Oscars Celebrate Alternative Lifestyles

As George Clooney shamelessly admitted during the Oscar telecast, Hollywood is out of touch with America and nothing demonstrated that more this year than awarding an Oscar to a movie that was sold by the filmmakers as a "love story" but in fact uncritically celebrates alternative lifestyles. The movie I am referring to, of course, is March of the Penguins. Although I have not actually seen this film, which not surprisingly was produced by the French, I have heard that it tells the story of a group hedonistic penguins who have completely turned natural law on its head. It is a nature documentary version of another Oscar-winning film, Kramer vs. Kramer, in which male penguins stay at home and take care of the eggs, while their feminist mates abandon their husbands and children to go work for several months, no doubt in an attempt to "find themselves."

But that's not all. Like many Hollywood stars these penguins practice what is known in Los Angeles as "serial monogamy" and in the rest of the world as promiscuity. After spending a year with one partner, these swinging penguins then abandon their mates and find someone else to shack up with. Only by Hollywood standards could this film be called a "love story." But it shouldn't surprise anyone that Hollywood would take a film about penguins under its wing. Penguins, it turns out, are well known for their perversity. Zoos across the country have reported on outbreaks of homosexuality among their penguin populations and zookeepers have responded by actually letting these gay penguins set up house with their same-sex partners in full view of children who visit the zoos. (Although some people keep referring to Brokeback Mountain, which was also up for awards and lost, as the "gay cowboy" movie, I still believe it's a fine Western about two very good friends and not gay.)

March of the Penguins also reportedly features scenes where some penguins abandon their children to predators and where a mother tries to kidnap another penguin's baby. Although conservative film critic Michael Medved shockingly claims the film "affirms traditional norms like monogamy, sacrifice and child rearing," it doesn't sound like it promotes family values to me. Ironically, many liberal film critics have also acclaimed this film, such as Roger Ebert, who has gone so far as to embrace it as proof of Darwin's theories of natural selection. It is no surprise that Hollywood would give this film its highest honor.

Jon Swift, March of the Penguins, Brokeback Mountain, Oscars, Academy Awards, Roger Ebert, Michael Medved, Gay, Family Values, Hollywood, Politics, Film, Movies, Movie