3948 Very diplomatic and empathetic, I'm sure her perspective has turned right around with your well-meaning and educated advice in handling female pain and worries which I am sure you have put only maximum effort into understanding.
There is a reason why eating disorders start at puberty for girls. Young girls are rejecting themselves en masse and starving themselves. It's a last grasp for control over our own body in a terrifying world. It's a rejection of this world and what we know to be coming for us. It's devastating.
i lost my girlhood very early, at only 9 i had my week of wonders. i remember hating it so much, i craved boyhood, now i identify as a man, and yet i still suffered many girlhood related traumas, so i can't help but admire and praise this sort of media that explores the loss of girlhood
Same here. Sometimes I feel guilty for connecting with the topic like it invalidates me in some way that I see myself and my experiences in tales made about and for young girls or women. I think that's something I have to work on because no matter how deeply and truly I may be a man, that didn't save me from growing up seen and treated as a woman and that is a reality to live that you simply don't forget.
i think its fine to feel this way. theres a dofference between female and feminine of course but historically theyve been perceived as one and the same and those things would obviously affect afab people as well. its not invalidating
It feels strange to realize that I felt the same way, when I look back and remember being so eager to experience that before it happened. I think I just... hoped it would make me like my body? Maybe make me feel like a girl finally? In reality, it only made me feel even more wrong, and now I'm years into my transition and happier than ever.
Same, but at that time, I hadn’t known it. I wasn’t really a kid that you might ever suspect was trans. I was a very feminine kid. But then puberty happened, and everything just was wrong. I felt deathly uncomfortable inside of my skin, and like the whole thing was happening incorrectly. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had wanted boy puberty. It felt like I was losing a part of myself, in the same way pieces of media such as this film depict the loss of girlhood.
both of those things can be true at the same time - you can acknowledge both the movie's artistry as well as its problematic nature and enjoy it/appreciate it in spite of it. that being said, there is an interview with the actress from 2006 who clarified that her mother was present during the film shootings and everything done was consensual. not saying that makes it "okay", but do keep in mind that this was 50 years ago. either way, dumb comment
Some films simply sexualize underage girls, and others showcase how underage girls are sexualized. When the latter is true, it’s isn’t romanticizing the problem & can be seen as bringing awareness to a real life issue. The film is meant to make you uncomfortable because the subject matter is uncomfortable. The real issue IMO are the films that sexualize & romanticize underage girls for no reason other than to be risqué.
You forget to notice that female artist have sexualised males also, even their genitals. And of course themselves also. In Japan the male sex organ is even worshipped ones a year by carrying a huge phallus. Not to mention the many female teachers seducing minor males at schools in the US. Both do it plane and simple
That's the one part that always makes me feel icky. Like yes, it's beautiful. But coming from a grown man, it feels a little creepy. Hell even from a grown woman, it feels a little weird. Why are you, an adult, so fascinated by the sexual aspect of girlhood?
Madone and the mistress part, and Eve. - Where my mom works, there is this young women "Anne" she has 3 children, each from a different man and the 1st child was consive when she was 14 with her now dead ex-boyfriend. What is well known about her is that she have had many boyfriends and she is very s*xually open. I never judge her, because is her s*xuality no mine but something on her makes me uncomfortable so I usually stay away from her and also so I would not get in trouble with my parents. Later on I learn from my mom that knows Anne since Anne was a teen, that Anne was s*xsually assaulted by a family member when she was 11. And when you mention that a girl 1st s*xual experience define if she either is a Madona or a Mistress, really makes me thing about Anne and her whole situation.
I definitely got a lot more attention from older men (complete strangers engaging with me in public, sometimes overtly sexually) as a teenager than as an adult.
Man in the past lived in warrior society’s woman in society had already been taken by other warriors (who themselves had been married since they were teens) so the new warriors themselves would prey on the young to ensure their survival Christopher Columbus was so aware of this fact he felt proud his colonist could purchase girls for the same as a acre of farmland. There’s a reason slavery was so prevalent in all society’s man just want to take what they want.
As a male filmmaker, this essay gave me ideas on how to properly convey female characters through characterization and iconography without being to "on the nose". Thanks for it.
“Cleopatra bet Marc Antony that she could host the most expensive dinner in history. According to author and noted pearl expert Fred Ward, in his book, Pearls, the queen hoped to impress Antony and the Roman Empire he represented with the extent of Egypt’s wealth. In her clever attempt to do so, she crushed one large pearl from a pair of earrings and dissolved it in a goblet of wine (or vinegar), before gulping it down. ‘Astonished, Antony declined his dinner-the matching pearl-and admitted she had won,’”
I fortunately stumbled upon your channel a few weeks ago and I have been having a great time! Your videos are so well constructed and the topics are so interesting. This is my new favorite along with the one on Ginger Snaps (i watched the movie after watching the video and holy crap, so underrated). This video truly was a masterpiece. Can't wait to see what comes next!
I remember once, in middle school, I was 13, got a new outfit, with a nice fitting top, it basically held around my breasts. Anyways, a kid in my class kept staring at me and finally leaned over and said, "boy I could eat you up". I never wore that shirt again, I think I finally just threw it out. Then in high school I wore hoodie, tomboy clothes. I hate it, I would love to wear cute skirts, but the stares... I mainly wear pants.
No path seems safe for a woman. Every choice made or lack thereof seems to be a curse. Boy, this movie reminded me of my transition from childhood/ girlhood to a woman! Coming from a religious Haitian family, my periods were graced by prayers and a tiny sculpture of Mary! But, also the unwelcome attention of grown men! I was 11 years old!!! It is maddening that, to this day, old men will blame young girls, while they were the ones who SA them!!!!! Great channel!
god i absolutely adore this film. out of all the coming of age movies i've seen, this one struck me the most by how alluring the cinematography is yet the storytelling itself being morbid, similar to how entering adolescence is both beautiful and terrifying. the movie was an uncomfortable watch but it brought me a lot of comfort as a girl around valerie's age group sort of going through the same things she is. great and very well put together video
I too was catcalled and paid so much attention to by both boys and men when I was 12-18 years old, now that I'm in my 30's men don't even look at me...what a world we live in. 😒
I thought this was such a great essay. Valerie has in recent years become one of my favorite films of all time, and you really elaborated on aspects of the film I had not thought about before. Excellent work here, I can't wait to dive into your other videos.
Amazing, I loved this video! I so long to have a daughter one day because being a girl into a woman is honestly so confusing, terrifying but wonderful at the same time. I love when we're able to express that wonder with words, images, paintings, movies, music, etc
The terrifying part is exactly why I don't want to have kids at all 🙃There are so many pr3dators nowadays (of course there always have been but you get the idea). These are scary times to be a child.
Hi, if you're interested in Ester Krumbachova, there's a documentary about her from Vera Chytilova - Pátrání po Ester (searching for Ester, 2005) about her life and influence, I'm not sure if english subtitles exist. I saw an exhibition of her works back in 2018(I'm czech) and reading her writings and thoughts was one of the decisive moments that i really want to do costume and set design.
i'm so glad you looked at this masterpiece through this lense:) as a czech person i'm glad more people appreciate czechoslovak cinema from this time, i also think you'd like Švankmajer's Alice and his other films
I’m so glad you covered this movie, the way in which you discuss the work feels very refreshing particularly the ideas surrounding the maiden, mother and crone. While watching, I couldn’t help but notice parallels between Valerie and Tess from ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ by Thomas Hardy - have you read it/ watched the series? If not I would highly recommend it :)
this is amazing. i cannot believe i have never heard of it before this channel. puberty and getting my period was a nightmare to me. i dreaded the day when it would come. all of my friends got it before me, so they didn’t seem so terrified of it the way that i was. i love exploring movies that deal with that experience. your content is superb. i’m consistently blown away. can’t wait to subscribe when i (hopefully) get more settled and stop being so broke.
This was excellently done. Watching this film was dreamy visually and horrific as well. What you said about her being only 13 during the filming is how I feel, too. Watching the sexuality and nudity of the young actress made me feel uncomfortable. I had to read others points of view so I didn't toss my dvd away lol. Someone stated other countries see womanhood/age much different, and I see that. Being someone who was victim as a young girl by a neighbor, it is a touchy subject for me. Being Czech myself (bloodline wise) I wanted to love this film. Your essay helped me understand the deeper meaning from a fellow woman. And that is beautiful. Thank you
such a nuanced video essay. your commentary and thoughts are so eye opening and validating. so glad to have been exposed to a beautiful movie such as this.
This happened recently, I went to the movies and was wearing a pink dress, its my favorite dress, I was slightly leaned over the snack counter but my dress has rolled up, i didn't know this but my underwear was slightly showing. I went down to itch my leg and noticed that the hem was high and my undergarments were showing. There were 2 grown men behind me smiling and clearly looking, I looked at them shocked and upset, once we made eye contact they both just kept smiling. I kept thinking about it the rest of the day, why didn't they help me? Why didn't they say anything? I feel guilty and i dont know why, and I dont think I want to wear that dress anymore.
