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

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

Got thinking about this on another thread where I was wittering talking cleverly about the problems I have with Bridget Jones's Diary (the book, the problem with the film is that stuffy faced plonker Firth).

One of her boyfriends is a total cheating dickhead, obviously. But the "nice" one, Mark Darcy, is incredibly patronising towards her, repeatedly "rescuing" her because he wants to fuck her. Which is all well and good, but whereas in Pride and Prejudice (the origin of BJD) Darcy has a lot of respect for the female protagonist, which she earns by being smart, witty, standing up for herself etc, BJD removes that whole side of her. When she stands up for herself it is something she later apologises for.

Anyway - anyone else want to join me?

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 - 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!"

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

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.

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.

Dinah - that's not weird at all is it?

Yes there's a hell of a lot of rapist loving/marrying out there. Can't think of any examples now, of course.

Totally agree about Thelma and Louise, what a shame, especially after they bomb the nasty trucker with " where do you get off speaking to women you don't know like that?"

The Tibetan inn was ace, I would have loved to have had Marion's drinking ability!

Now I love and adore Working Girl, and Sigourney Weaver in it, but the fact that SW's character is portaryed as a hard nose career bitch really pisses me off. And the fact that Harrison Ford is unfathful to her with Melanie Griffith and nobody bats an eyelid and still thinks he is a hero.

Melanie Griffith is a sap in that film, she is so passive. I love Joan Cusack's character with the terrible 80s hair and war paint.

WHY do I love that film so much?

And to lower the tone: Ross was NOT on a break. He spends 6 series banging on about it and making out that Rachel is a neutoic fool, however he slept with someone the night that he and Rachel had a row, the sleazeball.

They were so NOT on a break (been pissing me off since 1998, that one)

Slightly OT but I always think that Calamity Jane is a sad story about unrequited lesbian love. So when she gets the man at the end instead of it being a happy ending I always feel like this :(

I mean, it has songs called "Secret Love" and (yeah sure it's about housework, whatever)

Someone mentioned Mad Men earlier. It's my favourite thing on the telly and the more I learn about feminism, the more I am enjoying it. It's painful in its observation, but it is portraying the misogynism knowingly rather than just something that is normal, if that makes sense. Probably because it has a large number of female writers on it. Would make a brilliant study on here, actually - the Guardian blog is great, but they (the generally male commenters) tend to shy away from the feminism stuff.

My list of favourite books/films is diminishing rapidly the more I read on here.

Sorry, I meant that the writers on MM are aware of the misogyny, rather than mainstream TV and film not being aware at all.

Don't sat the title didn't warn you, notjust :o

I didn't mean the thread, I meant in general! It fucks me right off but that's for another thread that I might start depending on whether I can find a film to watch tonight.

Slightly worried by how lovely I find the Calamity Jane/Katie story. There is a video montage that tells the whole story

Actually I think I do know - there are no love stories about women falling in love with each other, are there? I can't think of one anyway. And I find gay love stories quite nice because it avoids most of the usual shite we've been talking about on the rest of the thread. I like "In And Out" and "Miss Congeniality 2" as well. :o

Ha dittany glad you agree! I caught in on TV a few months ago and made this face , having not seen it since I was a kid.

Notjust - there are some threads about films that won't piss you off as well.

To really, really lower the general tone of this thread, my DD(3) loves Alvin & The Chipmunks (The Squeakquel). There is a scene in which a teenage boy wishes to speak with the chipmunks, who have been speaking with a group of teenage girls. The boy says "private conversation" and the girls all get up and leave the table. This infuriates me (I've even mentioned it on MN before) and even DD now says "How rude!" every time she watches it

To get back to literature/films, however, I find Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre "itchy" beyond belief. I suppose I need to consider when they were written but I hate them both because the women are either complete saps or they have to die (Cathy).

Similarly, I love the opera Carmen but it pisses me off that she "gets her just desserts" and dies/is killed (can't actually remember which).

As for bloody La Boheme... Virtuous woman dies of consumption (and takes ages about it) while moaning about having cold hands. Make yourself some gloves, you wimp, you're a seamstress. Or get one of those useless lumps of men always lingering about the place to contribute to the household expenses.

And what about bloody South Pacific where the island girl falls for the US sailor but, of course, that can't go anywhere can it?

Marking a place. Need to read whole thread. But will just say Pretty Woman is fucking outrageous.

Have just laughed myself hoarse at "Make yourself some gloves, you wimp, you're a seamstress."

I hate opera. Mainly because they're never over til the fat lady's DEAD.

What Women Want is atrocious. Man develops psychic powers, and steals all his female superior's ideas. He gets promoted for it, oh, and she forgives him and falls in love with him. He is no longer being bossed by an uppity woman, he is now fucking her instead. How nice to see order restored.