Call me.

Hey all,

For the time being, I'm going to just enjoy watching movies. I never get around to reviewing them, and I love them so much I never want it to become a chore. If you see a good one and want to chat about the portrayal of women in the, call me!

Brady

If I Were a Boy

I absolutely love this song, and I think the video is fascinating. It's not perfect (preeeettttyyyy sure it's partly an excuse to put Beyoncé in a sexy police officer uniform), but it for sure makes me think.

Not gender related, but I really hate the dialogue before and during the video. I think the song stands for itself - doesn't need to be interrupted.

Beyonce - If I Were A Boy (Official Music Video). Watch more top selected videos about: If I Were a Boy, Beyonce

"I wish I looked like Cindy Crawford"

"Dangerous" Heroines

Again, thanks to my wonderful friend Sarah, I have a couple of good articles to post.

First read this.

And then this.

And maybe then this.

Or just read this quote that sums up both the story and my reaction:

A piece in the Denver Post [suggests that] it might be dangerous to provide young girls with misleading images of women in action movies who are too capable of defending themselves physically. Because, you see, men as a rule are apparently perfectly capable of the physical feats performed by men in action movies. [Hold for massive eye-roll.]

Inception

I. loved. this. movie.

But, gender wise, it was disappointing. There's one cool heroine (Ariadne, played by Ellen Page) and a great villainess (Mal, played by Marion Cotillard) but it absolutely does not pass the Bechdel test. I thought for a minute it would, barely. There are exactly two named female characters, and they have exactly one conversation. But it's about guys.

What I don't get is - there are like a zillion (okay - more like 5?) supporting characters in the core cast with all kinds of cool jobs. Could we make 1 a female? Or maybe even 2? Or maybe even half? I know we can't do more than half, because then everybody would call the film a chick flick regardless of the actual content or subject matter of the film. Because only women would go and see a movie that has women in it. Duh.

Oh, and one other thing. I really like Christopher Nolan films, but I feel like he keeps doing the same thing. A male protagonist pining after a dead wife wrestles with psychological issues, and then the movie ends ambiguously. I used to think Nolan was super creative, but now I'm starting to wonder if he had one good idea that he keeps repeating.

Okay, I'm sounding grouchy. I really did love this movie, I promise.

Women Authors

All the Sad Young Literary Women

I love the link above, especially the author's positive, can-do attitude at the end and his encouragement to read a variety of literature not only because it's fair but also because it's awesome!

Alice in Wonderland

Fabulous! What a cool movie for girls. And boys. And men and women, for that matter. I have no complaints or concerns whatsoever. Here are some gender-related thoughts I had:

- The trouble everyone has dealing with Alice's ever-varying size was interesting. She is always too big or too small. I have no idea if the film meant for that concern to be a commentary on expectations for the female appearance, but I thought it was a compelling theme. Would they be so concerned about a boy being the wrong size (particularly too BIG?) I don't know, but maybe not.

- The White Queen is a wonderful character. She is sweet and good, but just enough over the top that it goes from a stereotype to a gentle parody of a kindly princess.

- I don't care what the rest of the world says about gender not mattering, it IS easier for me to look to a brave protagonist as a role model if she's a female. Particularly, I noticed, if she's a female around my age.

- There was a lot of talk about thinking impossible thoughts. In fact, Alice needed to think these impossible thoughts in order to break free of her social obligations outside of "Underland." The film stopped just short, I think, of making Alice's turn from marriage to business too easy. The idea of dreaming impossible dreams allowed them to acknowledge just how difficult it would be for a Victorian era young woman to do what Alice does.

- This is another film where a particularly cool female character sees her dad as a role model more than she does her mother. I'd love to see a movie someday where a girl looks to her badass mom to set an example.

That's all. See this movie. You'll love it.

Eclipse

These stories are probably criticized more for gender portrayal than almost any other book or film I can think of. Because I was prepared to be annoyed I actually found myself finding GOOD gender decisions in this movie. Here are some thoughts.

- I don't have a problem with Edward and Bella's young engagement. They're both young. In fact, she's older. They're just stupid teenagers - it's not sexist.