I’m so, so thankful to have stumbled across your channel. I have been looking for content like this for a long time. It’s more difficult than it should be to find discussions on these topics presented in this way. I feel profoundly moved after watching all your videos on similar topics. There truly is no feeling like silently screaming to be seen in the dark for your entire life and then suddenly, the light is on and the room is full. Thank you for making these, I am truly looking forward to anything you make in the future. Aaand, if anyone has any book recommendations on this subject matter or similar to, please bless me with it lol
Oh wow thank you so much for this kind comment! I’m glad you’re enjoying! I make the content that I would like to consume so it’s really nice to find my people who enjoy the same topics!! 💖
Such a great video essay. Top tier. It’s sooo beyond ironic that I found this after getting a Russian manicure and this lasted until I was done grocery shopping. My chores went from girlish to adult REALLY QUICKLY lololol
i just went back to watch your thoughts on daisies and you mentioned a new wave czech adaption of the little mermaid? do you you think you’ll ever make a video on it? i’m very interested and would love to hear more!!! love your videos and thank you so much for all the work you put into them! :3
I was catcalled so much between ages 12-15 and then it slowly decreased towards turning 18. I've still had a few uncomfortable experiences with men after that, but the catcalling on the street decreased after I grew up.
I’m a 13 year old girl and this video was amazing, surprised it’s not more popular. I also appreciate your use of non gendered terms when talking about experiences not just unique to people who identify as a woman or with womanhood, I also adore your voice :)
People who.. identify.. as woman? No woman identify as woman. A woman IS a woman. This film is about real womanhood not gender ideology version of womanhood. Men can't menstruate.
I remember growing up and visiting my relatives in Japan most summers. My grandma wouldn’t let me go to the Bon festivals alone since I was a 13 year old girl and she would drill it into my head how men are like wolves. Fortunately I never had to experience being creeped on (at least not that I can remember) but grandma’s saying always stuck with me and I think that was the night where I fully realized just how differently life would be for me as a growing girl. How I’ll never get to have as much fun going out at night or meet new people as guys and boys do because I’ll always have to be more cautious of my surroundings as a woman.
Girlhood is truly truly horror and not many grow up skipping the part were your innocence is taken to young☹️ its so sad and sickening and its so sad i just wish older people wouldnt prey on us, we dont deserve such a hell..i didnt deserve it.
I love your take in this topics! ♡ You speak so elocuently Btw, maybe one day you can analize the movie Malena, I think is the kind of movie you can dissect with intelligence
Yes true, ironically proves the horrors of girlhood beyond the story of Valerie; as the child actor herself is being s€ ×ualised. It is ironic because as the film tries to direct light on the horrors of girlhood through a sympathetic lens (as from the view of a women); Contradicting itself -the child actor is being preyed upon.
YES IM SO HAPPY THIS VIDEO EXISTS. this has always been my favorite movie because of how beautifully it captures the loss of innocence and through the realization of corruption.
This is the first time I've seen such a content warning regarding Christianity. As a Catholic I appreciate your sensitivity on the subject. I found you through your most recent video and I haven't watched anything else since!
when I watched this film for the first time, I watched it without words, well, no English, so I was left to just sort of create the spoken narrative. the symbolic imagery is so vivd and incredible that it was pretty successful. love your analysis. one of my favorite films too.
I had a lot of uncomfortable online experiences as a young teen, at age 12/13 I went into a weird self destructive habit of sharing (very normal, safe for work) pictures of myself on reddit and I would wake up to piles of very direct and uncomfortable direct messages awaiting me. it messed with my self perception for years after
I got my period when i was nine years old. My family would talk about my body, not in a bad way, but talk about it. I remember how i felt, which was embarrassment. I am also autistic(or that's what I've been told. it's a very long story). I have trouble reading people, oftentimes not knowing when someone is looking at me a certain way or flirting. I am sure i have been cat called. However, it's far too hard for me to tell. All of this combined made me want to hide away, too ashamed to go out into the world dirty and inpure.
So glad I found this, it's so good! Saw Valerie's Week of Wonder at a local indie theatre by chance with a friend like a couple years ago. One to remember
Czech New Wave is magical! I gotta watch all these films some time. Oh and have you seen the 1988 version of Alice by Jan Švankmajer? It's one of my favorite films. Anything of Jan Švankmajer is wonderful. Would you consider analysing his works some day?
I have skimmed through this film and watched so many scenes from it because I find the stop motion in this film fascinating but I have yet to sit down and watch it in full. Though I intend to! I would love to delve into the work of Jan Švankmajer ☺️
I second this! Jan Svankmajers short films, alomg with Alice and Little Otik, are some of my favorite movies of all time. now that i think of it, there might be something to be analyzed about childhood and gender in Little Ottik
I'm so grateful someone finally enlightens me. I've never comprehended what this beautiful movie is about, but still enjoy it for the aesthetics and cinematography
I'm from Argentina and I went to a catholic school. My uniform included a skirt which normally would be rather short, above the knee. I cant' tell you how many grown men cat called me when I was as young as 12. Something happens to your brain when you grow up in that kind of attention since very young
Ugh, I never understood school uniforms. In Brazil we had to wear some super tight flare pants as uniforms. Me and some other girls wore our school jackets wrapped around the waist to hide our butts even during summer
@@v_vlps to be fair, the nuns at my school didn't like us wearing the skirt in that length. But I understand why we did that, we wanted to look like the teens from tv and wear mini skirts and look cute, not to attract men. We were too innocent to know better
I'm from Argentina too and i also went to catholic school. I experience the same thing and i was only 12 years old. From 12 to 15 i was catcalled, I was just a kid but those men didn't care.
I'm so glad my parents didn't put me and my sisters into the Catholic school where I live. They had this dress code for girls where they could only wear underwear under their skirts. No shorts or any undergarments. This was a open door to pedophilia and assault, this dress code made me sick. Also the fact this was for elementary kids.
I'm from Panama and this happened to me too even way after I stopped hemming my skirts in school!! I've pretty much never been catcalled again once I graduated and don't have to be walking around in school uniform. I remember guys would honk at me while I walked from my house to my psychologists office 💀💀
The consistent censoring is so frustrating, like what the hell youtube, let the girl say "breasts" in peace!
🗣️BREASTS
BREASTS
BREASts
BREATS
Breast?
I’m a muslim middle eastern woman and I absolutely love the symbolism of this movie and I’m amazed by how the perceptions of women have also been culturally enforced in a different country as well, especially when it comes to The Madonna and The Mistress i.e which woman is worth respecting based on how modest she is
I love this video essay so much as it really taps into the anxieties of being a teenage girl trying to navigate a world that tries to speak for her
I'm Muslim too and thank allah there's no double standards in our religion, like both men and women are supposed to have s*x inside marriage only and never hinted that women and men who don't follow this are less important or should be disrespected
@@zizojaezekeom3565 sadly, it’s normally culture that gives rise to double standards😓
@@zizojaezekeom3565 As a Muslim woman, it's empowering being able to directly tell a man to say 'astaghfirullah' when he is casually talking about the haram stuff he has done, in particular in relation to s*x-related haram stuff. Or tell him directly to 'fear Allah'.
Btw to any non-Muslims reading this- 'astaghfirullah' means 'I seek forgiveness from God'.
@@Ri57490 im glad you're calling that out. It's frustrating that people expect rules to be broken by muslim men culturally.
@@zizojaezekeom3565 unfortunately our culture has completely warped our religion. especially in middle eastern and south asian countries. the perception of girls and men is hypocritical at best and fatal at worst. it’s actually a lot worse than western media and this movie depicts. child marriages are still going on, female genital mutilation, honor killings, these things are deep and dark and perpetrated by men. men who do all this in the name of a religion they’ve made up in their own head. and the worst part is larger society doesn’t seem to be getting better, but to be deteriorating to their level.
I still remember the first time a man gave me “that” look. I was 12 wearing a ruffled pink skirt and I remember I never wanted to wear it again after that. It was my favorite skirt and I’d owned it for 2 years, but the first time a man looked at me like that in it I could never bring myself to wear it again. It was so fast, but I think that was the moment my innocence started to be stolen from me. I couldn’t be a carefree little girl anymore because men started to look at me sexually.
That’s absolutely horrible… I know what you mean sadly.
When I was 11 there was a man staring at me from a car and I stared back at him, thinking I ‘won’ because he looked away. I even bragged about it to my mom and she was a little shocked but just said sternly ‘don’t do that again’. I didn’t understand why at the time but then a year later I was out doing my paper round with my brothers and suddenly there was a weird man on the opposite street staring directly at me, he was practically foaming at the mouth, which gave me a very bad gut feeling. And what did my brothers do? They cycled away laughing, leaving me there because I didn’t have my bike with me so I just screamed as loud as I could and ran after them. Hoping that man wouldn’t catch up to me.
When I finally got home, one of my brothers made a joke about how that man probably wanted to rape me. I was flabbergasted that a grown man would want to do such a horrible thing to me, a 12 year old kid who even looked much younger. I was terrified but above all disgusted that my own brothers treated me that way after such a traumatic event and made fun of me. That’s why I will never trust a man, not my friends, not even my family or partner.
Time and time again most of the men in my life have showed their true, misogynistic s*x obsessed selves. If I had male friends, they would always at one point or another make a vulgar joke at my expense and then I was the stuck up one for reacting angrily. It’s truly disheartening how all the men are inherently the same and honestly do not care about women, they just want to use us for their needs and if we do not comply then suddenly we’re not interesting anymore. Sadly in my culture I will have to marry eventually but I will always put me first before I let a man attempt to ruin my life.
It’s exhausting always having to be on guard as a women, always looking over your shoulder because the men you least expect will try to harm you. I wish there was a way for men to feel genuine empathy for us and be able to put themselves in our shoes. There is a reason why fathers are usually protective of their daughters, they know how their own kind can be yet instead of raising their sons to be kind to women, they think protecting the daughters is the only way to solve this issue. What a cruel joke this life.
@@udontevenwannaknowbruvthat's awful... I sometimes regret not having siblings, but reading you... Phew😢
@@udontevenwannaknowbruvplease do not let ur "culture" force u into marrying
I was 7 and my next door neighbor who was in his 20s said "when are you gonna tell everyone you're going to be my girlfriend one day?"
