Girrrrrl, You Got it Goin' On...

by Stacey Fearheiley

So,  never to leave a dead horse unkicked*, Eric and I had a little discussion "offline" about the Wonder Woman film after I had a chance to see it and I thought I'd share a few of our takeaways.

So much controversy, so little reason?  


Eric: I say "Get over it."  All the complaining about this film not being “feminist enough” is just evidence, to me, that we only have one female-led superhero movie that was a hit IN THE HISTORY OF FILM. Let’s just enjoy the fact that this was a hit, and hope that this means more superheroine women will follow, and maybe those movies to come will be everything you want them to be. I could say a lot more, but our friend Stefani actually wrote a great essay about the whole thing, so I’ll just point people there.


Stacey:  I agree to a certain extent.  I think that it is a really good movie.  I think it is the best DC Comics movie so far.  I loved Gal Gadot.  Thought the casting was great. BUT.  I think putting this movie forward as the End-All/Be -All for women directed/led films isn't fair to it.  It is an action flick, plain and simple, where the lead happens to be female.  I want more of them, but to throw this up as the best and greatest isn't fair.  No movie can be all things to all people.  I think the expectations were unfair, whether you believe WW met them or not.

What about Chris Pine as the "heroine"?

Stacey:  I could watch Chris Pine dial a phone.  He can do anything he wants and I will watch.  Here's where I am....he's the love interest of the lead.  Since the lead is a straight female, the love interest should be a male.  He is...and he's lovely.  Not only that, he is a good actor and his comic timing is perfect.  Everything you want  in the hero's romantic lead.

Eric: YES!!  Chris Pine is so good in this movie. He probably gets to see more action than most of the Lois Lanes and Pepper Potts – the girls who hang out alongside male superheroes. But to my mind, that’s the fault of those other movies. He looks great, he’s really funny, and is a terrific foil for the very earnest Diana.

Some favorite moments?

Eric:  I loved how subversive this movie is. There’s a whole “shopping sequence” that – on its face – was taken right out of any rom-com where the heroine needs a perfect dress to make all her dreams come true. In this one, she tries on outfit after outfit and is dismayed by them all. Not because they’re not pretty enough, but because she can’t fight in them. Because it’s a funny moment, the social commentary is subtle, but if you’re looking for it, boy it’s there – all about the way that women are literally restrained by societal convention in a container to make them docile, subservient, and unable to bend over, much less go into battle.

I also loved the moment – a tiny, tiny moment – when Diana sees her first baby, and is immediately drawn to this infant, only to be deterred by Steve Trevor. It’s a telling moment, and awfully girly, but it doesn’t diminish her bad-ass self one bit. She can be girly, and she can kick ass, and both of those things can co-exist.

Stacey:  I totally loved the "baby" scene.  I felt it rounded her out a bit.  She'd never seen one, only read about them...and there was a live one right in front of her.  It was female, but also just human. 

One of my truly favorite parts was pure action.  When she steps out of the foxhole into No Man's Land, with her shield up and bullets bouncing all around and still she pushes on.  We've seen boys do this in TONS of movies since the beginning of time.  To see her do it with the guys behind her, kind of shrugging and then following....really fun.  Had a smile on my face the whole time.

Thoughts on the supporting characters?

Stacey: One thing I absolutely loved was the fact that when she finally gets her gang of misfit fighters together, there isn't this long drawn out conflict of "should we really be following a woman? Is she really suited for leading us?"  etc. etc.  Once they see her do her stuff...literally, ONCE, they're on board with it.  Done.  She the boss.  Let's go.  It was so refreshing.

Of course the show stealer/stopper and character there wasn't nearly enough of was...

Eric:   Etta Candy!!  She’s barely in the film, but I just adored Lucy Davis in this role. Because of the World War I setting of this film, she likely won’t be back for the sequel, which will probably step forward in time by at least a few decades – but she’ll be missed. Aside from the horrible “Dr. Poison,” there weren’t many other female characters of note once we left Paradise Island – and even though Etta is not an Amazon, she’s witty and a bit brazen, completely committed to her cause of helping the Allies defeat the bad guys, and – if you blinked, you probably missed it – a suffragette.

Stacey:   Here's my dream:  That in subsequent films with WW as lead, they go back in time and connect the modern story with history some how and we see Etta as Diana's secretary and are able to have fun with that relationship as Etta teaches Diana how the world works, etc.  That's my dream.

Downsides/ Disappointments of the movie?

