Being a Feminist Lover of Popular Culture

And why it kind of sucks.

So, I think my example of the day is Inception. Because, working as a projectionist, I have been peeking in at all my favorite parts, mostly to do with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who basically made that movie. Seriously, so not worth it if he's not in it), and it's been on my mind a lot. The thing I hate the MOST about the movie is the reaction to it--it's seriously not a new concept, and it's not mind-blowing. Seriously, I can give lists of movies with much the same tone, themes, or "is-it-real"-ness, going back decades. But I'll save that for another post.

This post is about the thing I hate the second most about Inception, which is not limited to Inception. So if it feels like I am picking on Inception, I am, but only because it's there and a good example. But this applies to so many movies, TV shows, and the like, and it's starting to depress me. This thing is its use of gender, sex, and women.

You might be saying, well, wait, there wasn't any sex in Inception! And, well, you're right, but that's not the sex I am talking about. I am talking about male and female. So there.

I will first brief you on the Bechdel test, or Mo Movie Measure, which is a non-judgmental litmus test for movies (seriously, the judging comes from the discussion afterwords).

The test:

1) Does the movie have two female characters who have names? (In some versions of the test they don't have to be named, but I think that's bullshit, unless the movie specifically withholds a name and they are still a major player.)
2) Do they have a conversation?
3) About something other than a man? (This also just means any man--son, brother, husband, lover, father, etc. I like not specifying love interest. The point is to show how much of the portrayals of women are shown to have lives that revolve around men, not just romantic interests. It's a patriarchy we're trying to expose.)

Inception fails, though I can argue where it fails. It has two female cast members, Mal and Ariadne, but Mal is not a woman, she is a projection formed by Dom's subconscious. So is she really a female character? I think it's arguable. Do I define a female character as someone who is just played by a woman or do I define her as a human person who is being portrayed onscreen? It's complicated, I think. If I say she's not human, therefore not a female character, and is just a figment of a man's mind, what of female androids (or gynoids)? Such as Cameron in The Sarah Conner Chronicles? So you see my dilemma.

Mal is a wonderful, interesting construct, and is an allegory for women on screen, IMO, since I believe that Inception is an allegory for cinema. Dom, when talking to her in purgatory, acknowledges that she is only a poor model of who the real Mal was (lovely, according to Arthur), without the perfections and imperfections that made her human. Which is saying something. Dom is a fully fleshed out character, while Mal is his view of a woman. She is the flat, shallow, lacking-of-human-depth female that we get TOO OFTEN in movies, because movies are very rarely about women, and when they are, the women are often sad sad archetypes and stereotypes with no depth and too much focus on men.

And then we get to Ariadne, whose purpose in the movie is to bring the viewer up to speed and (surprise surprise) focus all her energy on helping a man get over his dead wife. She starts out curious and ambitious and interesting and then all that falls to the wayside so she can be just another woman who centers her life around a man (though her life is only two and a half hours long).

But you know, I can even handle that. That's fine. Those are characters in the movie.

What bothers me is that women make up half the world, and more than half of moviegoers (55% of tickets are sold to women). So whywhywhywhywhywhy in an ensemble cast is there only one real female player, but so many many many men? Why these casting choices? Miles, the grandfather, Dom, the Extractor, Arthur the "Point Man", Eames the Forger, Saito the CEO, Yusuf the Chemist, Robert Fischer Jr. and Snr, and his Uncle/godfather dude, and the first architect they showed when they were invading Saito's mind in the beginning. That's...how many male characters with speaking roles? Ten. To two, if I'm being generous and considering Mal a female character. Still don't get me wrong, I LOVE her, and that actress, and I think this role was necessary to Dom's character. But why why why is the ratio 5 to 1? Why can't the chemist be a woman? Why can't a professor of architecture be a woman? Why can't Robert Fischer have a godmother?

This is what bothers me. That so many female characters are token characters, and often black to be two tokens in one. And when there are female characters they are defined by the men around them.

Seriously, I do not need more "feminist" movies or "chick flicks" or whatever men want to call movies that focus on women. I don't want to be FOCUSED on. I want to be EQUAL. I want to watch movies where male protagonists aren't just the default role. I want movies with ensembles featuring equal or close to equal parts men and women. And when there ARE female characters I want them to BE characters, not just eye candy or place holders or archetypes or stereotypes.

I want women actresses to have the ability to be all body types, like men are allowed. I want them to be able to be chubby with interesting faces and not forced to be underweight and perfect all the time.

End rant.  :)

I also have this aspiration that I can change Hollywood for the better. It's a losing battle, from what I've heard, but I hope to help. Movie execs for some reason think men only want male protagonists because they want to be them and women want male protagonists because we want to have sex with them. Which is bullshit, because I'd rather be the adventurer or the sidekick than the love interest--they tend to die. Often horribly. Also, adventure. Also, have movie execs not heard of Resident Evil? Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Men like to watch strong, awesome women kick ass just as much as I do.