I completely understand and it's the most devastating feeling ever. As a girl who had precocious puberty, my girlhood was ripped away from me at just 8 years old. Just 8 years old
it's disturbing how fitting the topic of this video is to something happening in my country. Recently a lot of stories have been coming out about underage girls "dating/having sex" with grown men. I'm talking about 14-16 year old girls and men in their mid 20s-30s. People are making fun of the girls, mentioning how they look "old", "too sexy", "they dress like whores", "kids are scary nowadays". When someone pointed out that it's a very fucked up thing to say, these people throw a tantrum and start ranting about how "these girls aren't innocent" and that they "absolutely know what they're doing and they're fooling you too if you feel bad for them".
One thing that also stood out to me is how a lot women use the stories as a vehicle to show people how "innocent" and "quirky" they were at that age. They're boasting about how they didn't know what a dick is at the age of 15 under a post of a teenager being forced to have sex with a 25 year old guy. It's like they're trying to deliberately put themselves in the "Madonna" category, and they enjoy being the "pure" counterpart, and I think they'll be happy with the validation. Well, at least until a guy zooms in on their profile picture and tells them they're sluts because the way they wear makeup is "tempting" (an actual thing btw)
I’m Japanese and I’ve seen the exact same reaction regarding “papa katsu” (japanese slang for having a sugar daddy). So many people belittle or blame the girls when it’s obvious that the grown men are taking advantage of them. It makes me feel sick in the stomach reading comments like those, but seeing people like you expressing the same concerns as me gives me a glimmer of hope for our society lol.
Are you talking about Brazil? Seriously, here is the same thing you said in this comment. 12 year old girls are groomed by 30 year olds, and everyone blame the girls "for the way they dress or how they act" i hate this country.
Oh my gosh, that’s horrible ☹️
@@moonamoonz no, I'm from Indonesia, but God, the fact that it happens there too (and in a lot of other places) is disgusting. It's just so weird to me because people here are so damn prudish that they think kissing your partner on the cheek in public is violating their human rights, but would happily make comments about an underage girl's private parts and laughing about it the moment the story about her being groomed comes out :/
i'm from brazil too, and some would think that because people here dress more freely and are more sexually open, these things wouldn't happen...
but it is the exact same bullshit, everywhere
I can explain how Valerie watched Hedvika and her husband in the bedroom. In the book, Valerie uses her earring to turn into mist which scares off the priest who was attacking her. In this state, she enters the wedding which scares off the guest. Hence why the scene before the wedding showed a crowd freaking out and screaming about a plague. The movie doesn't explain this well (I like the chaos of it tho), so I understand the confusion lol. I love your content. I'm happy more people are talking about the movie. BTW I found Helter Skelter through you, then watched and loved it!
Ah thank you so much for this!! I figured it was some sort of unexplained magic as the film is pretty chaotic haha, I appreciate your explanation. I would love to know your thoughts on the book. Did you enjoy it? Is it very similar to the film?
@@FinalGirlDigital I read it two years ago, so my memory is a bit blurry. I really liked it. I saw the movie first and I thought it captured the book mostly well. There were some elements from the book that weren't in the movie or depicted differently.
1. Hedvika's husband thinks she's had sex before because of the bite on her neck, but believes her and/or promises not to tell anyone. When Valerie visits Hedvika, Valerie heals her with the earrings.
2. The men who try to attack Orlik with whips are described as working for the Constable.
3. The ending was much more simple. As the family was leaving the house it collapses, then we flash forward to Valerie with Orlik by a lake with their parents. No trippy dream sequence unfortunately.
4. Valerie is 17!
5. As I said before Valerie turns into a mist to escape the priest, I believe she did the same thing at her burning as well.
6. Eaglet is named Orlik (I don't understand if the movie changed this or if the english subs got them wrong).
Those are the major differences I can remember from the top of my head, my copy is not with me at the moment. It was a short, but fun read. Very gothic vibes. I highly recommend it. :)
The movie starts and ends with Valerie sleeping. So the movie suggests that everything we see in it is Valerie's dream.
@@dylanrose8202 Thank you so much!! Lol I was actually confused by Eaglet/Orlik’s name. In the movie they are very obviously not saying Eaglet but that’s what the subtitles referred to him as, perhaps it’s the English equivalent of the name. Also sorry another question! Did you read the book in Czech or English?
Is there a english translation for the book?
The wine that is spilled on the flowers around Hedvika(?)'s wedding might also be symbolizing the blood soiling marital sheets, which is something that is even checked for in certain cultures to verify purity before "de-flowering". Really cool, multi-faceted symbolism.
Also, this video is amazing. Thanks so much for posting !!
That's what I was thinking i even saw this somewhere in a literature work of one of the authors of my country not sure where as I saw it a long time when I was in high school but the scene literally described how the white sheet has to be shown through the window with blood as to prove the" innocence" and now lost virginity of the woman and the in laws I think wanted to see this as proof idk I need to make research as to prove the accuracy and who the author is and how was this work called but it was definitely smth like this and if we think about the obsession from society (especially men)about women and their "innocence" is definitely very creepy and if it can stop somehow that would be great literally whoever is working toward or wants to work towards this change I'll be very grateful If it's successful and if we can change some other things alongside this it would be truly amazing ✨️
I remember first learning about that from reading Othello in school. It's been a few years now since we've gone over it but I believe it's mentioned that Desdemona has a handkerchief covered in strawberries, which was later a symbol of blood on marital sheets.
yes! when i read a book awhile ago they used blood forming a heart on her sheets after making love to a older male to show her innocence was taken away. So i thought ur exact comment when i seen the same.
Gypsy culture for instance. They have to show 3 stains name roses on a white handkershief.
It's so sad that videos and media tell this story over and over, yet nothing in society changes.
This is what the feminist movement is about...but it got a bit out of context :|
@guitarszenhow can we control the way people treat us. You may say “work on yourself” but a lot of this comes from people who don’t even know us. Go to any of the stories people have shared in this comment section, a lot of assaulters are strangers. I’m not even sure I understand what you are getting at because even if someone had a story like this from someone they knew, it’s not as if they ever deserve it?
@guitarszen what alpha male podcast host are you imitating in this argument? Kindly tell me what you meant by how we need to change. You also seem a little offended, even though I didn’t immediately attack you and gave you a chance to explain what you meant. Fym I am the one operating on my feelings 💀 may I add, I do not have a personal experience related to this topic. I’m speaking as an objective observer
being a girl, a woman, a female is both a blessing and a curse 😔
It's just a curse unfortunately, no one sees as as humans, both men and women see us as bodies, we value nothing but our looks and our "purity"
I dont see how is a blessing, sadly. I only see it as a curse.
Being a girl is a blessing. Men are the curse.
The only blessing about being a woman is that we can be in female freindships groups and don't have to deal with male freindship groups.
It’s just a blessing for me
I'm czech and I'm so glad this movie is getting the recognition it deserves :)
Yes, old czech films deserve so much more recognition! I believe a lot of these kinds of films got banned wen they were released though
OMG! I love your cat picture.
@@tonyprice2256 omggg love yours too!!
Let's go další Čech
Lol upřímně jsem nečekala že se to stane populární
I cried 11 minutes into this video. I literally feel like this describes everything I feel and everything I've felt. My 13 year old birthday was marked by an old man explicitly sexually assaulting me at a bakery. Days after, I had to protect myself and my friend from 5 men who were trying to lure us to go with them into an empty parking lot of a mall at night. Months after I was followed on another shopping mall. On the streets, I can feel old men's gazes burning my skin and it feels incessantly awful. Teachers, uncles, cousins, I can't look at them anymore without being alert. Boys at my school who were nice before became monsters, the way they talk about girls now became so weird and creepy, when my body grew they couldn't stop but remark it in some way, I hate feeling this way and I hate the way that my whole life and worldview is simply shattered just because men do not see me as someone anymore, but as something.
i'm really sorry all that bad stuff happened to u. it's a sick sick world. i understand feeling unsafe around men now because of those things. i can't even really sit with my uncles or teachers alone bc it's always a thought in my head of what could go wrong. i hope in the future things get better for u and that ur able to find peace and comfort in ur own body :(
EVERY woman has been preyed on by old ass men in their youth.
But I wanted to say how eloquently you put the end. Men see us as something. Not someONE.
(Please read the whole thing, I start off with a phrase you have probably heard a lot, but please just read all of it.I hope this helps you.)As a man, Its important to understand that most men are not like that. Further, you need to stay away from those generalizations about men because that can lead to radicalism, which is extremely dangerous. I was an incel once because I though women only viewed me as an object and would never love me, however I got away from that through therapy and learning that most women are not inhumane. You've had some horrible experiences that I won't understand as I have never been through them myself, but you can't let them color your view of all men. That kind of thinking messed me up and it will mess you up (I'm serious, the catastrophizing could have k**led me if I dindn't detach from that stuff.). If you have any arguments/questions I'm happy to hear them out. Wish you the best.
@@ByAnyVotesNecessary fr dude? a young girl venting about her SA and being afraid for and her friends lives and you just go "b-but not all men! woe is me🥺" Time and place.
