Heroine Content

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle

Grace — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 10:43:02 -0600

Back in March, I gave Charlie's Angels two stars. These stars were given in spite of the massive gender and race problems the film had, based on the relationship between the Angels and Bosley, and in the relationship between the Angels themselves.

The film's sequel, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, gets no stars. The relationship between the Angels is still more or less intact, but there is nothing else to recommend the film, and it is so sexist and so racist that I couldn't give it any stars even if there were.

Full Throttle starts with the Angels rescuing a federal agent being held hostage in Mongolia. The major features of this scene are as follows: 1) mindless hordes of Mongolians running around screaming and setting things on fire for no reason; 2) the first Angel we see, Alex (Lucy Lui), coming on to the scene out of hiding place in a wooden crate, black cat-suited ass and crotch first; and 3) Natalie (Cameron Diaz), dressed up as a Scandinavian tourist, riding a mechanical bull (possibly a mechanical yak) while shrieking "yah? yah?" over and over again.

The really amazing part is that it doesn't get better from there.

The basic formula for the film is the same as the first film (and as any other sequels that will be made, I'd think): the three Angels, assisted by Bosley, kick ass and solve crime. However, there is a major line-up difference between the first film and this one--Bosley, played by Bill Murray in the first film, is replaced by Bosley's (adopted) brother, also called Bosley, played by Bernie Mac. And rather than adding depth of color to the mostly-white show, all this casting change does provide a long, racist joke. The incompetence and need for protection that was an endearing reversal for Bill Murray's character comes off making Bernie Mac's Bosley look like nothing more than the Angels' dumb Black butler. This is especially irritating given that you can see, in the film's flashbacks to Alex as the perfect Asian girl (complete with a cameo by Béla Károlyi as her gymnastics coach), the capacity for racial stereotypes as self-aware comedy. That self-awareness is completely lost when it comes to African-American Bosley (and his family, who are briefly featured in the film). This same lack of awareness comes up again in the minor minority characters, including the Mongolians at the beginning, and the ethnic (Italian, Irish, Japanese) "crime families" featured among the film's baddies.

Just as what could be self-aware parody of race falls flat and becomes just plain racism, what could be intelligent gender commentary falls flat to become just plain sexism. The film's major villain is former Angel Madison Lee (Demi Moore). Several times, Madison implies that she is aware of the pathetic situation the Angels are in, and pissed off about it. "I don't take orders from a speaker-box anymore," she tells Natalie. "I work for myself." Natalie's response? "Well, your boss sucks." Rather than giving any kind of credibility to Madison's implication that it is better for a woman to determine her own course of action, rather than work for a man she's not even allowed to see, the Angels, and the film itself, paint her as a psychotic megalomaniac. And, as she is called by both Alex and Natalie, a bitch.

A running gag in the film in which Alex's father comes to town and gets the mistaken impression that she is a prostitute, working alongside Dylan and Natalie for a pimp named Charlie, underlines this lack of self-awareness about the sexism in the comedy. The joke goes on and on, but there is never an implication that the film's writers understand the validity of this analogy to what the Angels really do.

This is a pathetic, infuriating film. I literally mean it when I say that it sets us back 20 (or more like 30) years, as I am almost sure that the original 1970s television program off which these movies are based was more feminist.

Bring It On / Ice Princess / Stick It

Skye — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:43:08 -0600

I think I could actually write full reviews of all three of these, but they make such a nice set that it seems a shame to break them up.

Bring It On tries to be enlightened about race. What happens to a rich white girl cheerleading squad when they find out that their success has been due to someone else's efforts, and then they face off against a talented inner-city people of color squad at the national championships? Unsurprisingly, they don't delve any deeper into the black-white thing than they have to for the sake of moving the plot along. And I can almost hear people saying "That nice black girl who was the team captain, she was so articulate, not like those other girls on her squad who kept threatening to beat people up." Did the scriptwriters stage it that way? I had to wonder. I own this movie and I watch it several times a year because of the cute, but it does annoy the hell out of me with its cluelessness.

Ice Princess requires a LOT of suspension of disbelief. First, one must accept that no one noticed that skinny white Michelle Trachtenberg was cute just because she was interested in physics. Second, one must accept that Harvard University would not defer admission for a freakishly bright young woman who is interested in hard sciences in order to let her pursue her amateur sports career. Third, one must accept that feminists HATE ICE SKATING. Because of the cutesy dresses, you know, they completely invalidate skating's status as an Olympic sport that requires strength, dedication, and training. We're shallow that way, us feminists. Shame on Joan Cusack for taking this role.

