Thoughtful Tuesdays: Feminism in Action films.
Recently, Captain Marvel has been announced as the first female superhero film for the "Marvel Cinematic Universe". Feel free to click on the link above to know more about this super-principled superwoman:
It wasn't surprising considering the call for more female leads beyond the lovely and talented Scarlet Johansson's Black Widow has been going on for some time now. Since Jennifer Lawrence's explosively popular role in the action-oriented and critically acclaimed Hunger Games, many have been calling for more female leads in action films.
But what is exactly the current state of gender equality in action films?
The matter of fact is, the industry still remains exceedingly male dominated. The film industry is predominantly made up of men since its started in the 1890s; old boys' network, widespread sexism, discriminatory practices, sets up a strong glass ceiling for women in the industry. It is no surprise then, that the film industry is one of the biggest propagators of female objectification and "feminine stereotypes" such as the "princess/damsel in distress", "romance-centric gals" or "curvaceous dumb blondes". Even in current times, female directors/actresses getting strong recognition (e.g. Zero Dark Thirty), is incredibly rare and celebrated as a step forward towards equality in the industry, however small the step may be.
The main issue is that Action Films' (such as the popular "Taken") target audience are largely male dominated, especially among the fantasy/action genre.
And female leads such as Tomb Raider and in Ali Carter's Alice in Resident Evil are regarded more as sex symbols rather than strong female role models. In recent times however, there has been a shift in focus of the target audience, as girls all around the world had shown a sharp increase in interest of such action films, starting from the immensely popular and box office giant Twilight Saga. It spurred on Hollywood to make more films with similar target audience, such as the City of Bones, Divergent, the aforementioned Hunger Games and more recently, the Maze Runner.
Ironically, the Twilight series is one the most horribly sexist films around, as the lead character, Bella is terrifyingly useless (she attempted suicide just cause her bf left) and most definitely a terrible role model. The entire romance-centric plot does nothing to help stop gender stereotypes; instead, it strengthens them among young teenage girls — its main target audience. Even with the (much more acclaimed) hunger games, the films were more focused on being a political social commentary about horrors of war.
Indirectly, together with the rising fame of the down-to-earth J.Law., the film series helped and marketed honed a strong female role model that is relatable. Having a lead whose gender was not pivotal to the plot (really it could have been gender reversed and there would be barely any impact on the plot), was a indirectly a strong statement on equality. This, together with all the recent small steps, had started a stronger push in the media industry for equality of the sexes: from Cate Blanchett's Oscar speech to Beyonce's 'Flawless' to Emma Watson's #HeforShe UN speech to even Taylor Swift's recent full-blown feminist stance (mostly inspired and pushed by Lena Dunham).
Quoting Cate Blanchett, to "those who are foolishly clinging to the idea that female films with women at the center are niche experiences. They are not. Audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money." This was just proven by the recent film Lucy, whose titular character is also played by Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow). The audience for Lucy was split evenly between men and women, with 65 percent being over age 25. Michael Bodey of The Australian commented that women having comprised half the audience is "a seemingly new precedent for an action film". While its box office success did not reach to extent of its peers — misogynistic popular films such as the Transformers series, the fact that it was close, meant something. Again I emphasis that the gender of the titular character is not pivotal to the plot (which was honestly speaking ridiculous). In fact, one might argue the choice for a female lead (and choosing Scarlet) was a marketing (winning) tactic.
As a result, Marvel studios, faced with immense pressure from an audience whose female fans are now feeling more empowered to speak up and demand for the strong female role models (introduced in the comics since the rise of feminism) such as She-hulk and Captain Marvel, is making forward-looking decisions (if all things goes well don't be surprised for Marvel to market a full female Avenger movie rooster). Yet the biggest challenge remains as the fact that directors, show runners, screenwriters, are still mostly men and male-orientated.
Baby steps forward, I do believe the cool female leads in good action films that we yearn for will be more common place in say... 20 years?
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