what is wrong with people

Hubs and I had a rare chance to go out for a movie the other day. The stars aligned, my parents could babysit, we had free passes, and were not too tired. So we headed off to the local googoplex to see what we could see. We decided on Haywire, an action flick, which normally would not have been my first choice, but I'd heard that this was an spy movie which had a woman in the lead role, so naturally my curiosity was piqued. Also, rumor had it she was an actual woman who could really fight, and not a supermodel/stick figure with big boobs. I had high hopes.

And I'll tell you what, I was not disappointed. The lead, Gina Carano, is a Mixed Martial Arts fighter in real life, and that woman can kick some ass. And she has the muscle mass to make it believable. And sure, she was still a very atractive person, but I was so pleased to see that the movie did not give us so many of the femme fatale/female action hero movie cliches. For example, at no point did she run really far and fast wearing high heel boots. I'm telling you, I HATE that in movies. I don't care if you are Wonder Woman, it sucks to run in heels, and you would definitely not be able to outrun someone in flats. Also, there was no gratuitous scene where she a) showers for our the viewers benefit b) gets dressed, from the lingerie up for the viewers benefit c) undergoes a makeover d) pulls a gun out of her garter belt/nether regions e) seduces someone to 'gather intel' f) acts like a silly helpless woman in order to get past some guards or something. Sigh. I could go on. There are so many annoying spy woman cliches. But I'm happy to say that the character Mallory Kane, did not do any of these things. Yes, there was a scene where she had to dress up while she was undercover, and she looked really nice, but they did not make a big deal out of it, or show her getting dressed, which was a nice change. 

But make no mistake about it, this was a violent movie. And of course, even though I knew that the main character was a woman (which is why I went, after all) it was still shocking to see her first fight scene, because its weird to see a woman and a man in a real fight. I winced to see her get hit, because it looked so real. Stephen Soderbergh was the director, and he went for an interesting sort of 60/70's spy flick feel, with a lot of the fight scenes shot so your could seen both actors and their whole bodies the whole time. Which made it both less sensationalistic, and more real. There were not a lot of cuts in those scenes, or close ups, or sound effects. So it was less gory and theatrical, but also more distressing in that you didn't distance yourself from it in the way that a more cartoon-y fight would. 

Anyhow, I say all this to set up the fact that... guess who was sitting next to me at this movie. Wait for it. An eight year old. AN EIGHT YEAR OLD. And her ten year old brother. With their parents of course. There were hardly any empty seats in the theater by the time we got there, so we didn't have much choice, but I certainly hadn't anticipated sharing my movie going experience with Cindy-Lou Who. Serioulsy, what is WRONG with people? That is so not a family movie. Let alone a kids movie. It made me feel really annoyed with the parents. I didn't say anything to them because its not illegal to bring your kids to a violent movie (just stupid) and saying something wouldn't have made a difference. I'm figuring that if you are the type of parent to bring their kids to a movie that has been rated 14A, you are probably not going to be shamed into a better perspective by a stranger's opinion. 

Anyhow, it did put a bit of a damper on my movie going experience. And then the next day I saw this. 

                          Its a documentary about the representaion women in popular culture and the media. It was very, very compelling. A friend of mine posted this trailer on facebook, but I went and found that you can watch the entire documentary online here. Totally worth it. Very well done and informative. I'm not going to go on about it too much here, because you can just watch it for yourself and see how you feel. It gave me a good pinch as it were, because you do get so used to seeing the way that women are portrayed all the time, that you forget that its not, well, normal.

Anyways, I didn't come here today to preach (just complain really, a slight difference). But its just these things have been on my mind, and its good to think about important things once in awhile. Also, I just finished reading Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the new Girlie-Girl Culture by Peggy Orenstein, (a really good read by the way, and important for parents of both daughters and sons. I know its made me rethink some of my parenting and I have boys, not princess obsessed little girls). So I'm in feeling very informed on the whole feminist angle. And you know, whatever is swirling around in my head usually ends up on this blog. I know I usually post cute kids stories or recipes and quilts, but I thought I'd change it up for a worth while cause.  But don't worry, I'll see you back here tomorrow with a thrifting post. 

Comments

[Marcia Van Drunen]

My daughter came home from her school with a book that is sorta Japanese Anime graphix novel. I know it's popular, etc., etc., but she's EIGHT. She was half-way through it (she reads voraciously) by the time she got home with it. I read through it, told her how it ended, went through some of the pictures (well-done, by the way) and explained some of what is appropriate of not, and the reasons why some books are written and published. And high quality storylines are NOT the reason. So I told her she'll have to hold off for a few years on this genre. And she went off to read her Little House on the Prairie book.

[finger thumb]

amen sistah! I love anime, but its mostly NOT for little children.