The Feminist Review » movies http://www.thefeministreview.com Calling Patriarchy As We See It Wed, 20 Jul 2011 07:01:52 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 Fried Green Tomatoes http://www.thefeministreview.com/2010/10/fried-green-tomatoes.html http://www.thefeministreview.com/2010/10/fried-green-tomatoes.html#comments Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:54:33 +0000 Anna Lisa http://www.thefeministreview.com/?p=122 I have watched Fried Green Tomatoes dozens of times, so it’s hard to know how to begin a feminist analysis. I’m going to stick with my consideration of women-only spaces. While friendships between women, especially one-on-one, do not really fit my intended “women-only space” category, they are so foundational to Fried Green Tomatoes that I am going to discuss them in this post anyway.
Friendship of Ninny and Evelyn
Formation
• The women became friends by coincidence (or fate, or whatever) as Evelyn was rejected by her aunt-in-law and Ninny was wondering alone.
• There is no reason that only women can be in this friendship, but no one else is invited or tries (though if Ninny moves in with Evelyn, Ed will be a significant part of their relationship). Of course, Ruth and Idgie are part of this friendship, in absentia.
• Their friendship often focuses on “women’s” issues, including menopause, motherhood, social relationships, body image, etc.
Role in their lives
• They have weekly get-togethers.
• The friendship provides company for two lonely people, as well as a way to see outside themselves in their previously rather “small” lives.

  • Ninny is able to share from her age and experience about menopause, and life, giving her purpose as an elder.
  • Evelyn’s friendships with all these women give her confidence and a touchstone; she is able to worry about something other than Ed. She develops a life of her own, beginning with this friendship of her own.

• The friendship is acknowledged by both to be very significant.

Effect
• These women are truly supportive of one another and love each other.
• Evelyn gets a job, goes to the gym, cooks meals she wants – while these may all be attempts to please the wider world particularly through her appearance, they also seem to be empowering, somewhat independent choices for Evelyn.

  • While Evelyn’s weight loss and attention to her appearance may be a way of pleasing the world and Ed, she also brings renewed tension to her relationship with Ed by standing up for herself.

• Ninny has someone to care for, and gets to relive meaningful years and events of her past in order to offer wisdom to someone else.
• Their friendship, particularly as inspired by Ruth and Idgie, reminds them both (especially Evelyn) that they are full and whole human beings.
The friendship of Ruth and Idgie
Formation
• The friendship began at Idgie’s mother’s insistence, though soon the women claimed it for themselves. The community generally supported their time together (until they became radical and powerful people were threatened).
• The women’s friendship is not “traditionally feminine;” they don’t talk about romance or babies or social relationships. Due to Idgie’s influence, many of their activities are quite untraditionally feminine (hopping trains, drinking, gambling, sneaking out of the house to steal a car and honey, etc.).

Role in their lives
• The women spend a lot of time together and their friendship is very significant to each of them.
• They change one another – though Ruth was supposed to change Idgie, she is transformed by her. Their love, respect and effect on one another are all mutual.
• Eventually Idgie saves Ruth’s life. Ruth helps Idgie save her own relationship with her community (and keeps her out of jail/execution).

Effect
• The women come to know one another deeply and affirm one another for who each is – including their vast differences. They help each other be more of who they truly are.
• Idgie helps Ruth stop obsessing over being liked.
• Ruth becomes Idgie’s partner when she thought she would live with fierce independence.
• Their friendship teaches them both that women are whole and full because each are so affirmed. Moreover, their relationship is a deep and constructive partnership which shows them both that they do not need men to have a place in the world or stability.
The consciousness-raising circle/classes that Evelyn attends
Formation
• The space exists, and is women-only, by choice and design.
• The focus of the space is “feminine” though this often means that it’s focused on women’s romantic relationships with men.
Role in their lives
• Evelyn does not find hope or inspiration – in fact it seems to bring out her insecurities and disappointments (she believes Ed would call her crazy for wrapping herself in cellophane and won’t look at her vagina – she won’t face “the source of her strength and separateness”).
• She’s going to the classes to “save her marriage” and perhaps this is the problem – it’s not really for her own wellbeing. She eventually quits.
Effect
• Evelyn is not affirmed by the classes because they only remind her of her own fears and disappointments. They are not touching her deepest needs for self-respect and appreciation.
• Other women may be finding empowerment, but the film does not show this.

