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| Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy in ‘The Heat’ |
Written by Megan Kearns.
I was extremely excited to see The Heat. Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy, both of whom I love, headlining a comedy? As a huge fan of Bridesmaids, seeing self-proclaimed feminist Paul Feig direct another lady-centric comedy got me giddy with excitement. AND with Bullock and McCarthy??? Yes, please! I don’t care what anyone says, Sandra Bullock is a fantastic actor, even in shitty films. And McCarthy is hilarious.
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| No, no, no, just no |
And there’s Mullins’ five-minute (supposedly humorous) tirade on the size of her boss’ balls. How his balls are little “girl balls.” That’s right, let’s insult a guy by insulting the size of his testicles. Only “real” men have balls. Wait no, only “real” men have big balls. Newsflash, masculinity isn’t tied to scrotum size. And trans men may not have balls at all. They’re still men.
Then of course there’s DEA Agent Craig, aka The Albino. Did anyone else cringe at this?? God I hope so. Albinism is a disability. So now we’re making fun of people with disabilities for “looking like evil henchmen” and calling them “Snowcone??” Make it stop.
With all the offensive “jokes,” I was expecting fat-shaming jokes too. I loved that Melissa McCarthy’s weight was never an issue in the film. No jokes were made about her weight. Oh wait, I take that back. DEA Agent Craig tells her she looks “like the Campbell soup kid all grown up.” Really? We see Mullins as a sexually confident, assertive woman and we can’t get away without some fat-shaming snark? There is however an epic take-down of the horrors and toxicity of beauty culture in the form of Spanx. Yes, I’ve worn them, yes they are a demonic torture device. This was especially awesome considering the hideously disgusting fat-shaming vitriol Rex Reed spewed at McCarthy.
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| Screw you, Spanx! |
But I have to say that while part of me is delighted to see different depictions of gender presentation, particularly non-stereotypical depictions of beauty (not every woman wants to wear dresses and lots of make-up), does Melissa McCarthy always have to be in slovenly clothes or ridiculous costumes in every movie I see her in?? She’s a beautiful woman. But it’s as if the films she’s in don’t believe that a plus-size woman can be. Why can’t we see a plus-size woman looking different? Or for that matter, why can’t we see more women of all sizes on-screen??
I did love Bullock and McCarthy’s camaraderie and watching their friendship unfold. And it’s fantastic to see two women over the age of 40 headlining a blockbuster movie. Especially when Hollywood abhors aging women and suffers from massive amounts of ageism. And you could tell they had a fucking blast making this movie. It was also awesome to not have a romance in the film, an aspect that delighted Feig as well. While there were flirtations, no romance upstaged the film. The ladies’ sisterhood took center stage.
While there’s very little commentary on gender and sexism, and an ass load of misogyny spewed by DEA Agent Craig — Sidebar, is that why it’s okay to make fun of his disability, because he’s a douchebag?? No, no, no — Ashburn and Mullins kind of “blow off misogynistic bullshit.” But thankfully there’s a very brief and subtle commentary on sexism in the workplace amidst a conversation between Ashburn and Mullins at a bar about how hard it is to be a woman in this line of work.
But did it have to follow in the shadow of buddy-cop movies by also containing transphobic, ableist and racist jokes? Couldn’t it have done without that??
Sadly I wasn’t a huge fan of The Heat. I wish I had been. But I just couldn’t get past the extremely problematic humor. Sigh. I wish it hadn’t been so racist, ableist or transphobic. I wanted to like this, especially because it was written by Katie Dippold, a writer and producer of my fave feminist TV show Parks and Rec. But feminism isn’t just about gender equality and putting more women in film. Although that’s a huge start. It’s about combating all forms of institutional discrimination and oppression. And not perpetuating prejudice.
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| If only ‘The Heat’ could have been as awesome as these ladies. |
Despite its flaws, I wholeheartedly believe we need more female-centric films. Way more. And you know what? I’d rather have a female-centric movie I’m not a big fan of rather than none at all.
I’ve read that author (and very funny tweeter) Jennifer Weiner doesn’t like to criticize or speak negatively about books by other female writers because she knows how difficult it is for women to get published. And then when they do, male authors get reviewed more often, and typically by male critics, since gender disparity exists in the critic world too.
