This past weekend we received a movie from Netflix that I was looking forward to watching. To find a film boring or slow is one thing, but watching this film actually made my blood boil. I’m speaking of “The Duchess,” an Academy Award nominated British film starring the talented Keira Knightley. Although well-acted, this film portrayed a female character whose main virtue and value in the eyes of not only society, but also of herself, was her intangible (unrealistic) beauty and obsession with fashion.
I’m so tired of female characters in film and television whose only value as leading ladies is to be beautiful, extremely thin (to the point where you can see their ribs sometimes!), and fashionable. We, as modern women, have to struggle to have a healthy body image because our role models and heroines are ridiculously skinny with picture perfect hair and porcelain skin.
But I’m not just disgusted by the extreme, socially-imposed perfection that so many actresses have to attain in order to get roles. I’m also tired of seeing female characters that neither look nor act like myself (nor any of my female friends for that matter). In much of the entertainment world, women are only seen as stereotypes, damsels in distress, or—more recently—completely obsessed with fashion and “finding a man.” In most films, women are only powerful and meaningful as seductresses or manipulators. And forget about being an actress if you don’t have the ideal look or if you are a normal, healthy weight. And curvy girls can only be comic relief.
I don’t want to simply whine. I want to note the female characters that are fantastic and beautiful and quirky and fun. In no specific order, I’d like to mention Margaret Cho (who had a short-lived sitcom called “American Girl” that everyone should watch) and Alyson Hannigan and Cobie Smulders as the intelligent, yet hilariously flawed women in “How I Met Your Mother.” I must mention the lovely ladies of “The New Adventures of Old Christine” (even though I think Julia needs to eat a bit more also, she looked healthier in “Seinfeld”): Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Emily Rutherfurd, and Wanda Sykes, whose relationships with each other and men are realistic and beautifully flawed. The best portrayals of women in television that I know of were in “Northern Exposure,” which aired for several seasons in the 90’s. They were realistic as individuals and beautiful people without being starved and air-brushed.
I was racking my brain to think of good female characters in film recently. Sadly, most of the movies I’ve enjoyed had complex and daring male characters but only fake or shallow female characters. A few movies did come to mind. “Stranger Than Fiction” with the striking and talented Queen Latifah, the elegant Emma Thompson, and the ever-amazing Maggie Gyllenhaal (with her tattoos and messy hair—she is so sexy!). It is uncommon for there to be so many relatable female characters in one movie and especially for it to not be a “chick flick.” “Notes on a Scandal” portrayed an eerie Judi Dench and a tragic Cate Blanchett. It was a disturbing and engaging film with unique, literary female characters. I also must mention “Ghost World,” “Little Miss Sunshine,” and “Juno,” because these films showed girls and young women as they really are: lovely, silly, and completely distinctive.
11 comments:
I find the idea that thin people must be anorexic quite insulting.
For a long time my mother was very thin, in spite of eating a lot in a vain attempt to alter that fact. And after having given birth to two children.
She suffered a lot of rude and inappropriate comments. Probably from people like you.
People come in all shapes and sizes and no one should feel forced into making their body into something that isn't natural for them. But that goes both ways.
I remember this film. It was so freaking boring!
Anyhow, Yes, Ms. Knightley needs to eat something -- anything -- fast!
Aside from that, I totally agree with you that current media is falling short of providing good role models... I'll add men to the pot but especially and more aggressively, women really do get the short end of the preverbal stick.
It's just sad.
I think of my grandmother's generation -- the Rosie the Riveter crowd and all they went through in the name of gender equality... just to have our generation get it totally twisted up.
Giving into the stereotypes that so many generations fought so hard against for so long is not equality, let alone empowerment – it’s delusion.
The real truth though, is supply and demand. As long as the people keep demanding all that crap and encouraging our own collective self image, the longer it's going to be around and the more detrimental it will be to the next generation and the next and the next...
P. S. I blame us: the feminist writers, artists, actresses, fashion designers, etc. that allow these flat female characters to continue to be portrayed. I blame us for paying to watch these films and for supporting television shows that perpetuate these stereotypes. It really is up to convey realistic female characters!!!
(It is up to us, I meant.)
Dear Anonymous, I apologize if I insulted you. I in no way meant that thin people are anorexic. I meant that one doesn't have to be thin to be beautiful. But mostly I was trying to say that I think most female characters in entertainment do not look or act like women I know.
Apology accepted, but if you don't mean to imply that thin people are anorexic you should use the phrase "very anorexic" about someone whose only crime is to have been naturally slim all her life.
Anorexia is a serious mental illness with a mortality rate higher than some forms of cancer. It's not an accusation that should be casually thrown at people who don't happen to fit your body ideal. Thin people have feelings too.
I've rewritten this posting because I do believe that every human being is beautiful, no matter what size. I don't want anyone to think that I don't love thin people. I do! I grew up hating my curves (until college)because I thought they made me ugly. It's taken me a long time to accept myself the way I am. And I still have bad days. So I am speaking from a personal bias. I am ranting because I feel an immense pressure from society and American culture to fit a certain criteria in order to be beautiful.
Dear anonymous:
CHILL OUT! You seem to be focusing on the wrong point here. First, as a skinny person myself who has to work to keep his weight up and healthy, I can still see that the point is about how media pushes and idea of "perfect." You'd have to be pretty blind not to see that THAT ideal is VERY thin. Thin to the point of concern. Do you read the papers at all??? More importantly, having this unrealistic B.S. image inflicted upon a person, especially a young person, can and does make one unnecessarily self conscience which in turn can cause much of the anorexia that is being addressed here. Also, it would be nice to see other body types represented in contemporary media in a more positive way, don’tcha think???
Once again, I'm not speaking against Keira Knightley--I admire her talent--but I'm talking about the character she portrayed in the film.
Perhaps we shouldn't be looking to popular culture for our role models. I don't look at beautiful, impossibly skinny waifs and think that I am supposed to be that, or act like that, or think that way.
But I do agree that in many cases, art would be better if it more closely imitated life--that is, women of all sizes and shapes, portrayed as the complex, intelligent, funny, flawed, daring, exciting people that we as women are. I think that is definitely something that we as women writers aspire to do--to show women as they are, not as society or culture has historically shown them to be.
Also, LMG, I wouldn't worry too much about someone who criticizes what you have to say without even having the balls to sign their name to it.
I believe your message was misconstrued by someone who was reading something into what you wrote that wasn't there, and you have nothing to apologize for.
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