- Edward's "I would get your father's permission" speech and general chivalrous behavior are for sure annoying. But there's actually a REASON for this. He's from 100 years ago. Also, one could argue that this is a huge improvement on how modern movie boys treat women. (Superbad, for example. Come to think of it, any movie with Jonah Hill in it.)

- Edward and Jacob constantly get in each others' faces over Bella. This is annoying, no denying it. I got tired of watching Bella try to break up their fights.

- Bella is weak, no doubt about it. However, this is more excusable than it is when women are portrayed as frail in other movies, because the boys are immortal/supernatural in some way, and she is a human. The female vampires are in no way physical inferiors to the males.

- It is very cool and very rare to see a physical fight in a film between men and women or, particularly, between one man and one woman. We had both in Eclipse.

- The gender ratios in this movie are actually pretty good. There are equal numbers of female and male vampires. The werewolves are a different story, but it's very interesting that, for the first time in history, a female joins the pack. Also, the film goes out of its way to show the bravery of a woman who is not a "spirit warrior" but finds a way to use her humanness to save her husband and tribe.

- Bella's rhetoric is solid. She decides to be with Edward instead of Jacob because, in her words, she feels "strong" as part of his world. She also says that when they get married she "at least" wants to hyphenate her last name. Very interesting and very different from the book Bella who swoons over the idea of being "Mrs. Cullen."

- The movie goes out of its way to show Bella's hard-headedness.

- Bell is not eye candy for guys. She wears a flannel shirt and jeans in just about every scene. At the same time, she is the sexual initiator. Can you think of another film for teens that meets both of these criteria? I can't.

- I love creep-tastic villain leader Jane.

- This movie definitely passes the Bechdel test.

I wonder if the filmmakers were hyper conscious about these choices because of the criticism of the books.

Salt quote from Vanity Fair

"Salt was developed with a male actor in mind, specifically Tom Cruise, who was attached to play C.I.A. operative Edwin Salt. After Cruise...took a pass, the script found its way to [Angelina] Jolie. Writing for a man, then swapping gender, is, as it turns out, the best way to create an utterly liberated hero, a character with none of the tropes that writers, even if they don't mean to, fall back on when creating a role for a woman."

Super interesting. If I were a screenwriter, I would try this as a tactic to make my characters nuanced and unexpected.

I'll definitely need to see this movie.

Date Night

This is a movie about marriage, above all else. And a really solid, fun, true-to-life one at that.

The premise is: a middle-aged, happily married couple from New Jersey begins to doubt if they have enough excitement in their lives. That worry is quickly put to rest when, during a dinner in the city, they are mistaken for a different couple with lives that you might call TOO exciting.

What I really loved about this film is the nature of the marriage they portray. This couple tries really, really hard to be good to one other. They schedule a regular date night and GO despite being so exhausted they can hardly stay awake. They somehow manage to be funny and still talk nicely to each other. They have sweet little traditions. Etc. When their adventure begins, then, they are already a team, ready to take on whatever comes their way. One perfectly representative moment involves each of them driving a getaway car at the same time (also the cars are connected...you have to see it, I guess). They also each get a chance to shine in different instances. Claire (Tina Fey), at one point, wraps her husband Phil's (Steve Carell) coat around her hand and punches through a glass door to get information off of a computer. And Phil bravely orchestrates the final showdown that gets the bad guys arrested.

But they're not Mr. and Mrs. Smith, here. They also both also have moments of indignity and panic. After keeping his wits about him and getting himself and his wife out of a deserted boathouse, Phil vomits in the street. Likewise, Claire has a couple of freak-outs Phil has to talk her down from. And a scene where they BOTH have to do an erotic dance is priceless.

I also love that it's a tired female police officer that figures out exactly what's going on and saves the day. Not only did it mean a good role for a good actress that could have easily, EASILY been written for a man, but it also drove home the point that this movie is about regular men AND regular women doing the best they can. Just like real life.

(Let me just pause and wonder out loud of we have Tina Fey to thank for a lot of these decisions. Her presence alone in a film seems to almost guarantee a more equitable and realistic portrayal of females.)

