Latest / The Lila Rose Show / E68: We Need to Listen to Gen Z

Transcript

E68: We Need to Listen to Gen Z · The Lila Rose Show

0:00
Hey guys, welcome back to the Lila Rose podcast.
0:03
Today we're going to talk about a new study that came out, Gen.
0:06
Z wants less sex, more platonic relationships in TV and movies.
0:12
New study shows fascinating stuff coming out of our Jen
0:16
Sears at 10 year olds to 24 year olds and what they really want
0:20
when they look at entertainment. I think we have a lot to learn
0:23
from the survey. We're also going to talk about
0:26
the hit show Friends and the phenomenon that it was and its
0:29
impact over generations, as well as some representations in media
0:33
that are actually doing a good job, kind of doing what Friends
0:37
didn't do, but what we want to see in media representing
0:40
friendship and romance. Well, without the sex scenes.
0:43
All this more on this episode of the Lila Rose podcast.
0:46
Our sponsor today is Good Ranchers.
0:49
Good Ranchers is America's number one meat, poultry, fish
0:52
and pork company. You're going to love Good
0:55
Ranchers because all of the meat is sourced directly from
0:58
American ranchers. So this is food from the United
1:02
States. Did you know that when you go to
1:03
the grocery store, 90% of the product is actually not from the
1:07
USA. It's from a source that's
1:09
usually an unclear to the purchaser.
1:11
There's a reason why grocery store meat is in such poor
1:14
quality. This is why you're going to love
1:16
good ranchos. Good ranchers are some of the
1:18
best steaks, some of the best pork chops, some of the best
1:20
chicken breasts, some of the best meat that you will find
1:23
anywhere. Check out goodranchers.com
1:26
today. That's goodranchers.com today.
1:28
You can get a subscription service and you can actually get
1:29
up to $500 off in free product when you Sign up today using the
1:34
code Lila at checkout for $15 off your order plus up to $500
1:39
in free product. Find out why Good Ranchers is
1:42
America's number one meat company.
1:44
All right, so as you guys know, I am very passionate about
1:47
restoring, reclaiming media, entertainment media, news media,
1:51
digital media. That's a lot of my background
1:54
with my work at Live Action, my pro-life organization.
1:57
We're the digital leader for the pro-life global movement to show
2:00
the truth about human life and about abortion.
2:03
And that's the project behind this podcast and other media
2:06
projects that we are doing. And the whole idea here is media
2:09
is extremely powerful. We all know this.
2:11
You're listening to a podcast right now.
2:12
Are you watching it on YouTube? Media is is really, really
2:14
powerful. Listening to music is really
2:16
powerful. It shapes us.
2:16
Watching films are really powerful.
2:18
It shapes us. I have a friend as an example
2:21
who loved the show Friends, and she would watch it frequently.
2:25
She just would. She was a big fan and I can
2:27
understand why. You know, Friends obviously has
2:29
been a phenomenon over the last couple decades, especially in
2:33
the 90s when it first showed up, you had these multiple main
2:36
characters, you followed them, they were friends.
2:39
And so you built this camaraderie with these super
2:42
likable characters. But the part that was I think
2:46
the poison pill with friends was that they've slept together and
2:49
there wasn't a lot of morality around them sleeping together.
2:53
It didn't really mean much. Just sex did not mean a lot.
2:55
And in fact, the friends could sleep together, you know, not
2:59
want to sleep together after that, you know, not want to be
3:01
together even romantically and then still be friends, Right.
3:03
That was kind of the ongoing message of the show. 1 of the
3:07
messages of the show, obviously it's super tragic that Matthew
3:11
Perry has recently died. One of the beloved characters
3:13
from friends, may he rest in peace.
3:15
And so this is not about him personally.
3:17
But I do think the show has a lot to do with this new study
3:21
out about Gen. Z that I've already referenced.
3:24
So we're going to dive into that more in a moment.
3:26
But back to friends, what kind of message does it communicate
3:29
when you have friends who see sex as just something that you
3:35
might do together that maybe has some romantic connotation, but
3:38
that it's really not that important.
3:40
It's really not sacred. It certainly doesn't have to
3:43
belong within marriage. It doesn't have to be open to
3:45
life and can create new life, but that it's really something
3:48
almost recreational or romantic that you do like going on a
3:52
date, that is a extreme cheapening of sex.
