#celine sciamma

[wardengrill]

Portrait de la jeune fille en feu / Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

[nathanbates]

Where Orpheus lost Eurydice.

[captainjanewayandtheunicorndog]

Movies and TV-shows that tackle sexism are great and important and needed, but there’s something so liberating about feelgood movies and shows in which sexism just… doesn’t exist. It made me think about sexism in media existing in a Doyleist or Watsonion way.

Doyleist sexism is the sexism of the creators showing, which is usually equivalent to the sexism in society at the time. If you really analyse everything from casting to costumes and makeup it’s very rare to find media without Doyleist sexism, but I actually think it’s even rarer to find media without Watsonion sexism.

Watsonion sexism is the sexism in the created world of the story. Basically, everything set in the real world contains Watsonian sexism, as well as all classic Disney movies. Watsonian sexism in a story is NOT a bad thing, in fact it’s a precondition for having media that aims to critique sexism in the first place. You can’t criticise something that doesn’t exist.

A good example of media without Doyleist sexism but with Watsonian sexism is the film Portrait of a Lady on Fire. The director, Céline Sciamma, clearly wants to subvert sexism by telling a lesbian love story where the women are makeup free, have body hair and are not objectified by the camera. The sexism in the story is Watsonian because it’s in 18th century France, the women live in a society where they do not have agency and cannot be together.

But what about media without Watsonion sexism? I could actually only think of two examples of movies or TV-shows that seem to be set in worlds mostly without sexism, the TV show Star Trek Voyager and the first two Barbie Fairytopia movies.

Both of these examples have clear Doyleist sexism, and this is not me stating that they’re feminist masterpieces. What I am saying is that they’re fantastic escapism from sexism.

Obviously neither series is set in the real world, because these Barbie movies are set in a fantasy world and Star Trek Voyager is set in a utopian future that doesn’t feel any less fantastical than fairyland.

In most of the old Barbie movies, men are pretty irrelevant and the films probably fail the reverse Bechdel test. The difference with the Fairytopia movies is that they aren’t set in vaguely historical settings that vaguely hint at old fashioned social rules (like the masterpiece The Princess and the Pauper) and the main character is not even interested in a man at any point in the story. Women are just mostly presented as the people that matter in the world of the Barbie Fairytopia movies, and it’s never questioned or commented on by any other character.

I think we all know that no Barbie media can be without Doyleist sexism, because societal sexism is literally baked into the Barbie brand. These movies are not feminist masterpieces, and I’m not trying to argue that they are. I just think they’re very refreshing.

Star Trek Voyager is one of many Star Trek series set in the utopian future where race, gender and all other differences no longer matter. That’s all well and good, but other Star Trek series have some Watsonian sexism for different reasons.

In the original series, women can’t become captains so that’s literally sexism in-universe. In Star Trek The Next Generation there’s nothing stated in universe that would make it a sexist world, but the lack of women being in charge doesn’t make it feel like a truly equal world. The female characters in Star Trek Deep Space Nine have more authority and autonomy, but they’re so often faced with sexist characters (Quark, Gul Dukat etc). The series wants to deal with sexism which is great, but it’s not set in a place without sexism.

I don’t need to explain why Enterprise doesn’t qualify (why are Starfleet officers talking about women like that???), and whilst Discovery is a lot more female focused it also makes a thing of its strong female characters instead of presenting it as completely normal. The Captain is a woman called Michael, and the fact that she even needs to comment on having a boy’s name brings sexism into that world.

Star Trek Voyager is not perfect, but this middle aged woman is just undoubtedly in charge and no one questions it. Most aliens that she encounters do not question it either, and her crew never brings up the fact that she’s a woman. When the Kazon or Q are sexist towards the Captain, it’s presented as something very strange instead of something that would be triggering for example. Sure, sexism has existed in the past and some backwards species will be sexist but it’s never the norm.

Voyager has obvious Doyleist sexism with the makeup on the female cast, Seven’s catsuit, the fact that Kes is a two year old fully grown woman etc etc but the men onboard never have a problem deferring to the authority of women no matter how they’re dressed or how old they are. Most of the time women are the characters that the series focuses on, which definitely helps make the world of the series feel like sexism free escapism to me.

Many shows and movies with fantastic representation for women have both Doyleist and Watsonian sexism. I adore Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and it very clearly has Watsonian sexism (because she clearly lives in a sexist world) and Doyleist sexism (mainly shown through Xander spouting some of the show creator’s dumb sexist views and being presented as being correct).

I am not writing this to create a new kind of purity test, I just want to highlight how unusual it is for media to be set in a world free from sexism. I think that’s an important reason why so many women fiercely love Star Trek Voyager and the Barbie fairytopia movies. Also, this is just one aspect of representation that I’m touching on. All the shows and movies in this post are very white, and they’re all over the place in terms of being lqbtq+ representation.

I could not come up with any movie or TV-show without Doyleist and Watsonian sexism, can you? I’m a white woman in my late twenties and my knowledge of movies and TV-shows is obviously limited, so I would love to hear about the movies and TV-shows that would qualify. I would also just love to hear about movies and TV-shows without Watsonian sexism in general!

[asoftepiloguemylove]

YOU'RE IN MY VEINS, YOU FUCK

Henry Miller from a letter to Brenda Venus Dear, Dear Brenda: The Love Letters of Henry Miller to Brenda Venus // boygenius We're In Love // Francisco de Zurbarán Agnus Dei // Katie Maria I used to be a hole in the ground (via @heavensghost) // Rafael Nicolás Angels Before Man // Céline Sciamma Portrait de la jeune fille en feu // Kate Moss in a text message to Pete Doherty // Sophocles Antigone // Joan Didion South and West // Richard Siken Editors Pages: The Long and Short of It // Japanese Breakfast Boyish // VIVINOS Alien Stage; "ROUND 6" // Li-Young Lee I Loved You Before I Was Born // Hannibal; "Secondo" dir. Vincenzo Natali // Hozier Francesca

[sappholyrics]

[almondcroissantsandink]

"Perhaps he makes a choice. He chooses the memory of her. That’s why he turns. He doesn’t make the lover’s choice, but the poet’s."

"She spoke a last farewell that scarcely reached his ears, and fell back into the abyss. Perhaps she was the one who said, 'Turn around.'"

[existentialistincrisis]

The symbolism of the music being freedom, and something they connected over, and something that she uses in the end to reconnect to. The symbolism of the primary colors vs. the green dress and it standing out SO MUCH it looks out of place. The symbolism of the owner of the house cooking, the painter watching the maid make art. The symbolism of the cliff, and having to take great strides, wanting to jump but not being able to. And of course the symbolism of Eurydice and Orpheus. Celine Sciamma I will always love you.

[its-sweet-like-cinnamon]

PORTRAIT DE LA JEUNNE EN FEU FILLE EN dir. by Céline Sciamma || 2019