Further Woman-Related Musings on Thor and X-Men: First Class

[borderline_mary]

So I've been further considering some of the way these movies were done, and it made me curious enough to take a peek online and see what other people thought on the issue of female portrayal.  Apparently, the consensus is:  X-Men fails, Thor wins.

Respectfully… WTF?  True, I didn't have nearly as many problems with Thor as I did with X-Men in that

Comments

[silent_lorelei]

Fucking Bechdel test. It's constantly touted as the tool by which we measure Feminism-Friendly Movies, but it doesn't do that. At all. You know what else passes the Bechdel test? Twilight. You want to try to convince me that's a feminist film? Fucking hell.

The Bechdel test is a nice initial yardstick with which to say, "Hey, some ladies are having time that does not involve sucking man-dick!" This does not mean that the movie is not a piece of backwards-looking bullshit, though. It just means someone wrote a scene in which two women were talking about their shoes or something. Ha ha! Oh, those silly women.

I actually haven't seen X-Men yet, so I can't compare the two. Thor's not offensively bad, but it's definitely not something I'd ever point to as a good positive portrayal of women. It's more something you could point to and say, "Here's an example of someone giving women a lot of positive portrayal roles but not letting them actually be good at them." Woman warrior? Kickass! Woman astrophysicist? Sure, awesome!

[borderline_mary]

Poor Natalie Portman.  I usually like her in movies, too.

You know what else passes the Bechdel test? Twilight.

D:

[silent_lorelei]

It is, indeed, a tragedy.

[borderline_mary]

I'd say see X-Men:  First Class because some of the acting is phenomenal, but be prepared.  I did find its portrayal of women offensive, and the fact that the writers seem aware of the sexism and yet play it for bad-taste humor instead of subverting it makes it worse.  They're all like, "It was the 1960's, so women weren't really respected in traditionally male professions, and thus we will have an unapologetic misogynist among Moira McTaggert's bosses!  We are being historical!  Lol, isn't it hilarious when he uses her as an open example of why 'women have no place in the CIA?' "

I also spent the last quarter of the movie unable to pay attention to anything except my rage at the fact that Mystique's protective flight suit was zipped down about a foot while everyone else's was at least zipped to the throat if not the chin.

[borderline_mary]

Unfortunately, being a woman (and having general support for them anyway), I must pay attention when I can make the drooling stop.