Nothing has made me more appreciative of my upbringing than the Verizon spot that’s gone viral in the past few weeks, about all the little micro-aggressions that bully women into a societally accepted mold, away from the common interests that all kids share like building and dinosaurs. The spot made me wonder about other ways this belittling behavior has affected women, especially in the way it affects the kind of films women want to watch—and make.
You don’t have to be an intellectual elitist to hate ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction.’ It is a terrible movie for reasons that have nothing to do with a lack of originality and everything to do with an abundance of vulgarity, violence, misogyny, and racism.
But why are stories of female characters taking aggressive or assertive stances allowed to happen only after they have been victimized? In men’s revenge stories, oftentimes a woman has been killed off and he sets out to even the score. In a female revenge story, more often than not she has been assaulted and wants to get even. In both cases, women are victimized and the female body is used to move the narrative forward.
For this theme week at Bitch Flicks, we want to read about your favorite Cult Classics and B-Movies. These are usually our most popular theme weeks—people love any iteration of the horror genre, especially with a little comedy thrown in—so I won’t spend time defining Cult Films and B-Movies. You know what they are. Instead, I’ll leave you with lists of some of the most popular Cult Films and B-Movies, according to all those other lists out there.
# 50/50 5 Broken Cameras 500 Days of Summer 45 Years The 40-Year-Old Virgin 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days 9 to 5 1971 101 Dalmations 127 Hours 10 Days in a Madhouse 10,000 km 3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets 300: Rise of an Empire 12 Years a Slave 28 Days Later A Abuse … Continue reading “Film Directory”
Did you miss these popular posts on Bitch Flicks? If so, here’s your chance to catch up. “Gratuitous Female Nudity and Complex Female Characters in Game of Thrones“ by Lady T “How to Recognize the Signs of Feminist Burnout” by Myrna Waldron “Nothing Can Save The Walking Dead‘s Sexist Woman Problem” by Megan Kearns “In … Continue reading “The Ten Most-Read Posts from April 2013”
Written by Max Thornton. [content note: explicit discussion of violence and rape] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle: “Violent media poisoning nation’s soul.” Is it, though? To his credit, LaSalle recognizes that it’s pretty fatuous to blame movie violence for real-life violent crime, but that doesn’t stop him from calling for blanket R ratings … Continue reading “When Dumb Fun Turns Nasty: Sexual Violence in Stupid Movies”
Written by Max Thornton. I have a confession to make: Last year, I only went to the movies a dozen times, and only 7 of those were 2012 releases. That is the least time I have spent at the movies in any year since I started going to the movies. There are a few reasons … Continue reading “2013 Pop-Culture Resolutions”
I spent my teen years hopelessly addicted to zombie movies. No matter how poorly made, no matter how artistically worthless, no matter how nasty and exploitative, if the movie had zombies in it, I would watch. The first thing I bought with the first paycheck from my first job at seventeen was Jamie Russell’s Book … Continue reading “Horror Week 2012: A Brief Feministory of Zombie Cinema”
This review, written by Stephanie Rogers, was originally published in June 2009. Drag Me To Hell. Starring Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao, David Paymer, and Adriana Barraza. Written by Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi. Directed by Sam Raimi. The honest truth: I loved Drag Me To Hell. Even though I’m not familiar … Continue reading “Horror Week 2011: Drag Me to Hell”
Drag Me To Hell. Starring Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao, David Paymer, and Adriana Barraza. Written by Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi. Directed by Sam Raimi. The honest truth: I loved Drag Me To Hell. Even though I’m not familiar with Sam Raimi’s other cult classic horror films (the Evil Dead saga, … Continue reading “Movie Review: Drag Me To Hell”
This violence through language establishes a paradigm that persists throughout the film in which female expression, female control over their anatomy/body and others’ is aggressively and oppressively impugned upon and violated by male domination. Mary’s passion and talent — and thus selfhood — exists imperiled and impeached by the overtures of men.