Finally, what made this film moving to me way beyond what I expected was Steve Carell's character. He is just an excellent husband. Phil Foster subtly demonstrates love and consideration for his wife and family at every turn. For example, he goes to Claire's book club and participates wholeheartedly, only to find out later that she doesn't even read the books! And toward the end of the film, when he gives a monologue about wanting to do more around the house and with the kids and wanting to be seen as useful, not incompetent, it is just pitch perfect. That moment made me think, "Damn. There are some really good men in the world."

Also, at least when Fey and Carell are involved, there seem to be some really funny movies.

Toy Story 3

Okay, Okay, nice work Pixar! You're not perfect, but I think you're trying!

The low-down. This is a really sweet, fun movie. It's also the film I'd least recommend to anyone going off to college this fall or to somebody with a child who's leaving home. It'll break your heart.

It's still a boy-dominated franchise (in any given scene, do a quick head count of the number of males and females on screen), but I think Pixar's really making an effort here. The movie opens with an imaginary show-down between Woody and Mr. Potato Head. Predictable. But wait! Immediately, Mrs. Potato Head and then Jessie jump into the scene. Yes! It almost, ALMOST felt like the filmmakers were sending a shout-out to the many people like me who have been concerned with the lack of a female presence in their films.

Another moment that was particularly meaningful from a gender perspective was Woody's first experience at Bonnie's house. It begins with her holding a tea party for him and her other dolls. I thought, "Oh brother, here we go." Do you remember how dismissive the first movie was about Molly's tea parties? But, in 3, Pixar handles this brilliantly. Bonnie holds a tea party, but it quickly segues into an escape from an evil witch and then a space adventure. With this one decision, Pixar shows us that they have a much more nuanced view of how little girls actually play than they have previously demonstrated.

Finally, (major spoiler alert here), the fact that Andy passes his beloved dolls on to Bonnie is a huge step. Pixar, in a sense, passes the torch on to a female (10, even 5, years ago I have an inkling they would have written Bonnie's character as a boy). It also sends the message that toys are toys, fun is fun, and imagination is imagination. Play doesn't have to be gendered.

Also, two small points:

1) I like that Jessie's taller than Buzz.

2) I love the computer geek dinosaur Trixie!


A couple of complaints. (Of course.)

They introduce some new female characters, but they also bring in at least as many, probably more, male ones. All of the villains are male, for example. Even the potentially gender-neutral "big baby" is identified by masculine pronouns.

Ken is hilarious. I'll grant them that. But I think they went a little too far with the "I'm not a girl's toy!" vibe.

I could have used a little more involvement from human fathers. The only people who interact with kids in this story are women.

Definite progress for Pixar. I hear they're coming out with a princess movie next. Very interested to see how they do with that.

I must be on a Pixar kick. Part II.

And this.

I must be on a Pixar kick.

I went to see Toy Story 3 yesterday. I'll write a review soon, but I got kind of interested in what other people are saying about females in Pixar films.

This post makes me want to quit blogging, it's so good.

Wild Idea of the Day

I'm often met with the argument that little things like whether a protagonist is female or male just don't make an impact on real individuals' lives. Those who make this argument believe that people are people and that girls can look up to men as role models, boys can look up to women, etc. The individuals who hold this viewpoint are also the ones who argue that it's no big deal if brides take their husbands' last names or that little girls wear pink and little boys wear blue. According to them, these subtle messages just don't have an influence on our lives.

I respect and understand this viewpoint. I kind of admire the idealism it represents. People who make this argument are saying that we are strong, tough, independent individuals who don't let anybody tell us what we can and can't do. But I disagree.

Here's some evidence to support my point.

I just read an article by a very smart, very respected economist that compared 500 or so sets of sisters on their likelihood of taking advanced math and science classes in high school. The shocking finding is this: Girls with more feminine first names were less likely to take these advanced courses than their sisters with less feminine names.

The idea is that having a feminine name either makes others treat you as more "girly" OR makes you think of yourself as less "into" traditionally male-dominated subjects (or both). Remember that these findings occur within individual families. So, there are no background differences between these girls - they have the same parents, grew up in the same houses, and go to the same schools. The only difference is how feminine their names are.

I truly, truly believe that messages about who we are supposed to be as men and women are everywhere. I believe we internalize them and make a lot of our decisions according to them. And since I hate limitations and pigeonholes, I believe that if we heard a greater variety of messages, we would be happier, healthier, and have lives that better fit who we really are.

