TRIGGER WARNING: Instances of rape and pedophilia are discussed, not just in the context of shitty edgy jokes.
Someone called Jónína Rebekka made an in-depth analysis on the whole James Gunn situation, she reunites information about an in-depth analysis on James Gunn's tweets but she also brings light to a fact that it seems to have flew completely under the radar to most people: James Gunn was a victim of child abuse, by his own recollections, and talked openly about that on his Twitter as late as literally this year.
Here are some interesting excerpts of Rebekka's analysis:
"The Truth about James Gunn and the Pedophile in his Childhood.
Source: https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/975580269787758592
I have finally decided to make an in-depth article about the whole James Gunn situation. I've wanted to ever since the whole thing blew off, and finally now, after seeing the whole cast of Guardians of the Galaxy showing their support, releasing a statement, here I will express everything I have to say and rule out any misconception that has been made regarding the situation.
I will go into the subject of what James Gunn's tweets were, who James Gunn truly was 10 years ago, Mike Cernovich, James Gunn's exposed views on subjects of rape and finally James Gunn's own personal experience with child abuse.
There are a lot of arguments against Gunn, such as the following statements:
"James Gunn was 41 when he made those tweets! James Gunn deleted 10,000 tweets of pedophilia and rape jokes" "I've got kids and you are disgusting for defending a pedophile!" "Nobody in their right mind JOKES about pedophila"
But to quote one of James Gunn's films, "Sometimes how it looks and how it is are two separate things".
I think I will start off ruling the biggest misconception that has been made regarding the topic: the number of tweets.
There are a lot of people stating that James Gunn had posted over 10,000 tweets remarking pedophilia, but there were around 20. However, James Gunn did remove around ten thousand tweets from a three year span off his twitter account.
I found a reddit thread which put a lot of James Gunn's tweets into context, showing how some of James Gunns tweets were plain offensive, while others were not exactly what they seemed. I'll post the important ones in here for you to see, although if you would like to take a look at the whole thread, here is the link.
As stated here, Wesley Von Spears is James Gunn's pet dog. It does put things into a different perspective as I can now "see" the joke. I also found sources describing how the Guardians of the Galaxy character Groot is actually inspired by Gunn's love of his dog, as well as his character Rocket, the talking racoon, is more of an adaption of James Gunn himself.
James Gunn's dog, Wesley Von Spears
In this tweet, the context is described that James Gunn was doing a public reading when he spotted a convicted pedophile, so the whole thing was not, as misconcepted, a personal reading to a pedophile for the shits and gigs.
All of these have something in common. Those are all "fake retweets", since twitter retweeting apparently just didn't work like it does today, it would include the "retweet" mark in the beginning of the tweet: RT @twitterusername in the beginning of a tweet and then add the context to it from the following person. In this case, it was more like the equivalent of writing a funny facebook status on your friends news feed while he went to the bathroom for a couple of minutes. All of these people are close friends of Gunns who he has worked with, for example Lloyd Kaufman, who is the founder of Troma Entertainment, which is the company James Gunn started first working for making shock comedy films."
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"I think here I should finally add the subject on child abuse as well.
Source: https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/975580269787758592
How come through all of these tweets on James Gunn and pedophilia have blown up like they have, but this tweet in particular hasn't gained any attention whatsoever?
After all of these tweets on pedophilia, is James Gunn a victim of child abuse as well? I looked into it, and this is what I found. I'll first mention Mosignor Russell J. Obmann.
Source: https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1008929160947888128
I looked for Mosignor Obmanns name and what info there could be gathered from all this. It turns out James Gunn has expressed a lot on the subject when it came to Obmann.
I found an article from 2014 where two quotes were taken from James Gunn's now deleted blog. It was out of a list he had made of "100 things I hate" which was written in 2006.
On the list he had mentioned Obmann in the two following statements:
10) Monsignor Russell J. Obmann, the pastor at my grade school, St. Joseph's in Manchester, Missouri, who gave the young boys in my class alcohol and showed them porn, and probably other stuff as well. He was later caught having sex with a male student, but was only reprimanded by the Catholic Church. Now he's dead.
11) The fact that we all told our parents that Russell J. Obmann was doing this shit, but they thought we were being silly and making up stories because he was a dick even outside of being a child molestor.
This is only a piece of information, but on another Buzzfeed article I found from 2017, Gunn goes a little deeper into the subject on Russell J. Obmann.
In the article, Gunn describes how his school was dominated by "pretty maniacal bullies" who made his life hell. According to Gunn, the catalyst for that behavior was the school's monsignor, Russell J. Obmann.
He describes again that he was giving young boys in class alcohol and pornography and that he was molesting the kids in fifth grade.