And I totally get why she does this. Sisterhood and solidarity can be extremely powerful. There’s a dearth of female film directors, female-fronted films, female screenwriters, female film critics. So I always feel guilty when I don’t lavish a female-centric/penned/directed film. But here’s the thing. I really shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not my critique is going to derail other female filmmakers. Not that I’m saying my words carry as much weight as say NY Times’ Manohla Dargis or anything. But I don’t want to add to the din of voices hyper-scrutinizing women-led films.
Then I can critique a film to my heart’s content without worrying that some asshat in Hollywood thinks they shouldn’t greenlight more women-centric films. Hollywood never thinks to stop making movies with male protagonists. One shitty dude-centric movie? Bring on more dude films. A shitty women-centric movie?? All lady movies must suck.
yeah, I’m the type that you can’t give me just any women-centered film. it has to be GOOD.
I’d predicted on Facebook that you probably wouldn’t like this film. I hate being right sometimes.
Yes, you did…and yep, you were right. You know me too well
I didn’t see the movie so I don’t have an opinion on was it funny/well-written/racist. I think that something many of us in the progressive blog-o-sphere miss is that a joke absolutely can be racist/sexist/transphobic and be funny/”okay” IF the racist/sexist/transphobic person is the butt of the joke. If the joke is OMG this guy is such an awful racist, that’s okay. If the joke is HAHA black people eat watermelon, that’s not okay. It sounds like the “transphobic” jokes you mentioned were making the prejudiced people the butt of the joke, but it’s hard to say since I didn’t see the picture.
I see well-meaning people miss this element all the time, and it’s a major part of the reason why so many people think feminists are humorless harpies.
I’m glad I wasn’t the only person who felt like this. The first scene with Melissa McCarthy bothered me a lot actually, since I recently read a news story about a guy who was run over and killed by a cop who had decided to chase him with the car when he started running away on foot over a traffic offense. I thought it had a lot of funny moments and in some ways I liked what it was trying to say, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that these women were actually very bad at their jobs and shouldn’t be in law enforcement.
Yes! I think overall I would still say that I liked it, but these pros and cons were absolutely all on my list.
Finding myself caught between my desire to celebrate women making bank off of a “meh” film, and my desire for women-led films to be exceptional.
I definitely noticed all this when I was watching it, which is why it left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. Completely agree with everything you said, except the comment about albinism as a disability. I don’t think it is a disability (although admittedly there is debate about the technicalities), although the insults at albinism were horrible and bad writing/cheapshot/offensive along with everything else.
I think people expect much more from a film with female characters, for them to get everything right and perfect and intersectional from the start…but it’s like we’re judging the film to the higher standards than a film with male characters. Maybe we should expect more from *all* films, for them to be fully intersectional, not relying on prejudiced stereotypes and slights on marginalized groups. Also, I think we give male directors more leeway than female directors, since we expect that female directors to actually change the portrayal of females & not play into rom-com stereotypes through their films. Also, I hate how female-directed films are always trivialized and dismissed by (mostly male) reviewers on their content.
**Btw, feel free to call me out on the albinism thing if I’m wrong.**
Although I didn’t have a problem with most of the humour, I agree the plot was weak and perfunctory, but my biggest issue is one of tone.
The Heat is written by a female writer, so naturally it passes the Bechdel test with flying colours, going so far as to literally shoot dudes in the groin. Overcompensating? Maybe, but it’s still funny as hell. It’s good to see two female characters muscle down and treat men around them as irritants at best and disposable at worst, but I couldn’t help feel that the movie veered too much into fantasy land with the exploits on screen.
Grounding it just a bit more in reality would have made the power of their gender more meaningful. Otherwise it’s a bit like saying the only way these women could exist, and be capable at their jobs, is in this unrealistic universe where the pair are constantly having guns pointed at them but men are just rambling their plans rather than just pulling the trigger. This particular example happens too many times.
Otherwise, I thought it was consistently funny unlike other recent examples of the genre like Identity Thief, etc.
Thank you for your comment! You are absolutely right that there’s debate, both from within and outside the albinism community, as to whether or not albinism is a disability. http://www.albinism.org/publications/social.html And I would never tell someone how to self-identify.
I hear what you’re saying about judging female-directed films more stringently or holding them to a higher standard. Although ‘The Heat,’ while starring women and written by a woman, was directed by a man. But I completely agree that many critics and film watchers do just that. For me personally, I’m more critical of male directors. I actually give more leeway to female-fronted, female-written or female-directed films, trying to focus more on the positive aspects. Not that I won’t criticize offensive or problematic issues. Like The Help….a women-centric movie with a massive race problem. But I digress.