Eric: Could we not have found a way to include Lynda Carter in a tiny guest spot? As Diana first gets to London, perhaps a gaggle of suffragettes in white being led by Lynda? It would have made the audience cheer, and I bet she would have done it. Oh well, you can still catch her on the CW’s Supergirl as yes, the President of the United States. 

Stacey:  Leave it to you, fanboy, to find a way to get Supergirl into a conversation about Wonder Woman!

For me, I could do without the higher heel on her boots when fighting for right, truth  and the democratic way against Nazis.  I also, sorry actor who played the main villain (trying not to spoil it for those who haven't seen the movie yet), would have liked a stronger foe. Disappointed in who Ares turned out to be and the actor who portrayed that god.

Final thoughts on Wonder Woman, the movie...

Eric: I think it is definitely a feminist movie.  No argument.  I love the fact that throughout the entire film, men keep telling her to either stay put or stay quiet, and she never obeys. 

Stacey: I concur.  Feminist in the truest way.  She was equal (sometimes MORE than equal) to any man she met.   Should this be the big FEMINIST BEACON of HOLLYWOOD?  No. I don't think so.  But, I reiterate that I loved that after initial skepticism, once she proved that she could play the game like the boys, the boys accepted it and moved on.  (Sometimes this was not historically accurate...but I don't care.)

Yes, loved too that she never "did as she was told."  She considered other ideas,  evaluated the situation, made her own decision and did what she wanted.  She kept on going.

Eric: Nevertheless, she persisted.

*No actual horses were harmed in the writing of this blog.

When Favorites Aren't in Favor Any More

by Stacey Fearheiley

I saw Gone With the Wind for the first time when I was 12 years old, growing up in Tennessee.  I was dragged there by one of my best friends. She had read the book and it was being shown on the big screen for the first time in years.  So we went.  And I fell in love.

From that moment until the last 15-20 years, any time I was asked my favorite movie, Gone With the Wind was the answer. Unreservedly.

After I saw the movie and crushed HARD on Clark Gable, I read the book ten times, at least.  I bought everything I could that had to do with Gone With the Wind  Gable, the search for Scarlett, Atlanta....anything at all.  I fan-girled hard!  But why?

I don't think there was just one reason.  I think it was the perfect storm of puberty + beautiful alpha male + smart, sassy heroine who always gets what she goes for...eventually + gorgeous production values + soap opera story line = 1970's teenage white girl from the South dream!

In this week's podcast, Eric and I talk about 1939 and the plethora of really classic films that came out that year.  We talk about Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, and The Women, specifically.  I mentioned why I hadn't made my daughters watch Gone With the Wind, even though I do still consider it a classic (hint: misogyny and racism).  What I don't really go into is how I got to that decision.  I will admit ... it was painful.

So what happened in the years since my adolescence to change my enthusiasm for this movie for which I had been obsessed?  I guess I'd call it evolution.  My life evolved.  My point of view evolved. My world of acquaintances and experiences evolved.  My thinking evolved.  And there I was, educated past the point where I could truly accept and enjoy as entertainment this bit of a monument to the Old South.

Do I still love bits and pieces of the movie and story?  I do.  But my white privilege lets me.  Now, I'm going to try to not get too political here.  It is not about politics or right and left for me.  It is about who I've become in the intervening decades.  Let me explain.

I grew up in the late 1960's and 70's.  In the afternoons I'd watch Gilligan's Island, Scooby Doo, Bewitched, and I Dream of Jeannie (I will always love you, Larry Hagman!).  This was in the days of 3 networks + PBS on TV.  In high school, cable channels became more abundant and accessible. More options and the 1950's and 60's TV "classics" were no longer shown.  I went to college. I went to work. I traveled. And suddenly it's the late 20th Century, and there is a classic television show network showing I Love Lucy and Leave it to Beaver along w/my childhood faves.

So, as a 30 something year old, I sit down to watch ... to feel that same way again that I did as a kid; To laugh at Jeannie making a mess of Tony's life; To giggle when Samantha had to get Uncle Arthur out of a jam.  So I watched.  I didn't giggle.  I didn't laugh.  I certainly didn't feel that fun, free way I had as a child when watching Sam stifle her magic for Darren or Jeannie call Colonel Nelson "Master".  It made my stomach hurt.

Now, I realize this is a long way to get to a point about Gone With the Wind.  But that stomach churning/turning feeling was even more pronounced when I sat down to watch Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara on the big screen, when it came touring in our area in the 1990's.  I no longer felt comfortable saying that it was my favorite movie ... certainly not around my African-American friends.

