I don't think it's a double standard. Although the controversy might warrant a mention in an audience reaction trope, possibly.
Really, the comparisons to KB and IG are pretty irrelevant. Films NOT having explicit rape scenes aren't really notable. It wouldn't make any sense in either of those movies to have an explicit rape scene at all, since it wouldn't add anything to the plot and in fact would make NO sense in context. Shoshanna, you know, escaped the Nazis so that is straight out. And the incidents with Buck and the Bride occurring while the viewpoint character was in a coma.
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.
Buck also attempts to molest the Bride again after she reawakens, and, yeah, Shoshanna wasn't sent off to a concentration camp (on top of spending all of her time disguised as a gentile) and the main villain wasn't so much a rapist as just a genocidal maniac.
Also, there's an unfortunate implication in itself - white women should also be raped on-screen, alongside black women?
Edited by Jinkelheimer
Still, Tarantino is a director known for a distinct lack of sex scenes and nudity in his films. Probably the only sex scene that comes to mind for me would be between Robert De Niro and Bridget Fonda in Jackie Brown, without nudity. There was also Marcellus Wallace's rape scene in Pulp Fiction, though that was as brief and non-gratuitous as possible, thankfully.
It's been a point of contention on the blogosphere and the vlogosphere that Tarantino is breaking from his avoidance of graphic displays of sex and nudity in the worst way possible: Slave rape. Gratuitous, judging by the screenplay. It just doesn't seem necessary to graphically show it. It's not as if Tarantino couldn't write about off-screen rape, as he did with Beatrix Kiddo.
It just feels like it toes Do Not Do This Cool Thing crossed with National Geographic Nudity and Rape Tropes and invites audience titillation with the exploitation angle, and is more than a little disturbing. Especially considering the subplot about brothels specifically catering to white men with a Race Fetish. Roger Ebert had a quote about the double standard aspect as well: "Rapa Nui slips through the National Geographic Loophole. This is the Hollywood convention that teaches us that brown breasts are not as sinful as white ones, and so while it may be evil to gaze upon a blonde Playboy centerfold and feel lust in our hearts, it is educational to watch Polynesian maidens frolicking topless in the surf. This isn't sex; it's geography. For years in my liberal youth, I thought this loophole was racist, an evil double standard in which white women were protected from exposure while 'native' women were cruelly stripped of their bras, not to mention the equal protection of the MPAA."
I will admit, Larkmann might have a point about this being more of an Audience Reaction trope, though. I'm not sure where it falls, but I do feel it requires addressing.
Edited by WildWestSamurai
Note that he said he thought it was racist when it was young...
None of the rapes from Quentin Tarantino - especially the Pulp Fiction one - are presented as 'titillating', and even the molestation in Death Proof came off as incredibly creepy, despite the grindhouse angle.
Personally, I think it's Political Correctness gone mad. But that's just my opinion. I can see how people can see Unfortunate Implications, but not Double Standard. Citing Double Standard kinda creates the implication that the way to keep the standard would be to rape the white characters as well. That's the message that the original post conveys, which is not only a bad message, but would've been bad storytelling (since showing anything with Shoshanna or the Bride wouldn't have made sense).
Regardless, anything but an Audience Reaction trope has to wait until the movie is actually seen. Nudity and rape scenes have often been used as Fan Disservice or Squick so we clearly don't have the full picture.
Edited by Larkmarn Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.
Yeah, Roger Ebert did change his mind about it, though I have no idea why. It is a racist double standard.
I'm really hoping Tarantino is going for the creepy angle, because what I'm reading sounds gratuitously over-the-top and expoloitative in comparison. Since it seems to be an Audience Reaction trope, I suppose that requires waiting for the actual film to come out.
Edited by WildWestSamurai
I don't see it as a double standard so much as another example of the movie using extreme violence to show the monstrosities of slavery. Slavers raped female slaves and the same way they tortured slaves when they tried to escape. Brumhilda rape scene is no different than Calvin Candie releasing the dogs on the slave who was unable to continue fighting. All of that was done to illustrate just how bad slavery was.
Pulled the following example due to edit warring. Use this page to figure out whether or not it belongs.
- Double Standard: Kerry Washington's character Broomhilda is explicitly raped on screen, multiple times. In contrast, Shoshana is never stripped or degraded on-screen in this way, despite rape of Jewish women during the Holocaust being common; and Beatrix Kiddo's sexual exploitation while in a coma is mentioned through dialogue rather than graphically depicted. The only other character in a Tarantino film to be explicitly raped on screen is Marcellus Wallace - also black. This has not gone unnoticed by a segment of Tarantino's fanbase, especially black filmgoers.
I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me. Hide / Show Replies