I have to admit, I thought Mlawski was rather positive about it all; she did call out a few bad movies, but she gave even more good examples, like Zhang Ziyi in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, as guidelines for future thought. I found the article very thought-provoking. And funny. Very funny.

The fact that there exist decent movies with real complex characters (as the author of the article notes as well) doesn’t mean that this misunderstanding isn’t harmful and potentially pervasive. I’ve seen it come up in other things too, like amazon recommending comics to me that turn out to be really terrible with little more than a “well, she’s (physically) strong and a girl” to connect it to the rest of my profile.

Explaining that nuance with hilarity is actually a lot more effective than just another list of good examples, IMO. Although it is nice to have both, and it’s good to think, “hey, at least there is some progress,” too.

It’s easy to jump all over a summer fantasy movie for it’s lack of nuanced characters, but elsewhere, Hollywood has never been so progressive. There are more female directors churning out award-winning films; more roles for women featuring powerful, incredible characters; more independent production houses managed by women; more celebrated women scriptwriters; etc, etc – than ever before in the history of film.

To take a short list of garbage films (some from the 1970s? Come on.) and rag on them for being chauvinist only proves that mlawski has terrible taste in movies. Arguably, they’re popular films, but that doesn’t make them good, nor does it imply the directors are particularly capable. You should instead be celebrating the tremendous inroads into the industry made in recent years by women in Hollywood.

Just take a look at this year’s oscar nominations! Incredible recent films featuring female characters who are empowered, emotionally complex, and self-determining:

The Hurt Locker – (by superstar director Kathryn Bigelow!)
Precious
Julie and Julia
The Last Station
Nine
Coraline
Up In The Air
The Young Victoria
Coco Before Chanel
An Education
The Blind Side

Not to mention the successive victories from previous years – Monster, Monster’s Ball, Juno, etc, etc, etc…

I think the major problem here is that women were clamoring for “strong female characters,” and male writers misunderstood. They thought the feminists meant [Strong Female] Characters. The feminists meant [Strong Characters], Female.

I think the major problem here is that women were clamoring for “strong female characters,” and male writers misunderstood. They thought the feminists meant [Strong Female] Characters. The feminists meant [Strong Characters], Female.