He also talked about how he mentioned this to his parents, but their response having been 'Aw, Jimmy.' James Gunn's noting "You know, this was back in the '80s, before people were sensitive to that stuff. They just thought we were making up something about the monsignor at our school."
Although Gunn doesn't go into deep about what his personal experience with Obmann was, he describes the difficulty coming from home and from being bullied at school.
James Gunn is the oldest sibling of 6 and raised in a Catholic family, a family James Gunn describes having been "dysfunctional". He expressed how there were many alcoholics within the family, explaining how his father made it especially difficult at home. Being the oldest sibling of all 6, this must have been tough for Gunn, taking in a lot of responsibility. "I was a director from the time I was a child".
Sean Gunn, the youngest Gunn's siblings, whom James Gunn has featured in many of his films describes how they had to obtain "survival skills" within the family and how although the difficulty their father had raised, it created a tighter bond between the siblings.
Along with Sean Gunns words, he describes this has a lot to do with the story of Guardians of the Galaxy. "The overarching theme of the movie is that this odd band of space protectors is trying to evolve from a dysfunctional family to a strangely functional one."
James Gunn doesn't go into depths of what really went on during his childhood, but thinking from my own experience of having an abusive alcoholic/drug addict father, I understand he wouldn't expose it publicly, because maybe he knows something I do from my dad sobering up.
He's no longer that person today and although all of those things were wrong he did years ago, I still forgive him and know he is a good person now. (Its crazy how compared to that, people are outraged over tweets)
It doesn't really surprise me that James Gunn grew up having several anger issues, although he never really did anything worse than offensive, it doesn't surprise me he would surround himself with dark humor and hang with fellow misfits, seeking approval through laughter.
"If life gives you lemons, make lemonade, if life gives you assholes, make a Troma movie."
This also makes me think of the Guardians of the Galaxy character Rocket, the talking raccoon, which James Gunn describes "is him". I sort of want to put an interesting quotation by James Gunn regarding his views:
"I guess I am an optimist in a pessimist brain, if that makes any sense. I believe in the innate goodness of most people in this world, and yet I'm a damaged soul like many other people and have my own demons and things I struggle with"
I think it was in the second movie where Rocket softens his edge and describes how his humor is only his defensive shell, as he becomes more vulnerable towards his new "family"."
These are just two excerpts of her analysis. If you are interested on what those tweets meant in context and can stomach reading about the stuff that Gunn has reportedly suffered through his childhood, I'd really encourage it to read the whole thing.
Here's the link to the original article:
The Truth about James Gunn and the Pedophile in his Childhood.
Someone called Jónína Rebekka made an in-depth analysis on the whole James Gunn situation, she reunites information about an in-depth analysis on James Gunn's tweets but she also brings light to a fact that it seems to have flew completely under the radar to most people: James Gunn was a victim of child abuse, by his own recollections, and talked openly about that on his Twitter as late as literally this year.
Here are some interesting excerpts of Rebekka's analysis:
"The Truth about James Gunn and the Pedophile in his Childhood.
Source: https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/975580269787758592
I have finally decided to make an in-depth article about the whole James Gunn situation. I've wanted to ever since the whole thing blew off, and finally now, after seeing the whole cast of Guardians of the Galaxy showing their support, releasing a statement, here I will express everything I have to say and rule out any misconception that has been made regarding the situation.
I will go into the subject of what James Gunn's tweets were, who James Gunn truly was 10 years ago, Mike Cernovich, James Gunn's exposed views on subjects of rape and finally James Gunn's own personal experience with child abuse.
There are a lot of arguments against Gunn, such as the following statements:
"James Gunn was 41 when he made those tweets! James Gunn deleted 10,000 tweets of pedophilia and rape jokes" "I've got kids and you are disgusting for defending a pedophile!" "Nobody in their right mind JOKES about pedophila"
But to quote one of James Gunn's films, "Sometimes how it looks and how it is are two separate things".
I think I will start off ruling the biggest misconception that has been made regarding the topic: the number of tweets.
There are a lot of people stating that James Gunn had posted over 10,000 tweets remarking pedophilia, but there were around 20. However, James Gunn did remove around ten thousand tweets from a three year span off his twitter account.
I found a reddit thread which put a lot of James Gunn's tweets into context, showing how some of James Gunns tweets were plain offensive, while others were not exactly what they seemed. I'll post the important ones in here for you to see, although if you would like to take a look at the whole thread, here is the link.
As stated here, Wesley Von Spears is James Gunn's pet dog. It does put things into a different perspective as I can now "see" the joke. I also found sources describing how the Guardians of the Galaxy character Groot is actually inspired by Gunn's love of his dog, as well as his character Rocket, the talking racoon, is more of an adaption of James Gunn himself.
James Gunn's dog, Wesley Von Spears
In this tweet, the context is described that James Gunn was doing a public reading when he spotted a convicted pedophile, so the whole thing was not, as misconcepted, a personal reading to a pedophile for the shits and gigs.