3:56
And I would argue that's most media today.
4:00
Most media today has that gratuitous sex scene.
4:04
A lot of media today has that romantic connotation they want
4:08
to put in there with sex as a core part of it.
4:12
So doing media today, you know, films, TV shows, doing it today
4:18
with any kind of romantic plot line without sex is extremely
4:22
rare. It's rare to see that.
4:25
And think about Gen. Zers.
4:26
You know, Gen. Zers are teenagers.
4:28
They're the post friends generation.
4:30
So like millennials, I guess. And Gen.
4:32
Axers grew up with friends. Today.
4:35
Gen. Zers are, you know, decades past
4:37
friends, but they grew up with all the other craziness.
4:40
That isn't a lot of media today. And how are they responding to
4:44
that? Well, this new study shows it
4:47
was a survey of over 1500 adolescents.
4:50
And the new study shows that Gen.
4:52
Z actually wants less sex. Surprise, surprise, less sex in
4:58
media and more platonic relationships instead in TV and
5:03
movies. So let's dive into more what
5:05
this study found. So the study was released by
5:08
UCLA. That's my alma mater.
5:10
Shout out to UCLA teens and screens study conducted by the
5:14
Center for Scholars and Storytellers, and it was done in
5:17
in August and they surveyed 1500 adolescents between the ages of
5:22
10 and 24. So this is your Gen.
5:25
Zier classic group. And they found that of these
5:28
kids, they wanted to see less gratuitous sex in movies and
5:32
television and more friendship. Instead, it says, as
5:35
demonstrated in in this report, adolescents have grown tired of
5:39
stereotypical heteronormative storytelling that valorizes
5:44
romantic and sexual relationships, especially ones
5:47
that are toxic. By the way, think Twilight.
5:49
We've talked about Twilight on the podcast before.
5:52
Great example of total toxic relationships.
5:55
Just one example by the way, and that Gen.
5:57
Z are looking for more representations of friendship,
6:01
which is a core aspect of adolescence and social
6:05
well-being. By the way, what should kids
6:07
between the ages of 10 and like early 20s be most interested in?
6:13
What should they be most invested in when it comes to
6:15
their relationships, family and friends?
6:19
I'm not a big believer in dating as a very young kid or as a
6:23
teen. I think yes.
6:24
I'm not saying it's wrong to date as a teen, but if your
6:27
world revolves around your romantic relationships as a very
6:31
young person, as an adolescent, as a young teen, even as someone
6:35
who's, you know, 21 years old, I think that that can be a room
6:40
for disaster. I think that it's so important
6:43
that those years are used to build strong friendships and
6:48
strong family ties with your family if at all possible.
6:52
And so that's not to say that you can't get married when
6:54
you're 21. That's not to say that it's not
6:56
good to stop for some people to get married young.
6:58
Actually a full in full support if you have the maturity and you
7:02
know what marriage is and you have good formation, I'm all for
7:04
actually young marriage. If you're blessed to meet, you
7:07
know your future spouse and you're you, you choose that with
7:10
them. But your focus still should be
7:13
on friendship. Even in that case, you should
7:15
still be focused on building strong friendships with other
7:18
people. So Gen.
7:19
ZI think is hungry for something that we all need, and they're
7:23
hungry for something that typically is not represented as
7:27
important in media today. So they're literally telling the
7:31
UCLA surveyors we want more friendship.
7:35
We are starving for friendship, and we're kind of turned off by
7:40
sex now. I do think that one of the
7:43
reasons they're turned off by, I think here sex and romance are
7:47
being used interchangeably is that we have sexualized romance
7:52
in a way that has made it objectifying and gratuitous and
7:56
pornographic, meaning we now put sex out in a movie instead of
8:03
remembering that sex actually belongs in a marriage.
8:06
OK. Sex doesn't belong in movies,
8:08
period, or TV shows. Romance does.
8:12
Beautiful romantic storylines do, but sex belongs in the
8:16
privacy of a married couples love not to be paraded on screen
8:24
for anybody. And I think deep down, people
8:27
kind of sense this and deep down there's a discomfort with it.
8:30
And that's why Gen. Z is sending this message loud
8:33
and clear. I want to get into this more
8:34
than what they said next, what these findings were.
