âIâve been listening to a lot of podcasts recently, and a few of the podcasts I listened to are - one was on Filmspotting, and it was a discussion of Midsommar⊠Midsummer⊠and *laughs* it was very enjoyable because it was just the three of them basically just ripping on it for like, half an hour. And, two of them kind of moderately disliked it and the other one really hated it. So that was fun. But, um⊠a lot of what Iâve been thinking about is how things are portrayed in the film, and what they actually are, so - and how people receive them, right? So thereâs this kind of theme of family and losing your family and rejoining another family, but because itâs a horror film, itâs not that simple, right? So, a lot of - quite a weird amount of people have kind of received the ending, or seen the ending as like, a happy ending or a positive thing, that Dani has removed herself from the negative people in her life like Mark, whoâs a dick, and Christian, who was going to break up with her anyway, and sheâs kind of been welcomed in by this family who accepts her and understands her and empathises with her position - like thereâs a scene where Peleâs like âI understand what youâve been through, I lost my parents as wellâ and stuff. But I think - and then it was also interesting listening to the other perspective of people who hated it saying itâs not her choosing - she hasnât chosen this family, sheâs been preyed upon in her most vulnerable state, to be basically enlisted into this cult. And then sheâll, you know, bring more people if she goes and does stuff sheâll meet people and bring them in and then theyâll - you know, itâll go on forever, right? But⊠and there was a few bits that I just wanted to re⊠like, revisit, and one of them was the idea that Christian cheats on Dani in that really weird sex ritual thing where thereâs all the women in the wooden thing. And she sees that as him cheating on her, but she only has a vision of him through a keyhole, so she canât possibly get all the information that she needs, and sheâs in a pretty weird state, like sheâs tripping, and heâs not there, and she sees him in this wooden⊠structure, um, with him naked and a load of naked women having sex with this woman, right? And this woman whoâs been pursuing him the whole time, like making eyes at him and shit. So⊠she sees that, and thinks âoh god, heâs cheating on me, heâs having sex⊠heâs having like an orgy or something, and so, Iâm really mad, this is overâ. However, we saw⊠we the audience see what happens just before the sex ritual happens, so thereâs no way that we should receive the information that sheâs seeing in the same way because she has no context and we have a lot of context. We know that heâs been being pursued by this girl for a while: she put a love rune under his bed and sheâs got like, her menstrual blood in his drink and she put a pubic hair in his pie, right? And then we also know that heâs been approached and coerced into having sex with her and drugged, which is rape, although some people think it isnât. So, thereâs no feasible way that we should take that, or I didnât⊠or on reflection that I couldnât take it as him cheating on her because he was raped. He was literally - he was drugged and forced to have sex with this girl. So, thatâs just one thing that I thought of, and I think people who donât see it as rape and who do see it as him cheating on her are⊠itâs kind of got a lot to do with the idea that sexual assault and rape only happens to women, by men, and that men canât be raped or sexually assaulted, much less by women. So, I think because itâs such a leap for a lot of people to see that happening to a man, itâs possibly more likely that theyâd see it as cheating, but itâs⊠not. And I donât know if Ari Aster meant it to be as big cheating on her, or not, Iâm not sure. But thatâs just my two cents. The next thing was, there were a lot of people talking about empathy, and Dani experiencing people having empathy for her, and obviously thereâs that really weird, horrible disturbing scene where sheâs crying after seeing Christian in the wooden thing, and sheâs crying, and all the girls are sort of running in a huddle with her? So sheâs crying, and thereâs one woman in particular whoâs like holding onto her head, and theyâre all sort of in a heap, screaming, and itâs pretty disturbing, but people were like⊠I mean Iâve seen some people going as far as like âyes, women supporting women, this is what we needâ which is just â NO! But also like, people not going as far saying âthis is her experiencing empathy and people understanding how she feels and being⊠seenâ, right? And, obviously that is important, being seen and feeling like youâre being seen is like⊠the best thing ever if you havenât felt seen before. But - and obviously thatâs from her standpoint - she feels like she is being empathised with from these other women but copying what someoneâs doing isnât empathy, itâs just copying. Like, if you were⊠I canât think of any examples, but just because sheâs crying and theyâre crying, thatâs not empathy theyâre just mirroring her. And that feels like empathy but itâs not because they havenât had the same experiences as her in the moment and - obviously we donât get any of the HĂ„rga peopleâs backstories. We donât know anything about them apart from that theyâre the HĂ„rga people. We donât know if they have experienced these things, we donât know if they havenât, but if they havenât and theyâre just crying with her then thatâs not empathy because they donât know how she feels. So, for people saying that sheâs⊠you know, feels accepted and all that sort of thing, itâs not that because theyâre just copying her. And⊠and then we also have the thing of chosen family, but sheâs not chosen the family, sheâs being preyed upon, and⊠basically groomed, because, I donât know⊠Pele knows whatâs happened to her, whatâs happened to her family, and he invited her. But sheâs been preyed upon gradually, you know, winning May Queen, and she tarts wearing normal clothes that she came in and then she has a little apron, and then sheâs wearing a robe and then sheâs wearing the dress with the flowers and then she ends up a heap of just flowers. And⊠so thatâs not her choosing her family, thatâs them deciding that sheâs gonna join the cult, because they know that sheâs vulnerable and they know that she needs to feel like part of something. So its not⊠itâs about chosen family but itâs fucked up. Because she didnât choose them she was brought in. And everyone she knew was killed until she didnât know anybody, and then her boyfriend was drugged and raped, and so she thought she didnât have him anymore, and then she chooses that he dies. And people see it as a happy ending. And I donât get it. Um, also with empathy I think it was on the Filmspotting podcast they talked about how when the yellow wooden building is burning at the end, and all the HĂ„rga people are screaming, you can hear the people inside who are burning, and all the hard people outside are screaming in the same way - theyâre screaming as if theyâre in pain but theyâre not, so itâs like they all experience the same thing but only a few people actually experience it, and then everyone else pretends to experience it to feel like theyâre all one. So one thing happens to one person and everyone else pretends its happening to them as well, or they feel like its happening to them as well, but its not. So its a sort of second-hand emotion that youâre not actually feeling, because itâs, like⊠if one person⊠if something happens to one person then it happens to everybody but it actually only happens to one person. And everyone else feels like it happens to them be cause they react to it in the same way the person does, but they donât know how they feel, theyâre just⊠screaming. I donât know.â
