Thursday, August 27, 2009

Feminist Feature: When Women Team-Up

You guys! I’m the resident Celtic, folk, and indie music lover; comic book freak; and sci-fi aficionado. Oh, yeah, and...feminist? Yes! I know, I know. I’m THAT awesome. For my first act, I’d like to provide discourse on the subject of all-female casts. It never works. Never (except in one case). I’m not a fan of it never working.

Just when I begin thinking that our society starts increasing its value on women, I’m proved wrong when I think more on it. The example that made me think of such things? Spring Breakdown. It’s absolutely hilarious. But it has a 5.0 rating on imdb, and apparently is not well received or liked. It’s essentially the 7.0-rated Old School with a female cast instead of a male cast. I found it funnier than Old School, yet which one was a hit? Why was Spring Breakdown a flop? It already aired on Lifetime and it was released straight-to-DVD just a few months ago.

Spring Breakdown is a star-studded cast with some of the funniest ladies in comedy: the somewhat insane Amy Poehler, the goofy Rachel Dratch, the amazing Jane Lynch, and the queen of dry comedy Parker Posey. It’s expected to be good. Add the astoundingly absurd Missy Pyle to the mix, and it’s even better. Even though I find the cast attractive, they’re not drop-dead gorgeous like other ladies of the film and television world (like Battlestar alum Tricia Helfer or Chuck sexy secret agent Yvonne Strahovski… mmmm). If a college or high school experience movie has an all-male cast with bombshell women to attain as sexualized objects, then it’s a hit. Even with girls. Come on, ladies. Start respecting yourselves! Support your fellow sex. Like Tina Fey says in Mean Girls: “You all have got to stop calling each other sluts and whores. It just makes it okay for guys to call you sluts and whores.” (One of the very select few with a nearly all-female cast that was a success but still underrated.) If you respect yourselves, then men will respect you, and then better parts for women in movies and television. As of right now, the only strong women are in sci-fi and nerdy shows where the cast splits awesomeness. Sci-fi has always been ahead in social criticism, especially in feminism. Start picking up the pace, rest of artistic world!

Maybe in twenty years, the movie might be a hit. It's definitely for nerds too! It's all about being comfortable with your nerdity and how that can be cool too. It's not just for the lady viewers.

Side note: Another unsuccessful and slightly underrated movie recently was The Women. No males in the entire movie are seen. It’s a stellar cast with hilarious and beautiful women. Failure, of course.

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