Finally, the gymnastics film Stick It, which amazed me by having the most feminist potential of the three. Yes, there's a wiser older man coaching a rebellious young woman so she can find her true potential. However, two things about this movie totally rocked. They used actual competitive athletes for some of the speaking roles and most of the gymnast extras, so we don't have the usual issues with actors who don't look like they could do the stunts. The plot twist at the end involves a group of women working together to redefine the standards for success in their field. I won't say any more than that, because I don't like spoilers, but I was really quite surprised and pleased.

It kind of goes without saying that the diversity in all of these films is teh suck.

Wanted

Grace — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:14:48 -0600

In his Guardian review of Wanted, Peter Bradshaw writes that the film "plays like a party political broadcast on behalf of the misogynist party." I don't disagree with this assessment--it's a truly, truly awful movie--but sadly I don't share Bradshaw's surprise at the film's misogyny.

Bradshaw goes on to write that in the film "womankind is represented by irrelevant sleek babes and obese comic foils, an ugly whorehouse aesthetic which really does sock over its contempt for femaleness very, very powerfully indeed." While this is true, it's hardly unusual. The film gives us three female characters--lead antihero Wes (James McAvoy) begins the movie with both a nagging, cheating girlfriend (Kristen Hager) and a bitchy, always-eating, "comically obese" boss (Lorna Scott), both of whom he resents and immediately ditches when he finds out his other options, coming back only to insult and humiliate them further, in case the viewer missed out on the hatred of them the first time. For the majority of the film, however, the only female character is Wes' assassin trainer, Fox (Angelina Jolie). And though Jolie has her fair share of badass moves and I did get a little thrill out of her kicking her reluctant pupil's ass, she really doesn't shine here. Nothing about her character sets her apart as a heroine, rather than just another soldier who can also be used as bait sexually. As Bradshaw points out, she "did the assassin role with considerably more wit and charm in Mr. and Mrs. Smith." This role is certainly nothing like that one. What it does remind me of, however, is Jolie's embarrassing appearance in Gone in Sixty Seconds.

Even if Jolie had excelled in the role of Fox, though, there would still be a problem with her playing it. As Racialicious' Latoya Peterson explains, in the graphic novel on which the film Wanted is based, Fox is a woman of color (you can see her as she is drawn here). Yet, whoever made the movie's casting decisions decided not to use an actress of color, but instead gave the part to Jolie. This is bad enough in and of itself, but is compounded when you realize that the movie's major villain, Sloan (Morgan Freeman), is also its only major black character. The character of Sloan doesn't exactly exist in the comic, but the comic villains are not black. So what we have is one of the film's only moral and upright characters, and only strong female, turned from black to white, while the villain is turned from white to black. Not hard to see the racism there.

Not only does Wanted fail all possible Heroine Content tests for both racism and sexism, it's just a bad movie, and it's a rip-off. For the first twenty minutes you are watching Fight Club, only not as good, and then you start watching The Matrix, only not as a good. It's a frustrating waste of time and an insult to the everyone involved in it. Skip it.

Police Story 3: Supercop

Skye — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:30:09 -0600

Supercop is this great movie where Michelle Yeoh plays an amazing Chinese police officer who infiltrates a drug czar's organization to bring him down. She's clever, quick, completely in charge of the situation, and she kicks major butt. Michelle Yeoh has always been one of my favorite action heroines (p.s. Netflix, it would be awesome if you'd actually get Wing Chun on DVD). She's in top form here.

Oh yeah, Jackie Chan is in it too. He starts his first meeting with Yeoh's character by engaging in sexual harassment, which he excuses by saying that he's just being friendly.

Friday Links

Skye — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:14:32 -0600

On three hours of sleep last night, this is what I have for you:

Raiders of the Source Material on Sloganeering.org.

Zoe Saldana Talks To io9 About Star Trek And Avatar. Here's the bit that got me:

io9: Tell me about being a one of the few women on the Enterprise?

Saldana: I think it's awesome. To be on the Enterprise with all these guys, the message speaks loudly. She's a female, she's of high rank and she has her shit together. And never is it ever about, or was it ever about her female presence. It was pretty great. I loved being the only girl.

Yes, yes it does speak loudly. I just don't think it says what Saldana thinks it says.

