The other day my wife made the best crack ever. We and our friends have been planning a movie night where the women go to see What to Expect When You're Expecting, and the men go to see Prometheus. So she says, "I guess we're both going to see movies about motherhood." Zing!
I don't actually know if Prometheus actually propagates the whole mother-as-disgusting-mechanistic--evil-bioalien fear that unconsciously pervades many films, but everything from the Matrix (which actually means womb), to Alien, to Independence Day portray the ultimate evil as a thinly veiled, misogynistic version of the woman's body: an unthinking, mechanistic, pile of goo made solely to propagate control over masculine heroes whose greatest talent and contribution to the world is blowing shit up.
On the flipside, I've noticed that movies targeted at women represent the ideal male as a compliant, mindless drone, whose sole desire in life is to become the perfect accessory for an emotionally defunct set of neuroses posing as a woman. If you need an example, take nearly any romcom (Oh Bridget, I see you through all of your jealous, obsessive stalking and total, absolute mistrust of my every move). To be honest, I don't think that either version of reality is all that flattering a representation of the human spirit, though if you tune out all the critical thinking, I'll admit they can be super entertaining.
The fact that the men go to watch the evil body movies while the women go to watch the emotionally neutered ones is more than a little hilarious. Hollywood sucks. I know that producers would say they're just giving the public what they want, but look at the oppositions they set up. For men to escape, they go watch the destruction of women's bodies, these evil, unthinking forces that want nothing more than to enslave men and eliminate individuality. For women to escape, they watch pale, emasculated parodies of supposedly emotionally mature men. Then both men and women go home and they're supposed to get along. That's when the comedy really ensues!
Gawd, Freud would have a heyday with this stuff. Either way, I think that in most cases the real enemy of Hollywood is not men or women. It's thought itself. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go buy my tickets for Saturday's movie.
I don't actually know if Prometheus actually propagates the whole mother-as-disgusting-mechanistic--evil-bioalien fear that unconsciously pervades many films, but everything from the Matrix (which actually means womb), to Alien, to Independence Day portray the ultimate evil as a thinly veiled, misogynistic version of the woman's body: an unthinking, mechanistic, pile of goo made solely to propagate control over masculine heroes whose greatest talent and contribution to the world is blowing shit up.
On the flipside, I've noticed that movies targeted at women represent the ideal male as a compliant, mindless drone, whose sole desire in life is to become the perfect accessory for an emotionally defunct set of neuroses posing as a woman. If you need an example, take nearly any romcom (Oh Bridget, I see you through all of your jealous, obsessive stalking and total, absolute mistrust of my every move). To be honest, I don't think that either version of reality is all that flattering a representation of the human spirit, though if you tune out all the critical thinking, I'll admit they can be super entertaining.
The fact that the men go to watch the evil body movies while the women go to watch the emotionally neutered ones is more than a little hilarious. Hollywood sucks. I know that producers would say they're just giving the public what they want, but look at the oppositions they set up. For men to escape, they go watch the destruction of women's bodies, these evil, unthinking forces that want nothing more than to enslave men and eliminate individuality. For women to escape, they watch pale, emasculated parodies of supposedly emotionally mature men. Then both men and women go home and they're supposed to get along. That's when the comedy really ensues!
Gawd, Freud would have a heyday with this stuff. Either way, I think that in most cases the real enemy of Hollywood is not men or women. It's thought itself. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go buy my tickets for Saturday's movie.
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