The café
Formation
• Idgie and Ruth decide to open the café.
• They do borrow money from Idgie’s father, and George works at the café, but it is a women-led operation.
• George works at the café though we never see him in the kitchen. Grady does come in the kitchen so it is not a pure women’s-only space. Otherwise all staff are women (Idgie, Sipsey and Ruth).

Role in their lives
• It is a place to discuss important matters, such as racism.
• It is a place to see people’s needs (such as Smokey, seen by Sipsey, cared for by Idgie and then Ruth).

Effect
• The café is a space that defies patriarchy. It does not fully dismantle it, but within the café power has been somewhat shifted. This is seen most clearly when Sipsey, Ruth and Idgie have a frank conversation about Grady’s racism, and in the classic fried green tomatoes scene. Ruth and Idgie’s food fight is a time of honesty, raw emotion, playfulness, and easy forgiveness.

  • This freaks Grady out – like the racial integration of the café, this intimate interaction between two women is outside of his control and sense of normalcy. As the sheriff, as well as a powerful white man, he is the LAW and expects the world to be in his control.
  • Frank also enters the space to exert his control, but the “least expected and least-of-these” disallow him.

• Ruth and Idgie run a successful business in which black and white people eat and work side-by-side and hobos get free food. They are living a new paradigm, and having a great time of it. The café affirms their hope and self-sufficiency.
The wholeness and fullness of women is even more pronounced in the book, in which Ruth and Idgie’s romantic love for one another is acknowledged. More on lesbianism’s essential role in feminism to come!

]]> http://www.thefeministreview.com/2010/10/fried-green-tomatoes.html/feed 0 Real Women Have Curves http://www.thefeministreview.com/2010/10/real-women-have-curves.html http://www.thefeministreview.com/2010/10/real-women-have-curves.html#comments Fri, 08 Oct 2010 20:31:03 +0000 Anna Lisa http://www.thefeministreview.com/?p=109 The movie Real Women Have Curves is filled with material for a feminist review. I will be exploring the role and power of the film through the lens of the women’s-only space of Estella’s sewing factory, where she, her mother, her sister, and other women work together making dresses for department stores. Not only are all the bodies in the factory female, they are also all Latina and all working class. I want to focus particularly on the role these women and this space plays in these women’s lives regarding gender.

The factory is not women-only by design or desire, but (I assume) by convention. While the movie does not address this, women traditionally do sewing work because (in Western culture) it is seen as women’s work. Also women often have smaller hands, which may help them sew. Women may also be more vulnerable to economic exploitation than many men, so they may be more readily employed by greedy capitalists. While Estella does not seem to be coerced into running this factory, she is also not supported by her boss/main client. The women working in the factory are allowed to leave, but generally do not have many other/better work options. One worker leaves to get married. Ana will leave to go to college. The factory itself does not have particularly “feminine” aspects. It is filled with beautiful dresses for other women, not these women, due to their size and economic status (though Estella makes a dress just for Ana). The women’s sense of their own size means that the dresses actually serve to make them feel less like women.

The women work in this factory at least five days a week, for very long days. It plays a complicated role in their lives – it provides an income, but the wage is small and not always on time. It is a social space, but the talk is often negative. The work is busy and stressful, but the women also see that they create beautiful, tangible products. It is a place that women can make mistakes and also improve their skills – encouraging them to take themselves seriously as workers. Since there is no apparent way to increase their pay or responsibilities, it may not be a traditionally fulfilling work place for workers with initiative. Though Estella does do fashion design on the side, so there might be a way to open up creative and entrepreneurial space for the women. The women are certainly effected strongly by their work, the factory does not seem to be the primary space in any of their lives (except, perhaps, Estella).

The factory undermines women before it empowers them. It houses more criticisms than clear love. The first two scenes in the factory are filled with Carmencita’s criticisms of Ana’s size (and by association, the size of nearly every woman in the factory). Praise is given to one woman because her husband buys her fancy dresses, which seems to make her “worthy” in other women’s (at least Carmencita) eyes. Ana notes that the wages they’re paid are unfair, given the amount the dresses will be sold for – but no one pays attention to her proclamation. Ana is told she will never fit in any of these dresses. The factory plays a conforming role in the women’s lives, urging them not to question the status quo, not to stand up for themselves, to cut each other down.

