'Girl Group' vs. 'Boy Band'

There’s no doubt that the alliteration in both these phrases is pleasing. But, as with any phrase, different words bring with them different implications.

A band is a group of people that write, compose and sing their own songs as well as play their own instruments.

A group, on the other hand, is composed of performers that sing (and maybe dance) who receive lyrics and instruments ready-done.

There are plenty of bands with female members and plenty of groups with male members. Yet, colloquially, the male ensembles are ‘boy bands’ even if they just sing/dance and female ensembles are ‘girl groups’ even if they drive the creation of their own songs.

So, as a band does more, people often equate bands with being more talented than groups.

This strikes me as odd. In life, people often specialise in one thing during their career/hobbies, so whilst bands may express more skills, this can’t sensibly be used to detract from the talents of group/solo artists.

(The amount of times I’ve heard people criticised artists as ‘not real singers’ is bizarre, especially because their reason for this is ‘They don’t write their music or play instruments: they just sing.’ So, singers aren’t real singers because all they do is… sing? Just a side note.)

Fact One: people think bands are better than groups.

Fact Two: men are always ‘boy bands’ and women are always in ‘girl groups’.

So this unfortunate association means that male artists are subconsciously thought of as better than female artists.

Removing the label ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ for groups and bands would be one solution but perhaps targeting band/group talent level dichotomy would be more productive so that artists are judged on their talent, not their labels.

Critique: Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle

I’d been looking forward to this film since 2016 and I was not disappointed! Having a British cast is always appreciated, too. Sure, using ‘man’ instead of ‘human’ isn’t great, but that was the language used at that time. If you gloss over history, you risk people forgetting and then making those same mistakes.

***SPOILERS***

When Akela, the pack leader, accepts Mowgli into the pact, the audience assume it’s out of kindness, even if it was aimed at Nisha (Mowgli’s wolf mother) rather than the baby.

I did wonder if it was done to spite Shere Khan because Akela only agrees to Mowgli’s adoption after he sees it will annoy Khan. Later we learn the true reason: by growing up a wolf, Mowgli would be best placed to stop the ever-growing encroachment of man into the jungle.

Like a true leader, Akela thinks of how best to protect not only his own people but everyone in the wider community. He gives Mowgli a destiny that his constitution may not be suitable for and, in exchange, takes Mowgli’s autonomy away. This too is an action of a true leader, however unsavoury.

The elephants were phenomenal. The first thing the audience sees of the elephant is a trunk which, truth be told, I thought was a snake at first.

I absolutely adored that they had moss and grass growing on their backs. It looks like they’ve freshly emerged from the ground or like they support the jungle. This is reminiscent of an obscure Indian mythology in which four elephants (or eight or sixteen, depending on the telling) carry the world on their backs.

            The elephants don’t speak. Like the monkeys, they appear to prefer, or are limited to, making animal noises. The elephants understand Mowgli and the monkeys understand Shere Khan and Kaa so it’s not a language barrier. This makes the elephants seem old, serious and mysterious but makes the monkeys seem more wild and primitive.

            The main elephant has massive tusks. Yes this makes it impressive and imposing but medium-sized tusks are a rarity in Asian elephants, let alone large tusks.

Bagheera’s backstory was an unexpected heartache that made his behaviour towards Mowgli understandable (if not forgivable).

Bagheera looks like he regrets taking Mowgli from where he should be (the humans) and bringing him elsewhere (the jungle). Bagheera recounts how the humans let him out his cage once they trusted him and Bagheera advises Mowgli to do the same. Considering the panther’s recent behaviour, I thought it was just advice for Mowgli to get out his cage.

But then I remembered that the animals wanted Mowgli to create peace, and act as a bridge between both humans and animals: this could be achieved only when Mowgli was trusted by both village and jungle. Bagheera played the long game.

This adaptation from Rudyard Kipling’s works allowed characters to shine through. The animals were given more animalistic behaviours yet this didn’t take their personalities away. The balance was struck nicely.

Tabuqui is a striped hyena, a species whose laugh isn’t as long, loud or frequent as that of the spotted hyena (native to sub-Saharan Africa). Hearing him laugh all the time seemed out of place. Still, I can understand why they did this: the audience may not recognise Tabuqui as a hyena by looks alone so an audio cue could help.

Kaa was a real delight. Seeing Shere Khan recoil in mortal fear when Kaa approaches was something special which makes up for Khan being a bully to Kaa in other adaptations. Further, this matches the original works and nature better.

Shere Khan walks on three paws and his front right knuckles, those claws more akin to eagle talons. Walking on knuckles is something associated with cavemen (themselves stereotyped as grumpy and stupid) so instantly this makes Khan something to scorn whilst giving him a more bestial nature, a nature that’s still prominent in a movie of animal characters. Also, disability empowerment?

Of course, Baloo has to be mentioned. I’ve never disliked him but there are so many characters that take priority over him. Still, I loved how Baloo was given a London accent (wrongly) associated with poverty and stupidity when Baloo was entrusted with teaching the cubs. Knowledge resides in the brain, not in pronunciation.

Mowgli at the human village was hilarious. The hunter treating Mowgli with kindness and respect put him in my good books.

Watching Mowgli walk in shoes for the first time was exactly like seeing a dog walk in their booties for the first time, lifting each show in an unnatural manner before plonking them down at odd angles. That made my day. He was bemused by the music, dancing and speakerphone, looking down the latter to try and find where the music was. He had not only the curiosity of an active mind but the pure wonder of a baby.

Seeing a taxidermy Bhoot ended the dream at the human village. In killing Bhoot (Mowgli’s best friend), the hunter killed all good feelings I had towards him. He made it personal. Mowgli would be feeling guilty because (1) he hadn’t made up with Bhoot after their fight and (2) Bhoot might still be alive if he’d helped the wolves when they’d asked. The actor who played Mowgli did an amazing job of projecting this sadness and guilt.

The hunter spoke with an English accent yet he said albino like an American. Considering the actor is Welsh (and albino is pronounced the same all over Britain) it’s not even like it was a slip up. But the actor is based in America so picking up American pronunciations is perfectly natural.

Mowgli takes it upon himself to get rid of the hunter and the tiger, the top predators and dangers to both jungle and village communities.

            He asks the wolves for help but Akela says this will break the laws of the jungle. Earlier in the film, Baloo asks for the (explicitly) three laws of the jungle and none of them were applicable in this situation. The original laws of the jungle poem by Kipling said that a hunt should be based on the need of feeding and never on the pleasure of killing. This could extend to this situation but as this wasn’t in the film then it’s hardly applicable.

The elephants knew Mowgli wanted Shere Khan dead and agreed to help. They could have easily killed the tiger but they didn’t (presumably because they knew Mowgli wanted to be the one to kill him). The main elephant clearly has no problem with murder so there’s no moral objection. There was a tense moment when Khan looked sure to kill Mowgli so at least one of the elephants could have pulled the tiger away. Letting the tiger kill Mowgli is by no means helping Mowgli kill the tiger.

When Mowgli finally kills Khan, he takes a soothing tone to tell him, “Sleep now, Shere Khan. Be angry no more.” That was a beautiful moment. Earlier in the film, Bagheera states that the hunter should look into the eyes of their prey as it dies so their soul isn’t alone. Mowgli extended the same courtesy to Khan, despite everything. To do these things for someone he hated was truly exceptional.

When Mowgli first goes to see Kaa, the snake says Mowgli is "a man or a wolf, both or neither," playing into Mowgli's narrative of his competing identities. Then in ending narration, Kaa says Mowgli is "man and wolf, both and neither." That was a truly fantastic way to end the film.