Pixar & Garden State Discussions

If you're a Pixar or Garden State fan, you might want to check out a fun back-and-forth my smart and movie savvy friend Mike and I are having. Head to this post on Up or this one on Garden State to check it out!

Write the future

This is a really cool commercial. I can appreciate a good commercial.



I liked this one so much I called my husband over to the computer last night and made him check it out. Then I joked, "I'm glad the World Cup is giving us an extra opportunity to worship 18- to 22-year-old men this year."

Now, I don't begrudge people their sports (often... ;). But have you ever seen a commercial like this about female athletes? I haven't. I'd love to.

The Bechdel Test

Wow. Wow. Wow. How did I not know about this?



Also, this:

http://bechdeltest.com/


Also THIS! I need to meet this young lady. She even goes to my old college!

http://thebechdeltest.blogspot.com/



Thank you to my wonderful friend Sarah for pointing out these sites to me!

Jessica's "Daily Affirmation"

Now here's a good on-screen female role model for you!



Video found on red letter daze.

10 Chick Flick Cliches

This is pretty funny, first of all. Secondly, it's an interesting marketing strategy to convince guys to see a "chick flick." (I'm sure you can guess how I feel about that term, though.) Finally, this kind of speaks to the point of my last post about how movies that are overly traditional when it comes to gender tend not to be that creative when it comes to other important aspects of the film.

Thoughts on Lost

I watch Lost. I'm not the kind of fan who thinks and talks about it all the time, though. I don't love it. In fact, I only like it. I like it just enough to stick with it until the finale in a couple of weeks. If the show was going to go on for another year, I'd be out.

Lost is not a movie. But I had an epiphany last night as I watched it that has to do with the portrayal of women and girls in film.

I think Lost is guilty of some pretty obnoxious gender portrayal. The show is dominated by white males to an embarrassing extent. And women tend to have two defining qualities in Lost's world: long flowing hair (because that's totally practical on a dangerous tropical island) and baby fever. Oh, and low-cut, sweaty shirts.

What hit me during the most recent episode (in which we were introduced to two NEW long-haired, baby crazy women and learned that two white brothers are the universal embodiments of good and evil) is this: I have yet to view a truly high-quality tv show or movie that is thoughtless about the portrayal of gender.

Here's what I mean by that. First, Lost is less of a show because women are represented poorly. It makes the characters less realistic and the relationships between them less believable.

And second, an unthinking, overly traditional portrayal of women and girls signals, I believe, that the creators of a show or movie aren't paying attention to detail the way they need to in order to make their work truly excellent. I see examples of this kind of laziness in Lost all the time. And many of these examples have nothing to do with gender. Some of the sets look fake, for one. And the dialogue often gets sloppy and obvious. There's also plot padding. (I remember one season that seemed to consist entirely of Michael criss-crossing the island yelling "Walt!")

I think the quality of gender portrayal in television or film is a good indicator of a lot of things: how nuanced a set of characters will be, how much time and research will go into a set and a script, and, in the end, whether a film/tv show will be a masterpiece or a missed opportunity.

Oceans

Oh Disney. I give you a good review for The Princess and The Frog and then you go and make some silly, silly gender mistakes in Oceans. I guess the film was made by Disneynature, and another Disney-owned studio, Pixar, has not won my seal of approval for gender portrayal. Maybe I should have expected this.

And yes. Yes I did find things to criticize about gender in a documentary about the ocean.

Okay. The summary. Lots of beautiful, beautiful shots of the ocean and sea life. Shallow (ha) information about said ocean and sea life. Sometimes they didn't even tell you the name of the creature onscreen. As a major aqua-geek (I once dreamed of being a marine biologist), I was more interested in this film than an adult should probably be and really wanted to be able to Google some of the animals they featured. Disappointing in that respect, but definitely cool overall.

The problem I had with gender portrayal has three parts.

1) The narrator was male.

2) The film opens with a group of children running on a beach toward the water. A young male stops and looks out pensively. The voiceover says, "When a boy asks, 'What is the ocean?'..." That's the only mention of human gender we have in the whole film. Why not, "When a child asks...?"