In the third, very brief, scene, this tone is reversed when Estella makes a dress just for Ana, demonstrating her love (during a very busy time for the factory) and openness to Ana’s beauty (saying that “pretty dresses aren’t just for skinny girls”). Ana has argued throughout the movie that her body is beautiful – or at least valid – and this is the first time another woman has affirmed her.

The final, fourth factory scene is climactic. Ana raises the body conversation stakes by taking her clothes off in the intense heat, and claiming that her body is not shameful, and allowed to be seen. Her mother adamantly disagrees, calling her “fat” in front of everyone. One by one the other women in the factory join Ana’s stripping off of clothing, comparing their cellulite and size. The women are bemoaning their bodies, but also affirming them (body image is perhaps too complicated for most women to ever be simply praise or criticism).

The factory does little to contribute to women’s relationships with themselves, one another, men or the broader world. Ana begins to unravel this, and she is joined by Estella and most of the other women in the factory in a healthier acceptance of self. It is unclear where Ana gets the strength and vision to love her own body, but she offers it to the other women in an empowering way.

Still, the women line themselves up according to size and tell one another not to put herself down because someone else is even bigger. Ana says, “Who cares what we look like when no one’s watching us?” implying that one another is “no one.” Perhaps men would be “someone”? Her question also implies that there might actually be something wrong with their appearances. But full and whole human beings are not perfect, so perhaps this is an adequate body image tension to end with – as long as the women are certain that they are full and whole human beings regardless of their “beauty.” The movie implies that Ana knows this, and since she’s going off to college it’s okay if she’s not married and her attractiveness is not rubber-stamped or nullified by a man (Carmencita says it’s okay that she’s large because she’s married). The rest of the women are left in the factory to fend for themselves. Perhaps they will carry Ana’s rebellious questioning with them and find their own confidence. But this factory has certainly been no women’s salvation – Ana knew her worth before she showed up there, and the factory was a place for her to articulate it and share her essential message.

]]> http://www.thefeministreview.com/2010/10/real-women-have-curves.html/feed 0 Irina Palm http://www.thefeministreview.com/2009/12/irina-palm.html http://www.thefeministreview.com/2009/12/irina-palm.html#comments Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:45:38 +0000 Elen Farkas http://www.thefeministreview.com/2009/12/irina-palm.html Irina PalmThey call her a man-eater, a super groupie, a whore. These words don’t apply anymore – Marianne Faithfull has mellowed.

Instead the dame has acquired the younger generation’s wonder about her rich experience. But despite her recent achievements, an album and Irina Palm, many males think she is still what she was in the ’60s: raw, easy, a muse and whore (in a sense of the word).

Irina Palm, nominated for the Golden Bear for the best movie in Berlin in 2007, is simple, and witty – yet also tragic. It features Faithfull as a doting grandmother who will do anything for her loved ones. Her grandson, Olly, is suffering from an acute disease that needs prompt treatment and that’s where the problem begins. It means he has to be treated outside of Great Britain where specialists are waiting to cure him. No one in Olly’s family is rich and his grandmother Maggie (Marianne Faithfull) cannot afford the flight and lodging to Australia. They live in a modest house close to London. Overall, the relationship between Maggie and her daughter-in-law, Sarah, is strained.

Until Maggie decides to take the matter in her hands. Looking naively at the placard “Wanted Hostess,” a euphemism for whore, hanging in front of a sex shop window in Soho, she goes in and a new world unfolds for her.

She meets Miki, the wily owner of the sex shop. The moment he holds her hands she feels strange while he explains to her the “job” that she is about to do. He tells her that her hands are soft and precious and will make men longing. Until she finds out the real deal. She finds herself working in a room with a small hole, a “glory box” where the men can insert their penis. An Asian woman, who becomes her friend and later a rival, teaches her how to “touch” the men the right way. Appearance is not extremely important, the Asian woman says, rather the way one does the hand job on the clients. It is not long till Maggie earns the name and the reputation as Irina Palm, her eventual stage name.

