Entry tags:
First class.
I thoroughly enjoyed X-Men: First Class.
Having said that, though, this is an excellent dissection of how badly the film portrays all of its female characters. (The blogger somehow missed that "the nameless mutant woman with dragon fly wings" was Angel Salvadore, but that doesn't actually detract from any of her other arguments.) To say nothing of the racefail.
And no, the issue is not just that "women dressing sexy = bad." The issue is that out of all five major female characters, all of them were excessively sexed up. Even Moira was scantily-clad because she was undercover at the Hellfire club! Yes, Moira McTaggert! And the costumes are hardly the only thing sexist about the film, as Sherry astutely points out - even things like how the male characters were shown honing and developing their powers while the female characters just sort of had powers demonstrate how the female characters in the film were much more window-dressing and afterthoughts than the male characters. Sherry's blog post also doesn't bring up the (not gonna spoil it too much so let's be vague here!) thing about Xavier and Moira at the end of the film, but that was also super-creepy, sexist, and gross.
Also, why did the film make the only latina female character a stripper? Who turns evil. WHY. Angel was never a stripper in the comics. WTF, movie. WTF.
Speaking of X-things, I just spent the morning re-writing the opening to my now-long-overdue fic for
help_japan AGAIN. Two months along now and the damn thing is still kicking my ass. (*headdesk*) NOTE TO SELF: Deus ex machina is bad. Bad Nena, bad! Fix that shit and re-work the ending and then maybe we can be happy with it?
Having said that, though, this is an excellent dissection of how badly the film portrays all of its female characters. (The blogger somehow missed that "the nameless mutant woman with dragon fly wings" was Angel Salvadore, but that doesn't actually detract from any of her other arguments.) To say nothing of the racefail.
And no, the issue is not just that "women dressing sexy = bad." The issue is that out of all five major female characters, all of them were excessively sexed up. Even Moira was scantily-clad because she was undercover at the Hellfire club! Yes, Moira McTaggert! And the costumes are hardly the only thing sexist about the film, as Sherry astutely points out - even things like how the male characters were shown honing and developing their powers while the female characters just sort of had powers demonstrate how the female characters in the film were much more window-dressing and afterthoughts than the male characters. Sherry's blog post also doesn't bring up the (not gonna spoil it too much so let's be vague here!) thing about Xavier and Moira at the end of the film, but that was also super-creepy, sexist, and gross.
Also, why did the film make the only latina female character a stripper? Who turns evil. WHY. Angel was never a stripper in the comics. WTF, movie. WTF.
Speaking of X-things, I just spent the morning re-writing the opening to my now-long-overdue fic for

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"Maybe :) But accidental or not, it still speaks to me :] And writers are criticized (and rightfully so) all the time when they do bad things and problematic and sexist things by accident, so I dun think it's unfair to say "good job" even if they do something by accident, for they may learn from knowing what they did right (or at least right imo, that maybe it depends on the experiences you've had and stuff like that :) )" was my proposed comment :|
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Dear Hollywood/Marvel,
There isn't actually anything wrong with showing strong, intelligent,
badass women in movies who are more than just sex objects and/or
obsessed with their looks/relationships with men. Yes, even if your
movie takes place in the 60s. Also, stop making all the non-white
people either die or go "bad" while the white people take the moral
high ground.
So very tired of this shit,
earthy