Sinding Johansson posted:

In this film, Eliza has heartfelt confession about why she loves the fishman, it's because he doesn't know how she is, "incomplete".

The differently abled of course don't have the luxury of simply abandoning society. Society, to this day, pushes such people to the margins, keeps them out of sight and sees them as lacking some essential element of the human experience. In reality the differently abled seldom feel that way about themselves. Running away isn't some heroic act, it's falling in line exactly with society's expectations. No society is simply made up of bad and irredeemable people. Should Zelda and Giles (who have it just as bad really) leave too? It would be a mockery of the progressive movements and struggles of actual gay and black people in the 60s if they had. Aren't they part of the society that Eliza abandons?


I mentioned another film earlier, 70s screwball comedy See No Evil, Hear No Evil. The main characters are a blind and deaf man. Both characters explicitly reject the idea that they are 'incomplete', especially when society tries to tell them they are. 40 years later and Del Toro is moving us backwards, not forwards.