School is now in session
Oct. 26th, 2009 05:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenThis woman is spot-on about why women don't go to see so-called "women's movies."
"Amelia" has failed, as it happens. But if you want to know why, it might be more informative to watch the trailer. Every shot is burnished to a monotonous gold, there are period costumes and a booming score, and every other line out of Hilary Swank's mouth is something about freedom or overcoming obstacles or believing in dreams. (“It can't be done!” “Let's change that!” “No one has made it!” “I will!”) No matter how much you like strong female characters, this isn't interesting. And I'm reluctant to see any movie that looks this predictable and obvious out of some kind of womanly obligation. “Strength” can be just as bland as anything else – and just as limiting.
AMEN. I like to see things that are interesting. End of story. I can put up with sausage-fest superhero and action movies because they're about people turning into robots or being able to fly. These are relevant to my interests. Hilary Swank is not relevant to my interests, nor is her rah-rah retelling of Amelia Earhart's story. That biography is interesting, don't get me wrong, but it's been whitewashed to remove all controversy and pumped up with as much artificial girl power as the Spice Girls were. It's malarkey, and women, who--shock!--are human beings with the ability to sense bullshit, know better than to fall for that.
I really like her comment on "strength." I got into this with issues I had with female characters on Battlestar Galactica. I insisted that "toughness" did not a complex female character make, for all that allowing women to be physically or emotionally resilient was (sadly) fairly novel on television. Tough isn't necessarily interesting, and Sady Doyle understands that the "tough" girl is still a girl in a box. She's tough. End of story. It's like how Laura Roslin went from being harsh but human to an uncaring monster at her worst. The second you get lazy about characterization and lose the humanity of your character is the second they become caricatures. Unfortunately, this happens to female characters more often than males because we still write from a male-dominant point of view in most of our fiction. To create conflict for men, women have to be one note. As Hollywood et al. have tried to lure women in with women-centered movies, they've kept women as one-note. That's not an interesting thing to watch as 90% of the focus of a movie. It's not interesting when it's a dude, either, but because they assume women are starved for movies "about them" (like we're aliens or something) the think that women will watch anything where they don't have to be penis-whipped from all sides of the cast list.
What studios need to do is try the Alien experiment: write the story for a character. Then don't be afraid to cast it gender-blind. You'd be amazed at how awesome a female lead can be when you write her as human first, possessor of strange and unknowable girly-bits second.
"Amelia" has failed, as it happens. But if you want to know why, it might be more informative to watch the trailer. Every shot is burnished to a monotonous gold, there are period costumes and a booming score, and every other line out of Hilary Swank's mouth is something about freedom or overcoming obstacles or believing in dreams. (“It can't be done!” “Let's change that!” “No one has made it!” “I will!”) No matter how much you like strong female characters, this isn't interesting. And I'm reluctant to see any movie that looks this predictable and obvious out of some kind of womanly obligation. “Strength” can be just as bland as anything else – and just as limiting.
AMEN. I like to see things that are interesting. End of story. I can put up with sausage-fest superhero and action movies because they're about people turning into robots or being able to fly. These are relevant to my interests. Hilary Swank is not relevant to my interests, nor is her rah-rah retelling of Amelia Earhart's story. That biography is interesting, don't get me wrong, but it's been whitewashed to remove all controversy and pumped up with as much artificial girl power as the Spice Girls were. It's malarkey, and women, who--shock!--are human beings with the ability to sense bullshit, know better than to fall for that.
I really like her comment on "strength." I got into this with issues I had with female characters on Battlestar Galactica. I insisted that "toughness" did not a complex female character make, for all that allowing women to be physically or emotionally resilient was (sadly) fairly novel on television. Tough isn't necessarily interesting, and Sady Doyle understands that the "tough" girl is still a girl in a box. She's tough. End of story. It's like how Laura Roslin went from being harsh but human to an uncaring monster at her worst. The second you get lazy about characterization and lose the humanity of your character is the second they become caricatures. Unfortunately, this happens to female characters more often than males because we still write from a male-dominant point of view in most of our fiction. To create conflict for men, women have to be one note. As Hollywood et al. have tried to lure women in with women-centered movies, they've kept women as one-note. That's not an interesting thing to watch as 90% of the focus of a movie. It's not interesting when it's a dude, either, but because they assume women are starved for movies "about them" (like we're aliens or something) the think that women will watch anything where they don't have to be penis-whipped from all sides of the cast list.
What studios need to do is try the Alien experiment: write the story for a character. Then don't be afraid to cast it gender-blind. You'd be amazed at how awesome a female lead can be when you write her as human first, possessor of strange and unknowable girly-bits second.
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no subject
Date: 2009-10-26 10:31 pm (UTC)WORD.
I saw the Amelia preview and rolled my eyes so hard, because it looked so BORING. It looked like something that was supposed to be uplifting and good for me and therefore not something I want to spend time and money on.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-27 02:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-27 06:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-27 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-27 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-27 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-28 02:52 am (UTC)Regarding this:
this happens to female characters more often than males because we still write from a male-dominant point of view in most of our fiction.
I had a sudden thought -- I think it might also be true to say that this happens to female characters more often than males, which is what defines the fact that we write from a male-dominant point of view. Or, like, if it weren't the case that female characters are one-note and flat, then we wouldn't have a male-dominated writing view. Maybe that's nutty...
no subject
Date: 2009-10-28 02:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-26 10:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-27 02:29 am (UTC)They act like neurotic feminists who feel that their every action and expression has to illustrate the fact that they're just as capable as the men, and don't like being looked upon amorously (hence why they all dress so conservatively, I suppose).
Wow. So much for that up-with-women vibe he was hoping for. It may seem like a little thing to pick at, but really? If you're saying that you're behind fictional women being portrayed as more than stereotypes, you'd do best not to reduce real women to those same stereotypes.
I also don't find his examples really convincing. The guy from Vice City is "humanized" by liking a shirt? Bullshit. It's not cool or interesting that the girl from Wet kills the shit out of everything instead of interacting with it? That sounds exactly like Riddick, and he's still a badass, not a bitch. The real problem is that women are made into bitches, but it's also the fact that women who do the same things men do are perceived as bitches (and not as badasses). The problem is as much with the user as it is the used.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-27 12:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-27 02:35 am (UTC)What made Amelia Earhart so enduring as a person was the mystery of her disappearance. No disrespect to her obviously outsized personality for her time, but she would never have been nearly as intriguing had she landed safely. We immortalize mysteries--look at the never-ending fascination with Jack the Ripper--and preference them over people. The mystery of Amelia's disappearance will always loom larger than any large personality she might or might not have had. So making it about her personality is obviously going to bore the crap out of people.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-27 03:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-27 03:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-27 03:40 am (UTC)