Complaining: Broken Aesop

I've noticed a lot of complaining about shows' directions on the Broken Aesop pages. Several examples from 7th Heaven and Captain Planet:

• Captain Planet also has a problem with a broken Aesop regarding green technology. We're told that relying on fossil fuels and nuclear power is badwrong and instead should be using such things as solar power. But the only ones who have solar power in the energy densities required are the Planeteers (their craft actually flies on the power generated by solar panels). So... why aren't they giving this technology away, if it will help? So the Aesop is: "Use green technology, but never actually give it to anyone who would benefit."

• 7th Heaven: Many, many times, though the episode "Tunes" stands out as the most glaring example. In the episode, the show attempts to have a pro-woman equality message, though in the process, the message itself becomes muddled because the show also intermixes a "rap music causes misogyny" message in the same episode. In short (for full details, see YMMV page under "Designated Hero"), 7th Heaven states that women should be equal to men, which in itself is a great message, and that hip hop shouldn't be listened because of its treatment of women. However, while an equality message would work if the episode were written better, the message becomes broken twice over because of the way female characters were written in the past, as well as its rap message. In earlier seasons, Lucy and Mary were depicted as boy crazy, and later became shrill stereotypes of female characters in later seasons (though both were exalted because they were great mothers and wives), while many career women were frequently depicted as selfish, rude, uncaring, and often in the wrong. Additionally, John Hamilton (Matt's then-roommate/friend) calls out a doctor after the latter asked him to simply put rap music on during a surgery, calling it "prejudicial" that the doctor would assume him, being black, would be all for it; Matt also states that people shouldn't listen to hip hop because it causes more ignorance about the plights of women (to be specific, he says "Ignorance is the enemy"). However, that statement becomes cracked because the whole episode is basically an excuse to rip on rap listeners, thus the show becoming prejudicial towards them, and if the writers did their homework, they would know that there are numerous female rappers (e.g. Missy Elliott) and tons of women who listen to rap music themselves. As a result, the writers come off as both ignorant and prejudicial towards both women and rap listeners; though in the case of women, this was likely unintentional (considering that the episode's writer was show creator Brenda Hampton).

Also, we have several walls of text on some examples as well.

edited 6th Jun '18 12:27:28 AM by jameygamer

Locking until some of the backlog is dealt with.