Theriyathu
Discussion of this summer’s heroine lack is in full throttle. Last friday, New York’s Vulture blog asked, “Where are the Roles for Superwomen?; Stu at Defamer jumped off from there, ultimately suggesting an X-Men spin-off for Ellen Page; John at The Movie Blog listed reasons “Why Most Female Lead Action Films Don’t Succeed” (shocker: men can’t identify with or believe in strong — and strong — female characters). Now, adding to the conversation in the least noble way possible, USA Weekend presents the appropriately titled “Girls Want to Have Fun, Too”, a cover story (with the least flattering photos I’ve ever seen from its summer movie preview that spotlights Gwyneth Paltrow, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Liv Tyler as the “leading ladies” of the season’s three big comic book adaptations.
Of course, each of these three actresses are only secondary figures to their superhero counterparts (in Iron Man, The Dark Knight and The Incredible Hulk, respectively). But that’s not the worst of it: the women are asked what kind of super powers they would like to have in real life (how about in movie life, as in what superheroine they’d like to play?), and when questioned on the subject of women’s roles in superhero movies, each suggests that we’ve seen great progress:
How do you think women have changed in these kind of films over the years?
Gwyneth: There’s a reason why they’re hiring actresses like us. We’re all women, we’re all mothers, and we all normally do different films. There’s a certain understanding of who we are and what we bring and a certain respect for that.
Maggie: Twenty or 30 years ago, the women in these films were vapid and just appeared for extra silliness.
Liv: In all these films, our characters have real jobs and really fall in love and have real dilemmas. When you look at the history of the comic books, the women also have changed.
Well, maybe none of them has to suffer a wet t-shirt scene, ala Kirsten Dunst in Spider-Man, but that doesn’t mean things are truly better. Really, it would be much better if the women in these kinds of movies were the actual leads. And it’s not like we’ve never seen a great action heroine — two of the greatest action films of all time, Aliens and Terminator 2, both directed by James Cameron, feature non-sexualized, kick-ass female leads. Plus, as silly as they come, movies like Charlie’s Angels, Kill Bill, Lara Craft: Tomb Raider, Underworld and Resident Evil have shown that sexy female-led action films can be relatively successful, too.
So, why does it still take forever to get a Wonder Woman film off the ground? (The rumored re-cancellation of Warner Bros.’ Justice League movie is another bad sign for that one). Why are there no female spin-offs from the X-Men movies? Is Hollywood really dumb enough to think the disappointments of Catwoman, Aeon Flux, Elektra, Supergirl, Barb Wire, etc. can be blamed on the gender of their stars? Just as many male-led superhero movies have been terrible, right?
OK, so let’s compromise, at least. Give us a movie were there’s at least a male-female superduo, like Cloak and Dagger or even The Wonder Twins. Or give Wolverine a sidekick, either Kitty Pryde or Jubilee, in his next solo outing.
-www.spout.com
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