Harvey Weinstein, Blade Runner 2049 and the Myth of Female Strength
***MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD***
I tried to hold my tongue on this one but it incenses me that women are polluting every movie and action-oriented TV show with bogus images of toughness and strength, but at the same time are crying the blues over Harvey Weinstein’s antics! The idea that the same actress who fights bravely alongside Iron Man (Gwyneth Paltrow) had once cowered before Weinstein makes it hard to suspend disbelief when watching all the female strength used against men in TV and Movies. The most recent is of course Blade Runner 2049 which both I and the female Internet movie critics loathed, but for totally opposite reasons.
Reports Anna Smith of The Guardian, “Blade Runner 2049 has a women problem,” and goes on to describe how female movie critics are decrying the portrayals of women in the film calling them sex objects, and that the narrative was almost entirely driven by men, including Ryan Gosling’s replicant-hunter K and his predecessor Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford). Uh, hello? It’s a man’s movie for men. Why is that a problem? There are millions of women’s movies by for and about women that don’t feature any significant male roles — do we, THE MEN OF AMERICA go crying to the press about that???
My problem with BR2049 is that there was entirely too much female presence in the first place. For if this really does take place in a male-driven world, why are all the supporting characters both female AND authoritative? You see, that’s a dead giveaway that feminists have taken over in Hollywood; the writing demands that all important characters other than the two male leads be female: (the best friend hologram, the boss, the scientist, the evil right-hand man, the leader of the resistance, all the broken statuary and all the holograms (except Elvis)! One would think that in a man’s world there would be a male best friend (holographic or otherwise) and maybe a few other male supporting characters (with speaking parts) but this world is clearly about women!
Smith goes on to complain about Joi, “An operating system who is bought by K to act as a doting, doe-eyed housewife, she appears to him in hologram form as and when he dictates, wearing and saying whatever she thinks suits his mood… Her owner’s emotional demands dictate whether she is in sexy or demure mode…How are we supposed to admire a hero whose key relationship is with a woman of his own creation who will submit to his every demand and can be switched on and off as he pleases?” As a man, I never felt that the hero was to be admired so much as to be followed on his journey. If one of his character flaws is that he can’t relate to real-life women (and I can see why with that ball-breaking boss of his) then that’s just something the audience has to buy into. It is not to be considered a scripting flaw if the occasional female characters do not meet the dictum of The Feminist Conspiracy or if a movie does not pass the insidious Bechdel Test. Sometimes men and women actually relate on the basest of levels and if this film takes place in such a world then so be it. And if all viewpoints are to be considered valid in this melting-pot culture of ours, then why is the Male viewpoint expressed here deemed invalid and in need of adjustment?
Which leads us back to Mr. Weinstein. The fact that men like this exist i suppose is why today’s fictional women are always seen beating and killing men (as in BR2049 wherein K is able to defeat the Bautista replicant but gets his ass kicked repeatedly by the much tinier female one). But could that actress stand up to Weinstein and his amorous antics? I’m guessing not. Ladies, If you want to sell the idea of female strength to your daughters, you probably shouldn’t go running and crying every time a man says something sexual to you. Remember, you’re not stronger than your biology and being strong in fiction is not the same as being strong in the real world. Maybe try working on that instead of ruining so many good movies and TV shows :-)