3) Every time the narrator refers to an sea animal, he calls it a "he." Unless - you guessed it - the animal happens to be a mother with young offspring.

Okay. The first two choices, by themselves, would have be fine. Even 1) and 2) together wouldn't have been horribly offensive (although I probably still would have complained about it). But all three, together, are totally unnecessary and unfair. Gender-wise, the movie felt really old-school to me. In a bad way. It reminded me of a world I've never had to live in where only men are scientists and only women are parents.

All this, by the way, was preceded by a trailer for a new Disneynature film called African Cats. The tagline for the movie is something like, "Every mother has one goal. To protect her family." I mean, okay. Probably a lot of fathers feel the same way. And maybe some mothers actually have more than one goal? Maybe?

Garrrrggghhhhh. Come on, Disney! Get your underlings on-board with your sometimes admirable gender portrayals!

Click here to go to the website for Oceans.

The Hurt Locker

This is the kind of movie you don't love - you appreciate. It's the story of a bomb diffusing squad in Iraq and how the adrenaline that comes with their job (and with watching this movie!) makes war a kind of drug.

I don't have much to say gender-wise because there were no female characters in the film (except for a brief, inconsequential cameo by Evangeline Lilly). I would have loved for Kathryn Bigelow (remember, she won two big-time Oscars for this film) to make at least one of the bomb squad members female, but I understand why she chose not to. I don't know if women are even allowed to fill that role in the military.

I've been thinking about the fact that a female finally won the Best Director Oscar through a film cast only with males and about a subject - war- that tends to be associated with male viewership. Here are a couple of ideas I've had:

- Did she win the Oscar partly because people were impressed a woman could make a war film?

- Are there elements of the experience of being female that caused her to make this movie differently than she would have if she had grown up male? In the film, there's an interesting tension between a glorification of war and an acknowledgment of its horror, and also between the excitement and tedium of bomb diffusing. And the main character, Sergeant James, a kind of arrogant cowboy, is portrayed ambiguously. He seems at times like a hero and at times like a careless idiot. Do any of these choices have their roots in the fact that Ms. Bigelow likely didn't grow up doing things like playing war video games or dreaming of following in the shoes of fathers and grandfathers who were in the armed services? In other words, does that fact that she may have a little more distance between herself and the the idea of war make her more able to portray it in a novel way?

These are really just items for debate. We can't know the answers to them, of course, Just food for thought about a really well-made film.

Click here to go to The Hurt Locker's website.

The Princess and the Frog

Fabulous. No complaints. Disney, a lightening rod for controversy over the portrayal of gender and race, really outdid itself, gender-wise, in this film. (Race might be another story. I've heard some criticisms. But that, my friends, is a topic for another blog.)

The Princess and the Frog is a fun animated film that reminds us twenty- and thirty-somethings of our childhoods. The filmmakers use old-school hand-drawn animation and incorporate songs the way they did when we were kids (the characters themselves sing, Little Mermaid and Lion King style). The plot goes something like this: Hard-working Tiana lives in New Orleans and dreams of opening her own restaurant. A frogged Prince Naveen mistakes her for a princess and convinces her to kiss him so he can be human again. It doesn't work the way they hoped. Hijinks ensue.

I am notoriously hard to please but have no problems with this film. I got worried at one point that it was going to follow the tired romantic comedy formula in which a highly ambitious but highly stressed female is taught by a cool, laid-back male that her drive is keeping her from being happy.

Nope. Disney flips that narrative on its head and makes the cool guy look pretty pathetic next to the tough, no-nonsense heroine. Tiana has to teach him how to be an adult, and he happily learns. This culminates (spoiler alert) on him following her into the restaurant business - not whisking the new princess away to his kingdom.

After I was satisfied with that, I got nervous that, because of the goofy male animal companions (a required part of any great Disney film, apparently), only guys were going to get to be funny. Tiana, with all of her strengths, isn't exactly a barrel of laughs. But the sweet and hilarious character of Charlotte, Tiana's best friend, solves that problem.

And speaking of Charlotte, I like that her character is used to make fun of the princess obsession caused in large part by the very company that produced this film. :)

I could go on, but my reviews are always too long. Let me just end by pointing out that although this film uses older, less exciting technology, I'll take a good story FREE from silly stereotypes over a disappointing (at least from a gender perspective) but fancy animated flick. (I'm looking to you, Pixar division of Disney.)

