模倣子 Baby Got Back to the Future

Original A Medium article 

 I don’t know. I felt like all of the events mentioned were wrong and felt uncomfortable. All of the characters involved were disapproving of what was going on as well. Marty was disapproving of George with his binoculars, George was reticent about Marty’s plan to make him the hero, but they both understood that George beating him up would be both justified and welcome, and the substitution of Biff for Marty upped the ante on this, ie, George would not only appear the hero but be the hero in fact. We were relieved that Marty was no longer the bad guy assaulting Lorraine—we got the ick, but then got off the hook with all our built-up disgust now directed rightfully at Biff, and George placed in the do-or-die position he had to be in in order to commit as he did. 

Marty getting sexually assaulted by Lorraine, yes, yes. A welcome bone thrown to men’s rights activism, perhaps. But Marty was relieved of the temptation, and the audience spared the ick, since he knew Lorraine was his future mother, in other words, the audience was able to suspend disbelief, freed from any patriarchal, misogynistic, male fulfillment fantasy, if you like, of the rapacious, concupiscent young woman (who was by the way, acting quite shy, coy, and reticent, if disingenuously) coming on strong to the young man cornered in a strange bedroom in his underwear. He HAD to resist, absolutely, so we could enjoy the situation without any fear of it going too far. That was, as they say, the joke. 

Marty taking his dad’s place was a cute allusion, one might say, to how his parents met. His grandfather’s comment of “all these damn kids jumping in front of my car”

There was the one thing, that of Lorraine undressing with her curtains open, along with that remark, including George at the ready with binoculars on that very tree branch, followed by Lorraine accosting the ersatz George in the person of Marty. 

You could make the argument that the film is making a case that Lorraine was “ asking for it” and being deliberately exhibitionist with the undressing through open curtains, but I would disagree. 

It was how George and Lorraine got together, and this was presented non-judgmentally, consensually. Lorraine’s behavior, exhibitionism, drinking, smoking, coming on to boys, her cleavage-revealing clothing, her coquettish super-aggressiveness, in short, her overtly vivacious sexuality, were all presented as purely her free choice, an attractive and distinctive feature of her personality if anything, harming nobody, and by no means granting open license or consent to anybody. 

Far from a “sluts get their comeuppance” the film was very clear. Biff was the bad guy. He was wrong, and deserved what he got, including a kind of damnation through to the end of time (which might actually be a strong, even biblical message, à la “and I shall lay my curse upon you, even unto the last generation of your house”). Even Marty pretending to affront Lorraine was a grey area, a necessary evil. 

So no, I’d say that the message is more along the lines of, for reasons aforementioned, sex is wholesome, if at times, awkward, and the time travel narrative served to keep it squarely in the awkward and no further. On top of that, the film underscores the point that women own their own bodies and no license is granted implicitly, and that sexual assault and rape  are absolutely beyond the pale, unforgivable, deserving of immediate, harsh, and of course, extrajudicial, retribution and punishment. I rather like the inherent evil and eternal damnation angle that seemed to go with that, especially if you include the other films—what does everybody think?

So, rapiest? Except for Biff attacking Lorraine in the car at the end, which was shocking, but also by the bad guy, a cautionary tale, and thwarted, I don’t see it. There are better ways to look at this film, in terms of these events with the context of the narrative. If you judge every single event in life from an omniscient POV, then everything is bad. Lorraine coming on to Marty in his underwear may have not been bad from her perspective but bad from ours and his (possibly for different reasons). Lorraine changing with the curtains open may have been good (for different reasons) for her and George and bad for Marty and still differently bad for her dad who hit Marty-ersatz-George. Only Biff attacking Lorraine is objectively bad from all perspectives, and nobody’s disagreeing on that one, including all the other characters in the film. 

One might ask “is it appealing/unappealing?” (arguably the least important—but that may be as far as you got) “is it believable?” “Do I sympathize with the characters involved?” “Do I believe their motivations?” “Do I buy the structure of the narrative?”

I think most people would report a strong positive to all of the above, and I think that’s why this movie is so beloved.  Your observations are effectively true, but in a way superficial, and I fear ultimately unimportant.