Her son is wary when one day she hands them loads of money to help Olly’s treatment abroad. As soon as they find out the truth, Sarah changes her opinion towards her in-law and appreciates the sacrifice Maggie has made.

This might be an allegory of the life of the former muse of Rolling Stone. The difference between Faithfull and Maggie is that the former has lived a life of spotlights and bad press. Maggie is a simple widower who doesn’t have any inkling of the outside world yet has experienced that not everyone is nice and proper including her dead husband, who had an affair with her best friend. It is a crazy world out there and Faithfull has seen it all. To all the men out there who still believe she is a whore, oh, well, they haven’t grown up yet.

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]]> http://www.thefeministreview.com/2009/12/irina-palm.html/feed 0 Charlie Wilson’s War http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/12/charlie-wilsons-war.html http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/12/charlie-wilsons-war.html#comments Thu, 25 Dec 2008 05:43:20 +0000 Anna Lisa http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/12/charlie-wilsons-war.html mv5bmti4mzy0mzexnf5bml5banbnxkftztcwmdi1ntg2mq_v1_sx100_sy139_.jpgI didn’t expect to enjoy Charlie Wilson’s War, and I wasn’t disappointed. The story itself is almost inspiring – look what a couple of people can accomplish! Of course, what they’re accomplishing is war – on behalf of people who truly needed justice – that certainly has not led to any security for Afghanistan.

Though the movement behind Charlie’s involvement in Afghanistan is Joanne Herring, the movie does nothing to explain her own background or motivations regarding Afghanistan. Instead her presence in the film is almost exclusively as a sexual partner for Charlie, or otherwise defined by her sexuality (whether or not she’ll be offensively dressed in Afghanistan, her comment to Charlie’s staff, etc.).

Charlie’s involvement with many women, his choice of staff (he can learn to type, but can’t grow tits, so he hires women he’s attracted to) is not explored at all by the film. It’s simply used to bring excitement to the story and add something “fun” to an otherwise depressing movie. While this was certainly part of his life (and probably still is), it shouldn’t just be tossed into the mix of a movie for thrills without any reflection on its deeper meaning or impact.

]]> http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/12/charlie-wilsons-war.html/feed 0 The Women http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/09/the-women.html http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/09/the-women.html#comments Fri, 19 Sep 2008 03:06:57 +0000 maggiehope http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/09/the-women.html mv5bmjiwnjg2mtk1mv5bml5banbnxkftztcwodqxmzk3mq_v1_sx270_sy400_.jpgI was drawn to the theatre to see this movie. I was looking forward to it for a couple weeks, as three of my favorite actors (actresses?) (Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Debra Messing) star in it. I was hoping for a good couple hours filled with the bonds between women, the hope of a happy life without men, the strength found within a person — I hoped to leave the theatre after seeing it with a proud, rejuvenated sense of what it means to be a woman. Perhaps I wanted too much. I realize this… now that none of those hopes really panned out.

As I summarized my feelings to a close friend immediately after leaving the theatre, “I feel offended as a lesbian. I feel offended as a woman. I feel offended as a feminist.” Breaking that down into each complaint:

Jada Pinkett Smith’s first lesbian role was what I hope will be her only lesbian role. I felt that the constant slouching in her chair, never-ending cheeky noises and comments when women walked by, clothing, and lifestyle were hugely offensive. Granted, these are common among some lesbians. Maybe it’s just none that have come into my life. I couldn’t help but feel the role was so over-the-top stereotypical that I would have rather there not have been a queer character at all.

As a woman and a feminist, I felt offended at the thought that if a man cheats on his wife, just a few times with one woman, that the wife should forgive and forget. I saw strength in the characters, yes, but that focused mainly on career. What I learned from the women in this movie was that it’s more trouble to leave a cheating husband than to stay together, so you might as well stay together. Mary (Meg Ryan) ‘s friends seemed eternally proud of her for “making things work,” and I wanted to shout from my seat, “you don’t have to accept that!” I’m not saying that any female feminist who finds out her partner is cheating on her should leave them right away. I guess I just wish that one of Mary’s friends had supported that idea, instead of mocking the thought of getting a divorce.