8:37
It says respondents also revealed that they're not
8:41
interested in watching characters who aren't compatible
8:45
pair off only to fight and break up over and over again.
8:50
So I think the drama of ton of toxic relationships break UPS
8:55
get back together break UPS get back together is a turn off to
8:59
Gen. Z.
9:01
It says. The stereotype of how romantic
9:03
relationships are included and often feel unnatural, forced, or
9:08
toxic ranked four out of the top 10 most disliked stereotypes,
9:14
the study showed, noting that other annoying tropes included
9:17
relationships being necessary to being happy, male and female
9:22
leads always having to end up together romantically, love
9:25
triangles, and more. In general, 44.3% of those
9:29
surveyed felt that romance and media is overused.
9:32
And get this, 47.5% of 10 zers noted that quote sex is
9:39
unnecessary for the plot of most TV shows and movies, sex is
9:45
unnecessary. We don't need you to put in the
9:48
sex scene. I have a friend, I have actually
9:50
several friends who work in Hollywood and in big studios,
9:53
and I've heard horror stories. One friend telling me about how
9:57
he was a basically producer of a show, so he was responsible for
10:02
at the very high level getting it funded.
10:04
And he has his clear, you know, he was clear with the people
10:07
involved with the show that hey, I don't want sex in this show.
10:11
You know, I am someone, a person of faith.
10:13
And I don't think sex, sex scenes belong in this.
10:15
And it doesn't need a sex scene. So I need your commitment that
10:17
we're not going to have a sex scene.
10:20
Well, it goes to shoot. They're shooting the film.
10:23
It's all going well. And then director decides, OK,
10:27
we want this actor, we're going to pull in a random actor.
10:30
It's like a side plot so that the lead has a random sex with
10:35
some like secretary, and they film it.
10:38
And the producer doesn't find out because this was like word
10:41
of mouth, Like he said this to the team, but he didn't like
10:44
have it in a contract. Like you can't include this.
10:46
And so he finds out down the line he's like, what is this?
10:49
Like you guys, I, I do not approve of this.
10:52
I'm like, tough. This is what the director
10:53
insists on and this is what we think.
10:55
And, you know, at this point the money was already in the
10:58
contracts already signed and he didn't have this in writing or
11:01
anything. And so it ended up being in the
11:03
film, but it was totally gratuitous.
11:05
It was completely annoying. And it was, I mean, I was
11:08
unethical. It didn't need to be there and
11:10
it doesn't ever need to be there.
11:13
But that's common, right? It's common because I think
11:16
people think, OK, well, sex sells.
11:18
We need to have that in there because people love sex and they
11:22
just want some sex scene in their movie.
11:24
Well, the reality is, yeah, if you're a porn addict, you're
11:27
going to want to watch sex a lot.
11:28
But your everyday person, including your young person, is
11:32
not going into the movie theater saying, I hope there's a sex
11:35
scene today. You know, they're going to the
11:38
movie theater because they're trying to enjoy some time with
11:41
your friends or family and watch something entertaining, right?
11:45
And maybe uplifting even, or informative.
11:47
And if they're it's a Friday night and they're kicking their
11:49
feet back and they're like, hey, I want to watch a fun movie.
11:52
They're like, oh, God, I hope it has a sex scene in it.
11:55
So I think even Hollywood has missed the mark here in
12:00
discerning what people actually want and are looking for.
12:04
And they've become so used to hyper sexualization that they're
12:08
constantly throwing it in there. You know, Game of Thrones is
12:12
another example. I know some good people of faith
12:14
are like, it's such an amazing show in the storytelling and
12:17
like the the production value, but like, Oh my goodness, why
12:20
all of this gratuitous sex and rape and brutality everywhere?
12:24
Can you create it without it? You can still make romance and
12:27
drama and you can even show, you know, the rawness of like a war
12:32
without gratuitous violence and certainly without gratuitous
12:36
sex. I think any sex in a film is is
12:39
gratuitous. By the way, I don't think
12:40
there's a way to have a sex scene in a moral way.
12:43
I think you can definitely imply, like if it's a married
12:45
couple going to bed or if it's a story about a hookup that
12:48
happened, you can definitely imply this.
12:50
These people had sex without showing any of it and, you know,
12:54
completely eliminating the porn from the film.
12:57
Our sponsor today is Carly Jean Los Angeles.
