So this title might seem a little redundant, but that's exactly what this beer commercial is: offensive. I thought I'd seen the worst with all the Bud Light commercials over the years. But no. This one definitely takes the cake. Actually, if you were to type in "subjugation of women" into google, this very ad would be the most accurate result.
First of all, we don't see ANY actual beer until the last five seconds of the ad. The entire clip is of a woman in revealing attire saying what she likes in a man, and none of what she says is remotely intelligent. She speaks with a thick accent and in broken English. What she says sounds like a man's dream: she likes guys who are a little bit fat, have hairy backs, and who go out with the guys (implying that she likes guys who leave their girlfriends alone). And what's more, she does not like receiving kind, sweet gestures from men, such as being treated to flowers. She finishes up by saying that she doesn't care if guys go out to strip clubs, that "he can do whateeeeeever he wants." Her entire monologue is composed of her bending down to every last possible desire of men, and passively subjecting herself (even if just in words) to every possible demeaning treatment.
At this point, some of you may be screaming at your computer, "IT'S A JOKE!!! It's not meant to be taken seriously!" But even in jest, prejudice can be powerful. Even if you know in your mind that women do not prefer to be treated in such a way, your subconscious has a way of taking these messages seriously. It's time to put joking aside and show young women that they must ALWAYS expect proper treatment from men.
If you're like me, and you're a movie buff, chances are you hate chick flicks. Not because they're about women (although I suspect this might be a reason why many movie critics don't like them), but because they're bad. They often have dull or cliched plots, they are so emotional as to be cheesy, and the entire premise of the movie is a bit superficial and doesn't probe the audience to think deeper about an issue. But chick flicks are treated unfairly.
When's the last time you heard someone--critic or moviegoer--bash a "guy movie?" I'm talking about movies like "Napoleon Dynamite" and "The Terminator." Neither of these movies, in my opinion, had much substance. They were both mindless flicks offering either stupid humor or eye-catching action scenes. Nobody said anything negative about these two films--at least when compared to chick flicks like "27 Dresses" and "P.S. I Love You." In fact, on the popular film review website RottenTomatoes, "The Terminator" got a whopping 100 percent! This rarely happens on RottenTomatoes! A perfect score is usually saved for classic movies like Dr. Strangelove or Schindler's List. You know, movies that were actually good.
In my media class, we're constantly discussing how the media portrays certain groups of people. Along with the portrayal of groups comes the perception of groups--usually also generated by the media. Because of film critics, we're taught that "guy movies" are "good" and "chick flicks" are "bad." If you were to read many of the film reviews on RottenTomatoes, you would find that female critics themselves often bash "chick flicks" and praise "guy movies." Why does this happen? Is it because women are led to believe that their experiences are somehow less valuable? Or is it just that men are more successful at getting attention (i.e. praise for movies like "The Terminator") that they don't deserve?
Either way, it's time to come to a conclusion about bad movies: they need to be condemned for their material, and not for which gender they attract.
This weekend marked the anniversary of Guy Fawkes day, which, in turn, marks the anniversary of the annual watching of "V for Vendetta" (at least it does for me). This movie's theme is much like the theme of "Matilda" (see my previous post) in that it discusses overcoming one's fears and standing up to the bad guy. Only in this movie, it's done on a larger scale. The year is 2020, and Britain has become a fascist, totalitarian dictatorship. The citizens of England live in fear of their government, which lies to and sparks fear in its people in order to gain power. It is up to the masked avenger known as "V" to start a revolution against corruption and lead the downtrodden British citizens to revenge and victory.
But also, there's a young woman named Evey thrown into the mix. She is one of the main characters and represents the hundreds of thousounds of British citizens who have been oppressed by their government's tyranny. Through England's horrifying use of medical experimentation, she lost her brother, and through their unyielding forbidding of free speech, she lost her parents. Naturally, Evey, like everyone else, grows up living in fear of the government. She is afraid to stand up to the injustices because she doesn't want to lose her life. Her fear, however, disappears when she meets V.
