Summer movies

[theatokos]

The NY Times had this to say about women and summer films.

Yup. I've been complaining for a long time about the dearth of women in the movies. While I LOVED No Country for Old Men, 300 and several of the other recent all male movies, it's disturbing that women are taking such a back seat in film. Do film makers think women just don't go to the theatre? That we have no money? That we don't EXIST? Sadly, when we're portrayed up on screen we look just as invested in the status quo as the men - looking like sexbots, muttering inane dialogue, shopping (whee!), being princesses, or, like Pepper Potts in Iron Man, being the Faithful Woman Who Stands by Her Man (and is also The Brains Behind the Brawn).

OR - women get to be bad asses, but only in a way that is both "masculine" (read: violent) enough for male viewers to take them seriously AND ALSO "sexy" enough for men to want to pay money to look at them. Barf. That's all the intellectual sobriety I can give to that faux girl-power nonsense.

Comments

[hrafntinna.livejournal.com]

What does a non-violent badass look like? I'm not heckling - I'm asking.

[ewigweibliche.livejournal.com]

I don't know! And it's not like I don't enjoy some ass-whupping. But there is something just smacks of "female body doing everything the way men do it" - does that make sense? And I also want to point out that men have so many different ways that they can be bad asses in film - not all are violent, or violent in the same ways. But women have so few types of bad-assery to be.

[hrafntinna.livejournal.com]

I know that "female body doing everything the way men do it" can get one's back up, but the opposite extreme smacks of essentialism, and oh boyo does that get my back up.

The female empaths everywhere in SF make me barf (Troi in Star Trek NG), and honestly the telepaths do too (Phoenix of the X-Men). I think we can all agree that the oh-so-dependent on the female body technique of flashing one's boobs to distract the opponent (optimally before kicking him in the 'nads) is less than ideal, as is the poisonous seductress gambit.

The Incredibles (remember that movie?) pissed me off by assigning the active superpowers to the men (strength, speed) while giving the girl invisibility (!) and the mom literally infinite flexibility: she bent over backward, hollowed herself out, enveloped, and supported, all for the sake of the rest of the family.

What's a girl to do?

[ewigweibliche.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying women shouldn't or can't be violent bad-asses, but so far that's it. I'd just like to see wider expressions. I am absolutely not for essentialism at all, so I don't want to imply that I think women should some how be kinder, gentler bad-asses. I also see the violent men trope as damaging to men, and the Bad Ass = Tough Guy also as a problem. But men have more examples and wider diversity on screen than men do.

As for the Incredibles, I really liked that the teenage girl was invisible. I thought that was a great take on being an adolescent female. And to some degree I liked the flexibility of the mom - again, good commentary - but the mom was definitely more problematic for me for that same reason.

What's a girl to do? I don't know. Either stop going to the movies and giving Hollywood my money (and that's no fun!) or start writing screenplays, directing movies, etc.

[hrafntinna.livejournal.com]

Invisi-girl was a good portrayal of a non-super adolescence, but I found it unbalanced in the context of the other characters. The brother doesn't have a power that's all about social awkwardness, for example. Instead, he has the speed a teen football hero would kill for. Wouldn't it have been amusing if the girl had been able to disable or destroy things merely by making withering remarks about them? The boy could have been invisible instead -- but only to women!

Yes, let's write screenplays. I'm prodding you (us) to come up with the kind of women that would be in those screenplays.

[fictional-emily.livejournal.com]

Hey -- i wish i could really process what i think about this in order to say something coherent. This eloquent summary would include some thoughts on how realistic portrayals of women in film are almost always offensive 'cause real-world treatment of women and therefore there real-life options for action are oh-so-limited. But that's a little extreme (and a weency bit untrue). But, this lady has some very good things to say: http://punkassblog.com/2008/05/14/what-maketh-a-movie-misogynist/.
(Sorry for the late entry to the convo.)