12:59
Carly Jean Los Angeles are cute and fashion forward and classic
13:03
clothes for the everyday woman. So you're going to find capsule
13:06
clothing so that when you wake up in the morning, if you order
13:09
a few pieces from Carly Jean, you have several different
13:11
outfits that you can choose to wear where you're comfortable,
13:14
where you look classic, but you also look chic.
13:17
Check out carlyjeanlosangeles.com today
13:19
and you can use the code Lila 30 at checkout for 30% off your
13:23
order. This is a special deal for the
13:25
month of November only. So if you're shopping at
13:27
carlyjeanlosangeles.com today, you can use the code Lila 30 at
13:31
checkout for a full 30% off your order.
13:34
So I think Gen. Z is on to something here.
13:38
We can learn from our youngers here.
13:41
You know, I'm a millennial and I'm I'm a fan of Gen.
13:45
ZI think they listen, they're the Internet generation more so
13:48
than millennials. They grew up with a smartphone.
13:51
It's the rear 13 year old that doesn't have a smartphone today.
13:55
When I was 13, I think I had a flip phone.
13:58
There weren't smartphones yet. That was like a few years later.
14:01
So I was spared. But I really empathize with what
14:06
Jen Zeter is deal with because it's not just TV and it's not
14:09
just movies, it's social media. Think about that.
14:13
I mean, think about the explicit sexualization and the constant
14:17
objectifying that's happening on Instagram, on TikTok.
14:21
Of course, only fans pornography, it's everywhere.
14:26
That's why studies say that the average age of exposure to
14:29
pornography for a male specifically is like 8 or 9
14:34
years old. Eight or nine years old is your
14:37
average age that a kid that most kids, boys and girls by the way.
14:41
But you know, boys are impacted even more by pornography, but
14:45
girls are increasingly impacted by it.
14:48
But it's like 8 or 9 years old that they're exposed to
14:51
pornography from what media, Digital media, entertainment
14:56
media mostly. It's digital media.
14:59
You know, it's through the phone, it's through the laptop,
15:01
it's through the iPad, it's pornography.
15:04
But you can run into pornography on Twitter.
15:05
You can run into pornography on Instagram.
15:07
You can run into pornography on, you know, any number of websites
15:11
almost inadvertently. So Gen.
15:13
Z is done with it. I mean, they are, they're tired
15:16
of it, and they're hungry for something much more meaningful,
15:21
for something deeper, which is true.
15:23
Shared connection with another human being, where you value the
15:28
other person for who they are and you have shared goals,
15:32
shared activities, shared values.
15:34
Friendship. You know what is the definition
15:36
of friendship? There's a few different
15:38
definitions. So the philosopher Aristotle
15:41
describes friendship as reciprocated goodwill.
15:44
So it's wanting the good of the other and sharing that with
15:48
another person. And that the source of the
15:51
goodwill differentiates a perfect friendship from 2
15:53
imperfect forms of friendship. So with true friendship, friends
15:57
love each other for their own sake.
15:59
They're not loving the other person for use, like what you
16:03
can give me or how you make me feel, but they truly care about
16:07
the person for their own sake. There's another great quote from
16:10
CS Lewis, the great writer and Christian thinker, who says that
16:14
friendship arises out of mere companionship when two or more
16:18
of the companions discover that they have in common some insight
16:22
or interest or even taste which the others do not share, and
16:26
which till that moment each believed to be his own unique
16:28
treasure. The typical expression of
16:30
opening friendship would be something like what you 2.
16:33
I thought I was the only one. It is when two such persons
16:37
discover one another when, whether with immense
16:39
difficulties or semi articulate fumblings, they share their
16:43
vision. It is then that friendship is
16:45
born. And then he goes on to clarify
16:48
or qualify this more kind of more along the Aristotelian lens
16:51
of friendship, which is wanting goodwill for the other.
16:54
He says true friendship is the least jealous of loves.
16:59
True friends delight to be joined by a third and three by a
17:02
fourth, if only the newcomer is qualified to become a real
17:05
friend. In this friendship exhibits A
17:08
glorious nearness by resemblance to heaven itself, where the very
17:11
multitude of the blessed increases the fruition with
17:14
which each has of God. So there's a few things going on
17:17
here, but some core principles is there's goodwill.
17:21
You want the good of the other and you share that with the
17:24
other. You're not seeking relationship
17:27
with the other for some selfish end.
