Looks a lot like a transphobic joke as well..

Ugh. Why? Why do they need to include jokes like that in children's movies (or any movies for that matter)? It's just a throw-away line, but it reinforces gender norms and sexist behavior and is completely unnecessary. 

Following the blog (as rss reader) for a while, I usually concur with the opinions exposed here but not today where I don't find that joke remotely sexist.

The joke plays with the confusion that happens with strong women that look like men: it's rare but it's actually happen in life and they turned that embarrassing moment into something funny. I don't see anything condescending here.

Maybe you didn't like the old rule of "men don't fight women" ? Should they fight instead? It's Dr Seuss' Lorax! The character seems to always engage in fight but manage to escape one way or another.

I maybe need to update my view… Please tell me in simple words what's wrong with the picture. If you had the power to rewrite that joke - not dismissing it, what would you do? What would be the new twist?

P.S.: English is not my native language, I apologize for the typos.

Of course, in the youtube comments, people love the joke.  I didn't see any negative reactions to it.

I'm almost more horrified at what looks to be a fairly bland, uninspired redo of the original movie.  Dear Hollywood: stop messing up my Dr. Seuss youth!

But yes.  Sexist, transphobic, transmisogynist "joke."  Unnecessary AND bigoted.  Ew.

What about the visual gags about shortness, coupled with the blatant insult directed towards the Lorax's height and hirsuteness? Were the Lorax a female character, shortness would be seen as a cute, beguiling trait. Instead--being voiced by a famous short statured man--the character's size is a punchline.

The "ugly" woman and the height challenged male are pitted against one another as two undesirables who fail to meet the gender expectations of our society. In a way, it mirrors the struggles of trans women ("that's a woman?") and trans men (failing to meet height expectations for their gender). However, because women are expected to "see beyond the superficial" and the heteronormative perspective is held supreme, a male that fails to meet physical gender expectations can still ultimately prove himself "worthy" (as an obvious example, "Beauty and the Beast"), while females that fail to meet physical gender expectations are almost always shown to be ultimately worthless.

That joke certainly isn't helping the movie redeem itself, but I already came in with low expectations after seeing this the first time.  Why turn a beautiful, bittersweet morality tale into a WACKY BUDDY COMEDY?! 

I can understand the need to flesh out a short story to fit a feature length film, and yeah the book is pretty sad so I can also understand the need to inject more humor.   But it's straying much too far from the spirit of the source material.  The book was timeless, the first 2D animation based on it was similarly a classic, and this really should be too.  Unfortunately, I think it's trying too hard to be "edgy" and "modern", and ironically that will be what makes it completely forgettable 10 years from now.

Also, the trailer seems to suggest that we're getting flashbacks of the Once-ler as a young man and that he had a close relationship with the Lorax.  They damn well better not downplay the anti-corporate greed message and make him an overly sympathetic villain (his hubris is what causes him regret - giving him a stupid Freudian excuse would ruin the main emotional pull of the story).

They're also derailing the young boy's character by making his initial motivation all about impressing a girl rather than wanting to NOT live in a desolate polluted wasteland (also sexist - unless they manage to subvert this or she ends up playing a vital role).

Also, Danny DeVito is so wrong for this character.  I want to vomit all over this trailer.

Sociological Images, have you considered adding transcripts to your video posts?  I ask because I somewhat prefer reading to viewing, and because it makes one's site more accessible to people who are unable to view content.  That group includes people with disabilities, those whose technology or environment preclude audio, and those whose region(s) have not been authorized to view the video. 

The whole movie reads as sexist to me. Here were have YET ANOTHER movie with a male lead who's sole purpose is to please a woman, because obviously SHE can't go out and have the adventures herself. Bleh. It would have been a better movie is she was on the tree quest.

n/m

I tweeted this. Excellent.

It's still a guy hero looking to win the woman of his heart by being heroic and, oh wait, with only male protagonists... And the final sexist joke. 
I love the trees, by the way, but i don't think it's any revolution in any way. :(

Not to mention the homophobic scene where the two males wake up next to each other... Seriously?

