Black Swan & Drag Me to Hell. Feminist Horror Fans Rejoice! from MovieChopShop
So in a horror film, you can approach issues that are complicated, frightening, and beyond the black-and-white world of the “stand up and cheer” drama. Portman’s character is so complex not in spite of the genre but directly because of it. We can peer into the deep dark depths of her mind and confront the murky reality of how her life choices have stunted her growth as a person…and how her intense need to break free from her self-created prison leads to a horrendous expression of human weakness and base instinct.
“Crazy Chicks Are Hot?” 8 Messed-Up Portrayals of Women Going Insane in Film from AlterNet
Everyone loves to watch a hot babe going batshit crazy. At least that’s what the astronomical success of Black Swan would have you believe, the film in which Darren Aronofsky casts his misogynist gaze upon Natalie Portman, gorgeous and coming completely undone, for what is essentially a two-hour snuff film.
Classic Feminist Writings (H/T to Fourth Wave)
Full-text articles available to read online for free, including pieces by Marlene Dixon, the Women’s Collective, Barbara Ehrenreich, and more.
Is Hollywood Pushing Black Actors to TV? from Racialicious
Oscar nominees have been headed to TV: Taraji P. Henson just did a Lifetime movie; Terrence Howard has been doing a Law & Order spinoff; Angela Bassett signed on to a cop drama on ABC; Don Cheadle is creating his own series for Showtime; and Michael Clarke Duncan is doing a Bones spinoff. Rising stars like Columbus Short is joining Washington’s series. Common is headed to AMC. Of course, stars like Blair Underwood are already headlining series.
Tina Fey Stands Up for Working Moms (and Working Women) in Hollywood from Women and Hollywood
It seems that there are so many crazy women in Hollywood that it’s hard to find a sane one. Maybe it’s not the women who are crazy, but it’s the situations they are put in on a constant basis that make them act crazy on occasion. Maybe they are sick and tired of being treated like shit each and every day that they are fighting back and get marked as crazy. Crazy is a euphemism for a woman who has an opinion in Hollywood.
Cut! Hollywood’s lady troubles go way back from The Smart Set
Things in Hollywood have been stagnant for so long that a book such as 1974’s From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in Movies by film critic Molly Haskell’s has not faded become a historical document. The book was written during the Golden Age of American cinema, the age of Coppola and Nichols and Bonnie and Clyde and Easy Rider — and yet women were left out of the renaissance. As Haskell writes, “Here we are today, with an unparalleled freedom of expression, and a record number of women performing, achieving, choosing to fulfill themselves, and we are insulted with the worst — the most abused, neglected, and dehumanized — screen heroines in film history.”
A New Low: Bad Teacher Trailer from Women and Hollywood
Personally, I find it way more offensive that this stars a woman. Is this the parity we wanted? A woman who is just as much of an ass as the guys? What the hell happened to Cameron Diaz’ career?
Neko Case Can’t Get Laid! (for its discussion of 30 Rock) from Ann Friedman
I just can’t take any more of the “Liz Lemon is absurdly, comically unattractive and unlucky in love” plot lines. It’s simply too incongruous with Tina Fey’s beauty, Liz’s smarts, and her position as a successful, prominent head writer and producer of a major network television show.
Leave links to what you’ve been reading or writing about this week in the comments!
I’m not sure I completely agree with the AlterNet piece. (Not shocking, considering I read Black Swan as a feminist film)–but the author lumps a bunch of films in that list of “crazy chick movies,” and I don’t think it’s that simple.
I’ll come back to this. Maybe even write my own post about it!
Okay, no. I keep rereading it, and I keep getting more pissed. You don’t just throw around the phrase “snuff film.” Whether snuff films are real or a myth, their purpose is to depict torture (and often rape) of people (usually women) and then document the *actual* murders of these people. You don’t diminish that by lumping in that category a clearly metaphorical film like Black Swan.
It would be interesting to look at the way women and insanity is portrayed on film versus the way men and insanity is portrayed. But this article barely skims the surface and actually compares an intelligent, woman-centered film like Girl, Interrupted with a *real* offensive disaster like The Crush.
No.