The actresses I see getting acclaim are terribly one-dimensional. Its their youth & beauty (which will fade) that are always showcased, violently fetishized now to even more younger and vain actresses. Hollywood, twitter and instagram's female celebrities are like a cult of vain, plastic, youth-worshipping witches who have no value outside of looks.
Gal Gadot, Zendaya, the little Stranger Things girl, the Logan girl, the Annabelle cast, pretty much every actress under 30 in a film or show this year was the exact same character: depressive, waifish, "desirable object" girl-children who get a predictable moment to strike back but are ultimately tools. Hollywood has this perverted fixation with this female image. And eerily, this is true to life of a generation of very vain, vacuous little girls who are being indoctrinated into the old system.
And as usual, women over 30 are depressed moms & career women, mindless sex goddesses who kick ass or crazy old ladies who are funny. Of course there are films like Pitch Perfect 3 or those (Blank) Moms comedies and there's an upcoming pro-Hillary slate of all-female ensemble dramas. But why are female-focused films always relegated to unoriginal plots based on bland male-focused films? Ghostbusters was an experiment to go the other way, but that was just sacrilege. Does Hollywood fear giving a good script to women? Are they afraid of showing women of different ages getting along? It can't be in the nature of women to be obnoxious catty harpies. This is the male idea that they simply roleplay to get by and spend male money to survive.
With the long overdue destruction of the Weinberg empire, let's usher in real women in film. Realistic characters, written and directed and PRODUCED by women
The Last Jedi's producer Kathleen Kennedy has tried earnestly to make a feminist blockbuster in The Last Jedi. It did big business but the film sucked. There was a strong scent of chauvinism involved but also the feminist message didn't fit the story (which was foolishly written and directed). And the "underdog" heroine is uninteresting and handed everything.
I don't think audiences or creators in power have any clue how real victims of sexism (WORKING CLASS WOMEN) are a cog in the giant system of exploitation and oppression. Clearly as the films are still stupid and audiences still pay for the empty Mary Sue, the infantilized Lolita, the evil Ice Queen and the generally worshiped Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
Get Out did a great job deconstructing the insidious nature of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl archetype. Mother! was a valiant effort to contextualize the Ice Queen and the Infantilized Lolita. Wonder Woman's characterization is very problematic to me in Justice League and her own film, but it is a push towards heroines with some depth (even if its still very shallow, cartoony, childish). But its still not enough.
Hillary Clinton is a hard person to defend or empathize with, but how did the country empathize with a complete woman-hating troll/creep/huckster/demon over a "nasty woman"? Because we've had generation after generation of women in the public who are simply cartoons with no inner life. Hillary is an example of this but she's also a symptom of the real problem. We need better representation of everyone. I don't even think we need female superheroes or 3rd-wave propaganda or "Girl Power!" buddy comedies. Just write women as people!!!!
The most progressive and respectful instance of feminist writing was oddly in Roger Corman's Death Race 2050. Two women, both supporting characters, meet at a bar called Bechdel's to discuss the male protagonist in a great tongue-in-cheek Dadaist moment. Its subtle, meta protest to the way they are relegated in the oppressive world of the film. Filmmakers need to lampoon cliches to shred their power and create a better work environment for women everywhere. They are half of the audience :P
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