Gangster Chic

[snoozequeen1]

Outside Celestial, the epicentre of trinketry and Dulwich Mumsy-timewasting (in the generic sense).

Bags adorned with a mock-xray design. Look, there's a gun in the bag!

How witty. How ironic. How profoundly stupid.

I suppose we should just be grateful that it's not a knife, or is that coming next week?

[kford]

Try getting that on a plane

[Guest]

No doubt there are people shallow enough to find a picture of a gun on a handbag amusing. Raises an interesting point, though. Something I really dislike in mainstream cinema is the way it makes violence synonymous with wit. How many movies have you seen where a knife or bullet in the guts gave the hero the final word and got a laugh from the audience as a result? Short step from that and the violence in hiphop culture to the current spate of stabbings.

[SteveT]

Ms B wrote: violence synonymous with wit

All of the Bond movies had a quip at the death of his victims

[Guest]

In a couple of Indiana Jones films Harrison Ford is confronted by baddies, in one with a scimitar and in the other a bullwhip, and in both he pulls a gun and shoots them. Big laughs all round. Of course, it's the editing that makes it the unanswerable punchline and a message the audience laps up, and Hollywood and all those who invest in it (let's not forget that films are often funded by outside investors - it's a financial product like any other these days) need to face up to the part they're playing in creating this culture.

Same of course applies to all the stupid stereotypes they put out about beauty and age - stupid ugly guys get beautiful girls, girls who aren't stunningly beautiful are ugly, all women want is to get married, women have no value other than their sexual desirability, any woman over 40 is too old to be attractive etc etc. Somebody shoot me! On second thoughts, I'm off to watch Prince Caspian over a camomile tea at the Ritzy.

*stumps off muttering* Gun on a handbag indeed...

[SeanMacGabhann]

But we've all see these films.... and we (can everyone see where this is going) don't etc etc

IF violence in films/games/culture plays any part it's a small and minor one.

[Guest]

I don't think it's solely responsible but I do believe it makes a big contribution to the problem. People consume a huge amount of violence via films, TV, games, music etc these days, and the more you're exposed to it, the less sensitised you become. Extended, lingering, close-up violence is now mainstream stuff, and you only have to think about some recent films you've seen to realise how much they've had to up the dose to deliver the same hit. And it's not portrayed realistically enough for kids to understand the consequences: apparently kids who've been shot in gang fights often say they didn't know it would hurt - because in video games and films people just fall down.

Would also argue that audiences tend to identify with the source of power - you may be familiar with the feminist theory that women watching westerns 'surprisingly' identified with the cowboys rather than the token and usually powerless female characters - so in this case they're absorbing an understanding that violence means you're powerful/brave/funny/sexy.

Sorry if I appear to be ranting. Even Prince Caspian - apparently suitable for all ages - contained levels of violence I'm sure I'd have been frightened by when I was small.