Because as beautiful as the dresses, cinematography, directing and acting are ... the story is painful. It's painful in its brushstrokes of misinformation.  I cringe at the accents the black actors have to put on. I wince every time the "n" word and "d" word ("darkie") are dropped.  And I get downright nauseous during the KKK scene where its very existence is rationalized as being only for the "safety" of the womenfolk.

But, Gone With the Wind is still a classic.  It is, technically, film making at its very best.  It lives in the time period in which it was created.  I can accept that.  I can respect that.  But as a woman in 2017, "loving" this movie is now beyond me.  I'm not sad, because I like where I am philosophically and how I think now.  But I do miss the innocent feeling.  You can't go home again.  Wow ... sometimes evolution sucks.

An "Unfairest of Them All" Bloglet

This is going to be short and sweet, but ... in our sixth episode, The Unfairest of Them All, we talked a lot about a report from the Women's Media Center and promised a link to it.

So, here you go: click here to access the full report. There's so much amazing stuff here, including:

The only film in the top-grossing
2,500 movies of all time with
100% female dialogue

• How men dominate news coverage
• How more men than women write and direct for TV and film
• How women are sexualized on screen, as compared to men
• How this "female hypersexuality" can be broken down by race/ethnicity
• The percentages of executive producers, producers, editors, and cinematographers who are female (hint: it's a low number)

Also that breakdown of the top 2,500 movies of all time by how many lines are spoken by women and by men can be found here. In addition to that data, this report includes:

• How often women play lead roles
• Percentage of dialogue according to age (for both men and women)
• An analysis of over 30 Disney screenplays, broken down by gender

If you're a feminist, a data nerd, or just a fan of pop culture, this all makes for some fascinating reading. Enjoy - and thanks for listening! A new episode drops every Tuesday, wherever you stream or download your podcasts.

For Some Tests, There's No Easy A

by Stacey Fearheiley

If you listened to this week's POPeration! podcast you know that Eric and I talked about women in pop culture and in media in particular.  The unfairness monetarily and in role availability specifically.  We talked about how there were so many fewer female roles than male and that the quality of those roles was often insulting.  Eric brought up the Bechdel test.

The Bechdel test asks whether a work of fiction features at least two women or girls who talk to each other about something other than a man or boy.  (Thank you, Wikipedia.)  

What we didn't talk about were variations to that "test". In one variation, a comic book writer stated that her "sexy lamp test" was if a sexy lamp could take the place of your female character and the plots still worked, you should probably do another draft. Thus create a better female character. This intrigued me. Can these tests be used in real life; everyday living; in every day situations?

Do I leave a conversation with a girl friend if we're just talking about her husband or boyfriend?   Can I have a discussion with my female HR rep about my male boss and thus fail?  Do I give that colleague who contributes to my brainstorming meeting as much as a chair to the Salvation Army?

As a feminist, I want to be all gung ho about keeping the world as fair and safe for women as it is for men.  I want equality.  The Bechdel "tests" and its derivations, while evolving from the idea helping to that end,  are not perfect.  Indeed they weren't really meant to be.  They were and are created to just hold a mirror up and say, "look where and who we are.  Do we want to change?  Is this ok?  How can we improve?"

But they are being used in a more weighted way.  Critics are right in that "passing" any of these "tests" does not prove quality, or art.  It doesn't quantify a good story or characters.
As a writer and artist, the idea that I must create characters who are equal to each other, in any way, feels stifling.  I resent it.  I should be able to create characters who have the traits and values I want them to have...they may be male, female, gay, straight, black, white, good or bad.  And therein lies the battle.

Now, clearly no one is making film makers or writers put female characters in their pieces...there are too many male/male buddy movies for that to be a thing.  But maybe we do need to let those who DO write female characters have more opportunities.  Thereby more choices for characters to talk about more than men and more plot lines than those driven by men.

Eric and I mentioned Thelma and Louise, from 1991.  But there have been more recent examples. They include the Ghostbusters (2016), Wonder Woman (2017), Table 19 (2017), Bad Moms (2016) and The Girl on the Train (2016).  

This is by no means an extensive list...there are MANY more, but these were hits and/or bigger budget gigs.  These had marketing money spent on them.  And all were clearly female in brand.

These are facts that make me feel better. The wins, if you will...not the losses.

If the Bechdel test, and those like it, do anything, it is to keep us thinking and aware of the inequalities still out there.  Awareness is key.  Admitting there is a problem is the first step.