Mocking Eugenics

Public Care for Children in (Post)Socialist European Films: On the Side of Sons and Stepdaughters of the Nation?

“…Some historians conclude that despite attacking totalitarianism, most New Wave films, even those directed by female filmmakers, reproduced gender disparity through exploiting the vulnerability of women in the face of biopolitics (Mostov, 1999). This trend culminated in Sedmikrásky (Daisies, by Věra Chytilová, 1966) and W With the rebirth of eugenics politics in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia since the middle of the 1960s, the critique of residential care should be seen as a continuity of the interwar trend, namely, the systematic deconstruction of a utilitarian view on childhood and children, as presented in the films by Charlie Chaplin, who consistently contested the eugenics movement and eugenics film (Luczak, 2021). Clearly, this anti-eugenics rhetoric reverberated with the rejection of the pathetic socialist images of happy children and enriching childhood (Erdei, 2013).…”

“…With the rebirth of eugenics politics in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia since the middle of the 1960s, the critique of residential care should be seen as a continuity of the interwar trend, namely, the systematic deconstruction of a utilitarian view on childhood and children, as presented in the films by Charlie Chaplin, who consistently contested the eugenics movement and eugenics film (Luczak, 2021). Clearly, this anti‐eugenics rhetoric reverberated with the rejection of the pathetic socialist images of happy children and enriching childhood (Erdei, 2013).…”