@@ByAnyVotesNecessary while i can somewhat understand what you're trying to say, it doesn't have any similarity to being an incel, and in this particular case, radicalism. she's venting about SA and just feeling uncomfortable around the men in her life. she's not generalizing all men and saying they are all predators because yes we know NOT ALL MEN. however, being an incel is far more dangerous than a girl speaking up about how she's afraid to literally be assaulted. an incel hates women for "not loving him" and there's plenty of instances where [incel] men kill, r@p3, and SA women because of that radical idealogy. women become afraid of men in their life after being taken adventage of, and (most often) men are just afraid a woman won't like them or will laugh at them. i'm only speaking from the female perspective, and i'm also aware SA and being an incel doesn't just apply to women/men.
i'm glad you've changed and taken a different direction in life and i hope this doesn't come off rude or demeaning to those experiences.
The point of a girl’s world becoming monstrous around her has recontextualized Silent Hill 3 for me. The game follows a young girl, whom I can only assume is between the ages 15-17, whose whole world begins to devolve into a hostile alien place around her. Granted, she is the reincarnation of a supernatural being and even carries the unborn fetus of an ancient god in her body, but I think that adds to it. She’s approached by multiple strange adults who try forcing an identity and expectation that she doesn’t want for herself onto her, the one who will birth the new god. Even the line one of the adults says later, “They look like monsters to you?”, can allude to the girl seeing the world around her as something so much more frightening and unsafe than the strange man asking the question.
Sorry for the tangent, Silent Hill 3 is my favorite piece of “growing up as a young afab person is literal fucking hell” media
Fellow Silent Hill Fan! Hi!
Elden Ring has a lot of imagery and symbolism that makes me feel this way too
@@snailart14 Bloodborne as well! Bloodborne is a super femenine game!
@@vshiki4872 absolutely!
YES. this is how I viewed this game as well. Also my favorite of the SH games.
It’s so weird how so many men actually say and believe and really really think that women are not sentient and don’t have their own dreams to pursuit and they can just be used like a slave to their desire like they’re not actually just like them (humans and alive) just because of a physical body
It scares me
It explains why men say women's lives are so easy bc they just can find a rich man and raise his kids and be happy for life. But if you ask them if they'd do that, they wouldn't... they genuinely see women as not having their own dreams and goals and think that every woman would be satisfied by being at home for the rest of her life.
To be CLEAR, this is not to say women who choose to be stay at home moms are not fulfilled. It is pointing out that those men think that women aren't capable of wanting anything else.
Preach sister!!!❤
great point! @@phoebescott6787
You sound like you don't talk to a lot of men. The normal average man just wants a woman that is loving, caring, and loyal. Nobody is saying you cannot follow your dreams or pursuit a goal, we just don't want a girl boss that has an attitude, entitled, and combative. It's sad cuz whenever we tell women this, they think all we want are slaves, we don't, we just don't want an annoying bi**h. Just like how women don't want d**kheads.
Beautiful. I am proud to be a woman, once a girl, and soon to be a crone. There is a very unique strength within the female being, and it is beautiful. I hate how we are treated at times within society but I wouldn't choose any other path but womenhood.
really? you must like to look over your shoulder and always have to be aware of your surroundings. watching what you say around men and be good at gauging if and how mad they could potentially become. ok with having one of your hits make him laugh but if he hits you even once he could put you in the hospital. must not worry at all about being assaulted on a date. blamed for all his bad choices. being weak, shamed and not believed isnt a path anyone wants to be on. or are you trying to romanticize that if we suffer all that and dont end up dead, then we must be strong? thats sad.
@GotoMaki4Micah Wow... lol. You must do yoga because THAT was a stretch. Lol. Listen, if you are uncomfortable with yourself, with your body, with your lot in life, and ultimately being a woman (if you are) then THAT is sad. Not only am I a woman but I am a black woman which comes with its own set of challenges. However, I don't live my life in fear nor do I see myself as a victim. I am FULLY aware, actually hyper aware of the risk and disadvantages of being a woman. However, those things do not take away from all the good that comes from being a female. You should always be cautious, be smart, and be aware but you should never allow idoits to live rent free in your head 24/7. Enjoy your life, live by your own path and be happy.
@@OBGSupaDupathis is so beautiful said that I can't believe some people didn't think about it ... Really sad , living in fear and for other people..
@@OBGSupaDupa It's not that I don't believe you, but I have a hard time thinking about what good comes from being a woman and I would like some concrete examples. Also, what do you mean by 'unique strength within the female being'?
@@GotoMaki4Micahsome the things you listed here only happens when you’re a dumb woman who trust males i love being a woman because I’m not a male
10:30 I couldn't agree more. I didn't feel like I'm becoming a monster when my body was curving and my privates started bleeding. I felt like I was being thrown into a den of monsters as punishment for no longer being a child by some arbitrary standard. And unlike most pubescent girls, I haven't endured SA or even s*x**l harassment by the adults around me, only policing meant to prevent that.
Also, a significant amount of Hedvikas are Valerie's age. It's disgustingly normalized to force sexuality upon children, as long as these children are female.
Sorry, but sexuality is also forced onto male children, have y'all forgot how men were brought to hookers so they could lose their virginity as soon as they reached the age of 17, 18 or even 15? Hell, for most young men, the pressure of finding a girlfriend once they enter puberty comes from their parents, and with the peers that already got one bragging about it, it becomes clear that they won't become "real men" and have value until they manage to attract a woman and lose their virginity with her if possible.
With the sheer amount of men and women treating virgin men as losers, to the point where the incel community was born to cope with it, I simply can't understand how y'all think that sexuality is only forced upon female minors.
@@Snormite You do know the boys are pressured into BUYING sex, they're not the ones PROSTITUTED from the moment they look vaguely near puberty. Boys aren't wedded to grown women and expected to fulfill their sexual needs. Boys aren't objectified by grown women all their life.
@cristalido3640 The incel community was never "born" it has always existed (since we live in a patriarchal society) offline and online
@@BlissfullyM3 The incel community has nothing to do with the patriarchy, and it was literally born from trans women.
@cristalido3640 You're incorrect. Would you like me to elaborate?
What’s crazy to me is I had more men openly attracted to me at age 12 then I do now at 22…
Sociology and society is too scared to tackle things like that. It would require to much inward inflection. Reminds me of Joseph smith, the Islamic boi Mohamed Christopher Columbus etcZ man have ALWAYS been like vicious predators in the past. Most man being aware of their subconscious ferocity decided it best to marry their daughters to neighbors instead not out of any good will for their daughters but to ensure the least amount of exploit of pride from themselves.
It is crazy, I've noticed this with my life as well. would get honked at driving down the road, approached as a kid but now men barely speak to me.
I wish I didn’t related to this. I wish so many women didn’t understand this feeling. It’s disturbing.
There's a painting where Mary is visited by the archangel, and she's all curled up looking frightened. When Valerie "sees" the consummation, she looks a lot like that painting. Interesting.
May I ask the exact painting you are referring to?
@frog9112 the annunciation by dante gabriel rosettti
I strongly believe that anyone who can't attract women of their own age is just intimidated by them, because they know that older women easily know how full of shit they are.
Edit: cos I need to say this apparently. By not the same age I meant 30 yos lusting after teenage girls who just graduated highschool. Not 30 yos lusting after 25 yos or 40yos lusting after 30 yos. The older you get the less the age gap matters but don't stand there pretending you can't see the real issue.
Exactly, they see younger women/girls are just easy to manipulate and naive, so they wouldn't know that they deserve better and should seek better.
The way these “alpha male” types describe their ideal woman always sounds more like they’re describing a child than an adult woman. It’s very concerning to me
@@madeofmeats Men tend to desire child like women because they’re easier to control and trick . Men don’t like strong , independent or intellectual, women or women within their age group because they’re less submissive. They use up a young woman then throw her away when she gets too old and used up . Then move on to another this just shows how disposable women are in men’s and society’s eyes . When a woman is young they’re desirable to the world no matter how she looks . Her youthfulness is what attracts men and society it’s an endless cycle .
It surely couldn’t be that younger women generally have less complications during childbirth, and male attraction primarily stems from the woman’s ability to successfully bare children….
Even though rationally it should make no difference due to medical advancements and IVF, attraction doesn’t seem like something you can rationalize. It would definitely be more rational for men to be attracted to women of all ages, but people don’t get to choose their preferences, the same way women prefer taller men opposed to shorter men even though rationally it makes no difference in todays world. I don’t think projecting malice and character flaws to either sex’s biological preference is constructive.
@@willhogtieyou4752 Not you looking for loopholes to try and defend Pedophilia. You're saying this yet there's tons of men out there who actually date women in their age range and would get disgusted with going after a teen. You're just a pedo.
i think there's an archetype that eaglet falls into as the "false hero" nice guy of this story. The young man who is not fully sure of himself who wishes to protect Valerie from the predatory men who stalk her but really is just as predatory and creepy as the rest and only wants to keep and hide her innocence for himself. Seeing this character meander around Valerie guising himself as the nice guy, one of the "good ones" and the other girls especially near the end filled me with uneasiness and repulsiveness as I've seen this type of boy before. The overly protective boyfriend or the nice guy who thinks he's owed something for doing the bare minimum
i got my period at 9 years old, while in 4th grade. At the time, I didnt get why my mother was so horrified at the idea of me having a period at 9, but later, as my body began to grow and curve, I was quick to realize why. At 12 i was cat-called and when i finally had a girlfriend, who i thought was genuinely interested in me, turned out to only be interested in my body. I was always called "too mature for my age" and was told that i looked "older than i was" because of my physical appearance and personality, as i was forced to grow up way too quickly. Although I love the thought of a film that explores this concept, i dont think im ready to watch something like that just yet, i really want to applaud you for your wonderful analysis!
This is so beautifully made…it is true…as you grow older u don’t necessarily change but u are forced too by a patriarchal society…i wanna watch this now
When I was 13 I had a dark feeling come over me. It was as if I felt the shift in an instant. At the time I didn’t know what it was. I felt a cloud of doom, a sense of guilt, and as if I had done something terribly wrong. it really confused me at the time because I didn’t understand what the shift in energy was.
