I guess my problem with Wake Up Dead Man was that I didn’t think it cared all that much about female characters. I think it was easy to say “that poor girl” about Grace, but what about the characters that was living?
Vera took in her shithead half-brother and let him treat her like garbage and she was just resentful of it, and I think that’s a fairly normal thing, and she didn’t really take it out on him until that one conversation.
Simone was giving Wicks all of her money, but I don’t think she actually behaved in an entitled manner, expecting her wishes to come through before those of others or anything like that. Chronically ill and disabled people often do want something to “fix” them and Wicks took advantage of her desperation and then derided her for it.
Martha, I think, was kind of interesting to me, because she was pretty awful, but a lot of that behavior was indoctrinated in her by the church and Wicks Sr., and watching him die and then being viciously assaulted by Grace (an adult compared to herself as a child) can’t have been easy.
Idk, I thought it was nice that the characters acknowledged that Grace was a victim, but I think it did a very poor job of respecting the female characters that were actually present in the story, if that makes sense. I also take issue with Jud’s saying that Samson was the only good person there, when I think Vera and Simone weren’t worse people than Samson and were better characters.
OK. So. I actually don't think the narrative disrespects the women present in the story at all. I think the point is that the women are disrespected by the men in their lives, Vera's speech is the point
which is a commentary on how organized religion, in this case Christianity/Catholicism can be and historically has been used to perpetuate the patriarchy, which of course includes, perpetuating misogyny and the oppression of women.
Wicks is the one who has a son but he doesn't have to sacrifice anything, Vera does.
Martha is the one who is actually keeping the church running
Simone's faith is being exploited and as such her donations are what kept the church open - and we are meant to see that she's being taken advantage of
but Wicks claims the church as solely his.
We are meant to see all of this as unfair. We are meant to see how this church, how these men's lives rely on the labour and the exploitation of the women around them. It's supposed to mirror how the idea/the myth/the lie of the Harlot Whore was the backbone of this church
and how these women are currently the backbone of this church.
We are meant to see that Wicks and his father have been spewing misogyny and raising these women and men in that hatred because in contrast to the women who are overlooked, who are exploited, the male characters exhibit the type of toxic behaviours you'd find within the manosphere
Nat has a deep bitterness towards women
Lee thinks the world is out to get him
Cy spouts dangerous rhetoric on his podcast
and the result of Wicks, of Prentice, of what this particular church teaches is Nat and Martha because Martha was in fact indoctrinated and as such has internalized misogyny and it all ended horrifically for her and Nat literally kills in an effort to not be a "simp" and get his ex-wife back.
The fact that at the end they're paying homage to Grace and understanding her circumstances and her context is meant to be like breaking a generational curse and for the women in the story, it's freeing. When Vera has her speech and says "that poor girl", she sees herself in Grace, sees her circumstances in Grace, sees what the men in her life are doing to her as the same thing as what they did to Grace.
As for Jud, I was a little confused by him saying that Sam was the only good person in that place. I took it to mean the only good person who worked at the church and that by the end of the movie when he knows more about the history and the context of the church and of Martha and these people, when he has his clarity after his “Road to Damascus” moment, he then understands Martha more and doesn't see her as a "bad" person because of all the complexities. So, in my opinion, the entire movie is about women and these women.
