a bit more about The Piano
I wanted to write more about it, but was sleepy and T was here and then Friday was busy, etc.
The huge problem I see with The Piano is not a unique problem, especially for mainstream media from before the #MeToo movement.
Pre-2017 it was standard for mainstream media to portray romance between men and women as a matter of Man pursues Woman, Woman isn't interested, Man continues to pursue Woman ever more forcefully, and I mean FORCEFULLY, with a combination of physical and emotional coercion, and then ... over time ... Woman realizes ... oh, Man is attractive after all ... and Woman falls in love.
So, The Piano was not alone in portraying this story, and I must say the film portrayed it extremely well. I can see why it was Global Film of The Year in 1993 (at least among the developed capitalist countries).
But watching it now feels like watching a two-hour-long rape scene.
It's often difficult to watch older films because of the sexism gradient -- the farther you go back in time, the more rigid and horrifying the gender roles were. Reading older books can present the same difficulty. Even older books written by women who were considered liberated at the time. I mean, just writing a book as a woman was extraordinary back then.
So, according to the mainstream standards of 1993, The Piano was extraordinary because it was directed by a woman, and it starred a woman, and it portrayed rape from the point of view of the woman. But the woman still fell in love with her rapist!!! Jesus Christ.
The huge problem I see with The Piano is not a unique problem, especially for mainstream media from before the #MeToo movement.
Pre-2017 it was standard for mainstream media to portray romance between men and women as a matter of Man pursues Woman, Woman isn't interested, Man continues to pursue Woman ever more forcefully, and I mean FORCEFULLY, with a combination of physical and emotional coercion, and then ... over time ... Woman realizes ... oh, Man is attractive after all ... and Woman falls in love.
So, The Piano was not alone in portraying this story, and I must say the film portrayed it extremely well. I can see why it was Global Film of The Year in 1993 (at least among the developed capitalist countries).
But watching it now feels like watching a two-hour-long rape scene.
It's often difficult to watch older films because of the sexism gradient -- the farther you go back in time, the more rigid and horrifying the gender roles were. Reading older books can present the same difficulty. Even older books written by women who were considered liberated at the time. I mean, just writing a book as a woman was extraordinary back then.
So, according to the mainstream standards of 1993, The Piano was extraordinary because it was directed by a woman, and it starred a woman, and it portrayed rape from the point of view of the woman. But the woman still fell in love with her rapist!!! Jesus Christ.