This summer has been much like any other at the movies. Heroes have fought robots and dinosaurs and covert spy organizations. Occasionally lessons have been learned, but usually they're secondary to the fiery explosion chasing the protagonist down a hall. In all honesty, I absolutely love summer movies. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas helped cultivate a yearly homage to B-movie heroics by way of A-movie special effects, direction, and (often) acting and because of their efforts, we have one season a year that we can go to the movies with a pretty good chance of seeing things we've never seen on screen before.
Summer movies have been accused of many things throughout the years: the dumbing down of mainstream entertainment, the shift from original films to endless franchises, the importance of opening weekend grosses. However, this year one of the most common accusations against the blockbusters films of summer has been sexism. Of course, Hollywood has never been a haven of enlightenment regarding gender equality, but this summer the call against blockbuster sexism has risen to new heights.
I recently had a friend share a well-reasoned, well-written article deriding the film Avengers: Age of Ultron as inexcusably misogynistic. In the case of this particular movie, I believe that the scenes and character arcs that are believed to be sexist are really being misinterpreted, especially considering the fact that the director and writer Joss Whedon has long been a champion for strong female characters (frankly, the most sexist thing about AoU is the fact that there are roughly 1,324 main characters, but there are only 3 female characters that have any influence on the plot whatsoever). However, after I asserted this belief in my friend's comment area, another of his friends took me to task. I've never been one to wage battle on the fields of Facebook, so I didn't really get in to it, but while his arguments didn't sway my views (and if you want to know my defense of perceived areas of sexism in AoU, let me know, I'll be happy to share my thoughts), they did get me thinking more about the way women are written in blockbuster films.
If the last few years have taught us anything, it's that women go to the movies far more than executives used to believe. Unfortunately, movie executives still don't understand female moviegoers and writers still fail to write good female characters. They still believe that in order for a female protagonist to have appeal to a female audience, said protagonist must spend most of their time worrying about their clothes or worrying about if they're being taken seriously or worrying about their romantic relationship with a man. The Twilight films were hugely popular, but holy cow is the lead character a step back in the feminist movement. I mean, she spends three films with her sole defining characteristic being her romantic relationship with a man and then she literally gets her personal strength when she allows her husband to suck away her humanity. Seriously.
Yet I digress. Right now I'm ruminating on gender issues in films that are supposedly targeting all genders, ages, and races: the summer blockbuster. These films are greenlit by how effectively they appeal to all demographics, so one would think they should be the most progressive movies in regard to gender equality. Of course, they are not.
Beyond the aforementioned Age of Ultron, the watchcry of sexism has been sounded against many other films this summer. Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation is a blast of a film, but it still manages to continue M:I's proud tradition of rotating sexy female agents who can kick butt in skimpy dresses, while maintaining the same male agents who are allowed to do the same butt kicking fully clothed. Minions has one major female character, a character that has been driven to criminal dementia by her lifelong desire to be a pretty and popular girl. One of the only summer blockbuster that has escaped this trend is Pixar's Inside Out, a movie in which the three central protagonists are female (granted, two of them are the personification of the other one's emotions, but still) and none of those characters are defined by their relationships with their male counterparts. (I've heard Mad Max: Fury Road is another example of a summer blockbuster that doesn't play into antiquated Hollywood attitudes towards women, but I haven't seen it so I can't speak to it directly.)
However, perhaps the most telling example of sexist attitudes in Hollywood blockbusters is the biggest blockbuster of the year, Jurassic World. (Please be warned, I cannot discuss these issues without spoilers. If you haven't seen JW, please stop reading now. SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!)
Much like other summer blockbusters, I very much enjoyed Jurassic World. It is really the first of the Jurassic Park sequels to capture the excitement and wonder of the original. It's well directed, has a fun sense of humor, and special effects that fill the viewer with equal parts awe and dread. However, the two main characters are perhaps the most shallow gender stereotypes committed to any film with Steven Spielberg's name in the credits.
Before I get to them though, allow me to address an area that has garnered criticism that I feel is unjust: the admittedly horrific death of Zara, a female character whose only crime is not being a particularly good nanny in spite of her profound British-ness. I have heard some say that the fact that the most disturbing death scene in the movie involves an innocent woman is clearly sexist. Actually, if you look at the series as a whole, it's pretty progressive. Innocents have died in the previous films, but never a woman. The movie finally shows that dinos really couldn't care less the gender of their meal. Also, it's been said that her death scene is particularly mean-spirited, but, once again, I'd like to direct your attention to the previous films, especially The Lost World and it's callous dispatching of Eddie Carr, a man who is easily the kindest, least selfish character of the film, but is thanked by being ripped in two by a pair of T-Rexes.