Click here to go to the website for The Princess and the Frog.

An Education

Stay in school, girls. That's what An Education is telling you.

Because I hadn't heard a lot of controversy about the film, I didn't expect to be weirded out by this Lolita-like story. I guess I figured that if I wasn't hearing gossip, the filmmakers must have portrayed the relationship discretely. But they didn't, really. It was weird. And disturbing. And kind of gross.

But it's all in the service of a really interesting and well-communicated message that has a lot to do with girls, but more to do with young people in general.

The story goes something like this. A precocious (and adorable) 16-year-old Jenny is seduced by an older man. She becomes enthralled with his exciting, grown-up life, and gradually becomes something very different from the excellent but bored student she once was. Her parents are also charmed by David and become kind of blindly complicit in the relationship. When David proposes, Jenny has to decide whether to go to Oxford as planned or marry him.

And then, there's this perfectly written and acted argument between Jenny and Miss Stubbs, one of Jenny's teachers, where Jenny makes a pretty convincing case for the relationship with David. I want to quote it because it's so good, but I'd rather you go and watch it. The dialogue actually had me, a by-all-accounts devoted student and happily responsible young adult, questioning the decisions I've made in my own real life.

I won't let on what Jenny decides, but by the end the film has reminded you that a life you make for yourself is priceless and that, as much as we young people may want to, we only short-change ourselves when we try to fast-forward through the difficult, uncomfortable, or boring parts of our teens and twenties.

The portrayal of female characters is perfect. Jenny, played by Oscar-nominated Carey Mulligan, is a heroine all young people, female or male, can relate to. Miss Stubbs becomes an unexpected and understated role model any girl would be lucky to have. And Jenny's mom, dad, and headmistress remind us that our expectations for young women are many times unfair, unrealistic, and nothing like what we would hope for boys.

Click here to go to An Education's website.

Congratulations to Kathryn Bigelow

Congratulations to Kathryn Bigelow, the first female to win the Academy Award for "Best Director." Her film, The Hurt Locker, also won Best Picture. I haven't seen it but will post a review as soon as I do!

The Lovely Bones

I've been thinking about this one for awhile. Here's what I've decided:

The plot of the movie itself is very fair to women. I especially loved the character of the sister. She was tough, athletic, and so brave. I also appreciated the non-stereotypical reactions of both parents to Susie's death. The mom takes off to California and the dad stays home obsessing over his daughter's murder. This could have been done the other way around, and it would've made the story less touching, in my opinion. These two characters become more real because of the non-traditional choices made by the filmmakers. I bet it didn't hurt that The Lovely Bones is based closely on the book by a female author.

Here's my beef, though. When you make a film about the rape and murder of a fourteen-year-old child, you have to do it really, really carefully. I think the book made it work. I don't know if the movie quite got there. It's just really tough to say on film, sensitively, that this girl is treated in the worst possible way a human being can be treated, her murderer is never caught, and, in the end, it's all good.

This is really more of a critique of the artistic choices of the film, though, than of the filmmakers' intentions with regard to gender. I think it was a good effort, and it was a truly memorable movie for me.

Go to The Lovely Bones' website.

Garden State

Can you tell I've been staying in and watching lots of DVDs? It's snowy and cold these days in the Midwest!

Garden State. I loved watching it again after a couple of years away. It's typically male-dominated. Male protagonist with male friends, male enemies, and male doctors. But, the love interest, Sam (played by Natalie Portman), is well-developed and totally acceptable in my book. I'm glad she doesn't want to be anybody's bitch.

I liked that "Let Go" by Frou Frou was used in such a key moment in the film, but the soundtrack is otherwise very guy-heavy.

Also, and this is just a personal beef I have, but I think Zach Braff writes movies just so he can make out with pretty girls.

Take away message? Let's get some young, talented, Braff-ish women to whip out some equally fun but more lady-friendly films! I wouldn't complain about hearing more awesome all-girl or female-fronted bands on soundtracks either. ;)

Go to Garden State's website.