17:31
Another aspect that CSO is speaking to here is that there's
17:35
a shared delight, a shared view, a shared value of something that
17:40
the two enjoy together and they're affirming in the other
17:44
person and it's being affirmed. And then and that he also has
17:47
this note about jealousy, which is really interesting, that
17:50
friendship is not about hiding or taking the special thing that
17:55
they love, that ideal that they share, that love of that
17:59
literature that they share, that shared experience that they
18:02
have, but that it's something that's open to including more
18:05
people in that joy that they had, that they're sharing.
18:09
So these are the things, right? These are the things that at a
18:12
deep level, I think are what it means to be human.
18:15
And often they things are missing in media.
18:19
Now I want to go back to the show friends for a moment,
18:22
because the, the, the, I think the special toxicity of that
18:27
show is that you have friends, it's called friends who share
18:33
experiences, but you put the poison pill in there of sex as
18:38
this kind of shared experience even and shared thing that they
18:41
even banter about and talk about.
18:43
When sex is something not to be shared in a group of friends.
18:48
Sex is reserved for that one friendship that is unique among
18:52
all friendships, which is the friendship of a man and a wife,
18:56
a woman and a man who have declared marriage and are
18:59
married to each other publicly. They've declared it and they're
19:02
married to each other and that's an exclusive, lifelong faithful
19:06
bond that they are going to have with each other, open to life.
19:08
And so that's where sex belongs. That's what sex is designed for.
19:11
So, you know, back to Gen. ZI think that the reason that
19:14
Gen. Z is sort of combining here in
19:18
the survey romance and sex, it's because we've brainwashed, we've
19:22
brainwashed Gen. Z with media like friends that
19:25
romances sex, that, you know, dating includes sex, that having
19:30
a boyfriend means you have sex. And that's just not true.
19:33
It doesn't need to be that way. Obviously some people are doing
19:36
that, many people do that, but that's not helpful or healthy.
19:39
It's not the moral way. So I think there's a beautiful
19:43
opportunity here to obviously celebrate and patronize and
19:47
create media that does a good job of representing friendship
19:52
and that also does a good job of representing true romance.
19:57
So are there good shows today? Are there good movies today that
20:01
actually show romance without the porn, Basically romance
20:05
without sex? And yeah, there are, and I want
20:08
to talk about that a little bit. So there's a very famous,
20:11
actually it was ATV series and it has been a movie and it's
20:14
very famous. Do you guys know what I'm about
20:16
to say? If you're a woman, listening
20:18
starts with P. And the other word in the title
20:21
is an A, and then it starts with an A and then the last word
20:23
starts with P OK, Pride and Prejudice, if you're a guy
20:27
listening, you may have seen this because you were asked to
20:29
watch it by a significant other sister.
20:33
But Pride and Prejudice has been a phenomenon that I think rivals
20:36
a show like friends. People joke about what do men
20:39
think about the Roman Empire? Have you guys seen that meme?
20:42
You know what? What are how often do people men
20:44
think about the Roman Empire? And all these men on TikTok are
20:46
saying, actually, every day, once a week, I asked my husband,
20:49
how often do you think about the Roman Empire?
20:51
He's like, yeah, every few days. Like, wow.
20:54
How often do women think about Pride and Prejudice?
20:56
I mean, not all women, but I do think Pride and Prejudice is one
21:00
of those classic iconic stories that's both an amazing novel and
21:06
has been really well represented.
21:08
Whether it's the BBC drama or the one with Keira Knightley has
21:11
been really well represented in media.
21:13
And what is missing from both the BBC drama and from the Keira
21:17
Knightley adaptation of Pride and Prejudice?
21:20
What's missing from it that they could have put in?
21:23
Sex scene. Of course, there's no sex scene.
21:25
There's no sex scene because the romance that they shared that
21:29
Mister Darcy and Elizabeth shared did not include sex
21:32
before marriage. It include longing and desire,
21:35
but also didn't include lust. It wasn't like, oh, I'm so
21:38
lustful after you. I'm going to, you know, take you
21:41
before your time, before our time because I'm, I'm so lustful
21:44
of you that that was not their story.
21:46
There wasn't that toxicity of I want to use you now.
