4 ms·
Where do I begin? Great and terrible article. Riddled with victim mentality (bad), but desire to improve story telling of movies with a very narrow focus (som
by rustynails 13y ago
Where do I begin? Great and terrible article. Riddled with victim mentality (bad), but desire to improve story telling of movies with a very narrow focus (somewhat good).
Here's an example of victim mentality, but not from the author's perspective.
- why are the villains in movies often English or German. Discrimination!
- why don't we have Australian heroes in movies? Australian actors are forced to change their accents and nationalities... It's disgusting... It's xenophobic!
Now take those examples with a grain of salt. I don't have a victim mentality that insists on x% of movie heroes being Australian ... It's superficial and mandates others on what they must think.
I remember a gay author who was told to add more straight characters - the one story of his that I heard kept on referring to a straight dog.. When I asked my gay friend about the importance of a "straight" dog, he explained the back story of the mandate... The dark side to political correctness.
Here's where I partially agree with the author. Black Widow and the other "Rambo in slacks" were pathetic characters by Joss Whedon - some of the worst I've ever seen. Arrogant, rude, completely self-absorbed and able to take down 20 "baddies" at the same time with their bare hands. Remember Stallone as Rambo? Well, Joss Whedon thinks that adding slacks makes Rambo a better character... Yeah, right. But rather than see "sexism" and "insistence of 50% female leads", I see "crap writing", "area for improvement" and "lost opportunity". Let the writers decide what gender a character is... But highlight opportunities for thinking out of the box (go Aussie heroes ;)
Having said all of that, I'm a huge fan of Legend of Korra. Korra is a believable heroine who retains her femininity and humility: brilliant writing. Lin Bei Fong: a tough as nails woman that shows compassion and vulnerability. Many writers and directors could learn a think or two from Di Martino and Koneitzko (the Korra writers).
One of my other heroes is JK Rowling. In her Potterverse, she chose to have a balance of 50% male/female characters that were fairly well balanced. It worked very well and did not detract from the story. If anything, it added credibility. It was important (at least to me) that the characters made sense, more than what their gender was.
In summary, the referenced article is a thinly veilled feminist (sexist) piece that dictates too much and is too narrowly focused (aka feminism). I agree that female characters are usually poorly written and I love when I see female characters written well.
Then again, I'd also love to see corporate bankers held accountable, NSA snooping to be reigned in and sexism (from feminists or otherwise) being denounced ... I have my doubts that any of these wishes will come true.
- rayiner 13y agoMy 9 month old displays better logical reasoning skills than evidenced in this post. > Here's an example of victim mentality, but not from the author's perspective. - why are the villains in movies often English or German. Discrimination! - why don't we have Australian heroes in movies? The difference is, only a tiny fraction of people in the U.S. are Australian, while a slight majority of the population is women. A rational example would be if 90% of American movies had Australians in lead roles. In that situation, you'd be right to wonder what the hell was going on! > thinly veilled feminist (sexist) piece that dictates too much and is too narrowly focused (aka feminism) Feminism = sexism is doublespeak.