Month: January 2018

Mad Max Fury Road is a thrilling action movie, full of giant car contraptions and fighting. Imperator Furiosa is a soldier under Immortan Joe, and she defies him with his Five Wives in order to escape his control.

Imperator Furiosa is played by Charlize Theron, a 5’10 blonde model. However, the movie does not capitalize on her good looks. In fact, Furiosa is an amputee with shaved hair and grease all over her face. There is great effort to downplay how attractive she is because the focus is on her character traits, rather than her beauty.

It’s really important how Furiosa is integrated into the plotline because the movie’s goal isn’t to sell “FEMINISM,” rather than to show a story that happens to have a powerful female character. Though the recent Wonder Woman with Gal Gadot was well received by the public, I feel that there was too much effort on making sure viewers understood that she’s a female superhero. Many of Gal Gadot’s fight scene cuts interlude with a focus on her soft clean feminine face and bouncing shiny hair, but Furiosa’s fight scenes are focused on her brutal attacks and bloody face. Even in youtube comments for both respective scenes, in Wonder Woman’s “Warehouse fight scene” people comment about how beautiful Gal Gadot is multiple times with plenty of “likes”, while the scene with Furiosa fighting with Mad Max people comment more about the actual fight scene and the way it was shot.

In Mad Max Fury Road, Furiosa is a byproduct of the story, and viewers can see the subtle qualities that make her a feminist hero. In Wonder Woman, the story is a byproduct of feminism. Though I truly enjoyed the movie Wonder Woman and the fact that Gal Gadot was portrayed as a strong superhero who can be both beautiful and badass, ultimately the movie felt as if directors were building a story around feminism, instead of a plot.

 

Link to “warehouse fight scene”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klidfZG9oZQ

Link to Furiosa vs. Max : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcgn4EY5_S8

 

 

On January 20th, 2018, I went to the Women’s March in downtown San Jose. The minute I got to school where ACM -W (Association for Computing Machinery -Women division) was gathering before the march, I felt a sense of dread. I knew two people out of about fifteen people. We all went to the bus together, and I got separated from the herd of freshmen girls. Instead, I was struck by the door when it opened because there was no space to back-up.

This is the worst, I thought. I texted my mom, “I want to go home. I’m not even kidding.” I felt lonely and uncomfortable and embarrassed. The other girls, for the most part, new each other because everyone lived in the dorms.

 

The march began. I conveniently planted myself next to one of the people I knew, and I continued the conversation in hopes that I wouldn’t be left behind. Gradually, I talked with the other girls in the club while we walked. We bonded over movies and commenting on interesting or funny posters as we marched.

 

By the end of the event, I felt like I had made new friends. We looked out for each other and made sure members of the group didn’t stray or get lost. It was this sense of camaraderie that made this event meaningful.

 

In addition to the outward and obvious insecurities I had, there were also internal ones. Do I have what it takes to be an engineer? I’ve never taken physics before, I’m only okay with math, and coen feels repetitive. Lately, I’ve been questioning whether I really can make it as an engineer. But being at the march reinvigorated me. Here all these people around me, marching for the same cause and celebrating the accomplishments of women. People stopped our group and complimented our “STEMINIST” signs. If all these women around me can make it, so can I.

The Marvel movie “Dr. Strange” came under racism allegations by casting Tilda Swinton in the role of the Ancient One, a character that is  a Tibetan male in the comics. In an email exchange, Tilda Swinton reaches out to Margaret Cho, a Korean-American comedian, and actress, in an attempt to understand why Asian-Americans were offended.

The reason why Tilda Swinton is confused is because “I [was]impressed that, for once, they aimed to disrupt the ‘wisdom must be male’ never-ending story – and, by the way, for once, wanting to feature a woman who’s a badass, over 26 and not simply bursting out of a bikini. The biggest irony about this righteous protest targeting this particular film is the pains the makers went to avoid it.”
Essentially, the problem is this: Asian-Americans asked for an Asian actor (or actress!) to portray a male Asian character. The directors responded by finding a white actress.

Yes, it is forward-thinking to have a woman in a male’s role, but Asian-Americans are asking for a very simple solution: PUT AN ASIAN ON SCREEN!!!
“Ghost in the Shell,” a Japanese manga starred Scarlett Johansson as the main actress. Granted, the main character is a cyborg, so it is a bit hard to tell the race. “Dragon Ball Z” a manga turned into a movie, is not as ambiguous as Ghost in the Shell. Son Goku is based on Son Wu Kong, the Monkey King from Chinese folklore. Emma Stone was cast as a Chinese-Hawaiian in the film “Aloha.”