I don't always agree with Elisabeth Rappe on Cinematical, but I'm glad she's writing there. Latest: Re-Raiding the Tomb, No Actress Yet for 'Witchblade' -- But We've Got the Teaser Poster. Monika Barytzel also posted pics from Street Fighter. (Ohmygosh, three posts actually written by women about women in action movies on a mainstream movie blog? I'm obviously dreaming.)

Bring On The Bond Girls? at the f-word Blog

Danger Gal Maybes. We'll See. by Lisa Paitz Spindler.

Coming soon to a theater near you: Immortal Kickboxer by Bao Phi, posted on Racialicious.

I'm sure there have been some carnivals and stuff. Maybe next week I will find them.

Indiana Jones: The Male Lara Croft

Grace — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:41:37 -0600

So Indiana Jones. Four movies, 27 years, four female characters, innumerable racial stereotypes. The franchise manages to move from Nepal and Egypt (Raiders, 1981) to India (Temple, 1984) to Germany and Jordan (Last Crusade, 1989) to Peru (Crystal Skull, 2008) and be racist in every location. Though the racism peaks with the horrific treatment of the Indians in Temple of Doom (they eat monkey brains why?) and gets quite a bit better in Last Crusade, it doesn't much improve from there. When Indy moves out of the 80s (30s in his time line) and into the present day (1957 in his world), he brings his archaic (archeological?) thoughts about hocus-pocus "undead" South American natives and their funny religious beliefs and barbarism with him. Making things worse, Crystal Skull doesn't even attempt a major non-white character, with John Rhys-Davies' Sallah (from Raiders and Last Crusade) absent and no native Peruvian character stepping up to help Indy in this adventure. This is a shame, because even though the franchise fails miserably to fight its racism with this latest installment of the adventure, it makes some pretty good gains when it comes to the portrayal of women.

Ghost In the Shell

Skye — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 22:45:32 -0600

I'm sorry if it spoils a surprise to reveal this up front, but I am giving the Ghost In the Shell anime series three stars. I am including Ghost In the Shell, Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence, both seasons of the Stand Alone Complex series, and Solid State Society (the third movie). I am not familiar with the manga, so I'm not addressing that here.

Major Motoko Kusanagi is one of the ultimate kick ass action heroines ever, despite being a cartoon. She's the squad leader of Public Security Section 9, a covert ops division of the Japanese police force, and the men she commands have complete respect for her. You know that scene in The Matrix where Neo lands in a crouch and the pavement cracks under his feet? He's trying to be as cool as Kusanagi... and it's just not possible. She's a cyborg hacker soldier woman of mystery, and she rocks the universe.

She also dresses like a dominatrix-style hooker.

Speed Racer

A Very Special Guest — Thu, 22 May 2008 20:28:48 -0600

This review of Speed Racer is brought to you by our intrepid commenter known only as "d." Enjoy!

Hi There! I thought I would give our mavens of Heroine Content a little breather and review Speed Racer.

When I saw the trailer, besides being completely impressed by the otherworldly visuals, I was struck by an image of one of the women: she was a woman of color with her hair poofed out into what looked like an afro, but it could have been some other tightly curled coif. Why the big deal? While being the scantily clad woman waving the checkered flag (or holding the gun, in her case) is not exactly what I would call heroine content, those women are supposed to be the epitome of what society deems beautiful. And instead of the usual big breasted, tiny-framed blonde, here we have someone who, in this country anyway, would appear to be the exact opposite of that.

And that's what the Wachowski brothers (the film's writer/director team) get right: they have a true multi-ethnic palate. They don't live in a white universe. That woman in the trailer turned out to be a queen, and the way she starts the race is really played up by the pacing and imagery. Now had she been a token, that would've only counted for so much. Thankfully, there are many people of color both as supporting and background characters (the main characters are the Speed family members - can't do much tweaking with that). There are some stereotypes around (like the ninjas dispatched by the villain to take out Speed and his race team), but there are also Asian enemies, Asian friends, and characters who inhabit that grey area of characterization. And this is the case for all ethnic groups in the film. In fact, there were so many people of color - good, bad and indifferent, that I happily lost track, and that's saying a lot for a racing film!

Unfortunately the female portrayals are more problematic.

Friday Links - But First, A Call For Guest Reviewers

Skye — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:08:07 -0600

Grace and I are looking for guest reviewers to cover Speed Racer and Prince Caspian (plus an optional extra review of Narnia) in the next few weeks. We would appreciate someone who will take a look at the films in terms of feminism and anti-racism, while also monitoring for class, national origin, sexual orientation, disability issues, etc. If you want to take one or both, please email us ASAP. If you don't have a blog, that's fine, as long as you can send us a brief writing sample so we know your review won't come out "HEY DUDEZ THIS F1LM RUUUUULD!!!"

Now on to the links.

First, a big ol' apology to the always awesome People of Colour in SF Carnival, which posted a day or two before we did our carnival last week. My Google Reader was overflowing and I totally missed it. Go there! Go there now!

News blurbs recently:

Ghost in the Shell going to be adapted in 3-D.
Moon Bloodgood has been cast as the female lead in Terminator 4 (she's also now in Street Fighter, says Cinematical)
Finally, A Dystopia Grim Enough For Vin Diesel with stills from Babylon A.D. on io9

Bizarre interview reprinted from USA Today at ComicBookMovie.com: The Supergirlfriends of Batman, Hulk & Iron Man. Gwyneth Paltrow apparently thinks "Comic books are still for boys." Maybe that's why she was so lifeless in Iron Man? Maybe if you're going to get caught sneaking into an office, you should at least TRY to bluff instead of just looking terrified? Maybe when your boyfriend is on the roof, you could try yelling "Get off the roof, dammit!" instead of screaming "But you'll die!"

To be fair, Patrick at The Hathor legacy thought Pepper was fine. Jess McCabe has something to say about it on The F-Word blog, and links to this awesome post at WOC PhD.

Elisabeth Rappe over at Cinematical asserts that Frank Miller Loves Tough Girls, in reference to the forthcoming film The Spirit.

(I love the descriptions of the women in this synopsis from Lionsgate:

...a bevy of beautiful women who either want to seduce, love or kill our masked crusader. Surrounding him at every turn are ELLEN DOLAN (Sarah Paulson), the whip-smart girl-next-door; SILKEN FLOSS (Scarlett Johansson), a punk secretary and frigid vixen; PLASTER OF PARIS (Paz Vega), a murderous French nightclub dancer; LORELEI (Jaime King), a phantom siren; and MORGENSTERN (Stana Katic), a sexy young cop. Then of course, there's SAND SAREF (Eva Mendes), the jewel thief with dangerous curves. She's the love of his life turned bad.

With characters like that, how can we lose? Oh, I mean, how can we win?)

Sarah Seltzer gives us a little link love in Take Back The Screen at R H RealityCheck, analyzing the portrayal of rape and assault in film. She mentions 300 and Spiderman, so go take a look.

I have a really hard time believing that Zombie Strippers is an intellectual feast.

The 58th Carnival of the Feminists is up at Be A Good Human, who then moved to Hop To It.

Wanted Poster

Skye — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:52:25 -0600

Let's keep in mind that the character Angelina Jolie plays in Wanted was a woman of color in the comic book.

Via Cinematical:

Who would you have rather seen in this poster?

21st Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans: Who Do You Love?

Grace — Thu, 01 May 2008 04:00:00 -0600

Welcome to the 21st Edition of the Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans. We're glad to include some new voices this time as well as some old favorites.

Props to Uncool, host of the 53rd Carnival of the Feminists, for clever use of alphabetization as a carnival organizing technique. It's not as lush as the technique we used last time, which was to spend 1.2 million hours organizing by theme and including long quotes and pictures, but doing it this way meant we could actually get it done!

So here we go:

Alan Kistler at Alan Kistler's Universe gives his thoughts on women in Marvel.

Mana G takes a look at Stargate: Atlantis - Gender, Race, and Teyla's Baby at All Mirth and No Matter.

Niall at All Things Uncertain gives a very favorable review to Jeanette Winterson's The Stone Gods.

Announcement: Cerise is looking for interviewers.

Dollymix asks Do Video Games Need More Naked People? If Skye had written that post, she wouldn't have been able to say "Thanks" to Kotaku without adding "for totally missing the point, you morons."

Naamen talks about The Fantasy of Rape: The Use of Rape as a Catalyst on Female Protagonists in SF/F at Feminist SF - The Blog!

Shannan takes on the problems of race and gender in Torchwood at Feminist SF - The Blog!

okelle at Garden of Words has some media recommendations.

Hathor Legacy's Revena tells us about Nim's (almost awesome) island.

Patrick at The Hathor Legacy gives an introduction to Justice League.

Ink-Stained Amazon Jennifer introduces The Sarah Jane Adventures and discusses the issue of powerful women being mentored by men.

