The radical notion that women like good movies
Rosario Dawson Gives Some Real Talk on the Reality for Actresses by Kerensa Cadenas via Women and Hollywood Why I Wrote a ‘Mad Men’ Episode with Negroes by Erika Alexander via Racialicious Spotlight on Women Directors at Tribeca Film Festival by Paula Schwartz via Reel Life with Jane Women in Film Talk Why There Are … Continue reading “Bitch Flicks’ Weekly Picks”
Oz the Great and Powerful Rekindles the Notion that Women are Wicked by Natalie Wilson via Ms. What ‘Oz’ Owes to Early Radical Feminism by Michelle Dean via The Nation Why ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’ Is A Major Step Back For Witches and Women by Elisabeth Rappe via Film.com Where Were White Feminists Speaking … Continue reading “Bitch Flicks’ Weekly Picks”
Written by Amanda Rodriguez Hello all my new lovelies! I can’t tell you how excited I am to be the newest member of the Bitch Flicks writing team! I’m honored to be counted among such stellar, ass-kicking feminist pop culture gurus. When I consider what draws me to the examination of issues like gender, race, … Continue reading “Meet New Bitch Flicks Writer Amanda Rodriguez”
Buffy on the verge of killing a vampire In an article published way back in 2009, Robert Moore made the case in PopMatters for why Buffy the Vampire Slayer is such an important television show: Without any question, Buffy revolutionized the role of women on television, more even than Mary Tyler Moore or Cagney and … Continue reading “Quote of the Day from "When TV Became Art: What We Owe to Buffy" by Robert Moore”
Without any question, Buffy revolutionized the role of women on television, more even than Mary Tyler Moore or Cagney and Lacey or Murphy Brown or Ally McBeal. If you look at female heroes (as opposed to hapless heroines–I have always thought that the definition of heroine should be “endangered female in need of rescue by … Continue reading “What We Owe to Buffy”
Are spine-chilling films always in demand because they help us dialogue with and about death? … In the past year, I’ve been focused on seeing films directed by women because I participated in the “52 Films by Women” initiative.
Power Trios in children’s TV, like duos, are still composed of oversimplified types and characters, yet they also suggest that femininity is not so black and white. Three character ensembles introduce characters types than are on a greyer scale than the polar-extremes of the Light/Dark Feminine trope. In the case of female Power Trios, the formula consists of three characters that respectively represent beauty, brains, and strength. Characters representing beauty are usually ditzy and childish, but they are also sensitive and the mediators (so if they happen to be “dumb” they’re at least depicted with a good heart); characters representing brains are sometimes the group leaders, but also rational without being distant or cold; finally, characters representing strength are usually impulsive and hot-headed, but their rash tendencies are balanced out with a loyal nature.
Though very different, the two films based on Joyce Carol Oates’s novel, ‘Foxfire: Confessions of A Girl Gang,’ have a shared message: that rape culture is pervasive and the experiences of girls and women within it are sadly, universal. In both films, one set in the 90s, the other in the 50s, teenage girls inhabit dangerous territory, full of sexual assaults and near misses, all ignored by the authorities around them. Their experiences aren’t considered unusual or justified within their respective narratives, instead, they point out that women are given a lot of reasons to feel unsafe and afraid in our society. At the very least, we’ve all been told not to walk home at night or to be frightened by a man following too close on our heels.
Anita Sarkeesian of the Web site Feminist Frequency, a site that analyzes pop culture from a feminist perspective, recently completed her fabulous, six-part video series on Tropes vs. Women. She explains that, “A trope is a common pattern in a story or a recognizable attribute in a character that conveys information to the audience. A … Continue reading “Tropes vs. Women Spotlight”
This past Monday, Total Film published its list of the 100 Greatest Female Characters. As everyone knows, these Best Ever lists tend to have the pretty obvious problem of not being able to include everyone and, therefore, not being able to please everyone. But we here at Bitch Flicks found this particular list more problematic … Continue reading “Seriously? These Are the 100 Greatest Female Characters?”
