Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - a feminist perspective

[Hassled]

Much as I love Howard Keel - words have failed me. It's based on "The Rape of the Sabine Women" which is recounted at one point in song in words to the effect that the women were sobbing, sobbing, sobbing but secretly they loved it. And eventually the abducted women get Stockholm Syndrome which is really very convenient.

What were they thinking? Give me feisty Calamity Jane, the hooker of Deadwood, any day.

Although, the women have the sense to pelt the men with rocks disguised as snowballs.

I think it is very confusing.

On the one hand, the female lead is strong - when she cooks breakfast for the brothers and they eat like pigs, she doesn't hesitate to overturn the table.

But the kidnapping bit is very hard to justify, even when taken as 'of its era' or even 'as a historical story based in the 1850s'.

The dancing is amazing, though.

And you have to respect the way you can only tell the men apart by the colour of their shirts - they're not so much objectified as colour-coded.

It's bizarre. Surely kidnapping brides wasn't considered normal in 1850's USA?

I found the end bit, where the kidnapped women all fall in love with the brothers, extremely unbelievable.