Now, back to the two leads. Let's start with how these characters are introduced. First we meet Claire Dearing, the park operations manager played extremely well by Bryce Dallas Howard. When we're introduced to Claire, she's alone in an elevator nervously rehearsing the names of the executives from Verizon Wireless that she's about to meet. She's clearly worried and seemingly out of her element. However, when the elevator doors open, her self-doubt dissolves and she morphs into the epitome of professional confidence and persuasion. "Welcome to Jurassic World," she says with a cool, executive ease.
Conversely, when we first meet Owen Grady, an ex-Naval officer turned animal expert winningly played by Chris Pratt, he is lording over a pack of velociraptors, controlling gaze and actions solely with the authority of his voice and a clicker. In those two scenes we learn that the female protagonist appears strong, but is actually self-doubting and highly strung, while the male protagonist is so awesome and so confident that he is able to BOSS AROUND VELOCIRAPTORS.
These characteristic trends continue throughout the film. When the characters first interact, we learn that they had been on one date, however she was too uptight and he was too effortlessly cool for it to work. With every tragic disaster that threatens the safety of human life, Owen is confident, aggressive, and invariably right, while Claire is nervous, non-commital, and invariably wrong. In spite of the fact that her nephews just watched her save Owen's life by shooting an attacking dinosaur, the boys immediately make it clear that they don't care if she's around as long as Owen's there to make them feel safe. Even in the end, when Claire finally steps up and risks her life to save everyone by facing down a T-Rex (!!!), the script makes sure that she's running from the beast in fashionable stilettos. (Sidenote: As ridiculous as this wardrobe choice is, Bryce Dallas Howard is like an Olympic athlete in those stilettos. Her running in those shoes is perhaps the single most amazing bit of stunt work in the movie.) As the credits roll, she too has been bewitched by the overwhelming awesomeness of Owen and has fallen in love with him in spite of his rugged confidence and easy going attitude.
Clearly, such broad and shallow characterizations are not necessary in any conceivable way, so what could have been done? Well, the simple solution is don't be sexist. Honestly, just let Claire be as strong as Owen. Put her in real-people shoes, let her confidence not be a facade, let her make smart decisions, don't force a romantic relationship - all of these would have been acceptable.
However, as I thought about it, I couldn't help imagine a different movie. Now follow me here, even if it seems ridiculous. Firstly, don't make Claire the nervous park manager, give that role to Lowry, the fanboy with a love of all things dino, played by the awesome Jake Johnson. Johnson's terrific deadpan was under-utilized in the movie anyway and his natural nervous energy would have given the role of a park manager who feels control slipping through his fingers a more genuine sense of humor and chaotic dread. (I know that the idea of giving the main female role to a man seems the opposite of progressive, but I'm getting to that) In the film as it currently exists, Claire's arc involves respecting the dignity of animals that she had previously viewed through the antiseptic eyes of a bureaucrat. In this version, Lowry would grow from a dino-fanatic who really only saw them as giant action figures to a respecter of their place in the world as real living beings.
Now here's where things could get interesting. Keep the character of the ex-Navy paradigm of coolness exactly the same, except this character becomes Claire Dearing. Claire becomes the character who successfully communicates with the raptors, which actually makes sense because the raptors are female, so it would follow logically that they would respond to a female becoming their alpha. Claire is strong, smart, laid-back. Lowry is smart yet nervous, and discovers his strength through the events of the story. Plus, he wouldn't have to run from a T-Rex in high heels. Oh, and also, they don't fall in love. I know, unthinkable, but the fact of the matter is that any relationship founded on the fact that both parties managed to not be eaten by dinosaurs is doomed to fail anyway. Just get rid of the romance angle all together. This is a story with potential. It keeps everything about the movie that works, but it offers an interesting and exciting take.
Of course, the solution to misogyny in Hollywood isn't "just swap the genders of the main characters." It's simply to not be sexist. Would your male protagonist have the same character arc regardless of his interactions with female characters? Then show the same respect to your female protagonist. Is your male protagonist allowed to be fully-rounded without a romantic relationship? Then allow the same for your female protagonist. Does you film have nine male heroes and one female hero? Yeah, maybe re-think that.
I'm not sure if movies are getting worse in their treatment of women or if I'm just becoming more disturbed by it, but either way, it needs to change. Not only do women need to stop supporting this type of misogyny, but men need to recognize these trends in their favorite films and demand better female representations in popular films.
I suppose there is some progress being made. Katniss Everdeen is a far better role model than Bella Swan, even if she's still forced into an odd love triangle. At least her initial heroic motivations aren't centered around her romantic identity. Yes, Black Widow is still forced to fight the world in tight pants, but at least her male counterparts are equally embarrassingly dressed, and yes, she falls in love in AoU, but so does Bruce Banner and that relationship is not the defining characteristic of either of their multi-film arcs. As I mentioned above, Inside Out manages to acknowledge general gender differences without resorting to pathetic stereotypes. I just hope that some day we'll see this type of dedication to strong female characters as the norm, not the exception.
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