I watched Taken and it annoyed me.

[dumpysaurus]

Yeah, that movie from a few years back with Qui-Gon Jinn being an avenging badass. It's almost too easy to be angry at; I can't possibly be the first to pick it apart and perhaps I am beating a dead horse here. Maybe it's famous for how hilariously misogynistic it is. But holy crap.

Comments

[seraravi]

Haven't seen the movie, but I do see those kinds of things all the time. The "slutty" girl (who is usually not unreasonably promiscuous, certainly no more so than guys in the film) is usually the a "bitch" with no common sense and no sensitivity to others who must either be put in her place/humiliated or killed, depending on the genre, or if we are supposed to find her alluring, then she is naughty but dangerous and an object of intense lust to be drawn from her slutty ways into a serious, submissive relationship "with a man. "Good girls" are virginal, inexperienced, or at least in search of a serious monogamous relationship with a man. Guys are funny and virile for sleeping around, unless they are trying to force themselves on the innocent heroine or also an "asshole" who is also usually sexually pushy. And if a guy is a virgin then the goal is losing it to become a man! The whole "women are helpless victims who need constant protection from big bad powerful men because they are weak and incapable of protecting themselves or fighting back" thing is everywhere too, and it's irritating. I get that it happens and the sad majority of really awful things like sex trades, rapes, serial killings, kidnappings etc. do happen to women, so those topics will involve the victimization of women, but there is something maddening about watching them just sit back and cower and wait for a man to rescue them or their inevitable death instead of DOING something about it. It would even be better if they fought back and still failed, because at least they would be active and fighting fir themselves. If a man just sat back and trembled like that, people would call him a coward, but with a woman it's just her inherent helplessness and feminine fear. It's incredibly frustrating.

[dumpysaurus]

Yep, yep, yep. All true. And pretty much all covered in this movie! I used to be of a "Only very stupid people actually take the subtext of this stuff to heart" opinion, but then I saw the subtle misogyny in my own work (main characters almost all male, unpleasant female characters more femme than the nicer ones, etc.) I always roleplayed guys with my siblings because I'd never seen female characters who were funny or interesting or DID anything besides be a damsel in distress. It... yeah.