21:50
They had some drama that it was drama where they were forming
21:53
their characters. And that's what's called pride
21:56
and prejudice, right? They had prejudices and pride
21:58
that they had to overcome for them to love each other, and
22:01
they did overcome their pride and their prejudices and they
22:04
did find true love where they willed the good of the other.
22:07
They had this real friendship and they wanted to truly love
22:10
one another. That's a great love story.
22:13
That's why I think people pretty universally, I mean many people
22:18
love Pride and Prejudice and it's going to stand the test of
22:21
time. It gets it right, It gets right.
22:23
What is a good love story? There's a lot of videos on
22:26
YouTube that are clips of Pride and Prejudice.
22:28
I think both the BBC version and the Keira Knightley version, and
22:31
there's one I think that I remember showing up in my feed
22:33
that said something like the sexual tension between Keira
22:36
Knightley and Darcy, between Elizabeth Bennett and Darcy.
22:39
And obviously they're not having sex, but you see the desire they
22:42
have for each other. And I think there's something
22:45
really powerful about that because we've forgotten.
22:47
I think that romance involves longing, but longing that is
22:52
only fully fulfilled when it's in the right context.
22:56
And unfortunately, in a lot of media, it's fulfilled in the
22:59
wrong context. You just hop into bed together.
23:00
It's not treated as sacred. You're saying something with
23:03
your body, like you're all in with your body.
23:06
I'm going to literally share my body with you, the most intimate
23:08
part of me, but I'm not going to share my commitment with you.
23:11
You know, I'm not going to get married to.
23:12
I'm just sharing my body. Obviously that's not real love.
23:16
And you lose, you lose the mystery on these, the I think
23:19
the true deepest drama of a romance by jumping into bed.
23:23
I do think that, but it's so interesting to watch these
23:27
videos or to have these videos on YouTube that people love to
23:29
see because you're seeing the longing that they have for each
23:32
other. Now.
23:33
They call it sexual tension. I mean, I think that's OK to
23:35
kind of use that terminology because they're certainly, I
23:38
think there's certainly sexual desire there.
23:40
But I don't think in the in the video or certainly not in the
23:43
novel, you know, Darcy is like undressing Elizabeth and like,
23:46
you know, trying to arouse himself in that moment.
23:48
He's just very much moved by her and desirous of her.
23:52
And that is a very key difference, right?
23:54
There's a difference between desiring someone, being
23:57
romantically attracted to someone, longing for someone,
24:01
and then actively objectifying them in your mind so that you
24:05
can have a sexual reaction to them.
24:07
That distinction among many other distinctions about sex and
24:12
love and romance and marriage, is lost in most media today.
24:16
But you still got it. And Brian and Prejudice.
24:19
So yeah, I don't mean to be fangirling too hard.
24:21
And Pride and Prejudice, I I really like it.
24:23
I think it's a great show. It's an example of romance and
24:27
friendship done well. And I think content like that
24:31
with maybe different storylines and doesn't have to be set in,
24:34
you know, this Victorian era, but content like that is what
24:38
Gen. Z ultimately is.
24:40
cravingeverylife.com is America's pro-life baby products
24:44
company. You can find
24:45
greatbabyproductsforyourlittleoneoryourlovedoneslittle1@everylife.com. everylife.com is highest quality
24:54
diapers and wipes that are ethically sourced.
24:57
And most importantly, besides the great design and the ethical
25:00
sourcing and the great organic materials, most
25:03
importantlyeverylife.com shares your values and is America's
25:07
only pro-life diaper for company.
25:09
So check out everylife.com today and use the code Lila 10 at
25:13
checkout for 10% off your order. That's everylife.com.
25:17
Another show that is classic and iconic, and it's more than a
25:20
show, it's an amazing set of books, is Lord of the Rings.
25:23
Yes, as a kid, one of the rings is read to me by my father.
25:27
Thank you, dad. He started with The Hobbit and
25:29
it was just an awesome creative journey that we went on.
25:33
It really inspired us. It opened our imaginations.
25:36
And then there've been some really epic films made of Lord
25:39
of the Rings. There was some great cartoons,
25:40
but there's obviously the great live action series.
25:43
Lord of the Rings is not as much of A love story as it is a
25:47
hero's journey. And the hero has a friends.
