A fun test of female portrayal in movies

[roseembolism]

Courtesy of Alison Bechdel and Charlie Stross' blog, here's a little test of how women are portrayed in a film.

1. Does it have at least two women in it,
2. Who [at some point] talk to each other,
3. About something besides a man (or marriage or babies). 

It's  actually an interesting test of the objectification and role of women in films- do they have a role or purpose in the film outside of being an adjunct to the men?  Charlie of course goes on to make some good points about how it relates to cultural anxieties, anti-feminist backlash, etc.. 

To me though, the interesting thing is that of this year's crop of summer blockbusters, NONE of them seemed like they would pass this test.  Iron Man, for all I like Pepper's character, fails this test (Hell, she's a cross between a mother and a love interest for Tony, and that's it).  The female characters in Hellboy are almost completely dictated by their relationship with the male characters (At least I don't recall the two female characters talking to each other at all).  The Dark Knight of course was pretty much an "all-boys plus one sex object/victim" film.

In fact, the only film I saw recently that passes this test was PItch Black, which we watched last night.  And well, the female characters in that film had a lot more important things to talk about than men and marriage.  But then, shouldn't most of them?

Comments

[devonapple.livejournal.com]

I think the horror/thriller genre tends to sidestep a lot of those conventions as written, while supporting the cultural anxieties in other ways. Not a lot of marriage talk in the "Halloween" movies, but still a lot of objectification and violent subtexts ("but they're already violent!" "I know, but even so, there are subtexts to the violence which prove the men don't respect the women").

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I'd agree- there are a lot of sexual/female role/misogyny elements in your average horror thriller, including the classic "Women who have sex deserve to die" element.

Which is another reason that Pitch Black is interesting; there's definitely a sexual subtext between the male and female leaves, but it's incidental to the actual horror, and it's ultimately subverted at the end. Subverted twice, actually.

I could do a paper on the ways that Pitch Black screws with the horror genre, I really could.

[devonapple.livejournal.com]

Just found this article and am reading it.

[devonapple.livejournal.com]

The site Heroine Content has a rating for films based on how well they believe the films portrayed women/race/etc.

4 Stars: Greatest Hits

* Alien (Director's Cut)
* The Long Kiss Goodnight
* Buffy the Vampire Slayer
* Terminator 2: Judgment Day
* Mr. and Mrs. Smith
* Tank Girl
* Underworld

3 Stars: Strong Contenders

* Set It Off
* Paycheck
* Grindhouse
* Resident Evil
* D.E.B.S.
* Bandidas
* So Close
* King Arthur
* The Island
* Aeon Flux
* Underworld: Evolution
* V for Vendetta

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Thank you for tossing Heroine Content at me- that looks like a wonderful reference site.

Of course it's also interesting in that they have really poor taste in movies too. I mean, Resident Evil? Good? Geeze.

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

Ah jeez, Resident Evil is one of my all-time favorites of the genre and definitely in my top 100 of all movies.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I must lack the gene for Resident Evil. I found the whole thing very predictable.

[anam-moon.livejournal.com]

I think I must lack the Resident Evil gene too. Perhaps it's because I didn't play the games (of course I really don't play games), but they really didn't appeal to me. The second one especially.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I mean come on, Spaghetti dogs! I couldn't take the film at all seriously after those dogs.

Admittedly, I think RE might be fun for an MST3K style night; I could have a lot of fun making fun of it.

[devonapple.livejournal.com]

C and I enjoy it quite a bit.

[anam-moon.livejournal.com]

I highly approve of The Long Kiss Goodnight. =)

[devonapple.livejournal.com]

My wife loves that one as well

[anam-moon.livejournal.com]

Hehe...I went to a lot of trouble trying to see Pitch Black, which ended up being amusing considering all the better it was. I want to say my first attempt was thwarted by it getting stuck in my DVD player, yes that sounds right.
Next time I rented it with a friend, but we watched the other film we rented first and it ended up being too late by the time we would have finished watching it.
It wasn't until try number three that I actually got to see it.
Yeah, the gals in that film really needed to be more concerned with staying away from the creepy things then in which guy has the dreamiest eyes and was the most kissable. ;) No thinking about sex! Something will jump up and eat your head!

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

And to their credit, they did concentrate on survival.

Of course the "captain" had one of the better character arcs for a character I've seen in a movie. You aren't supposed to see that sort of positive character development in a horror movie.

[anam-moon.livejournal.com]

I think the film Montana ,starring Kyra Sedgewick, is also an excellent film for Heroine Content.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I don't even remember that one. I'll be interested in seeing it.

[ghilledhu.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it counts as a blockbuster since it never hit #1, but there's Mamma Mia!. I haven't seen it myself, but here's a link to an interesting feminist take on it - she talks about it actually inverting the "male gaze" cliché, as well as being one of the better portrayals of older women in recent Hollywood history.

Here's the link.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Interesting. This gives a completely different impression of Mama Mia then I had- I think it might be fun to rent some time. I mean, given that Abba is a guilkty pleasure...

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I glanced at my anime collection and came up with some interesting results:

Fruits Basket: for all that the heroine is a traditional nurturing type, she passes the test with flying colors, because her conversations with her friends are about each other, not men.

Last Exile: multiple female to female conversations that are not about Boys babies or marriage

Lodoss Wars: BIG FAIL! Even leaving aside that Deedlit is a Fauxaction girl existing to be rescued at the end, I don't recall any girl-girl conversation.

Dirty Pair: passes: even thought they do talk about boys a lot, there's also a lot of "professional" talk as they get down to the nitty-gritty of causing chaos across the galaxy