On the ascendancy of the female ass-kicker

[thatcrazycajun]

Oscar-winning actress Jodie Foster, quoted in this week's Newsweek, speaking on her latest film role in The Brave One, in which she plays an NYC public-radio host driven by a vicious assault to become a vigilante slayer of criminal predators, had this to say:

"Women don't kill people. They kill themselves, they kill their children, they drink themselves to death; but they don't do this. It was fascinating to play a woman you can't even begin to understand." (See review here.)

Is this part of the reason for the increasing popularity of violent femmes in TV, film, comic books, novels etc.: Xena, Buffy, the new Starbuck, et al.? Is it still, even in the year of our Lord two thousand and seven, so truly shocking to see a woman kill (even if it's not a "real" human, but a vampire, demon etc., that she's seen killing)? Have we really failed to come so far from chauvinism, as a society, that we still see killing as the province of the male, the guy, the dude, the man? And what does that say about our attitudes toward men, never mind women? Or is it a sign of true equality that we're finally willing to put (and view) women in such bloody, morally ambiguous roles as these?

And more distaff butt-kickers are coming: a "reimagined" Bionic Woman on NBC (with the actress who plays Starbuck as her equally bionic nemesis, yet!), not just one but two female demon-hunters on The CW's Supernatural, a CIA assassin in the new CBS series Chuck. Anyone have thoughts on this?

Comments

[voiceofkiki.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's just time for violent women to finally have their day in the media. We've been ignored for so long. As a woman prone to outbursts of violence (and a love of really violent entertainment) I must say that I'm all for it.

Now that I've scared you all, I'll be going.

[robin-june.livejournal.com]

Just had a similar conversation in the video store this evening, re: Jennifer Garner was the ONLY, Only justification for casting Elektra with brown hair instead of long, black, straight, Asian hair. After all, that was what Elektra had when Jennifer was a wee toddler.

The conversation moved on to how 20 years ago (plus or minus ~10), Stan Lee et alia (including Frank Miller) could only deal with powerful women like Elektra and Jane Grey / Phoenix in one way: They killed, and then they had to die.

And we've almost come full circle to the stereotypes I was taught as true:

Then: Men: Unemotional, strong, never cries, only focal point worthy of attention e.g., protagonistic attention. Have to be willing to fight to defend "honor" or "face."
Women: Uncontrollable emotions, weak, flighty, easily cries, not worth noticing.

Now: Men: Prone to outbursts, especially of anger, and can be driven to tears of frustration. Gets the spotlight half the time now.
Women: Have to be strong, have to be always able to cope, can't be seen crying in public. Gets a more even share of the spotlight.

The current reality is that girls who break the law these days are increasingly being jailed for the kind of violent offenses that used to be the province of boys, including fights simply to defend their "manhood."

Jodie Foster's quotes: well, I know where they come from, those declarations about what women are like and will do. They're true about the existing generations of us, but not necessarily about the women who will follow us.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[kayshapero]

Leave us not forget Kill Bills I and II...

Probably nothing more than one penguin dove off the ice with a female assassin movie/comic/tv show/whatever and didn't get eaten by the Leopard Seal of Ratings, so they all figured it was safe.

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

"Women don't kill people. They kill themselves, they kill their children, they drink themselves to death; but they don't do this. It was fascinating to play a woman you can't even begin to understand."

Ah, so women, by this outlook, aren't people, nor are their children. Does she even fucking listen to herself?

[darrenzieger.livejournal.com]

This is more a case of sloppy speech. Women are, statistically, much more likely to kill themselves than others. She's not saying that women aren't people, she meant that women don't nearly as often kill _other_ people, particularly in the way depicted in this film. (Frankly, I've never heard of a female vigilante killer; there have been some female serial killers, but it's still mostly a male-dominated profession, as it were.)

Moving on to the second point, about women killing their children, she's obviously not implying that children aren't people; she's talking about the larger point (which goes along with the point about suicide) that female violence is much less often rage-driven, like male violence, but is, rather, most often driven by depression. The cases of women killing their children are almost always related to post-partum depression.

This is not stereotyping. It is a statistical reality. Whether it is a result of some neurological difference between the sexes, or (more likely) the differences in how men and women are socialized in most cultures, it is a fact.

Not to flog this to death, but I wouldn't be so quick to jump all over Jodie Foster on this. She's one of the smartest people in Hollywood (she was an intellectual as well as artistic prodigy as a kid), and is generally quite articulate.

If she made that statement to you in conversation, you'd know exactly what she meant; but in print, out of context, the shortcuts and imprecisions of our casual speech patterns are much more evident.

Backyard On Film

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

I kept stumbling across live shoots last year around my neighbourhood when "The Brave One" was being filmed. There's probably a short sequence taking place on my street; that was the night that all the parking was forbidden and the surrounding streets were clogged with traffic. At first I thought it was a "Law and Order" episode; they film up here, too. But then I saw the lamp-post signs mentioning "The Brave One". I personally have high hopes for the film though I didn't get to hang around for any of the filming, since it was all nocturnal. It's an odd kind of notariety, living in a part of town where all the film producers come. Now, if only one of them would post a call for screenplays.

[filkferengi]

Now I'm hearing Leslie Fish's song "Trash Adventure Flicks."

P. S.

[filkferengi]

I can upload it for you if you'd like.