25:51
So Sam and Frodo are friends like the friends that are with
25:56
each other through thick and thin and care deeply about each
25:59
other and have a shared goal together and helping save Middle
26:02
Earth. I mean, they're wonderful
26:03
friends and there's so many friends all throughout the
26:06
beautiful story of Lord of the Rings.
26:08
So why do people love it? Why does why has it passed the
26:11
test of time? Why do people of all ages love
26:14
it? Because Lord of the Rings is
26:16
about friendship. Lord of the Rings is about love.
26:19
There are love stories, but Lord of the Rings, both the stories
26:23
and the books and the movies don't have gratuitous sex
26:25
scenes. Like you don't have that in
26:27
there. And guess what?
26:29
You don't need it. Of course you don't need it.
26:32
So well done JRR Tolkien, of course, you know, mastermind,
26:37
brilliant mastermind that you are, and well done those that
26:39
created adaptations of his work to really capture the heart of
26:44
his work, which are these epic hero journeys and friendship
26:47
stories about heroism ultimately and goodwill and sacrificing
26:53
oneself for the good of others. I have to also mention Snow
26:56
White, OK, this has been blowing up online because Snow White is
27:00
being made into a live action adaptation by Disney.
27:03
They had this very classic, beautiful cartoon version that I
27:06
watched as a young girl. I remember, I think, enjoying
27:10
it. I mean, the doors were cute.
27:13
Snow White seemed one-dimensional to me.
27:14
I'll be honest, when I watched the cartoon growing up and the
27:17
witch was scary. Yeah, she was definitely scary
27:19
to me as a little girl. But it was very charming.
27:21
It's a classic Grims fairy tale about, you know, this Princess
27:26
who this beautiful Princess who has friends, the dwarves, you
27:31
know, who want to kind of protect her and they're very
27:33
likable and lovable. And then there's obviously the
27:35
bad guy, the evil witch or whatever and the apple and the
27:39
whole story about temptation and love and finding on the end true
27:42
love and the Prince. OK, So what is Disney doing now?
27:45
It's been in the news a lot. But Disney is taking or was
27:48
making an adaptation live action and they were going to scrap the
27:52
dwarves, I guess. And their main actor, who they
27:55
chosen to be Snow White, Rachel Ziegler was going around and,
27:58
you know, pre pressed boring about the movie, things like
28:02
we're not going to have a Prince in it and he's a stalker.
28:06
And so, you know, she doesn't need a man.
28:08
And I think, I think if I could guess, Disney is trying to
28:14
listen maybe to Gen. Z saying we don't want sex, we
28:18
want friendship. But what Disney is not realizing
28:22
is that doesn't mean we don't want love, and it doesn't mean
28:26
we don't want a happily ever after with a Prince Charming for
28:30
many people. Not everyone's called to that,
28:32
but many people. And it certainly doesn't mean
28:34
you should blow up a classic Grimm's fairy tale and insert
28:37
random new narratives, But it means that we don't want
28:40
gratuitous sex scenes. OK, so you can recreate a live
28:45
action version of Snow White that is beautiful, that shows
28:50
the friendship with the dwarves, that shows the good and evil,
28:52
that shows Snow White and her love story with the Prince.
28:55
And you can do that without obviously a sex scene.
28:58
I think that's more what Gen. Z doesn't want here.
29:01
And you don't have to disparage love stories.
29:04
You don't have to do that in the process.
29:06
So I think if you missed the message or Gen.
29:08
Z here, I can see why you would. OK, we're going to create a woke
29:12
ish Snow White with Rachel Zigner calling the Prince a
29:15
stalker. You know, because it in that in
29:17
that mentality, like any romance is toxic, you know, and you
29:22
can't have a show about friendship if there's room.
29:24
I mean, you can. I can see that really limited
29:28
view because you're trying to respond to where the culture is
29:31
at, but I think they completely missed the mark.
29:35
And obviously I think they've shot themselves in the foot
29:36
because it sounds like they're backpedaling on some of that
29:38
stuff now. And of course, you know, our
29:41
friends at The Daily Wire looks like they've announced the
29:43
creation of their version of Snow White, which will be more
29:45
true to the story, which sounds great.
29:48
But the bottom line here is get rid of the gratuitous sex.
29:52
Don't play around with toxic relationships on screen just for
29:55
fun and drama. Tell good love stories and show
29:59
true epic friendship. I think that's going to be the
30:03
recipe for success. So what's the practical
30:06
application here? If we believe this stuff that
30:09
I'm talking about? I do not think we should
30:11
patronize shows or movies that have gratuitous sex.
