YiKeS

stomach, genitals: idiot bitches who know exactly what they want and never shut up about it

the point of the 'twist' in storytelling is that you're maintaining interest or raising the states by subverting a baseline state. taking something expected and doing the unexpected with it.

but the scenario as OP describes it, where two people enter in a romance but don't want and take steps not to have kids, is... not a baseline. this doesn't happen in media. in all standard instances it's either they aren't in love OR they are in love and decide to have the kid. the notion of people wanting to be romantically involved but not wanting kids, the notion of seeing abortion as desirable/necessary healthcare, that already IS the subversion.

SPOILERS AHEAD

She's a comedian, he is a good boy, they have a one night stand, she gets pregnant but she doesn't want the baby. They start spending time together and are really into each other. She realizes that he is a great guy and that they want to be with each other. She gets her abortion on Valentine's Day, and even though he is not happy at first, they both realize it's for the best and he accompanies her on the day. By the end, they are together (maybe for now, maybe forever).

Like “going on a road trip to a pharmacy” shouldn’t be a thing. If they have time to fall in love on the way to the abortion provider, medical treatment is too far away

Basically, the point of Oscar the Grouch is so that kids know it’s okay to have fucking emotions and moods that aren’t all cheery. That’s the fucking point. And that’s even more important to the kids who are living in harsh realities. Realities where their families are falling apart or they’re not getting food every day or they’re getting abused. Telling them it’s okay to express that they are NOT HAPPY because they are HURTING is so fucking important I cannot even say it. 

Big Bird is nice, but goddamn, when you’re a kid who’s hungry and you just got beat by your caretaker and all you wanna do is hole up somewhere and tell everyone else to go away because you don’t even have words for how bad things feel? Big Bird is not your dude. Cheery happy, “well, let’s play a happy game!” Big Bird ain’t cutting it for you. Oscar the Grouch is your dude. Oscar the Grouch is the dude who tells you it’s okay to put the lid on your garbage can and be alone and be upset.

Big Bird tries to talk you out of being upset (and maybe sometimes that’s okay). But Oscar the Grouch teaches you that, no, it’s okay to be upset and you have every right to stay upset and grouchy and unhappy until you’re at a point where that can change. Oscar the Grouch teaches you that you have a right to your emotions, whatever they are.

On a more advanced level, the point of Oscar is to start teaching kids that it’s okay to have boundaries, it’s okay to want to just go into your trash can (home/safe place) and not be bothered, it’s okay to defend those boundaries and say “go away!” when you want people to go the fuck away and that you can still have a place on Sesame Street. That not everyone has to be shiny, happy Big Bird. 

The fact that people tell you things you like are stupid doesn’t make it’s true. He loves trash. He loves it because it’s trash. That’s important too.

As is the fact that *even though everyone thinks his interests are stupid*, people don’t take his trash away and they don’t drag him out of his can.

Also he has *fantastic* body language. Boundary laden but also very emotional. And just the way he likes stuff and expresses interest…

Just want to add the very important details that Oscar gets to be grouchy and occasionally avoidant and gets to like “weird/gross” things, and his friends still love him

The rest of Sesame Street’s residents still seek Oscar out, and still listen to him when he talks and still care about him! So it shows kids not only that they can still be loveable even if they’re grumpy/weird/etc, but it shows that if you have a friend who is grumpy/weird/etc, they are worth keeping!

Oscar is so important.

The Prince of Egypt (1998) dir. Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, Simon Wells

An innocent man is home with his family instead of spending his kids' whole childhoods in jail for "resisting arrest" when none of the cops could agree on why he was being arrested in the first place. (But it definitely had nothing to do with him being a Black man in a nice car, honest! 🙄)

And it still took like two hours of delibration after we'd heard all the evidence because one lady was so gung ho about believing everything the cops said, even when not a single goddamn one could agree with their own testimony, let alone their colleagues'.

Pointing out all the inconsistencies and admitted misconduct and letting people slowly come to their own conclusions as the trial played out was fucking hard, I won't lie. I can be patient, but it doesn't come naturally to me.

But. Yelling about how this was obviously a bs case would have shut everyone down and made them stop listening. Asking questions and letting people discuss how the cops tried to make xyz sound suspicious but it was totally normal, or about how if things played out the way the cops said then logically events should have proceeded in a totally different direction, and positing different theories that actually lined up with the evidence presented?

That got people thinking, and everyone realized that for a variety of reasons we all had reasonable doubts that the defendent had committed any of the crimes of which he was accused.