annoyedI got half of what I wanted: I got air conditioning. I will be as spoiler-free as I can, but I am unhappy.
The setup of the movie is thus: four magicians, all of whom are awesome in their solo acts, are Recruited To Do Something. This isn't a spoiler; it's the premise, which leads to them teaming up and being awesome and also robbing banks and shit (all in the trailers). We have a mentalist, a classic slight-of-hand trickster, an escape artist, and a pickpocket/misdirectionist. As they start to do their shit, they are pursued by an FBI agent, an Interpol agent, a professional debunker, and a dude who got robbed.
Of the characters listed above, two are female. They never speak to each other. No, never. No, not even then. There are two secondary female characters, who also never speak to each other (one is there purely to be a pretty status symbol). The female magician is the only one who never gets an awesome moment where her field of magic, her specialization is both key to the plan and saves the day. Literally the first thing one of the other magicians says to her is "you're pretty."
YOU'RE PRETTY.
Now here's the thing: while I disagree that some roles are particularly "gendered," I can accept that right now, in our current media climate, you will want at least 75% of your romances to be between characters of opposite genders. I don't like it, but I will roll with it. And that being said, there was not a single fucking character in this movie who needed to be male. Make the smug team leader a girl, and make the ex-girlfriend an ex-boyfriend! Make the action character a girl (I basically spent every moment one of the magicians was on screen wishing he would turn into Beth Reisgraf). Make more than one important member of your team a fucking female.
And we now stand, again, at the edge of one of my biggest complaints about media today: a team with three men and one women wasn't seen as imbalanced, but the opposite team would have been. It's very possible that even a two-and-two team would have been seen as dominated by women. I am not calling for gender equality in every movie. I saw The Fast and the Furious 6 earlier this month; it was male-dominated, and it was fantastic. Not without its issues—what is?—but well-balanced, casting-wise, with multiple interesting, nuanced female characters who were allowed to interact.
When I go on these "why was so-and-so a guy" rants, someone always says "would you have this complaint if the cast were exactly gender reversed?", and I always say no. I still say no. Because there are so many male-dominated action movies and caper flicks and summer blockbusters that adding a few female-dominated examples would not be "reverse discrimination," it would be balancing the backlog. What I really want is gender neutrality. I want a team of two girls and two guys robbing banks with slight-of-hand and being awesome, rather than another movie that reduces me to a prize or a non-entity.
It's exhausting being this unhappy all the time.
The media won't let me stop.
June 9 2013, 05:08:52 UTC 4 years ago
My TV viewing (for fiction) over that same period had many shows with strong female characters. Warehouse 13, Lost Girl, Castle, SMASH, Bones, and Once Upon A Time all qualify.
Then some less balanced, but still not just one-sided. Elementary started out not very balanced, but it got better as the season progressed. Walking Dead, not really balanced evenly but still with significant roles for women. Person Of Interest, though male-dominated, had a very strong recurring VILLIAN role for Amy Acker - and from the season-ender it looks like she will now be a strong part of the Good Guys team in season 2 (so they make progress, it looks like). Dr. Who, well, The Doctor still dominates - but several good female companions since the reboot, plus River Song (fully The Doctor's equal when she's there). Overall, not too bad.
Grimm, however, has not used women very well so far. They had the "Superhero's Girlfriend Who Doesn't Know His Secret" role, then went down a painfully long "He Tells Her And She Immediately Get Amnesia" sequence - though FINALLY towards the end of the season they let her recover and be let in on things. But since she has no particular powers or weapons training, it's still doubtful she will become a full partner in things. I expect her to be treated as a Sidekick at best unless they make drastic changes. Foyle's War - male dominated.
I won't pretend that I actively seek out gender-balanced programs. I look for competent, sympathic heroes and a story that holds my interest. There are enough networks to give a lot of choice - and those are the ones I chose.
But not being a Nielsen family, my TV viewing doesn't get tabulated. The cash I paid for movie tickets (as rarely as that happens) does. So as far as "Follow the money" goes (and Hollywood is REALLY good at that), I guess I'd appear to be part of the problem 100% of the time. But there's still half a year to go this year....
July 29 2013, 15:37:10 UTC 3 years ago