30:14
I don't think we should do it. I think it's just feeding the
30:18
beast. And yeah, I do think, you know,
30:21
what's 1? Me, Me not going to the, you
30:23
know, movie theater, Me not purchasing that one, that video,
30:26
you know, online or whatever. I don't know.
30:29
I think it does make a difference.
30:31
Netflix. I still not subscribe to Netflix
30:33
because of the whole cutie scandal.
30:35
I don't know if you guys remember that.
30:37
I think it was two years ago now, but Netflix ran this film.
30:40
It was made by I think a French director called Cuties.
30:43
And it basically was a bunch of sexual imagery of preteen girls
30:49
dancing sexually. And they even had that as the
30:52
cover art for the film, and they kind of presented it as like,
30:56
oh, this is an interesting, you know, in Vogue independent film.
31:01
You know, this is so cool. Cuties is so cool.
31:03
It's about the story of the preteen experience.
31:06
And they're overtly sexualizing the actors in the film who are
31:09
preteen girls that they're having dress up sexually and do
31:11
sexual moves. And they're also sexualizing
31:15
young girls in general for a large audience that would be
31:18
watching objectification happen in front of them, like softcore
31:21
porn. So anyways, when Netflix did
31:23
that, I'm like, I'm not going to accept child pornography on your
31:26
platform and still pay you guys 799 a month.
31:29
So we unsubscribe from Netflix. Yeah, a couple times.
31:33
It's been annoying because there's like a show that comes
31:35
out. It's like, you know, we it would
31:36
be great to see that show. But I do think finding lines in
31:40
the sand to draw that is a good thing for us to do, generally
31:44
speaking. And we should use our purchase
31:47
power to patronize media that is good and not patronize media
31:54
that is bad. And also don't be afraid to talk
31:57
about it. Don't be afraid to share
31:58
opinions about, you know, how stupid gratuitous sex is in
32:03
movies. And if you're with a group of
32:05
friends and they like want to watch some movie with gratuitous
32:07
sex in it, say I, I don't want to watch that or we're going to
32:09
Fast forward that scene because I don't want to.
32:11
I don't want to be sitting here while like there's porn playing
32:13
on the screen. I'm just, it's not like it's not
32:14
what I want. Gen.
32:16
Z maybe more courageous than you.
32:19
They're literally telling the UCLA surveyor, we don't want
32:23
this. So tell your friends or your
32:25
family, whoever you're with, like, I don't want to watch
32:27
this, I'm sorry. Like, let's pick something else
32:29
or we're fast forwarding that scene at minimum.
32:31
So I would just say be more bold.
32:33
Be more bold with calling a spade a spade.
32:36
It doesn't mean you're a prude. It doesn't mean that you don't
32:38
appreciate art and film drama. It means that you actually
32:44
really appreciate love and friendship and sex in its right
32:49
context, and that you want good art.
32:52
And good art doesn't use sex scenes to try to sell
32:57
objectification to the masses while they have the rest of
33:00
their plot over here. You know, that's not, that's not
33:03
good art. That's actually really, really
33:05
bad, bad art. And Gen.
33:07
Z, Gen. Z knows.
33:08
So thank you, Gen. Z, for your honesty in this
33:10
survey. And let's be part of the
33:13
movement to be choosy about what we consume and patronize.
33:16
And hey, if you're into creating media, go all in.
33:19
I mean, I think we need more artists.
33:21
We need more directors and more writers and more musicians.
33:24
And we need more people in the arts and in entertainment and in
33:28
media to create a new renaissance of beautiful, good
33:32
and true content that could actually help people laugh and
33:37
live. As always, thank you for
33:38
listening to this episode of the Lila Rose Podcast.
33:41
Hoped you liked it. Thanks for letting me rant a
33:44
little bit about what I'm passionate about.
33:46
We will be back next time with a really great episode with Louise
33:50
Perry on the sexual revolution. So I'm looking forward to that.
33:54
As always, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast
33:57
wherever you're listening or watching on YouTube or on
34:00
podcast app. And if you're on the podcast
34:02
app, don't forget to give us five stars and leave us a review
34:05
that helps the podcast reach more people.
34:08
Thank you guys so much and we'll see you next time.