The radical notion that women like good movies
Sexual harassment or seduction? Sometimes it’s a fine line in Mad Men. In my opinion, the best line award goes to Peggy: I’m in the persuasion business, and frankly I’m disappointed by your presentation. Or maybe it goes to Roger, for sheer…weirdness: I want to suck your blood like Dracula. What are some of your … Continue reading “Mad Men YouTube Break: The Mad Men School of Seduction”
Tune in all next week for Mad Men related pieces. Check back often! It’s also not too late to submit a piece of your own. And now, “How to Drink Like a Mad Man.” Cheers!
Mad Men…it’s on. Announcing…Mad Men Week at Bitch Flicks! Monday, August 29th – Friday, September 2nd! We’ve alluded to it…and now it’s here. We invite readers to submit original and/or cross-posted (with permission) pieces on Mad Men, for a week-long focus on the AMC series. We hope to find various perspectives and differing opinions on … Continue reading “Mad Men Week at Bitch Flicks – Call for Writers”
Yet what sets this 80s flick apart from most films of that era is the fact that the four protagonists are all women AND completely independent. … Ultimately, it is Midler and Tomlin who save the film from being just another forgotten comedy of the 1980s. The two stars bring a certain gravitas to the screen — a perfect combination of comedic timing and contagious chemistry…
In ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ the “strong female characters” are notable specifically for their aversion to violence. The film portrays its women as emotionally strong people who engage in violence only in self-defense, and only against the system that oppresses them.
In fact, many of the clients grow to appreciate the benefit of the female gaze, making their products truly (for the most part) appealing to women. This makes more profit than the false patriarchal ideas of a woman’s wants and needs. With the character of Peggy, Weiner is able to let us see the advertising world from the female gaze to criticize the falsehood that lies in selling female products with a male gaze.
Upon viewing the series after knowing the show’s finale, we see that the Don Draper arc reflects a small change in gender perspectives during that era. The Don of Season 1 would never act as the Don in the Season 7 finale. We see that Mad Men was all about shattering the hyper-masculine Don Draper mythos that he built and trapped himself within.
Lindsay does not like to think of herself as a mother. Whether it has to do with her negative feelings about her own mother, or the fact that it might make her seem old (or, quite possibly, a combination of both), it becomes very obvious that she does not seem to feel comfortable in this role.
What exactly, then, makes a character “unlikable”? How can we define this complex term? Broadly, a character is unlikable when they behave in an amoral or unethical way (which, of course, depends upon our individual morals and ethics), particularly when their motivations are unclear. However, when it comes to female characters, this term seems to diversify and pluralize.
Shots of Lisa emphasize her youth, her beauty, the perkiness of her breasts, and the roundness of her ass. Unlike Maggie, she is very sensual and perhaps the opposite of nurturing. She is openly mocking toward Marty and refuses to cater to him emotionally. Marty seems to see Lisa as a necessary evil; she allows him to deal with all the pain and degradation he sees in his job. At one point Marty says in a voiceover sequence says: “You gotta take your release where you find it, or where it finds you. I mean, in the end it’s for the good of the family”–implying that having Lisa in his life allows him to get out his “animal” urges, allowing him to be able to be a good husband and father to his family when he gets home.
However, female desire occasionally lives in the subtext of ‘Mad Men’ like fire ants fighting to dig themselves out of a mountain of sand. The show’s complex female characters are regularly lusted after, and at times brave leaps are taken into the sea of their cravings. Other times, their behaviors appear inconsistent, and it seems we’ve been cheated out of crucial discoveries that lurk just beneath their surfaces.
Film poster for The First Wives Club This is a guest post by Jen Thorpe. The First Wives Club is the story of four women who became friends with each other when they were in college. After graduation, the friends ended up drifting apart. This is a situation that happens to a lot of women. … Continue reading “Older Women Week: ‘The First Wives Club’: "Don’t Get Mad. Get Everything."”