V meets her one night when Evey unfortunately runs into the secret police and faces the possibility of losing her life for breaking curfew. V jumps to her rescue, though, and thus begins the forming of an alliance between the two. As the movie progresses, we see Evey becoming braver and braver. Shortly after meeting V, Evey returns his favor by rescuing V from the secret police by spraying pepper spray in the officer's eyes. Evey surprises herself by doing this, but V himself is not surprised. He tells her that there was a reason she acted the way that she did, and thus implies that she should continue revolting against the authoritarian figures.
Evey's true metamorphosis occurs during the movie's strangest scenes, when she is held and tortured as a prisoner. While in prison, she denies the food she's given (even the rats won't eat it). However, she finds sustenance in another source--letters being written to her from a mysterious person, another woman. From this woman, she finds out that another person has suffered just like her, and that even though this woman doesn't know Evey, "I still love you." This final message gives Evey the strength she needs to finally face the fear that has been holding her back: death. forw
When the guard finally comes for the last time, Evey calmly tells him that she would rather die than reveal the whereabouts of V. The guard responds, "You are without fear, then. You are now finally free," and Evey exits the prison and enters the world as a completely different person. From this point forward, she becomes an accomplice in V's plot to blow up Parliament, something that Evey never would have dreamed of doing before. V for Vendetta asks a lot of questions about the justification of violence. Regardless of what you think the answer to that question is, it is clear that Evey has found the answer for herself, and chooses to bravely act on it. At the beginning of the movie, we hear Evey say that she doesn't know if blowing up Parliament will change anything (something I agree with, but I digress). She then continues with, "Every time I've seen this world change, it's always been for the worse," making herself a passive victim to the injustices happening around her. At the end of the movie, it is clear that Evey no longer thinks of herself as a victim. She believes she is a force who is capable of changing things...for the better. A message that more women need to believe.
This weekend I had the wonderful privilege to see the film "Matilda," which is based on one of my favorite childhood books by Roald Dahl. There are many reasons I love this movie so much. The humorous, unique scenes are one reason why (like one of my favorite scenes of all time where the entire school is chanting "BRUCE! BRUCE! BRUCE! BRUCE!" to a chubby boy eating a giant cake onstage. You look confused. Go watch the movie.). But I think the biggest reason is that the theme of this movie is one of my favorites: the underdog defeats The Man. Only in this case The Man is a woman. And the underdog is a little girl named Matilda. Much of the film is about revenge, and the clever ways Matilda seeks (and achieves) it. Since this is a children's film, of course Matilda conquers all the "bad guys" in her life. But "Matilda" is more than just a two-hour flick that will make you grin at all of this precocious child's clever antics. I might not have realized this at the age of six, but "Matilda" is all about empowering women.
To start with, when we are introduced to Matilda, we learn that she is a remarkably gifted child. She can write her name in baby-food spinach at the age of six months, cook perfect pancakes by the age of three, and locate books in the public library all by herself at the age of five. Unfortunately, her talents go unrecognized by her family. In fact, her parents and older brother constantly abuse and neglect her. This changes when she goes to school and her sweet and gentle teacher, Miss Honey, recognizes Matilda's potential and begins to nurture her talents. It is not long before Matilda recognizes that she has special powers! She can make things move just by looking at them! This comes in handy when she seeks revenge against her family, and her equally awful principal, Miss Trunchbull. At the end of the movie, Matilda leaves her home, gets adopted by Miss Honey, throws Miss Trunchbull out of her school forever, and lives happily ever after.
Matilda uses her brains, not her brawn, to achieve her goals. What's more, she hones her specific talents and uses them to the best of her ability. "Matilda" teaches its audience, and especially young girls, that it is possible to achieve one's dreams without muscle power. One can look at a problem and use one's specific strengths to fix it.
In this blog, I've noticed that whenever I criticize a movie or T.V. show for its representation of women, it's usually because I believe the woman has been judged for her superficial qualities, and made to seem like more of an object than as an actual human being.
This was not the case with the film Pretty Woman. While the title may seem like it was all about this particular woman's looks, the film delivered a completely different message. Vivian, played by Julia Roberts, is a "hooker" (prostitute) who goes from tramp to high-class woman. But the changes go even deeper than that.
