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

But Marion in Raiders of the lost Ark, managed to kick some ass in between screaming at snakes (who wouldn't by the way). And come on, lets be frank... wouldn't you have fancied Indiana Jones?

Pretty woman is shite.

Philadelphia Story, ok I knows it's old, really pisses me off as it's about a strong-minded woman brought to heel.

The father is having an affair with a , the press' discovery of which, threatens to disrupt his dd's wedding, he's completely unapologetic and he tells Tracy, his daughter, played by Hepburn, that it's her fault he's unfaithful:

Seth: I suppose the best mainstay a man
can have as he gets along in years...is a daughter. The right kind of daughter...A devoted young girl gives a man the illusion...that youth is still his. Because, without her, he might be
inclined to go in search of his youth. But with a girl of his own, full of warmth for him...

Tracy: So I'm to blame for Tina Mara, am I?

Seth: To a certain extent, I expect you are.

that image you linked made me think of Gone With The Wind. Which, of course, has a lovely romantic rape scene when Rhett carries Scarlett up the stairs; film still ends with her wanting him not the other way round though

Seth - I stole it from a feminist essay from the (I think) early 90s I read a while back. Can't for the life of me remember who wrote it though. I read it and thought "this author is me. She has the exact same complaint!"

Shame on you all picking apart some of my favourite film

My favourite film of all time is Cry Baby so don't any of you dare.....

seth - nothing as 'good' as Cookson more like (but not specifically) <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n19/n97719.jpg&imgrefurl=www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/j/anna-jacobs/our-mary-ann.htm&usg=__Pf8Pz9DD5EzngiV6VzrTGA2MeXk=&h=475&w=303&sz=20&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=HCzblDczaPCZeM:&tbnh=169&tbnw=112&prev=/images%3Fq%3Danna%2Bjacobs%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D643%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=347&vpy=55&dur=380&hovh=281&hovw=179&tx=69&ty=152&ei=72vdTJ78IqaAhAeA8_naDA&oei=72vdTJ78IqaAhAeA8_naDA&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this and <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.annajacobs.com/images/fullcovers/f_likeno.jpg&imgrefurl=www.annajacobs.com/book.asp%3FpageID%3D14&usg=__cjf4Tvymaf7CYfEuiM_ukbICWLE=&h=400&w=550&sz=97&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=7_v8HM8v0osPQM:&tbnh=169&tbnw=230&prev=/images%3Fq%3Danna%2Bjacobs%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D643%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=750&vpy=96&dur=54&hovh=191&hovw=263&tx=84&ty=154&ei=72vdTJ78IqaAhAeA8_naDA&oei=72vdTJ78IqaAhAeA8_naDA&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this

Incidently typing in historical romance novels bring up this image <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=forladiesbyladies.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/image001.gif&imgrefurl=www.historical-romance.org/&usg=__LY1XR77QDxcSl5PpQlvBJaonTz8=&h=288&w=384&sz=80&hl=en&start=72&zoom=1&tbnid=54IzqD8V4M8K8M:&tbnh=155&tbnw=209&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhistorical%2Bromance%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D643%26tbs%3Disch:10,1585&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=648&vpy=275&dur=3910&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=81&ty=116&ei=S2vdTNXyNs3v4gbs0qHQDw&oei=ImvdTOnbB52ShAeG6onVDA&esq=6&page=4&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:72&biw=1366&bih=643" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here which just about sums everything up nicely...

Back from school...

I was so sure it was her first night in Pretty Woman - can't bear to watch it again to check though.

Portblacksand - do you mean Catherine Cookson, or something more modern?

love the phrase 'Smurfette effect'. Smurfs were one of the first things that turned me into a feminist - when my brothers got to choose from a wide selection of Fireman Smurf, Clown Smurf, Car Mechanic Smurf, Elderly Authority Figure Smurf, and I got bloody Smurfette with her silly stuck-on blonde hair. (God, how othering was that hair?)

It's a movie* requirement that the "Troublesome Woman" has to die.

Fatal Attraction, Thelma and Louise, oh and the most notorious one is Sharon Stone in Total Recall, killed by her "husband" with the line "Consider that a divorce."

Also was it Prizzi's Honour, when Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas were rival hit men hired to kill each other? Of course, she's the one who gets killed.

• Not just movies of course. There's the first Mrs Rochester and many others which I can't recall at the moment due to a dirty nappy wafting stenchfully for my attention from another room.

Oh I loved Dangerous Liasons mainly due to Glenn Close and John Malkovitch they are amazing Michelle Pffeifer was passable but it was a dull role basically an archetype not a person.

It is wholly due to her performance that I feel sorry for Glenn Close at the end even if you are not meant to and think Michelle and John got off easy by dying romantically.

Bigmouth- God that's depressing. I loved most of Thelma and Louise, but would have loved it more if they had been sipping cocktails in Mexico at the end!

P and L as I lived in the North for most of my childhood and for Uni I felt no need to read romanticised versions of it - I had loved Angela Carter books as a teen (still do). But I do remember reading 'Daddy Long Legs' - basically orphan has her education paid for by mysterious benefactor she writes to him and names him 'Daddy Long Legs'. She goes to Uni and has various flirtations with an older man whom she later marries and it turns out he was 'Daddy' all along (not biologically but still!) - ick... but I loved it at the time. I think a film was made as well...

Dangerous Liasons:

To my shame, this was one of my all time favourite films:

Utter utter scumbag of a man manages to

1. seduce a faithful woman, and kill her (dies of broken heart)
2. Rape, impregnate and debauch a schoolgirl for sport.
3. Posthumously publish salacious correspondence with his female protagonist resulting in HER being shunned by society.

Mad Men:
managed to watch series 1. Cannot face downloading/buying any more. Does it get any less mysogynistic?

i have always liked the long kiss goodnight, because i like the thought that she regains her memory and turns superkiller. i don't like the way she has to smoke and down shots and change her hair to be her true self, but i love the character. is it allowed as a good film?

This thread reminds me of my student days I wrote an essay on feminist critique of film - loads on Fatal Attraction and Thelma and Louise.

I hate FA - the whole storyline culminating in punishing the mad 'bunny boiler' intent on fucking Michael Douglas and destroying his family. While he gets to stay with his wife she gets murdered twice, first by him then by his wife - originally the film ended with Glenn Close killing herself in the bath to M. Butterfly, however audience testing led to the end being changed so she was not treated so 'sympathetically' but instead punished (twice) for her sins.

The same thing happened to Thelma and Louise - audience testing (and no doubt pressure from the studio bosses) led the film makers to change the original ending - T and L sipping cocktails in a Mexican bar - to a more ambiguous leap of cliff in to certain death unknown!

No, but I did read 'Flowers in the Attic' - mother locks up children to please new husband. That's a newish slant on Hansel and Gretel with the woman as villan. Can't decide if she's abused or just evil (and I'm not reading it again to find out).

I went through a phase in my teens of reading truly dire books about northern lasses (with whimsical expressions on the cover) who get abused / pregnant / husband spends all money in the pub / pick up coals from the road with their bare nipples / sail to Australia / clean the grate / front door step / find older friend / older friend dies / husband leaves / rich bastard gets them pregnant again / rich bastard ignores them / they sleep in a ditch / put the kettle on / say eeeh and ooooh alot.

They were truly dire from a feminist perspective....the women accepted everything thrown at them and the men spoke in a dialect you could only skip read.

Anyone else guilty of this?

not just snow white - almost all the older versions of fairytales are horrible through a feminist lense (and sometimes just plain horrible!)

Romancing the Stone has that city girl in the jungle vibe too iirc.