Rhonda Jones, the Independent Author, Grace - Chapter 1: Bad Cargo. (We ask you, what's not to love about a blog with the tagline "Humor. Guns. Spaceships. Freedom."?)

nenena at Little Iron loves Wonder Woman, loves Shadow Hunter, and had a complete freak-out about Sakura Taisen, which "features one of the greatest casts of kick-ass women ever featured in a combined video game/anime/manga/novel/stage musical franchise."

LesbiaNation give us their Top 10 Women of Sci-Fi.

Kylie at PodBlack Blog gets our attention with a post titled From 'Bimbos' To Books And Wonder Women.

Filed under S for Shameless Self-Promotion: Grace loves on Firefly and Serenity here at Heroine Content.

The 2007 Tiptree Award for "gender-exploring science fiction" was announced this month! Congratulations to all the nominees and to winner Sarah Hall for The Carhullan Army (Daughters of the North)!

Katie King at Women, Art and Culture discusses the history of women in science fiction.

Naamen makes his second appearance in the Carnival with Female Protagonists and Why I Connect With Them Across Gender Lines posted at Words From The Center, Words From The Edge. Some good discussion of both gender and race in this one.

In Conclusion

The location of the next Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans is as yet unknown, but keep your eyes peeled!

The Forbidden Kingdom

Skye — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 12:00:30 -0600

Skye: Hello, Heroine Content readers. Today's review of The Forbidden Kingdom is being co-written by our good friend and fellow feminist Beth. Hello, Beth.

Beth: Hello Skye!

Skye: So Beth, what did we think of The Forbidden Kingdom?

Beth: Unfortunately, I think it was very predictable in the way it portrayed women.

Skye: I was somewhat disappointed myself. What was the first thing that tipped you off that it was going to be less than stellar as far as gender roles?

Beth: Well, I thought it had promise when Sparrow (Yifei Liu) rescued our Young Hero. However, she quickly faded into the background.

Skye: I totally agree. We were so excited to see her kicking ass, but after that incident it was like they started using her for decoration instead of making her an equal partner. The white kid fanboy geek becomes a kung fu master, but the fact that Sparrow already kicks ass isn't really honored.

Beth: She becomes window dressing.

Chak De! India

Skye — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 06:24:25 -0600

First things first. Chak De! India is not about women. Chak De! India is about a man trying to redeem himself on the eyes of his country. There's a reason that the poster says "Shahrukh Khan and His Team of 16 Girls."

To be fair, though, Bollywood operates under a strict quota system where half of all films must star Shahrukh Khan. I suspect that when they were working on the concept for this movie, there was a Shakrukh Khan crisis. Someone said "Hey, we have this great idea for a movie about the Indian women's field hockey team going to the world championships!" Then someone else said "Please tell me they need a coach so we can cast Shahrukh Khan! Otherwise we're never going to make the quota!"

(Alternately, they just borrowed the formula from American team sports movies in which a down and out coach tries to regain his former glory by leading the underdogs to victory. But I like my version better.)

Friday Links

Skye — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:00:42 -0600

A few news items about movies I've been tracking. Cinematical says Rose McGowan is Still Barbarella. Also, Rogue Giving Femme-Centric Comic Book a Chance - 'Hack/Slash' on the Way. Then, we find out that Michelle Yeoh is in Babylon A.D. as a butt-kicking nun, but the movie has been edited from 160 to 90 minutes. Yikes. Finally, Radha Mitchell, who was in Silent Hill, poor thing, will be in a sci-fi thriller called The Surrogates. Can't quite tell if it's an action role, but it looks promising.

There is going to be another Ultraviolet, this time anime. All I can do is show you the entirety of the notes I took when I reviewed it:

And not in that good way.

You should read Firefly: The Trouble With Saffron by Purtek at The Hathor Legacy.

The Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film is being created at San Diego State University.

The Carnival of Allies has been announced at The Angry Black Woman. The April edition of Cerise is up. The 57th Carnival of the Feminists is up.

And an old one: Decoding Hot Girl-on-Girl Action by Lisa Jervis, LiP Magazine, as published on Alternet.

Have a good weekend, everyone.

We'll Bring The Cotton Candy: 21st Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans Will Be Here

Skye — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:01:53 -0600

The 21st Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans will be hosted here. Our specific topic suggestion is "Who Do You Love?" but anything blogged between February 7th and April 28th is game, as long as it is a feminist perspective on fantasy and/or science fiction.

Submissions can arrive by email to Grace or Skye, or through the submission form. Extra credit if you skip all those modes of communication and transmit directly into our brains. Less clutter that way.

Get 'em in by April 28th, and the carnival will be posted May 1st.