benevolent kitten overlord

raikari:

[Note: this is again not meant as a direct critique of your words or personal views! o_o Some of what you say just reminds me of things I would like to say elaborating on what I think. My words in square brackets!]

ideadeliria:

Having someone who’s okay with being girlified would be awesomer still

[Not necessarily /better/ — because that implies tomboys are then the problem; they’re not! — but different. It’s just that “boyish girl who stands up for herself, independently” seems more common than “girlish girl who stands up for herself, independently”, which barely exists in these movies at all.

And shooting arrows like a boss is /cool/, but why are arrows even “not for girls”? This trailer portrays that dresses are girl stuff and arrows are not — which is a hugely OLD and TIRED view, in accordance with the “historical”(?) setting. If the intention of the filmmakers was truly to show a Strong Female Character, why did they feel it was a good idea put her in such a setting? /Why/ does she have to Fight the Patriarchy(’s rules) before she can fight the monsters?? Why can’t she just. . fight the monsters? Hello, moviemaker people!! Make a fake historical setting where women aren’t oppressed or something!! Is that too hard?!

One of my least favorite episodes of ‘Avatar: the Last Airbender’ was the one where they set Katara up against a sexist teacher who refused to teach her how to fight better. They did use it to bring attention to issues like that, sure. . but in the rest of the series she had no problems just fighting, to the best of her ability, without anyone trying to stop her because she was a girl. I liked that better. To reuse my sentiments from before, it was “refreshing”.]

but I think that the rebellion against that frustration is definitely an easy target market

[Maybe. . I suppose money is always a point to keep in mind. But princesses who are girly-girly are a huge market too. . Don’t they think there’s any way to get both target audiences on board? ie. Make a girly character without alienating the frustrated “stop trussing me up” girls. How about… a movie with TWO different female characters?! !! What a novel idea! :P *Lol*]

( … )

 I’ll probably still enjoy this movie even if it’s not perfectly subverting paradigms :P).

[Well sure! Movies don’t have to be anywhere /near/ perfect to be enjoyable-! … . . otherwise I wouldn’t see a lot of movies. >XD But I do. And I enjoy loads of them :D . . but that doesn’t mean I’m not hyper-critical of attitudes the big-budgety ones tend to have.]

“Why do they CHOOSE something symbolic of femininity to trap the character in?”

[Revisiting this question I posed rhetorically: I theorize that they (the writers) — probably quite consciously — think that they have to put a girl in a “typical feminine symbol” pigeonhole box and have her BREAK it in order to have any males in the audience treat this character with any respect/relateability. Similar to the principle at work when guys warm up to a girl who is “one of the guys”. Suddenly they feel capable of actually seeing her as a person??? Those guys should be made to work harder than that, in my opinion.]

(…)

ONE DAMN CARTOONY KID’S movie with a human female protagonist without a freaking love angle.

[Yeah, no kidding. . That would be something very new! (. . Although, with regards to Mulan, I am deeply in love with her love interest, and I PARTICULARLY loved that he was falling awkwardly for her before he realized she was a girl. I was happy for them and I do love romance plots to be included in everything. I can’t help it~! (but that’s me personally, & such.)]

Interesting point RE: boys get to learn while girls have to start off awesome. Hrmm. I actually really enjoyed Arya’s arc in A Game of Thrones because we watch her go from being fighty and unfocused to starting to be really trained and skilled.

[Hey, that’s true. A rare and interesting case-example has been isolated! . . Too bad ASoIaF is certainly not a property that should be providing childhood role models to anyone. LOL. What would it be, a 14+ or 16+ rating on those books?]

(…)

Simply: It’s not fair, but women are still prizes to be won,

[Do you mean for real as we go about our lives? In society? In the media? Media influences the view of society/reality, and that’s why it’s important to alter the portrayals in our stories!! So that people will see the examples and learn from them to drive change in our real lives. ‘o’ rah rah!]

(…)

And socially awkward guy who does 1 good thing/gets to be 1337 is the wet dream of every loser-dude out there so of course we have to praise him for it.

[… plenty a socially-awkward gal has that same fantasy and the movies just don’t pander to true female fantasy. XD; And that’s what makes clichés so overtired and cliché. Nobody wants to do things a different way.

. . Though, just to be clear: whether it would be BETTER for movies to pander equally and without discriminating by gender is not what I’m really trying to put on the table. I’m just saying that Hollywood movies don’t try new things. Media from OTHER places might: think of the popularity of Magical Girl stories from Japan. That is a girly-girl’s fantasy of powerful girlyness, right? And often — ~big suprise~ — the magical princess is an awkward-average-girl before she transforms with special powers or is whisked away to Magical Bishounen Prettyboy Land where she finds the acceptance she lacked at home.]

still just reblogging for Rilla’s good commentary. <3

(Source: 4directions)