Same.
I was endlessly self concious and anxious, while being extremely guilty constantly.
It was horrible, but alas! it's all a part of growing up and it's a journey through puberty.
I remember exactly the moment I became "sentient" and suddenly felt so dirty when I thought over how men treated me when I was a child. I was 14, but I was a victim of CSA when I was below 10. during my puberty I simply couldn't accept and develop my sexuality, feeling that if it felt so wrong then it must be wrong. I am still fighting, now 25 and with some boyfriends and girlfriends behind me, none of which took my virginity because I am disgusted and scared by my feminine urges and everything that comes with it. I hope I'll get better with therapy and if anyone has a similar story, we're push through it together sister!
@@p0lyblank I'm sorry to hear that. For me, I realized that something was changing. When I was 14, wearing shorts was not an option for me anymore. I was being seen differently, so I associated being feminine with being weak or an object. I survived becoming a tomboy; I wanted men to see me as a 'bro,' not a piece of meat. I always said I hated my periods and being a woman. Now that I'm older (43), I know that what I actually hated was how I was being treated. I lost my virginity at 23, making sure the man who was with me loved me. Now I'm accepting myself as a woman. I've been studying my periods and learning about being a human female, I communicate to my boyfriend all my findings and he knows this is important for me. I'm not going to have children, but I try to talk to younger people about this because I think it's the only escape for us is to learn to love what we are despite this male social structure. We are not a piece of meat, we are not hysterical, we are not crazy, we are not whores, madonnas, even, witches, or maybe yes we can be all at the same time, but only if we want to!
Same, I couldnt even fanthom all the horrible things women have to suffer but still I remember that feeling of doom and mourning of childhood at 12 years old
that feeling happened to me when i was 8... i got molested then by a relative. since that moment i started trusting men less, way less. i feared him immensely and since avoided him entirely. i still do. i haven't seen his face in over a decade. i still remember how the energy felt and how terrifying it was. i hate this world.
This made me feel very validated. Being a girlwoman is such a weird and contradictory experience. I also still remember the first time I noticed the men around me turning into monsters... It's so heartbraking when you realize what is happening, and that you have no control over it and you can't stop it, and if you don't want to completly lose yourself in an attemt to shield yourself from male violence... you will expierience it to some degree.
Also, NOONE ever told me about this, before I experienced it! WHY did nobody warn me!
Exactly!!!!! Same with my experience!!! No one tells you!! I had to process it over the years to understand what happened to me. I wish I had someone who cared about me tell me!! Anyone!!! 😢
God that quote from Sophia Tolstoy made me tear up.
This movie always reminds me of this movie ive seen exactly 1 time and its called Ripe. I think you would like it.
When I first read that Sophia Tolstoy quote I literally thought about it for months 😭 Is the Ripe film you’re talking about from 1996? I’m adding it to my watch list:)
@@FinalGirlDigital yes!! You can probably tell by the cover art why the two movies go hand in hand.
I hit 25 and went "oh thank God, I'm too old for cat calling now". Its absolutely nuts.
That's when I got most catcalled because there was a public trendy discussion about how wrong it is, some men realised it is disliked so they started doing it just fto spite women.
You're never too old. I'm over 50 and I'm not even nice looking and it's still a thing. I'm just quicker to flip them the bird now.
@@jenni4clairenot nice looking??? Your so pretty btw
@@jenni4claireyou're pretty though
@@jenni4claire look in the mirror then I dare say that again! You are really beautiful!
This is one of my all time favourite films, and I’m glad to see another person who understands it rather than just seeing certain scenes and thinking it’s just some creepy old man’s fantasy (as I’ve seen some people in Letterboxd reviews say). I adore everything in this film from its visual aesthetic to its social commentary to its surrealist and dreamy atmosphere, so I hope this video helps introduce it to new viewers! Such a good video, thanks for making it!
Yeah I actually didn’t realize how many people didn’t like this film until I read the letterboxd reviews while making this video lol! I think there are some aspects that are definitely male gazey but I think writing it off completely as a creepy male fantasy is discrediting the work Ester Krumbachová and the work she put into making the script incredibly nuanced. This has been one of my favourite films for years for all the reasons you listed as well! I’m glad you enjoyed the video☺️
@@FinalGirlDigital Definitely. I just watched your video on Daisies, and I was wondering if you’ve also seen the 1978 Czech Beauty and the Beast film? I’m watching it right now and it’s reminding me a lot of The Little Mermaid and Valerie and Her Week of Wonders so I thought I’d mention it here.
Keep up the great work on your videos!
I don’t think I had heard of the Czech Beauty and the Beast until now! I just googled it and it looks absolutely beautiful, I’ll have to check it out. 70s Czechia really knew how to make a stunning, whimsical, and enchanting movie 😭
@@FinalGirlDigital There’s another film from the same director called Morgiana that looks absolutely stunning. It’s on TH-cam but without English subtitles. It’s available on blu ray here in the UK, but I’m not sure about the US. I’m probably going to create a Letterboxd list of as many of these European fantasy films as I can find, hopefully other people will comment some suggestions I haven’t even heard of before too
Watched this movie when I was 15 and I used to hate it. I tought that it's indeed "some creepy old man’s fantasy", but thanks to this essay I can finally understand this movie in a correct way
Im halfway through, but around minute 20 when you mentioned older women sexuality I started remembering all these movies that use older womens naked body to scare the audience, showing that aging in women is horrifying.. like The Shining or AHS murder house Moira... it's so sad that they use plder womens bodies as something to scare the audience...
absolutely good point
That scene in Misfits! With Robert Sheehan
Videos like these help me get comfortable in femininity in a way I never got to when I was young. Because I was told it was expected and it was forced, I ran from it. They turned it into a weapon, and wanted me to be them. But girlhood, femininity and womanhood isn’t bad, or scary, or for simply others that I’m not allowed to be in simply for not following certain expectations. I like who I am, and liking this part of myself.
Plus I love being introduced to movies like these, it helps.
I got my period at 10 yo. In the span of a year, I reached complete growth. I was literally a child with the body of a grown woman. Men started to look at me even earlier than that, and it disgusted me to my core. But then the brainwashing from society as a whole began, and I convinced myself that it was normal and even good for old creepy men to desire me. The fact that I am on the autistic spectrum didn't help, because I tend to get things literally - I wasn't equipped with the knowledge I needed to get the shades and nuances of the very dark message that was forcefully being imprinted in my head. "Be sexy, be desirable, be meek, be grateful for the attention" was the message that came from every angle; even the "good" men I knew were terribly sexist; even the women in my life went along with that, apparently gladly and happily. I forced myself to get up with what I perceived to be the norm, losing myself a little by little. It's only been a couple of years now that I'm coming back to myself and shedding the persona that others had constructed on me. It's incredibly painful to see how nobody has little girls at heart, not even the people who *should* love and protect them. Before puberty you're a promising human being - as soon as puberty kicks in, you're just another woman, and your ambitions and talents don't matter anymore. You're just meat. That's what it feels like - you lose your inherent humanity, because the world is male, and males see you as a sex thing. And you can either get along with it and be accepted, or be an insufferable, unfckable bitch - which is the utmost unforgivable sin in a society based on males' whims and desires. And then we fake not to know why young girls are more and more identifying as nb, as trans men, as queer... In a world that hates women and sees us as things, who - given the chance - would in their right mind chose to live as a woman in a world of disgusting, entitled men?
Wow… This really struck me, you couldn’t have said it better. It’s so awful and disgusting how women are forced to accept misogyny because men aren’t expected to ever change. Instead of teaching young boys how to treat women, we are teaching young girls how to protect themselves but still look attractive to these ‘dangerous’ men while growing up because otherwise we won’t be able to have children.
In my culture, if a woman chooses to stay single at an old age then automatically it means she’s lazy and selfish. While if a man is unmarried then he’s just a poor guy who wasn’t able to find a normal woman. I see this with my niece who is unmarried at 42, everyone in the family is starting to despise her and push her to marry the leftover men who have been divorced or have several wives. Why can’t she live without a man? She isn’t even able to have children so all a marriage will do for her is make her miserable and a slave to a man until she dies. Why should she want that as her fate? Meanwhile her older unmarried brother is just seen as a man who is taking his time and ‘waiting for the right woman’.
My own mother told me how her former classmate got pregnant at 15 by her old pedophile uncle. Everyone was blaming her for ‘probably seducing him’. Why would a child want to seduce a disgusting man older than her father? No child is interested in a s*xual relationship with an adult unless they are literally manipulated and brainwashed to think that that is what they should want.
Why was nobody blaming HIM for grooming and r*ping his own niece?
This is one of the things that drive girls to become anorexic. Starving themselves means that their curves will disappear and periods stop. I would have become anorexic if I hadn't been so greedy.
@@catherinebirch2399 yeah... I've been on both ends of the spectrum in search for invisibility - I've been a binge eater and then I've lost a ton of weight being orthorexic. Unfortunately, no method worked in keeping undesired men at a distance. They don't care, we're not human to them. We are just non-player characters in THEIR story, and they're the protagonists. It doesn't occour to them that we are the protagonists in ours. We're stage props, nothing more.
regarding the end, i hope you are not using this argument to be transphobic and deny the existence of trans people because they are very much real. Yes, due to what u mention some girls may mistakingly think they are trans men while they arent, but not all. Actual trans people do exist because they are born like that
@@catherinebirch2399 that's what happened to me. my first relationship was with a boy who only saw me for my body and would emotionally manipulate me to get it. He knew I was a hopeless romantic and used that to get what he wanted. when I finally gained the strength to leave him I became anorexic. I subconsciously wanted to get rid of the parts of my body he wanted in hopes that I would never encounter a man like him again. it didn't work of course.
