It’s no surprise that a common trend within our culture is the female reimagining of popular characters and franchises. Thor was recently rebooted as a woman in Marvel comics. Iron Man was as well. Also, the recent Ghostbusters movie and the upcoming film Ocean’s Eight are all female-led reboots. Don’t get me wrong, these changes aren’t steps backwards. However, they also don’t appear to be making progress, either. Are all-female reboots truly advocating for gender equality, or are they a marketing gimmick to satisfy feminists?
Now, I absolutely believe women should gain more prominence within our culture, but this is not the right way to go about it. Building upon the shoulders of a male legacy is one of the worst ways Hollywood can “empower” women. How can you empower women if their character was already famous as a man? In an indirect way, it’s claiming women can’t become famous unless they have a male make a template for them to fill first, which is a ridiculous idea. Instead of this toxic thinking, consider the alternative: writing fresh, original characters for women to play.
Take Wonder Woman, for example. Or Ripley from Alien. Or Michelle from 10 Cloverfield Lane. Or Princess Leia from Star Wars. Or the Bride from the Kill Bill movies. Or Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter franchise. It isn’t impossible to create a strong, female character, but Hollywood is lazily replacing male characters with females instead.
I want to see females as main characters just as much as male characters, but if I am to see a movie or read a comic revolving around a female, I’d much rather see an original character rather than a marketing ploy standing in a man’s shadow.
For further reading, check this out:
http://www.manrepeller.com/2016/08/female-reboot-movies.html
No comments:
Post a Comment