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hollywood assumptions
Sep. 20th, 2011 02:26 pmAwesome article on Cracked today about obnoxious assumptions Hollywood makes about woman.
They're all pretty darned spot-on, particularly the first few. I especially like the complaint about still-abnormally-skinny actresses playing "fat" characters. "Bridget Jones Diary," anybody? I mean, gosh, they made Renee Zellweger so "fat" she looked almost like a normal girl I might meet on the street! This is slightly better on TV, but when Peggy in "Mad Men" went through her little weight-gain plotline over the course of S2, the punch was slightly pulled by two facts: first, on HD TV the makeup line and drastic effort involved in making the actress look heavy was annoyingly obvious, thus ensuring that I spent most of my time thinking "gosh, they need to blend her more" rather than "gee, poor Peggy's really gone downhill," and secondly, while I (like everyone) have read stories about women who give birth without ever having realized they were pregnant... I'm pretty sure that's not possible if you're just a size 10. Or, accounting for the added weight caused by the cameras, probably only a size 8. I just don't find that likely.
The work/life conflict section absolutely nails it - yes, there are women who have crises between their high-powered dream job and their disregarded desire to start a family, but most of us would settle for finding or keeping a job, maybe even one that doesn't suck our souls out through our ears, while still actually seeing husbands, kids, parents, and maybe even our friends.
And check out #5 on that list, "Getting Angry for No Reason," for another fabulous explanation of the difference between writing strong female characters and being a lazy-ass writing executive who just wants something to point to when people complain that you're not writing strong female characters. Hint: I don't know a single woman who would kick a guy in the nuts for no reason at all. If you do, you might want to get her anger management classes. That's not strength. That's psychosis. "Strong Female Character" doesn't mean "crazy bitch who yells and hits men all the time." It means "Female character who is treated like an actual person and allowed to have her own autonomy and make decisions on a basis other than the desires of the male hero." The trick is to think of women as people. I know, it's hard.
More to say, of course, but not enough time right now to say it in. Suffice to say, it's worth a read.
They're all pretty darned spot-on, particularly the first few. I especially like the complaint about still-abnormally-skinny actresses playing "fat" characters. "Bridget Jones Diary," anybody? I mean, gosh, they made Renee Zellweger so "fat" she looked almost like a normal girl I might meet on the street! This is slightly better on TV, but when Peggy in "Mad Men" went through her little weight-gain plotline over the course of S2, the punch was slightly pulled by two facts: first, on HD TV the makeup line and drastic effort involved in making the actress look heavy was annoyingly obvious, thus ensuring that I spent most of my time thinking "gosh, they need to blend her more" rather than "gee, poor Peggy's really gone downhill," and secondly, while I (like everyone) have read stories about women who give birth without ever having realized they were pregnant... I'm pretty sure that's not possible if you're just a size 10. Or, accounting for the added weight caused by the cameras, probably only a size 8. I just don't find that likely.
The work/life conflict section absolutely nails it - yes, there are women who have crises between their high-powered dream job and their disregarded desire to start a family, but most of us would settle for finding or keeping a job, maybe even one that doesn't suck our souls out through our ears, while still actually seeing husbands, kids, parents, and maybe even our friends.
And check out #5 on that list, "Getting Angry for No Reason," for another fabulous explanation of the difference between writing strong female characters and being a lazy-ass writing executive who just wants something to point to when people complain that you're not writing strong female characters. Hint: I don't know a single woman who would kick a guy in the nuts for no reason at all. If you do, you might want to get her anger management classes. That's not strength. That's psychosis. "Strong Female Character" doesn't mean "crazy bitch who yells and hits men all the time." It means "Female character who is treated like an actual person and allowed to have her own autonomy and make decisions on a basis other than the desires of the male hero." The trick is to think of women as people. I know, it's hard.
More to say, of course, but not enough time right now to say it in. Suffice to say, it's worth a read.
