39,327
edits
Department of Child Disservices: Difference between revisions
update links
(update links) |
|||
Line 24:
See [[Don't Split Us Up]], [[Promotion to Parent]].
The tropes: [[Beleaguered Bureaucrat]], '''Department of Child Disservices''', and [[Social Services Does Not Exist]]; overlap since they all involve the same problems. The employees are often overworked, underpaid, lack resources, and suffer the public’s wrath. They then turn into the [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]] and use [[Bothering by the Book]] to slow down the workload or get revenge on the people who make unreasonable demands.
While the reality (and maybe [[Inherent in the System|idea]]) of the system is far from perfect, [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment|please refrain]] from listing [[Real Life]] examples.
Line 56:
** There's also the fact that, near the end when their house has been completely destroyed and Bubbles tries to take Lilo away, Nani protests that Lilo needs her, and Bubbles replies sharply, indicating the trashed house, "Is THIS what she needs?" and that, "You need her a lot more than she needs you."
*** It's an attempt to show Social Services in a positive light for once while they are still a definite problem. SS understands that even this caring sibling just can't handle her little sister on her own, and that Lilo has to go somewhere she can be taken care of.
* In ''[[The Parent Trap (1961 film)|The Parent Trap]]'' ripoff ''[[It Takes Two]]'', Kirstie Alley's character Diane seems to be the only competent Child Service worker in the movie: her superiors won't let her adopt Amanda despite both their wishes because the former doesn't make enough money yet foist Amanda (who unbeknown to them, was switched with her doppleganger Alyssa) on a couple of yokels who have already adopted about half a dozen other kids with the purpose of forcing them to work in their junkyard. And Diane manages to figure this out ''simply by talking to one of their neighbors.''
* Occurs in ''[[Lackawanna Blues]],'' when the (white) social services agent comes to question the living conditions of the (black) main character. [[Positive Discrimination|The social services agent is portrayed entirely unsympathetically.]]
* In [[Charlie Chaplin]]'s ''[[The Kid]]'' the Social Service workers are again portrayed as villains, who want to take Chaplin's adoptive son away because of the poverty they live in.
Line 85:
** Especially notable is the first book, in which the sole criteria he uses to choose the children's guardian-to-be is how far out of his way he has to go to drop them off.
* Dante from ''[[A Rush Of Wings]]'' was deliberately put through this by the [[Government Conspiracy|shadowy government conspiracy of mad science]] for the express purpose of turning him psychopathic. Ironically, he's [[the Messiah]]. Seems the government really can't do anything right...
* Elena's backstory in ''[[Women of the Otherworld|Bitten]]''. Elena was horribly orphaned at five years old, and her mother's best friend volunteered to adopt her. She was rejected because she was single, and Child Services made sure Elena never saw her again, believing in "clean breaks". Instead, Elena spends the rest of her childhood being shuttled from foster home to foster home, in many of which she is sexually abused by her foster fathers and/or brothers.
* In ''[[The Ship Who...|The City Who Fought]]'' by [[Anne McCaffrey]] and [[S.M. Stirling]], the space station's brain wants to adopt a daughter who managed to stow away. Unfortunately, the social services worker assigned to the girl's case proves to be an outright bigot, and denies the application on the grounds that "a shellperson can't possibly raise a child," [[What an Idiot!|apparently in complete ignorance of the Federation's anti-discrimination laws]].
* In ''[[The Millennium Trilogy|Men Who Hate Women]]'', type 1 Social Services assigns the female protagonist [[Dark and Troubled Past|Lisbeth Salander]] under the care of a [[Rape as Drama|rapist]]. Her first legal guardian was/is a [[Reasonable Authority Figure]], though, and it's implied that after he had a stroke they were scrambling to find someone who could take her on very short notice—something that Bjurman took advantage of.
* One of the ''[[Babysitters Club]]'' Mystery Specials was about the girls investigating mysterious events while on a work experience trial at a shopping mall. They eventually discover that three young children are ''living'' in the mall because [[Don't Split Us Up|social services had threatened to separate them]] after their mother had to go into hospital.
Line 153:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:The Parent Trope]]
[[Category:No Real Life Examples, Please]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
| |||