Month: January 2018

The screening of “Mad Max: Fury Road” in class this week was the first time I had seen this movie. I had heard many great things about the film from friends and critics, especially its action and cinematography. Going into the movie, I expected Max to be the one kicking ass and taking names in intense car chases and hand-to-hand combat. While Max did have some impressive fighting scenes and stunts, it was the women in the movie, especially Charlize Theron’s character Furiosa, who really stole the show. The main female characters in the film are Immortal Joe’s “wives” who have escaped his captivity and will do everything in their power to get away from him. The first time I was impressed with these characters was when they had fought Max just after they had escaped. Furiosa’s hand-to-hand combat and somewhat martial arts skills prove to be a match with Max’s skills as he is barely able to fend off the women, not without some blood and bruises however. The next scene shown was the final fight between Max & Crew vs. Immortal Joe, and boy did it live up to the hype. When Furiosa sticks the the chain in Joe’s mouth and his face proceeds to get ripped off, my jaw was on the floor in awe of her badassery. The great thing about this movie was that it showed not only that female characters didn’t have to be the damsels in distress in blockbuster films, but that they could also be just as big asskickers as their male counterparts. This was an important message to send in Hollywood at the time and I’m glad that the success of the film has helped spread this idea throughout the country.

            When she first took the title of Captain Marvel instead of Ms. Marvel in 2012, Carol Danvers was not one of the more recognizable female characters inside of the Marvel Universe. The common person would look to women such as Black Widow who had rose to prominence from the gigantic success of the “Avengers” and “Iron Man” movies or to someone like Mary Jane, Peter Parker’s love interest in the Spiderman comics and movies. In my opinion, it was not until her turn as Captain Marvel that she really started to gain recognition and have an impact on the Marvel Universe, as well as in our world. From the comic we read in class, we can clearly tell that Danvers is not the type of “damsel in distress” character we had seen from many females in past comics or movies. Instead, Captain Marvel shows that she is fully capable of handling herself and even comes to the aid of the Marvel Universe’s beacon of masculinity Steve Rogers, or better known as Captain America. Hell, she even gives orders to him too. Throughout the comic, she shows she is just as, if not smarter than the male characters, as she outwits and overpowers her enemies to victory. Captain Marvel’s biggest impact, however, has to be in our own universe. With an increasing amount of attention being brought towards the feminist movement over the past few years, Captain Marvel is an empowering character that provides women with a symbol of confidence and power within their community.

On Friday, my group was assigned with reading and analyzing Rebecca Solnit’s article about men reading a novel about “a white man serially raping a child over a period of years” (Solnit) and giving their opinions on it. My focus for this blog will not be on the responses of the men, but on Solnit and the tone and themes of her article. It started to become visible to me that this article was going to be an aggressive attack on males when she starts her second paragraph off by saying “It isn’t a fact universally acknowledged that a person who mistakes his opinions for facts may also mistake himself for God” (Solnit). While this quote is not necessarily wrong, I immediately noticed her choice of words when she uses “his” and “himself”. She could have said “their” or “themselves” but decided not to. Another example of this is when she talks about upsetting men. Lolita says, “Many among that curious gender are easy to upset, and when they are upset they don’t know it (see: privelobliviousness). They just think you’re wrong and sometimes also evil.” This quote lines up with the beliefs of radical feminism. In this movement, there is a “struggle” between men and women and that the only solution may be to separate the two genders. From my interpretation, Solnit unfairly stereotypes all men as people who are unable to understand the emotions of others and that they would rather attack your opinion than have a civilized debate on the issue. Painting men as the enemy is not the solution to equality, in fact its quite the opposite. In order to achieve this goal, both sides must work together and find the best path towards equality.

 

The main focus of the second wave of feminism, which occurred in between the 1960s and the 1980s, was that the relationship between men and women had always been unequal and oppressive and from it spawned three different types of feminism to combat the problem. Liberal feminism’s goal is to reform society gain equality while Socialist feminism calls for men and women to work together to change society. The last mode, Radical feminism appears to be the most extreme. Followers of this group believe that men are impossible to change and that the only way feminist goals can be achieved is if they separate the two sexes completely. In my opinion, this form of feminism is ineffective and counterproductive to the goals of feminism. In order to gain equality, women do have to fight for it, but violence and complete segregation will not solve the problem only intensify it. Fixating on men behaving badly instead of on other important issues like workplace changes is a distraction to the feminist movement and is more detrimental to their cause than beneficial. Furthermore, it sours the relationship between the two genders even more and makes equality harder to attain. Personally I believe that out of the three modes of feminism, Socialist feminism is the best way to reach the goals of the movement. The only realistic way is for both sides to come together to address the issue and thats what Socialist feminism encourages. By seeing men as allies rather than enemies, we all can come together to find the best solution.