The Babadook is problematic...

Movie spoilers ahead…
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So here’s the thing. The Babadook is a really, really good metaphor for mental illness.
Like, the boy knows his mother is haunted by a monster from the very beginning. He’s always preparing for the monster to arrive. And when the monster finally does, in the form of his mother breaking because of her huge issues with surviving her husband’s death, the kid totally steps up and helps his mother through it with love and a little badassery.
In the end, the Babadook isn’t gone, he’s just managed, which is what mental illness *is*. You never escape it, you just learn to live with it.

…so. The Babadook being an icon is problematic because BEING GAY/TRANS/ETC. IS NOT A MENTAL ILLNESS!

So I’m sure like, someone thought it was fun to take a scary monster as an icon, but like, pick something that maybe doesn’t imply what the Babadook implies? Like maybe Cthulhu. Nobody f*cks with Cthulhu.

Maybe I’m being too literature analysys-y for all of this but I’ve kind of been horrified by it since it happened for the above reason.

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