I was talking to Ruth and Nard last night about women in movies (we were talking about the Abyss in particular). I think it was Nard who asked why they always make the woman (singular- cause in movie land the world is made up of groups of 4 or more guys with a token chick thrown in) the scientist. She can’t be the action hero, but she has to have some reason to be there (unlike dudes, who can be completely useless tools and yet still get a part).

I think that a lot of entertainment creates female characters that are more like the mix and match book above, but everything below the head is always the same*. Head is scientist, torso of porn star, legs of super model. Head is ball busting bitch (who just needs to get laid), torso of porn star, legs of super model. Head is manic pixie dream girl. Head is mushy romantic singleton. Head is anxious and sexually unfulfilled career woman. Head dead set on bloody revenge of the people that have done her wrong (but the porn star/ super model body combo make the whole thing a joke cause a girl built like that could never take a punch, let alone throw one- I’m looking at you Tarantino and even Joss Whedon).

I watch a lot of movies where I don’t need to find the lead actor attractive to make the movie compelling or interesting. Think of fat Russel Crow in the Insider. Or Matt Damon (who I’ve never found physically attractive) in the Borne series. Actually, I’ve found Damon MORE attractive not because of his looks, but because of his feminist friendly comments over the years. Or any movie with a Tom (Hanks or Cruise) in it (ugh I hate them both). Or Brad Pitt (not my type).

But I am left, more often than not, feeling blah about the way women are written, because they are rarely written as people but as mix and match cutouts. Heaven forbid that the male half of the population should be made to possibly watch someone that they didn’t want to fuck. And I think about the stereotypes in movies and on tv and I don’t know a single woman that falls into them. I know scientists and mathgeeks. They are beautiful but not built like porn stars and they have a lot more going on in their lives than their movie versions do. They are also not unfulfilled because of their quest for knowledge. I know girls who look like they could be a manic pixie girl, but they don’t exist in real life as the humanizer of their boyfriends. I know soldiers and sailors who spend their free time painting their nails and wearing dresses. We are more complicated than cardboard cutouts. And we are more numerous than movies or tv would lead you to think.

I was thinking about this when Oceans 11 or 12 or whatever aired for the 57th time not so long ago. I think it was 12 cause it had Julia Roberts AND Catherine Zeta Jones in it. But they never once say a single word to each other in the whole movie. Oh and Cherry Jones (who I love) shows up at the end. 3 women. 12 + dudes. If the population of the world mirrored the population of movies, the human race would die out. The number of available wombs would simply be too few to repopulate the earth. And if the few women that exist entertainment world don’t talk to each other about anything other than the plethora of men in their lives, how would any of them know how to give birth?

Maybe that is why women get such flat roles to play. No one has any experience writing for them, at least at the same numbers that they write for men. Maybe that is why, even when women are portrayed as something other than a hooker, victim or doormat they still seem fake and uninteresting. Even “good” movies suffer. I watched the Reader last week, and god love Kate Winslet (who can do no wrong IMHO) but that movie blew Ralph Fines colored chunks. Winslet took a very narrowly written role and made something of it. But really her character was given very very little to work with. We know that she is poor. We know that she can’t read, but likes stories. We know that she is hardworking but terrified of being outed as illiterate. And we know that she has sex with a teenage boy (though we never find out why she finds him attractive, he’s kind of a git). That is it. From Winslet’s acting, we see t

(*- unless they are playing the sympathetic fat girl. But then it’s a chick flick and we don’t have to worry that male audiences will find the lead fuckable)