Wanting to end on a somewhat positive note, I did enjoy Debra Messing!

]]> http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/09/the-women.html/feed 4 The Constant Gardener http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/09/the-constant-gardener.html http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/09/the-constant-gardener.html#comments Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:38:34 +0000 Anna Lisa http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/09/the-constant-gardener.html mv5bmtg1mtyymde2nf5bml5banbnxkftztcwntk1ntazmq_v1_sx268_sy400_.jpgThe Constant Gardener is a wonderful movie, and even though I’m going to complain about it, I really recommend it!

Not only does this film tell an incredible story that many of us would rather ignore (corporate greed, dehumanization of poor people of color, depths of corruption and horror in Kenya and Sudan) but the female lead character is fantastic.

I want to be friends with Tessa. She’s tenacious, resolute, compassionate and vivacious. She’s also beautiful, so it’s no surprise that she’s a sexual/romantic interest for several men in the film.

Unfortunately for these men (and eventually for Tessa) the very passion and resolve that attracts these men to Tessa is what they eventually want to squelch in her. It is her very uncontrolable-ness that makes her so desirable, but the men who care for her then want to control her. Perhaps they secretly wish that she will only be tenacious, vivacious and compassionate for them? Or only use these traits in their service?

After her murder (not a spoiler, this happens at the beginning of the film), her husband, Justin, gets caught up in whether or not she was cheating on him, not able to focus on finding out why she was killed. The mystery of her fidelity may just be too overwhelming for him to see around, but the implication is that he cannot wholeheartedly investigate her murder without knowing if she had sex with other men. And this implies that her worth is based, at least in part, on her sexual relationships. Certainly a partner’s integrity is hugely important, but women are too often valued by men based on their sexual situation (be it virgin, fertile, arousing, etc.).

This is a realistic story of gender and love relationships, and it’s just fine that the movie portrays it. What is shameful is that the film uses the mystery of Tessa’s sexual relationships to carry the plot for too long. Not only is Justin obsessed with Tessa’s fidelity, but the film invites the viewer to obsess about it as well. While it sure is compelling drama, it encourages the viewer to see Tessa primarily as a sexual object.

The reduction of such a vital and passionate person to an object for others’ possession and gratification mirrors the meta-story of the film: that greed of the powerful feeds on the acceptance that some people are not worth as much as others; that some are less than human, even expendable.

]]> http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/09/the-constant-gardener.html/feed 2 Sex and the City http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/09/sex-and-the-city.html http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/09/sex-and-the-city.html#comments Sat, 13 Sep 2008 15:40:52 +0000 Anna Lisa http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/09/sex-and-the-city.html ep75_carrie_tangled_dogs1.jpgOnce upon a time there was a single New Yorker in her 30s who had great friends, a few bad break-ups, no civic or community engagement other than chronic shopping, and a Mac. She goes through life surrounded by people who rarely stretch or challenge her, and makes a bunch of mistakes. Then she ends up with the guy that broke her heart a bunch of times, but also rescued her from the cold Russian. And they lived happily ever after, once she stopped making the wedding dress the highest priority of their union.

I’ve been avoiding this post for a while. One of my main guilts as an imperfect feminist is my love for the show Sex and the City. I love the camaraderie between these four friends. I love the novelty of their lives, the surprisingly large sums of free time and money. I love that I know just what to expect – not only because I’ve seen each episode at least twice, but because the series is predictable and formulaic.

But I have a dirty feeling watching a show that ignores or tramples pretty much every value I hold dear, and it’s time to come clean.

Jessica Groze of the blog Jezebel maintains, that the question is not “Can a feminist really love Sex and the City?” but “Is Carrie Bradshaw a proper feminist icon?”