Off topic: what an annoying song.

I wonder at what age children start to laugh at such fatshaming and sexist jokes. I think I've seen plenty of children around the age of 4 laughing at "fat and funny looking" cartoon characters and children of younger age laughing at cross-dressing comedians/unusual gender roles. They're basically taught to find it funny as these characters often also show some kind of ridiculous and unrealistic behaviour. I think it's really sad and it's difficult to explain those things to a child when they're not your own. My sister is 14 and she started laughing hysterically when I told her that overweight and obesity are mostly caused by compulsive overeating that is an addiction to food (this term cracked her up).She believes that there is no such thing as being addicted to food but only fat, lazy, undisciplined people. She wore a "Mexican" costume on halloween, completely unimpressed by my comment that this is racist and offensive.
The other day she was watching this Nickelodeon tv show where a teacher gladly told to her female student "At least you're not a feminist!"after handing in an essay. I immediately told her that this is complete bs but all I got was a stfu. The same episode of this show featured a scene in which two girls kiss each other in front of a webcam for the entertainment of their male classmates. They get caught by one of the girl's father but there was no lesson behind this scene at all. Really???Is this what Nickelodeon has come to?

-sorry for the rant-

wow, quite a bit of anger in these responses, sounds like somebody didn't take their estrogen...lol

Oh no! What can we do to stop this movie from being released?

After that surprisingly unfunny dig at the stereotypical heavy-set Nordic/Viking woman, I am led to remember a professor in a university history class saying that those women, I think Celtic, were actually treated with much respect for their will in the culture of that past time. If anyone remembers to add to that thought, I think many would love a rehash on the history of these women, and why our modern-day culture has them held on such disrespectful regard.

As a 24 year old girl, it just reiterates when my national weightlifting coach said to me as a passing comment while I was breathing heavily from a clean and jerk:
"All women wear the same socks and walk the same path. And you will too one day. In Norway, women let the men take their place with little conflict. They...understand."
I didn't say anything, then mumbled
"I don't know if you just suddenly do not remember, but I did not wear any socks for more than a month and everybody here started complaining about my feet being so smelly-"
A male weightlifter: "I remember that! They smelled so bad!!"

....mind you, I have very ugly feet, but they DO smell good...at this time. And most olympic-weightlifting women are ex-gymnasts, and look the same as they did while they were gymnasts. We are not all 350 pound smelly animals, there is actually only one that is, and thats pretty much the only one that America is aware about. Nobody knows about the 6 feet tall 120 lb ex-discus throwers pulling 200 lbs barbell into a full squat, then shoving the barbell into the air over their heads. And I don't exactly understand why, because it seems a great story for the media.

Side Note: The weightlifting coach is full American. Has never been to Norway. He loves history, so probably gathered this viewpoint on Norway culture based on some weightlifting book or tv show.
He is extremely intelligent, which makes it all the more flabbergastingly and overwhelmingly (for me, because I like his person) sad. Its just sad.
The completely un-necessary (unecessary?) sexism comments overhauled our relation, even as we were two good souls with a mutual love for the same hobby, hard-knocks upbringing and attitude, and pastimes. The comments were as if he decided to go get a brick while I was lifting, and build a wall so he woukd not have to alter his assumptions of women, even with our deep friendship. Its odd because he didn't seem to enjoy saying the comments to me anyway! He became real dark when he said them! And most of the time I was working hard and could only look at him like "Why did you say that?"

I would imagine that human appearances could be confusing to a creature with different physiology and culture.  Why are you insisting this creature has to abide by rules of your own society or be made an object of criticism?

If I may, where is the "progressive" slant to the trailer? Do you mean the implications of a matriarchy in the boy's household (his mother and presumably grandmother)?

Off-topic, but as a whole it doesn't look like an interesting film... partly due to the overuse of indie rock which seems so popular with films based on childhood stories ('Where the Wild Things Are' being an immediate example that spirngs to mind).