To be honest my favorite part of the movie was that at the end Valerie didn’t have her first sexual experience at the hands of a rapist, but instead with her friend Hedviga at her own choice.
I know. I was scared of the upcoming "r*pe scene" that many movies seem to have. Sometimes its just torture p*rn at that point.
@@bunnywavyxx9524 I agree, I'm glad that she had that magic pearl with her so she could just be taken away
Thank god
So if a young adult female sleep with a 14yo girl, everything is fine, it's was her "choice", but if an adult man does the same and she consents he still a criminal that deserve to be punished? Can't you see the hypocrisy here?
Is that all you’ve taken away from this conversation? You’re ignorance us showing so please just leave. Obviously it is wrong in both cases and that is such a horrid example to use. You act as if both wouldn’t be prosecuted and more realistically like the man wouldn’t get away with it my my forcing the girl into silence. There is no hypocrisy when there is clear favoritism towards men.
Wow, this video was just incredible. Its one of the hardest things to accept in life, being unable to deeply relate to things I haven't experienced. Boys and girls experiences can certainly cross over, but they will always be different, for a multitude of inherent, unchangeable reasons. I can sympathize and feel pity, but I cannot cross that barrier into understanding exactly what it means to grow up as a girl in a world thats seems designed to prey on you. Not that this doesn't happen to boys also, but its mostly a girl experience.
So when I come across videos like this, which enlighten me to what girls and women uniquely experience, its so interesting and eye-opening to me. I never saw the connection between the story of Eve and how even the interpretation of that story led to many of the problems girls suffer today. It makes me wonder if things can ever change for the better.
Still, this video was very well done and I learned a lot from it. I'm probably gonna dive through the rest of your catalogue now, and will be back to see what you put out next.
The first sin, that mentioned in Torah and Bible putting the blame on Eve.
While in the holy Quran we find the story of Adam & Eve completely different, yes they ate from the forbidden tree in heaven but it wasn’t Eve mistake!
It was Lucifer who seduced the both of them to eat from it lying to them and saying they’d be immortal if they do so.
While God warned them not even to come close to that certain tree, and God’s warning was for their own benefit only. And when “they” made the mistake and disobeyed God’s order. But relented afterwards (except Lucifer because he was proud)
God simply forgave them but placed them on this very earth we’re living on today.
And God made a promise to Adam and Eve and their children (all humanity) to be returned to God at the day of judgment, when our exam results will be out!
So our life in this earth is only temporary, our real life hasn’t begun yet.
We were given free will and rational thinking and free to choose good from bad and to live according God’s order as in his messengers’ message.
@@zanazannazah8903 Hmm yeah, I wonder why christian women don't question that 🤔
Is god sexist in the Bible??
And as a female we appreciate the fact that your aware of the struggles of entering womanhood. We see tons of males shove it to the side as a "disgusting" concept, and to see that your at least genuinely trying to comprehend is such a refreshing thing ❤ I hope more men could be like you
@@hazelmint6671Thats a human trait isnt iy
@@hazelmint6671 i wonder why everyone doesn't question that. god isn't only sexist, but antihuman
11:00 =True...Twelve years old... At that time I was struggling with insecurities as I was bullied in elem. I matured with a mindset that I am way too weird and odd to have a boy have interest in me... At that time I didn't mind as I was slowly easing to the idea. It hurts at times but it was alright. Then an elderly priest came in and started giving me gifts. I never had anyone have an interest in me before so I didn't see the signs as they are. Three months in and my mom started giving me weird looks every time I tell her and show her what the elderly priest gave me every time we meet. She tried to warn me that something is wrong but at that time I wasn't weirded out as my mom wouldn't spell out to what that "something" is. A month later, I was (technichally) SA-ed in the confessional. I am still a virgin but the old priest tried to give me what I now know as a French kiss. At that time, I don't know what is going on but I do know its not good so I kept my mouth closed and eyes shut the whole time... Ugh... Thank God I did that, he tried to put in his tongue but my teeth barred it. After all that, all I felt is disgust...
I was young at that time and I grew up with the mindset of trying to reach sainthood (complete opposite to what I am now). My mom gave me a choice-Fight or forgive. At that time it was forgiveness and I prayed for him to change....
That was a mistake. Four to six years later, I saw another girl run from the priest side of the confessional. I don't want to look anymore... I know he was there. I had forgotten the incident entirely and that moment was a reminder of my inaction... I was already 6 years too late to prevent this... I don't know what to do anymore... My life was already a mess at that point (Internal Family Feud between parents), and this would just be another mess I can't take on.
To my knowledge that priest doesn't show up anymore to our now parish. Thank God for that...
I am so sorry you went through that. I want you to know nothing that happened was your fault and I admire your vulnerability with sharing your story. Perhaps there are some SA supports in your area, like a helpline or something, that could get you connected to some resources to help you out. I wish you the best!
It's not your fault and not your guilt, you wanted to help but you were raised to forgive, because you are already deemed a sin as a girl, you have to forgive all men who are born already worthy, and "superior." It's a sick way of thinking, I'm sure there were others before you, and if you remove one common denominator (the priest) it would be of no occurrence.
They just transferred him someplace else where he could get away with his abuse. It happened thousands of times in the US, and I'm not exaggerating. The adult victims all came forward, men and women alike. The "church" is not what they told you it is.
That's crazy! Religious leaders shouldn't be just blindly trusted to be alone with kids like that. They should especially take precaution against these people cause they will be desperate, cause they aren't allowed to have sexual relations like normal people right?!
I'm a muslim and I've heard a few stories abt hazrats molesting children, (Hazrats are allowed to marry btw) because parents trust these people blindly, is why this is happening. So disgusting!
Your very brave. It can be very hard and uncomfortable to speak about these things, maybe one day I'll share my story with others too.
i literally love this analysis. being a woman is such a frustrating experience, everything is for men, no matter how hard you try to protest
I saw the burning at the stake scene on an art Instagram page I follow and I would’ve never thought that the movie behind the short clip would be so intense, stimulating, dreamy and relatable and now I definitely want to watch this movie. Only thing is, I wish there was more details surrounding her father being the constable because it struck a chord with me being my father’s only daughter but our relationship being jeopardize and eroded due to me going through puberty and becoming an young woman. He would inquire and insinuate if I was part-taking in salacious activities and even shamed me despite me never doing such a thing and hardly being a teenager/preteen. And it never stopped. It is quite repulsive how an adult can ironically destroy a child’s innocence by attempting to pull the curtain on what they assume is said child being secretive but was really pure naïveté and actual innocence.
Watching this at this moment has pretty much cemented how I’ve felt about femalehood as of late and I’m growing disgusted with male/misogynistic behavior and the amount of disrespect I have and will face due to merely being a woman. I am feeling bitterness towards the world and it’s unfair treatment towards the beings that bring them into this world. My heart aches…
Anywho, great video! I’ll defff check this movie out! Thanks for putting me on
oh my god the exact same thing happened to me like 3 years ago is this like a pattern
Although I'm a guy, this was recommended to me by the algorithm. Really opened my eyes to struggles women face.
this is so brilliant....
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed 💖
As much as I'd like to,I don't think I have the stomach to ever watch this movie as it hits way too close to home.
Coincidentally or maybe not,my chronic mental illness started when my menses did and I know I'm not alone in this,I was a very perceptive child so I learned the horrors early on,choosing to keep my childhood innocence.The takeaway here is,you can't have your pie and eat it,whichever archetype you choose to perform,comes with it's own set of scary consequences.
Wearing white,means you settle for a life of isolation and misunderstanding.
I have watched this film many times as I understand czech and I have to say, its not really a difficult watch. english speaking fans will say it is as a way to gatekeep it (which i find quite disrespectful since they dont understand what was happening in czechia at the time) but in reality, its not massively scary or upsetting, although it does take a jab at christianity, its actually quite vague and confusing because its avante garde. Its mostly just a middle finger to censorship at the time because czechoslovakia was under communist regime
I remember being 13 when I was first cat called. I remember the girl telling me before I left to literally get lunch telling me I looked much older for my age, I remember what I was wearing (a grey shirt half shirt with a grey jacket and grey pants that were high enough so you could barely tell the shirt was a half shirt, all very modest and nothing to look at as they were something you'd jog in) I remember walking to get my lunch, then walking back when a man honked at me to get in his grey truck. I remember all this, and I remember how I felt. I wasn't shocked at the fact that a 40 y/o man was catcalling me, I was a bit startled but not terrified, I do remember thinking something that still makes me sick to this day, I thought "Now I'm finally a woman" and a grown man who could've been my dad catcalling me made me, a child, feel good about the situation.
That scene where Valerie bleeds on those white flowers, reminds me of that scene from The Company of Wolves where the girl-wolf is comforted by the priest and then you see the white flower slowly turning red.