All of these have something in common. Those are all "fake retweets", since twitter retweeting apparently just didn't work like it does today, it would include the "retweet" mark in the beginning of the tweet: RT @twitterusername in the beginning of a tweet and then add the context to it from the following person. In this case, it was more like the equivalent of writing a funny facebook status on your friends news feed while he went to the bathroom for a couple of minutes. All of these people are close friends of Gunns who he has worked with, for example Lloyd Kaufman, who is the founder of Troma Entertainment, which is the company James Gunn started first working for making shock comedy films."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I think here I should finally add the subject on child abuse as well.
Source: https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/975580269787758592
How come through all of these tweets on James Gunn and pedophilia have blown up like they have, but this tweet in particular hasn't gained any attention whatsoever?
After all of these tweets on pedophilia, is James Gunn a victim of child abuse as well? I looked into it, and this is what I found. I'll first mention Mosignor Russell J. Obmann.
Source: https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1008929160947888128
I looked for Mosignor Obmanns name and what info there could be gathered from all this. It turns out James Gunn has expressed a lot on the subject when it came to Obmann.
I found an article from 2014 where two quotes were taken from James Gunn's now deleted blog. It was out of a list he had made of "100 things I hate" which was written in 2006.
On the list he had mentioned Obmann in the two following statements:
10) Monsignor Russell J. Obmann, the pastor at my grade school, St. Joseph's in Manchester, Missouri, who gave the young boys in my class alcohol and showed them porn, and probably other stuff as well. He was later caught having sex with a male student, but was only reprimanded by the Catholic Church. Now he's dead.
11) The fact that we all told our parents that Russell J. Obmann was doing this shit, but they thought we were being silly and making up stories because he was a dick even outside of being a child molestor.
This is only a piece of information, but on another Buzzfeed article I found from 2017, Gunn goes a little deeper into the subject on Russell J. Obmann.
In the article, Gunn describes how his school was dominated by "pretty maniacal bullies" who made his life hell. According to Gunn, the catalyst for that behavior was the school's monsignor, Russell J. Obmann.
He describes again that he was giving young boys in class alcohol and pornography and that he was molesting the kids in fifth grade.
He also talked about how he mentioned this to his parents, but their response having been 'Aw, Jimmy.' James Gunn's noting "You know, this was back in the '80s, before people were sensitive to that stuff. They just thought we were making up something about the monsignor at our school."
Although Gunn doesn't go into deep about what his personal experience with Obmann was, he describes the difficulty coming from home and from being bullied at school.
James Gunn is the oldest sibling of 6 and raised in a Catholic family, a family James Gunn describes having been "dysfunctional". He expressed how there were many alcoholics within the family, explaining how his father made it especially difficult at home. Being the oldest sibling of all 6, this must have been tough for Gunn, taking in a lot of responsibility. "I was a director from the time I was a child".
Sean Gunn, the youngest Gunn's siblings, whom James Gunn has featured in many of his films describes how they had to obtain "survival skills" within the family and how although the difficulty their father had raised, it created a tighter bond between the siblings.
Along with Sean Gunns words, he describes this has a lot to do with the story of Guardians of the Galaxy. "The overarching theme of the movie is that this odd band of space protectors is trying to evolve from a dysfunctional family to a strangely functional one."
James Gunn doesn't go into depths of what really went on during his childhood, but thinking from my own experience of having an abusive alcoholic/drug addict father, I understand he wouldn't expose it publicly, because maybe he knows something I do from my dad sobering up.
He's no longer that person today and although all of those things were wrong he did years ago, I still forgive him and know he is a good person now. (Its crazy how compared to that, people are outraged over tweets)
It doesn't really surprise me that James Gunn grew up having several anger issues, although he never really did anything worse than offensive, it doesn't surprise me he would surround himself with dark humor and hang with fellow misfits, seeking approval through laughter.
"If life gives you lemons, make lemonade, if life gives you assholes, make a Troma movie."
This also makes me think of the Guardians of the Galaxy character Rocket, the talking raccoon, which James Gunn describes "is him". I sort of want to put an interesting quotation by James Gunn regarding his views:
"I guess I am an optimist in a pessimist brain, if that makes any sense. I believe in the innate goodness of most people in this world, and yet I'm a damaged soul like many other people and have my own demons and things I struggle with"
I think it was in the second movie where Rocket softens his edge and describes how his humor is only his defensive shell, as he becomes more vulnerable towards his new "family"."
These are just two excerpts of her analysis. If you are interested on what those tweets meant in context and can stomach reading about the stuff that Gunn has reportedly suffered through his childhood, I'd really encourage it to read the whole thing.
Here's the link to the original article:
The Truth about James Gunn and the Pedophile in his Childhood.
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