Role of Women in Speculative Fiction

Aug 13, 2011 02:25


I’ve often been annoyed by the way woman are portrayed in anything from science fiction to fantasy.

Read more... )

Leave a comment

arhyalon August 12 2011, 17:11:45 UTC
There are infinitely more women who are well drawn than there used to be...especially in books, but also in movies. Where they are not, I think it is important to look at the men in the same movies. They are often just as unrealistic ( ... )

Reply

kingtheseus August 13 2011, 00:53:50 UTC
I don't agree with your maths, but I appreciate the sentiment. There are more good female characters than there used to be... but they still seem to be a small proportion in genre movies ( ... )

Reply

arhyalon August 13 2011, 15:48:55 UTC
Well...let's look at just movies I've seen this summer ( ... )

Reply

kingtheseus August 13 2011, 20:31:31 UTC
I'll get back to you on Captain America, I'm seeing it on Monday ( ... )

Reply

arhyalon August 14 2011, 03:20:38 UTC
>But then I asked, well, how many scenes do we get where two men talk about something not related to the female love interest.

Depends on who the main character is. If the main character is the girl, then the guy's dialogue will be limited. If it is the guy, then the girl's more likely to be limited.

There are quite a few very clever women in Harry Potter, and Luna is A) a really appealing character and B) no more loony that her dad, who is not a girl.

Reply

travisjhall August 15 2011, 05:30:32 UTC

Also (and especially in the book continuity) Luna is right surprisingly often about the things she seems loony about. I find that makes it a lot harder to criticise the character based on vapidity.

Reply

arhyalon August 15 2011, 13:49:09 UTC
She is one of my favorite characters.

Reply

travisjhall August 16 2011, 01:38:46 UTC

One of my favourite moments during a Harry Potter RPG session: "Accio Luna Lovegood!" See, I needed to rescue Luna, and I had this special wand that powered up my spells to do more than they normally could, and I thought, "Why not try it?"

Reply

arhyalon August 16 2011, 01:54:10 UTC
Oh, that is hilarious.

My Hogwarts RPG character is a student when Luna is grown up. She is teaching me to protect my mind...like Harry learned from Snape. My character is entirely pathetic at this. Luna is such a great teacher. So patience, so loony, and so good at finding the most embarrassing thought...and yet she doesn't care about it. My character adores her.

Reply

kingtheseus August 16 2011, 06:14:22 UTC
Luna is a lot of fun. I definitely have soft spot for her.

Reply

arhyalon August 14 2011, 03:33:53 UTC
The other thing that bugs me about women who complain about women in stories is: all those girls who only talk about boys? I know those girls....I know real people, sweet ones who I like a lot, who act just like that. I used to be one. Why shouldn't women in movies be like real women? Why do they all have to be "role models ( ... )

Reply

kingtheseus August 14 2011, 06:32:45 UTC
Valid points.

When was the last time we saw a female lead in one of these flicks though? A female lead would make it very easy for a movie to pass the test.

Reply

kingtheseus August 14 2011, 06:34:05 UTC
Actually the last female lead would probably have to be the last Twilight movie... and I have... problems with that franchise.

Reply

arhyalon August 14 2011, 16:34:34 UTC
Yeah. Me, too.

Reply

arhyalon August 14 2011, 16:37:00 UTC
That is a good point. I can think of some female leads, but none of them are recent. I wonder if it has anything to do with stuff like girls go to cartoons with boys, but boys don't like to watch cartoons with girls. (A problem Disney struggles with, since it is working its princess franchise.)

It is a shame that the Wonder Woman movie fell through. A good Wonder Woman movie would be really nice. The cartoons did the character very well.

I think TV has some good female roles. I haven't seen very much of Fringe, but Olivia seemed really smart, and I liked the women in Firefly.

Reply

arhyalon August 14 2011, 16:40:23 UTC
This is only slightly related, but John and I were just talking about the difference between Keira Knightly playing the pirate girl in the pirate movies...the girl that the Ninja review called "A manly version of Orlando Bloom." and the same actress playing Liz Bennett in the Joe Wright verion of Pride and Prejudice, which is my favorite version of the story.

In the first role, the actress showed almost no range of character and expression. But as Liz-whether not you agree with her intepretation of the performance (some like it, others I know did not.)--she showed tremendous skill and range of character. I could hardly believe it was the same character.

Not sure what that says about movies and female roles, but I found it interesting.

Reply


Leave a comment

Up