Strong Female Characters

[ericadawn16]

“I want every version of a woman and a man to be possible,” Portman said. “I want women and men to be able to be full-time parents or full-time working people or any combination of the two. I want both to be able to do whatever they want sexually without being called names. I want them to be allowed to be weak and strong and happy and sad – human, basically.

The fallacy in Hollywood is that if you’re making a ‘feminist’ story, the woman kicks ass and wins. That’s not feminist, that’s macho. A movie about a weak, vulnerable woman can be feminist if it shows a real person that we can empathize with.”

Natalie Portman in November 2013 Elle (UK) Magazine, as interviewed by Tom Hiddleston. Sadly, I have not found a copy yet...

Immediately upon reading this, I flew into my usual immediate rage. It's second nature whenever I hear "feminist", I want to argue because of all my previous bad experiences with that word.

Then, I see her use "macho" as though action has to be a male-oriented genre.

However, I realized a few days later that I finally understood her point. My nephews LOVE Rooster Teeth and anything they do, including RWBY. RWBY seems to be a group of young girls in skimpy outfits who kick ass like Sucker Punch but without all the social commentary and background. The animation is atrocious and I haven't seen much in character development either.

My Mom: But at least the main characters are women.

That's when it hit me. THIS is what Natalie Portman is talking about; when we have women for the sake of having women but not actually taking advantage of them as characters apart from the ass-kicking.

I have always liked watching females kick ass and I have argued before about how important it was but I realize now that it was an inarticulate way of expressing what I really wanted...what I might not have even realized I truly wanted...females who are integral to the plot and have a key role in the resolution of that plot. It's why The Avengers was more satisfying in that regard over Thor or Captain America. While Carter, Foster and Romanov were all allowed to participate in the plot while showing both weakness and strength, Carter and Foster were side-lined in the finale of their films but Romanov saw the problem at hand, found her own way to get to the problem, closed the portal and still held Loki's scepter as they apprehended him.

I'm hearing good things about Foster in the new film though so *fingers crossed*.

Comments

[daxcat79.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. The issue is as women we're made to think strong women need to be like men. Strong men need to act like men. Weak men have weakness and emotion. Weak women cry and get emotional. There's no balance and it's all profiling that men fight and women get emotional. And were women to be more like men, they are strong.

Not all men are macho and fight. Not all women are emotional. There's nothing wrong with either, and the only reason a character should be considered weak is because they failed to be real to us.

[iibnf.livejournal.com]

Have you seen Pacific Rim?

[lifeofmendel.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test

[ibishtar.livejournal.com]

That's a really good quote from Natalie Portman. Completely agree with that and your commentary.

[maynardsong.livejournal.com]

Exactly. And frankly ass kicking is overrated. We may be better off saying "More THREE DIMENSIONAL women please." Natalie Portman is right here but I wish I could find someone else who expressed something similar. I can't get over the fact that Portman stans for Roman Polanski.

[ragnarok-08.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with you, and the quote is so spot-on.

[sea_thoughts]

I'm glad you were able to see what she was talking about. I love that quote and I think it's so pertinent.

[twhitesakura.livejournal.com]

I think how you embrace feminism is how you define it. I used to think being feminist was not being a homemaker but now I realize it's about having the choice to be that, a career woman, or both without judgments. I agree, film needs to show women as diverse people, real people that matter.