The radical notion that women like good movies
Jacqueline Joe as Tui and Elisabeth Moss as Robin Griffin in Top of the Lake This guest post by Lauren C. Byrd previously appeared at her blog Love Her, Love Her Shoes and is cross-posted with permission. You know there’s a Maori legend about this lake… that there’s a demon’s heart at the bottom of … Continue reading “Not Peggy Olson: Rape Culture in ‘Top of the Lake’”
Movie poster for In a World … This is a guest post by Molly McCaffrey. 1) Number one and most important of all, I’m thankful this movie was written and directed by a woman and that it’s a story about a strong, smart, interesting woman. Director and screenwriter Lake Bell at the Sundance Film Festival … Continue reading “Top Ten Reasons Why I Am Thankful for Lake Bell’s ‘In a World’”
Stephanie emerges as a poised, perspicacious, and resilient female lead. She is a wonderfully surprising alternative from most of the panoply of horror heroines who are tortured, fight, and scream their way through the terrifying films of the 80s. … Stephanie embodies what each of the archetypally male characters in the film fails to, and in doing so transcends the clutches of gender expectations in the film…
Rural poverty and urban poverty are not the same. Individual racism and institutional racism are not the same. However, these forces are woven together as they are fiercely kept separate in our common mythologies of what America means. We avoid difficult stories that disrupt the narratives we’ve come to understand.
“Mind if I get naked,” the main character of ‘Stranger By The Lake’ asks a fat, older shirtless man in the middle of a conversation. The two characters are at a nude men’s beach, so the question isn’t unexpected, but in a film which isn’t porn (and this film is not porn), male actors are rarely asked to be nude, and when they are, we most often see their backsides only. In non-porn films actresses are usually the ones with their clothes off, a situation that echoes the famous poster from the Guerrilla Girls which asks if women have to be naked to get into the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Women are still a tiny minority of film directors but naked women in films are plentiful, the stills forever appearing on websites where commenters can criticize every aspect, no matter how trivial, of the actresses’ bodies and debate whether the women are “hot or not.”
Check out what we’ve been reading this week–and let us know what you’ve been reading/writing in the comments!
The study from the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and a group of partner organizations analyzed 120 films from the 10 countries with the most profitable film industries in the world. On average, women don’t fare much better in films internationally than they do in the United States: only 30 percent of characters with speaking parts or names are women. However, the cinematic gender balance varies greatly between countries. In Korea, for example, 50 percent of leading parts went to women while women played only 10 percent of leading roles in Russian films.
If you’ve seen an ad or trailer for ‘The One I Love,’ you probably still don’t know much about it. After watching a trailer you’d think it’s a movie about a couple going in and out of doors. All of film’s advertising hinted at, but never revealed the Charlie Kaufman-esque twist at the heart of its story, telling intrigued audiences only that an amazing twist existed and that critics agreed that it would spoil the film to reveal it. Which is pretty odd, because the twist in question takes place only 20 minutes in. Right off the bat I should probably tell you I’m going to spoil this movie, mostly because I want to talk about it.
# The 100 3rd Rock from the Sun 30 Rock 2 Broke Girls A Ackee & Saltfish Adventure Time Agent Carter Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Alias All-American Girl Ally McBeal Alphas American Crime American Horror Story American Horror Story: Asylum American Horror Story: Coven American Ninja Warrior The Americans Angel Anne of Green Gables Archer The … Continue reading “TV Directory”
The 2014 Golden Globe nominations are here! Check out the round-up with all our feminist commentary on the nominees in film and television.
Did you miss these popular posts on Bitch Flicks? If so, here’s your chance to catch up. “How New Girl‘s Jess and Nick Avoided Common Rom-Com Pitfalls” by Lady T “Farah Goes Bang: A Love Letter to Female Friendships” by Amanda Rodriguez “The Women of Man of Steel and the Toxicity of Hyper-Masculinity” by Megan … Continue reading “The Ten Most-Read Posts from June 2013”
Outstanding Comedy Series 30 Rock (NBC): “Goodbye Forever, 30 Rock“ by Max Thornton The Big Bang Theory (CBS): “The Evolution of The Big Bang Theory“ by Rachel Redfern Girls (HBO): “Girls and Sex and the City Both Handle Abortion With Humor” by Megan Kearns Louie (FX): “Listening and the Art of Good Storytelling in Louis … Continue reading “2013 Emmy Nominations: Get Your Feminist Commentary Here!”