The Hangover

Well, everybody's right. It's funny. I absolutely enjoyed watching it. I can't find a lot to celebrate, though, when it comes to the portrayal of women.

I'm just not into this world of male comedy where strippers and prostitutes are funny and readily available when otherwise "nice" guys want to let loose at a bachelor party. I hate to sound like the much-ridiculed villain of the movie, Melissa (played by Rachael Harris), but each of those women IS actually someone's daughter. Believe it or not, women ARE actually people, not just objects for men's bachelor party and movie-going entertainment. If saying that makes me uptight - if it means I take life just a little too seriously - I guess I'll just have to be okay with being a too-serious, uptight villain.

And, do I even need to say it? The movie is SO male dominated. Practically the best speaking part in this film for a female was the receptionist at the hotel. And could they have cast a more lifeless actress than Sasha Barrese as Doug's wife-to-be? I'm not even sure what to say about Jade (played by Heather Graham). I don't want to criticize the fact that Stu (Ed Helms) ended up liking her because, as I said, escorts are people too. But it goes along with what I said above about the portrayal of stripping and prostitution as funny or no big deal. I just don't like that message.

Finally, the baby was a really interesting part of this movie. I was mostly annoyed with it as it was just another instance of men being unable to care for children. I mean, come on, what normal human adult doesn't know you shouldn't leave a six-month-old alone in a car...in the sun...in Las Vegas? What real-life man can't handle carrying around an infant for a few hours without slamming it into a car door?

However, and I know I'm making this WAY more academic than the filmmakers want me to, but I couldn't help but think about how the baby slowed those guys down. Everywhere they went, the baby had to go. Everything they did, they had to figure out what to do with the baby. It was ATTACHED to them. It made noise. It caused trouble. It slowed them down so much, in fact, that they conveniently got rid of it (by handing it over to a woman) after just a couple of scenes. It almost seemed like a shout-out to how movies are never made about four crazy twenty- or thirty-something women looking to have a wild bachelorette party in Vegas. How could they be? Who would be looking after all the babies?

But it's probably not a shout-out. At much as I enjoyed this movie, and as often as I'll quote it in the future, I just can't forgive it for being yet another comedy that makes the same old offensive mistakes when it comes to gender. I can't wait for the day when I can laugh through a film and still feel great when I leave the theater (or turn off Comcast On Demand, in this case).

Go to The Hangover's website.

Anchorman

Ha ha ha ha ha HA HA HA HA. I just saw Anchorman in its entirety for the first time last night. I laughed HARD through the whole thing. Here are my few gender-related comments about it:

- I loved how it made fun of the everything 70s, including the sexism of that decade. I think comedy is a wonderful tool for social change because it points out ridiculousness in a fun, non-confrontational way.

- That being said, I was frustrated there were really only two speaking female roles and like A HUNDRED roles for male comedians. A truly subversive movie would have found a way to incorporate more females while highlighting the gender disparities in the newsroom.

- I'm always suspicious of films that allow themselves to use really offensive language (how many times did Ron call Veronica something along the lines of "whore?") by acknowledging that they're really offensive. So, the logic in Anchorman says that Ron's news crew can say terrible things about their female colleague because that's how sexist guys talked back in the 70s. Another example of this kind of logic was used in Superbad (substitute "Seth and Evan" for "Ron's news crew," "classmates" for "colleague," and "talk when they're teenagers" for "talked back in the 70s"). I'm not 100% against this practice because you CAN make a really good point with it, but I believe it should be used sparingly. Maybe a little more sparingly than it was used in this movie.

Go to Anchorman's website.

Avatar

Yay, James Cameron! Thanks so much for Avatar! Not only did I love it, but I'm hard-pressed to find ANYTHING to complain about in the gender portrayal department.

But, of course, I will, because I'm almost impossible to please. I was a little bothered by the fact that, on Pandora, the man was always the political leader and the woman the spiritual leader. I guess it did fit in some ways as the Na'vi people worshipped a goddess. Their logic might dictate that a female could more easily commune with "Eywa." Also, I really do appreciate so much the fact that women and men always led together and that leadership seemed to pass on to a child regardless of gender. But man as dominant, rational, political and woman as emotional, intuitive, spiritual is a little too on the stereotypical side for me.

