11.09.2007

Bee Movie

I'm glad someone—a beekeeper, no less—has raised questions about the inverted premise of Bee Movie: that it's the males in the colony who do all the work, defend the hive, and polllinate the pretty flowers. Countless schoolchildren will now be hopelessly ill-informed about the fascinating, matriarchal realities of honeybee culture—a concept too radical for Hollywood humans to wrap their brains around.

However, as the generous author of this New York Times Op-Ed piece observes, if the movie helps people recognize the importance of honeybees and other pollinators, it might serve the good purpose of encouraging a more respectful relationship with our excruciatingly beleaguered natural world. Let's hope, silly sexism aside, something good can come from Bee Movie.

2 comments:

Linda T said...

In addition to the other things mentioned in the Op-ed piece, my honeybees are orange and black - predominately black. Many people confuse yellow jackets with honeybees and Seinfeld's charaterization of honeybees as yellow and black will only increase the confusion.

Gerry Gomez Pearlberg said...

There's an angle I hadn't even thought of!

Increased confusion seems to be the order of the day.