Typically the argument for not casting Asian leads is because they are not famous enough, and thus people will not come watch the movie. But it’s not like there is no movie industry in Korea, Japan, China, or other Asian countries. If they cast an Asian actor or actress, their over-sea fans will come watch the film. By not casting an Asian in a movie, the backlash ends up hurting its ratings anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DhoBuU1Dtc

Of course, the anger over white-washing is not shared by all Asians. In fact, many Japanese people don’t care at all, or agree that white people should take these roles. Those some points I do agree, because Naruto is a white character with his blonde hair and blue eyes, it is easy for Japanese people not to care about white-washing because they’re always represented in Japan. It is the Asian-Americans that feel frustrated over the lack of representation.

Sources cited:

Tilda Swinton article : https://jezebel.com/tilda-swinton-sent-us-her-email-exchange-with-margaret-1790203875

 

I love Star Wars and I watched all the old episodes! When I was seven. Honestly, I was mostly fascinated by the fight between the nice old man with long hair and the scary red dude with horns; I must’ve watched that scene alone at least ten times. And personally, I think Yoda looked like a nasty green disease attached to Luke’s back during his training.

So maybe I’m not exactly a superfan. Still, I have been watching the new ones, and I lined up with the best of them to watch The Last Jedi. The movie went as expected. Pew pew, explosion, etc. But when I saw Poe Dameron get indignant with Vice-Admiral Holdo, I was on his side. “What’s this old lady doing?” I scoffed. “CLEARLY Poe knows better. Who the heck made her the Vice-Admiral? She’s nuts!” Subconsciously, stereotypes bubbled to the surface to reaffirm this idea.  Here is this tall, waifish woman with purple hair, the color a stark contrast to the bleak orange and browns of Resistance fighter clothes. She is the opposite of Princess Leia, a small firm woman with a hard face and fine leadership skills, yet she has now stepped into Leia’s position. How can she lead the Resistance? And then another thought. “Did Princess Leia make a grave mistake by having Holdo as the Vice Admiral?”

The director waited until the very to disprove my thoughts. In a fantastic silent scene, Vice-Admiral Holdo is shown sacrificing her life in a brilliant move to save the few remaining Resistance fighter ships.

Vice-Admiral Holdo is one of the many types of female role-models shown in this film. Rey, Princess Leia,  and Maz Kanata are all heroes in Star Wars. What makes Vice-Admiral different from them is that she embraces her femininity. She doesn’t have to wear baggy clothes that hide her soft shape or cover her hair or stop expressing herself the way she wants because she is a hero by her own merits.

When did “Feminism” become a bad word? Ashley Judd, an American actress, and political activist read the poem “Nasty Woman” during the Women’s March on Washington in 2017. During the 2014 VMAs, Beyonce was illuminated by the word “FEMINIST” during her performance.

But recently, Katy Perry was quoted saying, “I’m not a feminist but I do believe in the strength of women.” So why are women backpedaling from the label? Why has feminist, a powerful word backed by the millions of women who fought for suffrage and equality, been reduced to a dirty word connoting a man-hating monster?

So I went and looked up opinion pieces addressing why “I am not a feminist.”

Blog link: If you read the blog, my responses will make more sense) http://feminismisahatemovement.tumblr.com/post/55334540059/9-reasons-why-i-cant-stand-modern-day-feminists

1. They constantly victimize my gender, and I find it insulting.

My response: Feminism isn’t about victimizing gender. It is realizing that women are faced with certain issues that men aren’t.

7. Feminists fail to see the redundancy in the modern-day feminist movement.

My response: You don’t have to be living in a third world country where women are raped and not even allowed to go outside without an accompanying man to still feel victimized.

That’s like yelling at a burn victim “IT’S NOT THAT BAD OKAY?! OTHER PEOPLE ARE DYING IN THIS HOSPITAL!” Your feelings of shame and disgust when someone catcalls you are still valid.

8. Feminists refuse to acknowledge that the gender pay gap is the result of women’s choices, not sexism.

My response: While it is true that women do tend to take jobs that are not so STEM-related, which would earn them a higher income, this person does not acknowledge those who DO and the struggles they face. Feminism is for those women to find solidarity in shared experiences and support. My aunt spoke of the inherent sexism she faced as a woman in engineering. People would refer to her as “sweetheart” and talk down to her, thinking that she didn’t know as much as them. Even now, she owns a company she started with her husband that deals with computer security and investors ask to speak to her husband instead of her.

To quote Jennifer Lawrence,” I don’t know why that word is so scary to people. It shouldn’t be, because it just means equality.”

Perhaps the meaning of feminism has been tainted, but I urge people to reconsider the original purpose of feminism. Feminism is about women not being blamed for wearing revealing clothes and drinking a bit too much, not feeling intimidated by a roomful of men in a STEM environment, or not feeling ashamed for being confident and self-assured. Feminism is to empower women and support them.

Citing : http://ew.com/gallery/celebrity-feminists/jennifer-lawrence