Movies and the ‘infertile crazy woman’ story

[MustdrinkmoreH2O]

I don’t know if I am being unreasonable. Maybe.

Binge watching loads of films currently.
One story line which gets me is the crazy infertile woman storyline. Yawn.

It’s basically the ‘hand that rocks the cradle’ storyline repeated in so many films.

Infertile woman goes crazy and tries to steal some poor unsuspecting mothers baby and sometimes steal the husband too.

I find it so misogynistic and overdone. Never films about infertile men stealing babies, just women.

The ‘bunny boiler’ storyline has also been overdone however in modern day movies they now also have men acting crazy too. So it’s equaled out at least.

am I being unreasonable to think it’s lazy writing at best and insensitive misogyny at worst?

You're not wrong.

If you've not read it, I would recommend Susan Faludi's 'Backlash'. It was published in the 1990s and talks primarily about the 1970s-1980s and mostly about the US, but it covers the backlash to women's struggles for liberation as seen in a few different industries and particularly about media manipulation. There's a chapter too on media narratives in Hollywood and in some cases, about revisions from versions that were made to bring the story into 'woman needs man' and 'woman ditches career for motherhood' and how women without a husband or a child are unfulfilled.

Never thought about it before but your right, it’s like an overt message in movies telling us that women are somehow mentally unstable

@Precipice oooh that sounds very interesting.

yes the way the media portrays women in film always links back to men and children.

@Passthecheeseboard yes! Like if a woman can’t have a child/husband she will become unhinged! So annoying!