Ruin your favourite books/films with a spot of feminist analysis

I am only at the end of series two of Deadwood. I would highly recommend it.
I knew Joanie and Jane were going to get together, they're nice girls aren't they?

"Diva" was a French film from long long ago, but yes, I saw it. In my memory it was more complex, about a teenaged boy who's obsessed with a black American opera star. What he does is steal the dress in which she performed, then hires an African prostitute to have sex with him while wearing it. It's more about her singing though--he secretly records her, and then lets her find out out about the recording and I can recall her saying in horror, "C'est un vol, un viol" (it's a theft, a rape).

There are Asian gangsters out to steal the tape, and a god-like figure who makes everything turn out happily. That man has an assistant, a young Indochinese girl who's a sort of Ariel figure (Shakespeare not Disney) who also gets involved with the hero, or maybe not, I'm not sure.

How about "One Sings, the Other Doesn't"? Kind of self-consciously feminist French film from way back.

I'm sure I've seen one performance of Measure for Measure where the silence is interpreted as her NOT accepting the Duke...

I like Pretty in Pink. I did wonder if it sneak past this thread but no...

Cruel Intentions is even more repugnant, overtly made as it is for the randy teen male who gets off on forbidden anality and girls tongue-kissing.

Oh, and did I mention John Hughes' teen movies?

Abusive male gets girl because he's depraved only on account of he's deprived (The Breakfast Club).

Sexy kiss from Charlie Sheen convinces a girl that it's ok for her parents blaatantly to favour her breother (Ferris Bueller). Test audiences again - fidelity means less to girls that beauty and a cool car (Pretty in Pink).

But I kinda love Watts in Some Kind of Wonderful so I'm keeping that one.

Did I mention action-adventure from Lethal Weapon right to Casino Royale? Don't get too keen on sex, girls! You're doomed if you do. Pah.

Reverting to the "stuff we love but please don't mention the gender politics" theme, I've just finished the box set of Season 6 of House, at the end of which the divine Lisa Cuddy ditches her fiancé, leaves the baby with the nanny (who must be racking up awe-inspiring amounts of overtime) and turns up in House's bathroom to announce that "I love you. I wish I didn't, but I do" Snog, swoon, aaaah.

Damn you Hugh Laurie and your blue eyes and sensitive musical hands, because this is Not OK! House has treated Cuddy like shit from day 1, he has consistently used sexist abuse to belittle her, he's an addict, he uses prostitutes.....I could go on for pages. The occasional nice gesture in amongst the abuse as a cue to the diamond heart amid the asshole exterior is heartwarming in films but a recipe for catastrophe when used as a guide to actual men.

There is some good stuff in House though, and Cuddy is a goddess, and I haven't seen series 7, so feel free to convince me I'm wrong.

I have not yet recovered from The Jungle Book, where Mowgli, having had numerous liberating adventures and worldly learning in the forest makes his way into the human world via a small girl who will slave for him:

My own home, my own home
My own home, my own home

Father's hunting in the forest
Mother's cooking in the home
I must go to fetch the water
'Til the day that I'm grown
'Til I'm grown, 'til I'm grown
I must go to fetch the water
'Til the day that I'm grown

Then I will have a handsome husband
And a daughter of my own
And I'll send her to fetch the water
I'll be cooking in the home
Then I'll send her to fetch the water
I'll be cooking in the home.

Buffy 'season 8' :)

I'm sorry

I got all confused

Happily admits to being a total geek

ahh but if you read the comics it turns out that wasn't actually Buffy

Buffy was mentioned upthread, I always felt that not having a successful relationship was more down to her youth than her strength. There is an episode in Angel where Angel and Spike rush off to Italy for some reason (returning a head to it's body?!), but really, because they both want to see Buffy. She chooses neither of them in the end, because she is off having fun shagging someone else and being carefree.

at far to much knowledge of BTVS and Angel

What was Taming of the Shrew like?

off topic, but has anyone seen that amazing film "Set it off". It's quite old now. Four black women in America and just all about how the entire system is set up against women.

The thing is, if they avoid Smurfette casting then zombie movies are a shoe-in for passing the Bechdel test, because by and large female characters are not going to sit around discussing men while a horde of ravening zombies attempt to eat them. So given at least two named female characters neither of whom get eaten in the first ten minutes, you should be home and dry Bechdel-wise.

I have never seen Pretty WOman, Dirty Dancing, SATC etc. Because I have no interest in seeing them- my idea of a good film is one with zombies, explosions, car chases or at least a decent rock soundtrack.

So, of my favourites, erm, sadly neither pass the Bechdel Test (the Lost Boys and Velvet Goldmine) but the Lost BOys is kind of interesting from a feminist viewpoint in that it's basicaly all about looking at sexy men engaging in homoerotic bonding (which is something a lot of straight women rather like)- the camera lingers endlessly on male torsos, males looking moody in misty lighting, males being quite passive too. OK if you watch it now you might well be going 'Pah, mullets and hairspray' but I saw it when it came out and slobbered with delight all the way through.
Same for Velvet Goldmine though there'sa lot more stuff about liberation, represion etc going on there.

I saw the RSC's 2003 Taming of the Shrew and thought that was an interesting take on it.