I need feminism because...

Having seen two big-budget Hollywood blockbuster movies recently, in which both female "leads" were whiney, clingy, annoying and dependent upon their men, I am seriously depressed.

In the new Spider-Man,
In Godzilla, I genuinely felt more of an emotional connection to Godzilla than I did to Elizabeth Olsen's character.

I know there are excellent female actors doing excellent work portraying complex, well-written characters in other genres. Why, for the love of god, can we not have this in the main Hollywood money-makers? Is the cack I've described above really the best we can hope for from the major studios?

Edit: thanks Whoops - my bad!

Dolbert wrote: »

I think the problem is that there aren't enough female writers in television/film, so female characters often come out stilted, shrill and not quite has human as the male characters (or occasionally the giant lizards)

I think you must be right about that. There seems (from my relatively uneducated viewpoint) to be far more female writers in TV and we get the likes of Claire Underwood, Alicia Florrick and many other great characters in that sphere.

Jerrica wrote: »

She's an incredibly strong character, there are oodles of blog posts and on-line discussions out there about who really holds the power in the Underwood relationship - sure, so he's the US VP but is she the one pulling his strings? Her character is complex, layered, multi-faceted and operates with almost exclusive autonomy, it's not often you see a female lead as interesting as that. And what makes her tick? That's part of the allure for both of the Underwood characters, they're each as mysterious as the other, neither is better or worse, but both are fabulously immoral and make for a hell of a power couple. Neither character would be anything without the other.


None of the police in the show were females. The only female in the office was the receptionist. All other female characters are prostitutes, mistresses or cuckolded wives and mentally distressed daughters. Meanwhile you get fabulously written male leads (and don't get me wrong, I was entranced by this show, Harrelson and McConaghey make for riveting watching) who get all the interesting parts - heroes, villains, politicians, decision makers and breakers.

The weak female character issue came up quite quickly when the show aired, but the writer Nic Pizzolatto pretty much brushed it off as feminists over-reacting, and that only served to fuel the fire. There's been strong hints at a predominantly female lead for Season 2 though.

Its a shame all tv shows can't be more like game of thrones, now there is a show with some kick ass ladies of all ages

In retrospect, I shouldn't have really brought up the tv discussion. This is a thread about why we need feminism, and not a thread about discussing tv (or portrayal of female characters in television? )

But I'll still chat about it because I find it interesting.

@Iwantmydinner

I mentioned Claire Underwood because I class a strong character as a character that has motivations of their own and reasons for what they do. But, after reading Jerrica's post, I might take that back. I think the whole mystery about why the character does what they do (the same way with Frank) is part of the plot, rather than a lack of characterization. So, eh, bit of a lightbulb moment for me :P

Also, the True Detective Question was a question. Feminist critique of storytelling is interesting and, you know, this is a thread about feminism. I thought I could answer a question.

@Jerrica

I may have a different notion of strong characters. I class a strong character as a character that has motivations of their own and a history of their own?

Even though it focused on the male leads, it did have an interesting show don't tell attitude towards the secondary characters. So, I was a little bit confused when people started saying that the characters weren't strong, as I saw them as having strong characterisation, even the most minor of female characters.

Remember the first woman that the bald guy cheated with on his wife? When she said 'It's just like you police' over the phone? Yeah, there's a history there and I would've loved to have found out more about that character.

So, I actually the characters were quite strong in my sense of the word. But if people mean a passive role, then, yeah, I can understand that.

Diego Simeone wrote: »

This is completely insane: http://www.motherjones.com/media/2014/05/nfl-cheerleader-lawsuits-sexism

For those not familiar with the NFL, this is a sporting organisation that generates over $10 billion annually.

I honestly can't understand why they continue to work under those conditions. But I can only imagine it has to do with the social conditioning they're put through - all through high school and college I mean, where are the top of the social ladder from what we're told.

nicowa wrote: »

I honestly can't understand why they continue to work under those conditions. But I can only imagine it has to do with the social conditioning they're put through - all through high school and college I mean, where are the top of the social ladder from what we're told.

For a lot of dancers it is a way to pad your resume when you are starting out.