Interestingly, "The Company of Wolves" was inspired by this film
You said it so perfectly. It was word for word what I said to myself at my young age “being preyed on by men who I thought had my best interest at heart “❤️ and with that I felt my innocence was shattering bc of what I couldn’t deny but also that I needed to protect myself
funny how i first fell in love with valerie and her week of wonders and daisies when i was a young teen, maybe 14/15, at the height of experiencing and questioning this transition. i never knew they were written by the same woman! thank you for a captivating video
I loved loved LOVED this essay! I can't believe i didn't know that this film existed, i'm checking it out asap 😊
Thank you!!💖
The predation of men started on me really early,pre-puberty actually. I was r*ped when I was really young,teacher in kindergarten SA me and so on. Then I hit puberty at 10, I didn’t know a thing about puberty but my mom told me I wasn’t a little girl anymore,I have to cover myself more, I shouldn’t be alone with men…I felt disgusted in myself. I didn’t understand why is there so many new rules imposed upon me. Being treated like that by men wasn’t something new to me but that frequency actually increased. One night I was coming home,3 grown men started to follow me, I was so so scared, I was 11. My teacher told me I was seducing him,I was 14. I still mourn the innocence I never had.
Wow... that is all so heavy, I'm so sorry this happened to you. You deserved so much better in your young life 😞
My heart goes out to you, I sincerely hope you can find help for your situation, and surround yourself with kind and supportive people. Take care 🫂❤️
I'm really truly sorry that you had to experience that. I'm sorry you didn't get to be a kid. You deserve to be safe.
In the book Valeri was 17 and Hedvicka was younger than her. in fact in the book Valerie seems to have spent most her life and time with her grandmother. Valeri rembers hedvicka as a little girl in the book .a baby virtually so you understand how isolated she has been but not isolated. In the book as well Hedvika's husnand knows she is only marrieing him for his land and money but he hopes she could grow to caire for him. If i rember in the book he even says when he passes it will all be hers and then she could marry somebody of her chooseing but that he makes him feel like a young man and is sad he could not be the man she wanted in every respect. it makes you feel some sympathy to him and as the book progressed and we see her again she seems to have gotten used to her much older husband even releaved when he returns home from a trip. Valarie by the end of her week of wonders finds her real father and meets her mother , granny forgives all and they go together to live in a castle in the woods all as a happy family. Valerie and Orlik in the novel definatly thoigh by the end still have feelings for one another that go beyond brother and sister.
i cannot believe this video does not have more likes, this was amazing. it was so well put together and opened my eyes to so many things. it helped me fully understand the rage i have for men. i hate that this is reality for young women and i feel like we are CONSTANTLY being reminded of it.
men is not the problem, SOCIETY is
It ruins young boys and they grow up to become predators
Is it rage? Or envy?
@@harsh3948 It's hatred.
@@ionastewart8814 Sounds like someone pedestalized men too much and got disappointed at their humanity. I guess she needs to cope and seethe for now
@harsh3948 Very diplomatic and empathetic, I'm sure her perspective has turned right around with your well-meaning and educated advice in handling female pain and worries which I am sure you have put only maximum effort into understanding.
There is a reason why eating disorders start at puberty for girls. Young girls are rejecting themselves en masse and starving themselves. It's a last grasp for control over our own body in a terrifying world. It's a rejection of this world and what we know to be coming for us. It's devastating.
i lost my girlhood very early, at only 9 i had my week of wonders. i remember hating it so much, i craved boyhood, now i identify as a man, and yet i still suffered many girlhood related traumas, so i can't help but admire and praise this sort of media that explores the loss of girlhood
Same here. Sometimes I feel guilty for connecting with the topic like it invalidates me in some way that I see myself and my experiences in tales made about and for young girls or women. I think that's something I have to work on because no matter how deeply and truly I may be a man, that didn't save me from growing up seen and treated as a woman and that is a reality to live that you simply don't forget.
i think its fine to feel this way. theres a dofference between female and feminine of course but historically theyve been perceived as one and the same and those things would obviously affect afab people as well. its not invalidating
It feels strange to realize that I felt the same way, when I look back and remember being so eager to experience that before it happened. I think I just... hoped it would make me like my body? Maybe make me feel like a girl finally? In reality, it only made me feel even more wrong, and now I'm years into my transition and happier than ever.
Same, but at that time, I hadn’t known it. I wasn’t really a kid that you might ever suspect was trans. I was a very feminine kid. But then puberty happened, and everything just was wrong. I felt deathly uncomfortable inside of my skin, and like the whole thing was happening incorrectly. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had wanted boy puberty. It felt like I was losing a part of myself, in the same way pieces of media such as this film depict the loss of girlhood.
Seems like a case of typical peni$ envy
but can we talk about how strange it is when men make films/books that sexualize teenage girls? and then the world turns around and calls it art?
Exactly...
both of those things can be true at the same time - you can acknowledge both the movie's artistry as well as its problematic nature and enjoy it/appreciate it in spite of it. that being said, there is an interview with the actress from 2006 who clarified that her mother was present during the film shootings and everything done was consensual. not saying that makes it "okay", but do keep in mind that this was 50 years ago. either way, dumb comment
Some films simply sexualize underage girls, and others showcase how underage girls are sexualized. When the latter is true, it’s isn’t romanticizing the problem & can be seen as bringing awareness to a real life issue. The film is meant to make you uncomfortable because the subject matter is uncomfortable.
The real issue IMO are the films that sexualize & romanticize underage girls for no reason other than to be risqué.
You forget to notice that female artist have sexualised males also, even their genitals. And of course themselves also. In Japan the male sex organ is even worshipped ones a year by carrying a huge phallus. Not to mention the many female teachers seducing minor males at schools in the US. Both do it plane and simple
That's the one part that always makes me feel icky. Like yes, it's beautiful. But coming from a grown man, it feels a little creepy. Hell even from a grown woman, it feels a little weird. Why are you, an adult, so fascinated by the sexual aspect of girlhood?
Madone and the mistress part, and Eve.
- Where my mom works, there is this young women "Anne" she has 3 children, each from a different man and the 1st child was consive when she was 14 with her now dead ex-boyfriend. What is well known about her is that she have had many boyfriends and she is very s*xually open.
I never judge her, because is her s*xuality no mine but something on her makes me uncomfortable so I usually stay away from her and also so I would not get in trouble with my parents.
Later on I learn from my mom that knows Anne since Anne was a teen, that Anne was s*xsually assaulted by a family member when she was 11.
And when you mention that a girl 1st s*xual experience define if she either is a Madona or a Mistress, really makes me thing about Anne and her whole situation.
I definitely got a lot more attention from older men (complete strangers engaging with me in public, sometimes overtly sexually) as a teenager than as an adult.
Man in the past lived in warrior society’s woman in society had already been taken by other warriors (who themselves had been married since they were teens) so the new warriors themselves would prey on the young to ensure their survival Christopher Columbus was so aware of this fact he felt proud his colonist could purchase girls for the same as a acre of farmland. There’s a reason slavery was so prevalent in all society’s man just want to take what they want.
As a male filmmaker, this essay gave me ideas on how to properly convey female characters through characterization and iconography without being to "on the nose". Thanks for it.
“Cleopatra bet Marc Antony that she could host the most expensive dinner in history. According to author and noted pearl expert Fred Ward, in his book, Pearls, the queen hoped to impress Antony and the Roman Empire he represented with the extent of Egypt’s wealth. In her clever attempt to do so, she crushed one large pearl from a pair of earrings and dissolved it in a goblet of wine (or vinegar), before gulping it down.
‘Astonished, Antony declined his dinner-the matching pearl-and admitted she had won,’”
I fortunately stumbled upon your channel a few weeks ago and I have been having a great time! Your videos are so well constructed and the topics are so interesting. This is my new favorite along with the one on Ginger Snaps (i watched the movie after watching the video and holy crap, so underrated). This video truly was a masterpiece. Can't wait to see what comes next!
Im glad you’re enjoying the videos! And I’m happy you watched Ginger Snaps and liked it, such a good and fun film. ☺️💖
i member ginger snaps, been a long time, tho'
im really glad that this movie is finally getting more popular! Cant wait to watch this with a cup of tea later
Sophia Tolstoy's quote made me tear up,thank you so much for this video essay ❤
I remember once, in middle school, I was 13, got a new outfit, with a nice fitting top, it basically held around my breasts. Anyways, a kid in my class kept staring at me and finally leaned over and said, "boy I could eat you up". I never wore that shirt again, I think I finally just threw it out. Then in high school I wore hoodie, tomboy clothes. I hate it, I would love to wear cute skirts, but the stares... I mainly wear pants.
No path seems safe for a woman. Every choice made or lack thereof seems to be a curse. Boy, this movie reminded me of my transition from childhood/ girlhood to a woman! Coming from a religious Haitian family, my periods were graced by prayers and a tiny sculpture of Mary! But, also the unwelcome attention of grown men! I was 11 years old!!! It is maddening that, to this day, old men will blame young girls, while they were the ones who SA them!!!!! Great channel!
I just binged a ton of this channels videos, I think I'm in love
god i absolutely adore this film. out of all the coming of age movies i've seen, this one struck me the most by how alluring the cinematography is yet the storytelling itself being morbid, similar to how entering adolescence is both beautiful and terrifying. the movie was an uncomfortable watch but it brought me a lot of comfort as a girl around valerie's age group sort of going through the same things she is. great and very well put together video
I too was catcalled and paid so much attention to by both boys and men when I was 12-18 years old, now that I'm in my 30's men don't even look at me...what a world we live in. 😒
I hate men so freaking much
@kazudajebalkanlatinowho gives a f* what most men like.
@@mittag983 HATE EM loooooooool
This is why cute culture is creepy to me
@@maybemintsWhy? Im 14 and find it cute is that bad?
I thought this was such a great essay. Valerie has in recent years become one of my favorite films of all time, and you really elaborated on aspects of the film I had not thought about before. Excellent work here, I can't wait to dive into your other videos.
Great video! The rage I felt when I saw those podcast clips made me want to destroy everything around me.