Also, once again, the protagonist of a big-time action movie was a man. As I always say, that's not a problem on a movie-by-movie basis. OF COURSE it's okay to make a male your lead character. The problem is, as a group, there are very, very rarely action or sci-fi films that cast a woman in the biggest role. Sure, there are plenty that have strong female characters in them, but the women aren't the main characters - the characters whose names you'd say first if someone asked you what the movie was about. Avatar, of course, would have been an entirely different movie if it had featured Jane Sully, ex-marine and avatar who finds a smart forest boy to help her appreciate the beauty of the planet she's come to exploit. And I will say that James Cameron was doing so much that was different in this film that an unexpected gender twist might have made the movie too much for a mainstream audience to handle. But I did want to raise the point. I'm waiting for a great action/sci-fi flick that focuses on a female first.

Now, on to the many, many things I loved about the film.

- Wow. I was so pleased with gender ratios. Except for in the army, I think I saw as many females as males on screen and with speaking parts. There were also really great named female characters. Grace (played by Sigourney Weaver), the head scientist, and Trudy (played by Michelle Rodriguez), the rogue fighter, were particularly terrific roles.

- I was really annoyed when Neytiri jumped on the back of Jake's whatever-it-was (dragon? banshee? dinosaur?). I felt like, "Okay, here we go with the lady on the back of the motorcycle." But then (thank you, thank you, thank you again James Cameron!), she got her own untamable beast! The very animal that just about cost Jake his life at the beginning of the film. Nice.

- In general, I just loved Neytiri's toughness. How great of a moment was it when the villain had stabbed that cat-like animal she was fighting on, she was stuck underneath it with no hope of survival, and the first thing she did was hiss at him? Yes! And well-done, Zoe Soldana.

- I liked the contrast between the sexist soldiers from Earth (who more than once referred to a group of men as "ladies") and the nearly perfect gender equity of the Na'vi. Women were warriors and hunters alongside men. Both sexes could tame banshees and fight off a pack of Pandora wolves. Also, in one of the two societies they went to to gather more soldiers, a female was the one acting as leader and rallying the troops. I feel that in a lot of action flicks, the love interest, if she's tough, is seen as a gender exception - an especially cool female. In this case, all the Na'vi women were portrayed as strong.

- The natural world was equitable. Animals, if I heard correctly, were sometimes called "her" and sometimes called "him." That's a small detail that means a lot to me. It would have been so easy to just default to the masculine, especially when these pronouns were only used in a couple of scenes. Also, as mentioned above, the deity the Na'vi worshipped was a female. That's a nice counterpoint to the male God we hear about 99% of the time both in film and real life.

- I went to learnnavi.org, the website where you can learn the Na'vi language online, and the language looks very solid, gender-wise. For example, unlike Spanish, where a group that includes both males and females is referred to with the masculine pronoun, Na'vi, like English, has a gender neutral option. It's the difference, basically, between something like "you guys" and "you all."

- And finally, the overall message of the film was very positive with regard to gender. When Jake chose his avatar over his human body, he chose a lot of positive things: the use of his legs over a wheelchair, harmony with nature over a "dying planet," etc. However, he was also choosing a society with gender parity over one that glamorized the worst traditionally masculine traits: domination by brute force and at any cost and the unbridled pursuit of money (symbolized respectively by the male characters of the colonel and corporate tycoon, played by Stephen Lang and Giovanni Ribisi). Please note that I do not necessarily agree with making both of the villains male. Just as I believe men and women can make equally important productive contributions, I know that females and males are similarly capable of hate and destruction.

I could go on and on, but this post is already too long. I just really appreciated the effort to make women such equal players in this film that, realistically, will probably be seen by more men than women. Also, I think that the gender portrayal choices made this film much more interesting and groundbreaking than it would have been if it had followed action/sci-fi traditions more closely.

To end, there's one gender question about the film I don't have an answer to. We seem as Americans to love to Pocahontas/Sacagawea story - a rough-and-tumble guy discovers a new world with the help of a smart native woman. Is this cultural narrative good or bad for females? The "good" argument would say that these storylines represent men admitting they might have something to learn from a more capable female. The "bad" argument would say that this kind of plot is all about conquest. Any thoughts?

Go to Avatar's website.