Like I said in my article, I’m thrilled this movie, which focuses on female friendship, was made with two hilarious and talented women over the age of 40 headlining. And I too agree that we should hold all films to higher standards, not just ones created by women or starring women. Yet I’m frustrated when a film is hailed a feminist triumph when it ends up oppressing others, perpetuating harmful stereotypes. That’s not the feminism I know. Feminism isn’t just about uplifting white women.
THIS –> “Finding myself caught between my desire to celebrate women making bank
off of a “meh” film, and my desire for women-led films to be
exceptional.”
I had a discussion with the very awesome Sarah Jackson (who I mentioned in the article) about this. We both live in Boston where ‘The Heat’ was filmed and took place. Sarah told me that she knows someone who works with Boston teens who are often roughed up by police, making it hit even closer to home. Considering how many people of color who are injured or killed by police, yeah this made me extremely uncomfortable.
Maybe I’m stupid but I don’t see anything racist about this film, and how is the puss in boots joke racist?
Am I the only one who thought Sandra’s character did not seem fazed by being asked if she were a man, it was more a commentary on the expectation of femininity of the girls asking, which is a good thing.
Seriously when did Mccarthy’s character say anything racist? She didn’t. Couldn’t see any racism in the film.
Why is the sisterhood co-opting the fraternity archetype cliches from movies like Revenge of the Nerds ( http://youtu.be/Hw6zrInbtQE ) and expectating different results?
As I said in my review, calling a Latino character “Puss in Boots” and the police brutality “humor” in the film were racist.
You should follow the “F” format. This is a ridiculously long blog post. I’m sure you’re going to write another one about this comment. I also feel like you are a tad to affected by the jokes. The Boston accent thing is not that deep. I wish you would’ve touched on the idea that a women could not be shown being successful in a career without emasculating the men she works with.
The film is also not racist and if it is, it’s probably being more racist towards Italian people more than anyone else. (And I guess albino people?)
Nothing racist? “There’s something extremely bothersome in the first 15 minutes of the movie about a white cop driving after a black man running on foot set to upbeat music as if this is supposed to be funny. Then there are watermelon jokes…” And because of the mega-crime of smoking a joint! Of course it’s okay to drive erratically onto a lawn (never mind the probable consequences, i.e., causing an accident, innocent by standards, etc…) hitting him in the process! It’s all in the name of catching a person who was smoking a fucking JOINT, so of course it’s all good (reminiscent of Bad Boys/BB’s 2)! What’s more, the demonization of drugs and how terrible the are to society (which is laughable bullshit!) is such a rare Hollywood theme. Don’t worry about the plethora of scumbag white collar criminals who rarely (if ever) do time, even if they scam the country out of billions of dollars. Rapists, pedophiles, armed robbers & etc… are penalized less than even first time drug offenders – and movies like this perpetuate the idea that this is okay and, in fact, should be tolerated without question! Drugs (except alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine, sugar [why this is not classified as a drug! I have no idea], pharmaceutical’s [which in so many cases are the same thing as illegal drugs] & etc…) are the absolute worst thing ever!
I’m a male and found many of the sexist remarks to be in horrible taste; not to mention the blatant racism,
I completely agree with this. Especially this week, with police brutality against young black men finally on everyone’s minds, this movie is not only unfunny, it’s offensive. I didn’t like “Bridesmaids” either, however. I think Paul Feig writes men really well, and then casts women in the roles. I’m not looking forward to the all-female “Ghostbusters” for that reason.
“Kwit macon fun ah duh whey I tawk” — Megan Kerns
Extremely belated comment, but the film came across to me as trying (successfully or otherwise) to make fun of those things – people saying they can’t be racist because they sleep with black people, the overworn movie trope of evil albinos, people asking offensive transphobic questions, etc. I’m trans myself and the last one didn’t strike me as particularly offensive because of that (unlike pretty much every other trans ‘joke’ in a comedy that I’ve heard). I get similar ridiculously inappropriate questions about my gender all the time, and the way it was presented in the film seemed to make it clear that it was inappropriate, which I found refreshing. I thought it similar to Agent Craig’s misogynist rants – the film wasn’t agreeing with his misogyny, and the joke was on him.
Of course, whether or not this succeeded is another matter, and ‘ironic’ humour can often still be offensive in many ways, but I don’t think the film aimed to explicitly approve those attitudes.