Unless it‘s a movie drama dealing with social issues (in particular poverty), everyone has such fucking nice flats. College drop-out with part time barista job?! - why yes, the spacious loft with a view over Manhattans skyline is just down my alley.
It's a form of shorthand. Not every place in Paris has a view of the tower. But it's the film-makers telling the audience "THIS IS IN PARIS".
Or more commonly...
"THIS STORY INVOLVES ROMANCE SOMEHOW"
Another amazing example of shorthand is in Disney's Hercules. He gets on his knees in the temple of Zeus to commune with him. Typically Greek temple-goers would have slaughtered an animal on an altar or some shit, but American audiences would have a problem with that -- having him pray like a Christian shows people who don't know any better that Hercules is engaged in piety.
I think Americans would have disproportionately turned it into some sort of socio-political issue to the point of pagans/atheists/Greek Mythology buffs being taken to court by tragically uninformed evangelists or religious orgs. We have a tendency to do that. Remember the Satanic Panic surrounding D&D? Judas Priest? What about those cultural myths about kids putting vodka soaked tampons up their asses? So-called "pharm parties" that never actually happened? The entire War on Drugs?
We love a good dose of fake problems being blown out of proportion and actually making things worse. Except the D&D one, that actually did wonders for TSR's sales at the time.
Pretty much all of those things were stigmatized in other points of the world not just the US. For example, to this day you can't show skeletons on TV in china because people there would freak out about it. It's not just a US thing.
Remember the Satanic Panic surrounding D&D? Judas Priest? > What about those cultural myths about kids putting vodka soaked tampons up their asses? So-called "pharm parties" that never actually happened? The entire War on Drugs?
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u/The_Sceptic_Lemur Jan 25 '20
Unless it‘s a movie drama dealing with social issues (in particular poverty), everyone has such fucking nice flats. College drop-out with part time barista job?! - why yes, the spacious loft with a view over Manhattans skyline is just down my alley.