How Western Society Traumatizes Boys

 

The Mask You Live In

Jennifer Sibel Newsom (2015)

Film Review

Last night Māori TV showed the Mask You Live In – a documentary about the constant social pressure boys feel to conform to an arbitrary standard of masculinity – and the deep emotional trauma caused by the experience.

Growing up in western society, the greatest fear most boys experience is that they will be found to be weak or “feminine.” The constant pressure (often via school bullying) they experience to “prove” their masculinity forces them to reject all manner of experiences that are artificially labeled as “feminine,” ie sensitivity, self reflection, emotional closeness and intimacy, etc.

The numerous psychologists, educators, coaches and youth advocates featured in the documentary all note a sudden change in boys around 15-16, causing them to suddenly abandon close friendships with other boys. It’s precisely at the point where emotional expression totally drops out of their language that drug and alcohol use, suicide and gang membership skyrockets.

In my view, the best segments of the film are of all boy’s/all men’s groups in schools and prisons that support members in exploring the deep trauma they have experienced from this immense cultural pressure to “man up.”

The film, which can’t be embedded, can be viewed for free at the Māori TV website:

 The Mask You Live In

The Hidden Sugar in Processed Food

That Sugar Film

Directed by Damon Gameau (2014)

Film Review

Last night Maori TV showed the Australian documentary That Sugar Film. So far it’s the best documentary I have seen about the western world’s sugar addiction and the 50 years of fake science (sponsored by the food industry) resulting in the cult of the “low fat diet.” Sadly the low fat diet – the major culprit in our current global epidemic of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer – continues to be promoted by many western doctors and public health officials.

The film starts by tracing the original domestication of sugar in New Guinea. From New Guinea sugar cultivation traveled to India, which would be colonized by the British in the 1600s. During the 17th century, sugar was a status symbol for royalty.

Sugar consumption in western society was fairly moderate until 1955, when President Eisenhower’s heart attack highlighted the growing incidence of heart disease. Battle lines were drawn in the scientific community between the American Ancel Keys, who blamed increasing heart disease on fat, and British scientist John Yudkin, who blamed it on sugar. Thanks to a small fortune the food industry spent on studies demonizing fat and lionizing sugar (and major donations they made to US politicians and advocacy groups such as the American Heart Association), by the 1970s Keys had won out and the cult of the low fat diet was institutionalized.

Despite the total absence of independent research, doctors, dieticians and public health officials persuaded millions of patients to eliminate fat from their diets. Owing to shocking levels of sugar in processed foods, the vast majority inadvertently replaced the fat with sugar.

Australian filmmaker Damon Gameau replicates this process through an experiment in which he replaces the fats in his diet with supposedly “healthy” processed foods such as low fat yogurt, muesli (granola), fruit juice and smoothies and beans on toast (a favorite comfort food in Australia and New Zealand). The conditions of his new diet are that he must consume 40 teaspoons of sugar a day without eating any candy, deserts or junk food.

His doctor monitors him very closely throughout the experiment. In less than a month he has put on significant weight (without increasing his caloric intake) and is showing signs of liver damage. He is also experiencing major mood swings and bursts of hyperactivity similar to children with ADHD.

Available on the Maori TV website for the next two weeks: That Sugar Film

Banned in Brazil

Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)

Directed by Jason Kohn (2007)

Film Review

Maori TV showed this 2007 documentary two nights ago – a timely choice in view of Brazilian legislative corruption that culminated in the illegal impeachment of democratically elected president Dilma Rousseff two months ago.

Send a Bullet is a horrifying account of class warfare, extreme wealth disparity and extreme violence in Sao Palo Brazil. The film has been banned in Brazil.

According to the filmmakers Sao Paulo, with a population of 20 million, experiences one kidnapping every single day. Ruthless outlaws routinely cut off ears and fingers to send with their ransom demands. The documentary profiles a Brazilian plastic surgeon who makes his living reattaching the severed ears of kidnap victims.

Because the government offers virtually no protection against kidnapping, wealthy Sao Paulo residents hire bodyguards, drive bullet proof cars and take special classes to protect themselves from kidnapping. Many rely on helicopters as the only safe method of transport.

The film also explores how organized crime has deeply infiltrated the Brazilian government, in large part because serving officials are exempt from prosecution in civilian courts.

Although the documentary is nine years old, a quick search of the Internet suggests that Brazil’s kidnapping epidemic persists unabated. In June gunmen kidnapped a New Zealand Jiu-Jitsu champion in the lead-up to the Olympics and in August the mother-in-law of the head of Formula One auto racing. Visitors to Brazil should consult the Globe Media website on the best way to protect themselves against kidnapping: Safety in Brazil

The only complete subtitled version of Send a Bullet I could find is at the Maori TV website: Send a Bullet

 

Donald Trump: the Face of Greed

You’ve Been Trumped

Directed by Anthony Baxter (2012)

Film Review

You’ve Been Trumped is about a group of Scottish farmers battling Donald Trump’s bid to destroy one of Britain’s last pristine wilderness areas. Why? To build a golf course for jet-setting millionaires and billionaires.

The documentary, originally filmed in 2011, has been re-released in honor of Trump’s presidential ambitions. It’s been taken down from YouTube owing to its commercial re-launch. Maori TV, our best political documentary channel, showed it this past week.

In 2007, Aberdeenshire Council denied Trump planning permission for the gold course. Former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond overruled them, as well as giving the go-head for compulsory purchase orders (which would force local residents to see their farms to Trump).

You’ve Been Trumped differs from Baxter’s 2015 sequel Dark Side of the Greens in its greater focus on the careful and sustained campaign of local citizens who opposed Trump’s development plans. Although the first golf course ultimately went ahead, activists successfully blocked the second. They also blocked the CPOs (compulsory purchase orders) and Trump’s bid to have an offshore wind farm dismantled. He claimed it ruined the view from his luxury time shares.

In addition to featuring more footage of Donald Trump Jr (who turns out to be every bit as obnoxious as his father), the first film also highlights Trumps criminal behavior behavior during the construction process. In addition to illegally annexing land belonging to local farmers, Trump construction crews also cut off the spring that supplied their water. Interfering with a household water service is illegal under British law.

A particular highlight of You’ve Been Trumped is a scene of the filmmakers beings assaulted, handcuffed and jailed for supporting the local residents’ cause.

The full film can’t be embedded but can be viewed at the Maori TV website for the next few weeks: Maori TV