This certainly is a dangerous question, since even earnest, intelligent feminists can’t be 100% consistent in their refusal to submit to patriarchy. But Carrie rarely tries, according to my standards. I could give a ridiculous number of examples (remember, I’ve seen every episode at least twice), but will be brief:

  • Angry with Big, she kisses (and then has sex with) Big after he tracks her down to a hotel, follows her after she tells him to leave her alone, then physically restrains her and forces his body against hers. Pressing charges would have been appropriate – instead the scene reinforces the notion that “no means yes” and that women struggling against sexual aggression is a turn-on.
  • Carrie continually communicates on an adolescent level, particularly with the men she dates. Instead of thoughtfully reflecting on her needs and wants, she gets drunk and/or angry and participates in ridiculous games. Arguing with Berger, he says, “When did you stop being on my side?” and she responds, “When did you stop being on my side?” which is not only unhelpful, but makes no sense in context. Instead of talking openly with Big about their sexual relationship, she obsesses and worries, talks to her friends, then shows up at his house with an unspoken demand and leaves in a huff when he doesn’t meet it (then doesn’t call, assuming they’re broken up, until he shows up at her apartment and they have sex.)

The show’s inspiration, writer Candace Bushnell says women weren’t allowed to talk about sex before Sex and the City. This is utterly ridiculous, though generally positive conversations about oral sex and orgasms for women have been one of the show’s best traits. Of course, women are only entitled to sexual pleasure if they keep their pubic hair carefully trimmed or shaved, explains both the show and the movie.

Miranda and Samantha portray some important aspects of feminism, but suffer for it. Miranda, the only character whose work and family really impact her life or time, and who tries (at least once) to get her friends to stop talking about men all the time, is given the ultimate “refeminizing” punishment – she gets pregnant. And even though she ends up with one of the shows most caring and thoughtful men, when she doesn’t orient her life around his needs and desires, he cheats on her.

Samantha is fiercely independent and confident, and pays dearly for it. First with breast cancer, then (perhaps worse) by gaining weight. I actually didn’t notice that she had gained weight in the movie until the other characters flipped out about her softened stomach instead of asking why she flew across the country spontaneously. She needed comfort and acceptance after breaking up with Smith, but instead got horror over her belly.

While the show began as a tribute to single women in their 30′s, it ends with all four women in relationships with men. The movie initially breaks two characters up from their male partners, and ends with one single woman, three married. Perhaps when Samantha flattens her stomach, she’ll get married too!

Sex and the City provides utterly ridiculous and offensive information about class and culture. Perhaps realizing the lack of reality around socio-economic status presented in the series, the episode “The Caste System” came along in season two and made everything worse. Carrie suddenly understands poverty when she’s forced to smoke outside at a party full of snobby rich people. Samantha’s brief boyfriend has a servant, but instead of using the episode to share some important and true information about human trafficking or domestic abuse, this woman is portrayed as a jealous and two-faced manipulator.

People of color are given very token roles in the series. The only character of color with an on-going role as subject (rather than object) is Miranda’s boyfriend Robert, and they still have no thoughtful conversations about ethnicity or culture. Other than Robert, people of color show up as Carrie’s limo driver or other stereotypical serving roles. Jennifer Huston, the only actor in the movie with an Oscar, plays Louise, Carrie’s personal assistant. Louise represents everything wholesome, midwest and working class in the movie, but her insight and uniqueness don’t touch Carrie. Instead, Carrie offers Louise glamor, experience, and one expensive louie vitton bag.

The series and movie also have token queer characters, consistently used for comic relief, and twice to shake up the plot for the main characters (when Samantha dates Maria, and when Miranda’s colleagues assume she’s lesbian because she isn’t in a relationship with a man). Stanford and Anthony are the most classic of gay urban men, never to surprise or unsettle the viewer with personality or real-life trials in a homophobic culture.

Once upon a time there was a single New Yorker in her 30s who never wears an outfit twice and whose life is recognizable to less than 0.1% of the world’s population. Sex and the City was the perfect TV show, convincing viewers that their lives were wrong but by buying the products advertised during commercial breaks, they too can have Sex and the City!