When we first meet Vivian, she seems like an unintelligent, trashy woman who is only concerned with sex, drugs, and alcohol. This impression begins to fade away when Vivian first meets Edward, a wealthy businessman, on the side of Hollywood Boulevard and offers to drive his car. (It's a stick-shift, and he has some trouble with those.) The fact that a woman knew more about a car than a man did made me giggle, but this was only the beginning of the movie's much more meaningful empowerment of women.
Vivian ends up spending a lot of time around this very wealthy man, who encourages her in every possible way. He speaks to her politely. He tells her how smart and gifted she is. He brings her along to high-class functions like horse races and the opera. He gives her money for clothes, and when he finds out she hasn't been treated nicely by the store clerks, he makes sure she gets the royal treatment the next time around. When Edward's friend physically and verbally attacks Vivian in their hotel room, Edward jumps to the rescue. Later, he leaves this friend out of a business deal, thereby sending the message that men who mistreat women deserve to be punished.
In short, in this modern-day Cinderella story, Edward acts as both Prince Charming and Fairy Godmother and rescues Vivian from her destitution. But he does more than that. Edward gives Vivian self-esteem and a strong sense of her potential. Hollywood needs to make more movies like this one.
Today, I'm going to go a little off topic, and bring up something new: the portrayal of women in political news.
As most of you probably already know, Barack Obama is currently starting on his campaign trail. According to this article, Michelle Obama will play a key role in trying to push her husband's approval ratings back up before the election. This article states that Michelle will have a sizeable influence on her husband's chances of reelection. It brought up themes such as family and empathy and the large role those two will play in Michelle's speeches. In fact, this article said that Michelle Obama has become more personal in her approach to the American public. She has started mentioning her home life and her and Barack's struggles and fears, hoping to reach out to a more and more disapproving audience. These tactics, the article points out, have been used by former first ladies, too, Laura Bush being one of the biggest users.
Let me just say that I think it's interesting that in order to be more powerful, to have influence over an election, women have to talk about what's going on at home. Women have been the rulers of domestic life for thousands of years now, so really it should be no big surprise. However, a part of me wonders if this whole "lifting my husband up and being such a good wife" thing might be detrimental to the role that women play in the long term. Obviously, Michelle just wants to get her husband reelected, and does not care one way or another if she lifts up women in the process. But one of these days, I'd like to see the role that a "First Man" would play in a situation like this. Would he talk about life at home and lift his wife up? Or would he for the most part stay out of the picture? It's an interesting thought...
The Help is a movie that has recently been in theaters which was about racial tensions, prejudice, and the battle to overcome them in 1960's Mississippi. Skeeter Phelan, a bright, educated young woman who wants to be a journalist is the focus of this story. She records the experiences of Black maids and writes a book about them in the hopes of exposing the degrading and racist treatment they all face daily.
This film has been both praised and criticized for its handling of the topic of racial prejudice. It seems that most critics and moviegoers have overlooked another equally important theme: gender. It is hard to ignore the fact that gender roles play a crucial role in The Help. Almost all of the characters are female. The occupation held by all of the Black women is one that is typically held by women regardless of race. There are also many relationships that center around females: mother-daughter relationships, female friendships, and the influence that women have on their communities.
In general, The Help was successful in lifting women up. Skeeter's novel becomes a success, one Black maid attains revenge against her former employer, and specific problems regarding females are given attention throughout the film. However, I had one major complaint.
Why is it that in every "chick flick," the main (female) character always wants to be a writer? Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with being a writer. Heck, I want to be a writer. But what if Skeeter has wanted to be a lawyer? Or a politician? Then the film really could have been something. Instead of simply exposing the problem, Skeeter could have taken concrete steps to help fix it. The Help does such a good job with Skeeter. She is ambitious, headstrong, and intelligent. She truly believes in the cause she is fighting for. These are excellent qualities that oculd have made an excellent film. But instead, The Help pacifies its audience by employing its main character in a softer career, so it can make its message easier to swallow.
