House on Haunted Gender Roles in Cinema
Went to see the Rifftrax Live! showing of House on Haunted Hill. Pretty awesome, as usual -- if you ever get the chance to catch a Rifftrax Live show, they really are a hilarious good time, and you get much the same kind of crowd as a midnight movie, with the laughing/clapping/participation/etc.
Anyway, on the way back, we fell into a discussion of Movies To Show Our Children. My friend C had commented that he had always planned to show his sons The Seven Samurai, to "show them what it means to be a man." My other friend S had pondered this and realized she couldn't really think of any movies she'd show to a daughter, to teach her what it means to be a woman. She asked me tonight, and I couldn't really think of any either. We came up with Aliens, because Ellen Ripley is fucking badass. I also suggested Ellen Harvelle from SPN as similarly badass. (Apparently Ellens are awesome.) But that was really about it.
I brought this up with ezazahaz, who pointed out the fairly strict binary gender roles inherent in this conversation. I think that's a fair point -- who's to say that those values of loyalty, honor, courage, etc. in the Seven Samurai only apply to men? I'd show my sons The Great Escape and Master and Commander, but why can't I show my daughters those as well? But I think there's another aspect to this.
For one thing, there are parts of life for women in the US that are different than for men; teaching women how to navigate our complicated sexualized society and rape culture for one thing. One of my suggestions was Into the Woods, because I think the lessons Little Red learns are vital for girls in our society ("Nice is different than good."), much more so than for boys. Secondly, even if we embrace a universal ideal and accept that girls can get just as much out of the Great Escape as men (I certainly did), we're still essentially teaching them that these are male qualities. There are no women in these movies, there are no women who express these ideals that we want to teach. In both of my listed movies, there are no female speaking roles. If we try to teach our children about courage, loyalty, compassion, and duty, and we do it only through movies that only have men, aren't we adding another, nastier lesson as well?
Since this is my lj, poor ezazahaz can only rebut in the comments, but I personally think we need to find more movies with women being this kind of standard-bearer role-model. And if not, I'm going to freaking write one.
So I put it to you, flist: What movies/tv would you show your daughter, to teach her how to be a woman? (You can also answer the corresponding son question too!) Or, non-gender-specific, to teach your child how to be a good person?
Anyway, on the way back, we fell into a discussion of Movies To Show Our Children. My friend C had commented that he had always planned to show his sons The Seven Samurai, to "show them what it means to be a man." My other friend S had pondered this and realized she couldn't really think of any movies she'd show to a daughter, to teach her what it means to be a woman. She asked me tonight, and I couldn't really think of any either. We came up with Aliens, because Ellen Ripley is fucking badass. I also suggested Ellen Harvelle from SPN as similarly badass. (Apparently Ellens are awesome.) But that was really about it.
I brought this up with ezazahaz, who pointed out the fairly strict binary gender roles inherent in this conversation. I think that's a fair point -- who's to say that those values of loyalty, honor, courage, etc. in the Seven Samurai only apply to men? I'd show my sons The Great Escape and Master and Commander, but why can't I show my daughters those as well? But I think there's another aspect to this.
For one thing, there are parts of life for women in the US that are different than for men; teaching women how to navigate our complicated sexualized society and rape culture for one thing. One of my suggestions was Into the Woods, because I think the lessons Little Red learns are vital for girls in our society ("Nice is different than good."), much more so than for boys. Secondly, even if we embrace a universal ideal and accept that girls can get just as much out of the Great Escape as men (I certainly did), we're still essentially teaching them that these are male qualities. There are no women in these movies, there are no women who express these ideals that we want to teach. In both of my listed movies, there are no female speaking roles. If we try to teach our children about courage, loyalty, compassion, and duty, and we do it only through movies that only have men, aren't we adding another, nastier lesson as well?
Since this is my lj, poor ezazahaz can only rebut in the comments, but I personally think we need to find more movies with women being this kind of standard-bearer role-model. And if not, I'm going to freaking write one.
So I put it to you, flist: What movies/tv would you show your daughter, to teach her how to be a woman? (You can also answer the corresponding son question too!) Or, non-gender-specific, to teach your child how to be a good person?