]]> http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/09/sex-and-the-city.html/feed 0 Mamma Mia http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/08/mamma-mia.html http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/08/mamma-mia.html#comments Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:34:13 +0000 maggiehope http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/08/mamma-mia.html I admit, not being a huge ABBA fan, I was a little hesitant to see the new version of the film “Mamma Mia.”  But after an enjoyable couple hours in the theater, a few things stood out to me:

  • Meryl Streep, Julie Walters, and Christine Baranski were the highlights of the movie for me.  As the plot circled around a twenty-something woman getting married, all of her twenty-something tanned and beautiful friends dancing around her, and a large amount of half-naked twenty-something year old men running around, these three women continued to draw my attention. Their beauty, power, and immense love of life drew me in.  Now, I won’t go so far as to say that they are my new feminist icons, but I did truly love seeing an older generation of women respected as beautiful, sexy, and full of life.  With so many movies focusing on youth being equal to beauty, I found these three women refreshing.
  • I wonder at what point in life more movies will feature older women as love interests… I often feel as if the older a man gets, the younger his love interest.  I haven’t noticed this in my own life, but in movies I see it rather often.
  • When an entire gathering of people are dancing around, soaking wet, singing, enjoying life, and kissing… would it be so horrible for the gay men featured to kiss as well?  Are we really not at a place yet where that could be included?  This was the low point of the movie for me.

As soon as I left the theater today, I was jotting down ideas of what to mention in a feminist review of what I had just seen.  I would love to hear from others who have seen the movie what they thought of the portrayal of women.  I’d also like some tips for how to get ABBA out of my head…

]]> http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/08/mamma-mia.html/feed 2 Once http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/07/once.html http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/07/once.html#comments Mon, 28 Jul 2008 01:53:05 +0000 Anna Lisa http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/07/once.html OnceI discovered the 2006 masterpiece Once a bit late, but it’s worth reminiscing. While it’s been labeled a modern musical, I think it’s more appropriate to call it a film about musicians. Perhaps the distinction isn’t important, but I think it’s worth noting that no one breaks into song at bizarre moments, or magically knows the words and tune of another character’s back story.

Once is the most engaging and realistic love story I’ve seen in a long time. I won’t spoil the end for those who haven’t seen it, but I will say that, unlike standard Hollywood love stories, the credits don’t roll after the main characters clear up their first big misunderstanding.

A love story without sex and nudity is an awesome feat. This sort of love story honors women in an important way. The female lead (and love interest) is a whole and intriguing character without taking her wool coat off.

Classically, she supports the male lead’s music career, giving him the oomph he needs to record an album and move to the big city. She does get a piano out of the deal – probably worth the studio time she donated. He invites her to come along (though he’s on his way to reunite with an ex-girlfriend, so the invitation isn’t fully appealing). She has far less mobility, as a single mother and first generation immigrant with her own mother. The reality of these gender and nationality issues, while hard on the love story, is refreshing.

]]> http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/07/once.html/feed 0 Juno http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/07/juno.html http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/07/juno.html#comments Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:14:48 +0000 Anna Lisa http://www.thefeministreview.com/2008/07/juno.html JunoJuno is one of the most exciting female movie characters of the decade. Bold, unapologetic, fierce, clever; she takes herself seriously, and everyone else can’t help but take this bizarre teenager seriously, too.

Juno is actually one of the decade’s most interesting movie characters of any gender: both self-reliant AND communal, creative, unashamedly weird, loyal and loving. The “being weird in high school” story line invokes Napoleon Dynamite, but with far fewer cheap shots at the characters; instead the audience can relate to and care for Juno.

Unfortunately, the movie doesn’t do Juno justice. Moreover, it sends a dangerous message to teenage girls about pregnancy.

Juno is primarily a love story – pregnancy is a subplot. This hierarchy implies that 16-year-olds getting pregnant is not as significant as 16-year-olds falling in love. Juno deals with getting pregnant, but most importantly, she ends up with the guy. How realistic is this storyline? How many 16-year-old girls in this culture will get a boyfriend out of an unplanned pregnancy?

Since the film has been praised as a realistic look at teenage pregnancy and tackling a serious subject with sensitivity, we need to have high standards for the film’s portrayal of pregnancy. Instead, Juno’s decision not to have an abortion is barely covered. The only repercussions she faces at school are a couple of strange looks. Her family supports her in a detached and unbelievably relaxed manner. The film ends with her living a picture-perfect teenage life with caring (and even sacrificing!) boyfriend, creating music that she cares about. Inevitable confusion, anxiety, doubt and pain after giving birth and giving a baby away are not shown.

Kimya Dawson‘s contributions to the soundtrack are fantastic. I hope fans of the movie will check her out, because her lyrics carry poignant messages for young women.

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