I hate men so much so this was kinda triggering 😅
I'm Czech and I never even knew that these movies existed this is insane
Amazing, I loved this video! I so long to have a daughter one day because being a girl into a woman is honestly so confusing, terrifying but wonderful at the same time. I love when we're able to express that wonder with words, images, paintings, movies, music, etc
What if you have a boy ?
The terrifying part is exactly why I don't want to have kids at all 🙃There are so many pr3dators nowadays (of course there always have been but you get the idea). These are scary times to be a child.
@@lesliecartagena1292 give it away
No, transitioning from a girl to a woman is transitioning from a girl to a woman.
@@lesliecartagena1292 that's ok, I'll love him just as much. I was just talking abt sharing my experience as a woman in this world
Hi, if you're interested in Ester Krumbachova, there's a documentary about her from Vera Chytilova - Pátrání po Ester (searching for Ester, 2005) about her life and influence, I'm not sure if english subtitles exist. I saw an exhibition of her works back in 2018(I'm czech) and reading her writings and thoughts was one of the decisive moments that i really want to do costume and set design.
Ah thank you so much for this! I’ll try and hunt down a version with English subtitles haha, thanks for the recommendation!
Hedvika's story reminds me so much of my grandma. She was essentially tricked into marrying my grandpa and forced into having my dad and uncle
i'm so glad you looked at this masterpiece through this lense:) as a czech person i'm glad more people appreciate czechoslovak cinema from this time, i also think you'd like Švankmajer's Alice and his other films
I watched the film after finding your channel through the daisies video. I'm so happy you made a video on it!
I’m so glad you covered this movie, the way in which you discuss the work feels very refreshing particularly the ideas surrounding the maiden, mother and crone. While watching, I couldn’t help but notice parallels between Valerie and Tess from ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ by Thomas Hardy - have you read it/ watched the series?
If not I would highly recommend it :)
this is amazing. i cannot believe i have never heard of it before this channel. puberty and getting my period was a nightmare to me. i dreaded the day when it would come. all of my friends got it before me, so they didn’t seem so terrified of it the way that i was. i love exploring movies that deal with that experience. your content is superb. i’m consistently blown away. can’t wait to subscribe when i (hopefully) get more settled and stop being so broke.
This video essay is a masterpiece and you’re so talented ♥️
One of the most iteresting video essays about girl/womanhood I've seen, thank you
This was excellently done. Watching this film was dreamy visually and horrific as well. What you said about her being only 13 during the filming is how I feel, too. Watching the sexuality and nudity of the young actress made me feel uncomfortable. I had to read others points of view so I didn't toss my dvd away lol. Someone stated other countries see womanhood/age much different, and I see that. Being someone who was victim as a young girl by a neighbor, it is a touchy subject for me.
Being Czech myself (bloodline wise) I wanted to love this film. Your essay helped me understand the deeper meaning from a fellow woman. And that is beautiful.
Thank you
such a nuanced video essay. your commentary and thoughts are so eye opening and validating. so glad to have been exposed to a beautiful movie such as this.
This happened recently, I went to the movies and was wearing a pink dress, its my favorite dress, I was slightly leaned over the snack counter but my dress has rolled up, i didn't know this but my underwear was slightly showing. I went down to itch my leg and noticed that the hem was high and my undergarments were showing. There were 2 grown men behind me smiling and clearly looking, I looked at them shocked and upset, once we made eye contact they both just kept smiling. I kept thinking about it the rest of the day, why didn't they help me? Why didn't they say anything? I feel guilty and i dont know why, and I dont think I want to wear that dress anymore.
I love how much care and thought you put into these analysis videos!! You deserve so much hype and I can't wait to see you blow up even more!
Thank you!!:’) 💖💖
I’m so, so thankful to have stumbled across your channel. I have been looking for content like this for a long time. It’s more difficult than it should be to find discussions on these topics presented in this way. I feel profoundly moved after watching all your videos on similar topics. There truly is no feeling like silently screaming to be seen in the dark for your entire life and then suddenly, the light is on and the room is full. Thank you for making these, I am truly looking forward to anything you make in the future. Aaand, if anyone has any book recommendations on this subject matter or similar to, please bless me with it lol
Oh wow thank you so much for this kind comment! I’m glad you’re enjoying! I make the content that I would like to consume so it’s really nice to find my people who enjoy the same topics!! 💖
feminist video essays is one of best things that happened to my thought stream and perception
real 💯
Such a great video essay. Top tier. It’s sooo beyond ironic that I found this after getting a Russian manicure and this lasted until I was done grocery shopping. My chores went from girlish to adult REALLY QUICKLY lololol
I loved this video, but also it made me incredibly sad. It put into words a lot of the feelings I've been having about femininity and sexuality
I watched the film tonight and then watched your comment. It was great, thank you. But the character of Olrick still remains unexplained
i just went back to watch your thoughts on daisies and you mentioned a new wave czech adaption of the little mermaid? do you you think you’ll ever make a video on it? i’m very interested and would love to hear more!!! love your videos and thank you so much for all the work you put into them! :3
I was catcalled so much between ages 12-15 and then it slowly decreased towards turning 18. I've still had a few uncomfortable experiences with men after that, but the catcalling on the street decreased after I grew up.
Catcalling is disgusting. Thank God I never went through it.
I’m a 13 year old girl and this video was amazing, surprised it’s not more popular. I also appreciate your use of non gendered terms when talking about experiences not just unique to people who identify as a woman or with womanhood, I also adore your voice :)
People who.. identify.. as woman? No woman identify as woman. A woman IS a woman. This film is about real womanhood not gender ideology version of womanhood. Men can't menstruate.
I remember growing up and visiting my relatives in Japan most summers. My grandma wouldn’t let me go to the Bon festivals alone since I was a 13 year old girl and she would drill it into my head how men are like wolves. Fortunately I never had to experience being creeped on (at least not that I can remember) but grandma’s saying always stuck with me and I think that was the night where I fully realized just how differently life would be for me as a growing girl. How I’ll never get to have as much fun going out at night or meet new people as guys and boys do because I’ll always have to be more cautious of my surroundings as a woman.
Girlhood is truly truly horror and not many grow up skipping the part were your innocence is taken to young☹️ its so sad and sickening and its so sad i just wish older people wouldnt prey on us, we dont deserve such a hell..i didnt deserve it.
really , that kind of a strong generalization , don't take the all by the part and vice versa
I love your take in this topics! ♡
You speak so elocuently
Btw, maybe one day you can analize the movie Malena, I think is the kind of movie you can dissect with intelligence
I was just thing about this!!!
Proud to be czech, i love your content so much!🫶🏻🌷🤍
Uh bro the way an actual child was groped and stripped down on-set "To prove a point" is disturbing and kind of ruined the whole thing for me.
im jealous
Yes true, ironically proves the horrors of girlhood beyond the story of Valerie; as the child actor herself is being s€ ×ualised.
It is ironic because as the film tries to direct light on the horrors of girlhood through a sympathetic lens (as from the view of a women); Contradicting itself -the child actor is being preyed upon.
@@жизненный_опытum
@@yasmineguerin2852 cry
@@жизненный_опыт no weirdo
YES IM SO HAPPY THIS VIDEO EXISTS. this has always been my favorite movie because of how beautifully it captures the loss of innocence and through the realization of corruption.
you are inspiring me to actually writing essays, showing how great it can be, how I can put my thoughts to words
thank you
This is the first time I've seen such a content warning regarding Christianity. As a Catholic I appreciate your sensitivity on the subject. I found you through your most recent video and I haven't watched anything else since!
Amazing video, and I especially loved when you spoke about your personal experience related to the film's themes! Great work!! ❤
when I watched this film for the first time, I watched it without words, well, no English, so I was left to just sort of create the spoken narrative. the symbolic imagery is so vivd and incredible that it was pretty successful. love your analysis. one of my favorite films too.
I had a lot of uncomfortable online experiences as a young teen, at age 12/13 I went into a weird self destructive habit of sharing (very normal, safe for work) pictures of myself on reddit and I would wake up to piles of very direct and uncomfortable direct messages awaiting me. it messed with my self perception for years after
It’s sad but insanely common experience
Genuinely this is one of the best video essays I’ve ever watched, every single detail and quote was perfect omg💓💓💓💓
I got my period when i was nine years old. My family would talk about my body, not in a bad way, but talk about it. I remember how i felt, which was embarrassment.
I am also autistic(or that's what I've been told. it's a very long story). I have trouble reading people, oftentimes not knowing when someone is looking at me a certain way or flirting. I am sure i have been cat called. However, it's far too hard for me to tell.
All of this combined made me want to hide away, too ashamed to go out into the world dirty and inpure.
So glad I found this, it's so good! Saw Valerie's Week of Wonder at a local indie theatre by chance with a friend like a couple years ago. One to remember
Czech New Wave is magical! I gotta watch all these films some time. Oh and have you seen the 1988 version of Alice by Jan Švankmajer? It's one of my favorite films. Anything of Jan Švankmajer is wonderful. Would you consider analysing his works some day?
Love that version of Alice in Wonderland. I stumbled upon it on Netflix years ago.
I have skimmed through this film and watched so many scenes from it because I find the stop motion in this film fascinating but I have yet to sit down and watch it in full. Though I intend to! I would love to delve into the work of Jan Švankmajer ☺️
I second this! Jan Svankmajers short films, alomg with Alice and Little Otik, are some of my favorite movies of all time. now that i think of it, there might be something to be analyzed about childhood and gender in Little Ottik
I'm so grateful someone finally enlightens me. I've never comprehended what this beautiful movie is about, but still enjoy it for the aesthetics and cinematography