Comments | dumpysaurus: I watched Taken and it annoyed me.

dumpysaurus

I watched Taken and it annoyed me.

Dec 28, 2010 02:03

Yeah, that movie from a few years back with Qui-Gon Jinn being an avenging badass. It's almost too easy to be angry at; I can't possibly be the first to pick it apart and perhaps I am beating a dead horse here. Maybe it's famous for how hilariously misogynistic it is. But holy crap.
( Skip this if you don't want movie spoilers or barely-contained rage. )

feminism, movies, gender, grr

Comments 8

seraravi December 28 2010, 12:49:03 UTC

Haven't seen the movie, but I do see those kinds of things all the time. The "slutty" girl (who is usually not unreasonably promiscuous, certainly no more so than guys in the film) is usually the a "bitch" with no common sense and no sensitivity to others who must either be put in her place/humiliated or killed, depending on the genre, or if we are supposed to find her alluring, then she is naughty but dangerous and an object of intense lust to be drawn from her slutty ways into a serious, submissive relationship "with a man. "Good girls" are virginal, inexperienced, or at least in search of a serious monogamous relationship with a man. Guys are funny and virile for sleeping around, unless they are trying to force themselves on the innocent heroine or also an "asshole" who is also usually sexually pushy. And if a guy is a virgin then the goal is losing it to become a man! The whole "women are helpless victims who need constant protection from big bad powerful men because they are weak and incapable of protecting themselves or fighting ( ... )

dumpysaurus December 28 2010, 18:02:49 UTC

Yep, yep, yep. All true. And pretty much all covered in this movie! I used to be of a "Only very stupid people actually take the subtext of this stuff to heart" opinion, but then I saw the subtle misogyny in my own work (main characters almost all male, unpleasant female characters more femme than the nicer ones, etc.) I always roleplayed guys with my siblings because I'd never seen female characters who were funny or interesting or DID anything besides be a damsel in distress. It... yeah.

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dumpysaurus December 29 2010, 02:52:12 UTC

Yes! Xenophobic/racist as well as sexist. It was like a vast greasy pizza of horrible between-the-lines bigotry. Argh, I think part of what drives me soooo nuts is that my mom LOVES it (she got it for Christmas after seeing it on TV). But I did get to explain to her why it bothered me so much, and I had a rare moment of coherence, and she could see where I was coming from, so that was cool.

ARGH GOD EVERYTHING YOU WROTE IS SO TRUE I need to punch something.

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dumpysaurus December 30 2010, 20:39:05 UTC

Goddd I worry that I will alienate everyone I love if I become more vocal about what bothers me (because it's often misogyny/patriarchy and if you get mad at that YOU ARE A CRAZED FEMINAZI) and then I get mad at me for just keeping my head down and not challenging anything and can I just fast-forward fifty years from now and see if things have gotten any less frustrating? FYI I have become much more aware of social injustices (SO subtle and insidious that I barely noticed them before) from reading things you have posted on various places, so thank you. At least when everyone else is calling us angry loud people WE'LL HAVE EACH OTHER hahaha. D:

You gotta challenge these things or they will persist forever. Please understand that, guys!

raydark December 30 2010, 19:15:54 UTC

I dunno, Taken didn't really bother me, except for the wife-shooting part. I doubt I'd fare much better than the daughter if was kidnapped and sold to people, especially if I was, what, 18? I don't think a teenage boy would have fared any better in the same situation, either.

Though you're right, it would be like 10000% more awesome if Neeson's part had been a woman.

There should be a Taken 2 where Neeson gets kidnapped by his old enemies and his daughter, now a successful assassin/pop star, has to go and save him and murders everyone she meets on the way.

dumpysaurus December 30 2010, 20:29:21 UTC

The daughter's kidnapping/helplessness was just like 1/9999th of what bothered me--it was the consistency of every single woman in the movie being helpless, annoying or stupid. It could have had the whole kidnapping thing with dad saving her and been fine by me (I KNOW these things really happen and that only exceptional people really stand a chance against organized criminals with guns), but EVERY. SINGLE. GIRL. was useless or dumb. And that is just so prevalent in popular media, it's gotten very old for me. ):

I would watch that Taken 2 SO hard, like, fifty times.

raydark December 31 2010, 02:40:30 UTC

Yes, I hate it when shows and movies do that to women. Like you, I always wanted to RP as a boy character when I was younger because all of the girls in shows and movies were booorrrinnng or just "sexy" and, man, I was a little kid. I got mad when I started growing boobs, so of course I didn't want to be no "sexy" character!

Now I just try to create awesome female characters who are interesting and/or who can kill everything. That's my favorite!

We should MAKE Taken 2!!! At least in stick people format.

ALSO, you need to watch My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and Avatar: The Last Airbender so you can see awesome awesome girls DOING STUFF.

dumpysaurus December 31 2010, 06:52:19 UTC

Yeah man your girl characters (all of your characters) are AWESOME. Ohhhh and I actually did watch the first episode of MLP on Youtube and was freaking delighted by it. It seems much closer to how I actually played with mine--SAVING THE WORLD and characters with PERSONALITIES, not just shopping and giggling and eating sundaes. (I seem to remember the last one, from the '90s, being like that.) I think Applejack is my favorite so far but it's hard to choose. And I can't wait to actually finish Avatar. It's really cool to see that some things are finally being made with interesting female characters. I wish I'd had these shows as a kid.

We should make TAKEN 2 as like a back-and-forth derptacular stickperson comic!!! You draw a page I draw a page. I'm gonna be gone for most of the month though. D: