I made these points in a reblog, but I want to re-state them in their own post, so that it shows up in the main tag.
Mad Max: Fury Road is a story about sexists, told by non-sexists.
I know it’s a bit confusing, because we’re so used to seeing stories about sexists told by sexists. We’re so used to sexism being portrayed by sexist male filmmakers for the sake of a sexist male audience, that we’ve been fooled into thinking this is the only way sexism even can be portrayed.
eabevella’s review of MMFR pointed out that the villains never call women “bitches,” nor are they shown overtly leering at the women in the film, and took this as evidence that the villains in the movie are not sexist. That they objectify women, but only in the way that they objectify everything, and their objectification is in fact quite egaitarian.
While the assessment that the villains are not shown leering or spitting gendered slurs is correct, I’m going to go ahead and say that the conclusion eabevella drew from this is wrong, wrong, so very wrong.
See, there’s a great lie we’ve been told – that in order for an audience to understand that a character is sexist, women must be humiliated on camera.
The truth is this:
When a male character calls a female character a bitch in a movie, that is not the filmmaker’s way of showing the audience the character is sexist; that is the filmmaker’s way of showing the audience that the character’s sexist point of view is worth hearing.
Read that paragraph over and over until it sinks in.
Mad Max: Fury Road makes it absolutely clear that the villains are sexist, and it does so without ever once implying that their sexist point of view is worth hearing. Instead, we learn that they are sexist second-hand, through context and world-building.
We see that the wives have been dressed in ridiculous, impractical gauze bikinis. We see that the wives are not only young and healthy, but also model-pretty. Through these subtle details, the narrative makes it clear that Immorten Joe, the villain, chose these women not just as useful stock, but as sexual objects in which he took sexual pleasure.
In contrast, when the movie introduces the audience to the wives, the movie makes sure to portray them in as humanized, and non-sexualized a manner as possible. Even when they are literally bathing together, we don’t see any water running down chests while the models arch their backs and run their fingers through their hair and sigh pleasurably. Instead we see a bunch of women perfunctorily rinsing off legs and feet, looking exhausted. When they see Max for the first time, they take on fearful, closed off expressions, and project fearful, closed off body language.
Compare this to, for example, Theon Greyjoy’s castration in HBO’s Game of Thrones. We know he was castrated, even though no one ever says the word “castration” and the camera never shows a penis being lopped off. The filmmakers manage to convey that the mutilation has taken place, but respect the character enough not to make a lurid scene out of it (and yet proceed to make lurid scenes out of every possible denigration and mutilation of every possible female character they can cram into their commercial free timeslot).
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As for Imperator Furiosa, it is hard for us, the audience, to not see Charlize Theron as a beautiful woman. But when we compare her appearance in the movie to that of the wives, it’s clear to see that Imperator Furiosa is, in fact, the opposite of what Immorten Joe and his war mongering culture view as desirable, beautiful, or womanly. They do not sexually objectify her because to them she is sexless.
If we ignore our own biased understanding of Furiosa – as a character that a beautiful actress is portraying – and instead immerse ourselves in the culture of the Miller’s world, it becomes obvious that Furiosa has taken great pains to make herself genderless under the villains’ gaze, and that her efforts have succeeded.
From Entertainment Weekly:
It was Theron herself who unlocked the image of the androgynous warrior—a woman who has escaped the fate of other women by erasing her gender.
“I just said, ‘I have to shave my head,’” Theron recalls. Furiosa is a war-rig operator living in a place where all other females have been enslaved as breeding and milking chattel. But Furiosa is barren and therefore of no value to the despot Immortan Joe and his soldiers. She is considered worthless. ”They almost forget she’s a woman, so there is no threat,” she says. “I understood a woman that’s been hiding in a world where she’s been discarded.” [x]
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The villains in the movie are absolutely misogynist. They are absolutely sexist. They do absolutely view beautiful women as sexual objects that exist purely for the male gaze.
But the movie is not about them.
The movie, instead, portrays sexist men as obstacles for the heroes of the movie to overcome.
Lady gladiators weren’t the result of some particularly progressive emperor who believed in gender equality in death sports, either. It was quite the opposite – women’s participation was the norm for 200 years, with evidence of various restrictions (no direct female relatives of a general or a senator could be recruited as gladiators, for instance) until Emperor Septimius Severus finally banned it, possibly because he had a cousin or something that got his ass chopped off by Lucretia the Crusher.
So, why haven’t you heard about this before now? Well, this serves as a nice example of how this kind of unintentional exclusion works: When archaeologists dug up a statue of a female gladiator, threateningly brandishing some kind of weapon in a victorious warrior pose, they originally described it as “a cleaning tool” – because cleaning is a thing that women do. And, if you’re going to clean something, you might as well do it with the power of Grayskull.
Then, back in 2000, archaeologists discovered the grave of a decorated gladiator, but were confused when they saw that the body inside was female – as if a woman had accidentally fallen in the grave by mistake.
being a female means needing to see 10 different doctors to get a proper diagnosis because they always think you’re exaggerating and/or lying
define proper diagnosis. I mean, does that just mean the diagnosis you want?
no :) it means going to 10 different doctors who disbelieved your symptoms until the 11th found cysts on your ovaries :) which may mean infertility :) sit on a cactus :)
I call bullshit
Of course you do. Like the first 10 doctors. 😒
I call bullshit on the story. If you think you have an issue you should see a specialist not just your PCP.
Like the 4 “specialists” I saw for the crippling numbness in my face and legs I had for over a year while they told me it was “stress”? When it was finally found that I had scars on my brain and spine? Those “specialists” we’re male neurologist who wouldn’t give me an MRI because “women stress too much”. Go fuck yourself.
MY SPINE WAS BROKEN FOR 2 YEARS BECAUSE MY DOCTORS TOLD ME I JUST HAD BAD CRAMPS AND REFUSED TO TAKE XRAYS. FUCK YOU AND YOUR ENTIRE LIFE. WHEN WILL BOYS REALIZE THEIR EXPERIENCES ARENT STANDARD???? I ALSO LOVE THIS IDEA THAT YOU CAN JUST GO TO A SPECIALIST WHENEVER YOU WANT LOL IF OUR PCP DOESNT BELIEVE US WHEN WE TELL THEM OUR SYMPTOMS THEY ARENT GONNA REFER US TO A SPECIALIST YOU FUCKING MOLDY WALNUT
My parents began noticing something large in my throat, saw a specialist….Guess what? Told me to lose some weight..even though I wasn’t overweight. I would have my period for weeks at a time. Was told that it was teenage hormones and stress.
Two fucking years later I attempted suicide they ran a battery of tests as required and bam! They find out that I have untreated Hashimoto’s. The “thing” was a goiter. Possible symptoms of an untreated thyroid disease is the goiter, unexplained weight gain, and depression. All they had to do was test my blood, but they said young people don’t have thyroid problems. 😒
-Allie
Ten years ago, my mother—who is a pretty tough cookie—started feeling both ridiculously wired, anxious, and incredibly emotional. Every doctor she saw told her she was going through early menopause, even though she was still menstruating. Her health declined to point where she was barely sleeping, losing weight, and crying constantly, which was a huge red flag because my mother never cries. Finally, she went to see another doctor 2.5 hours away who referred her to an endocrinologist. And what did the endocrinologist say? He diagnosed her with one of the most advanced cases of Grave’s Disease he had even seen, and said if she had gone just a few more months without being treated, she could have FUCKING DIED.
Also, it turned out that her thyroid levels had been moving out of the normal range in a progressive pattern for years, but nobody bothered to look at her past test results until after the diagnosis. They would just do a test, see that it was “in the normal range” and leave it at that. She could have caught it before she even had symptoms, instead of basically being accused of having hysteria.
i had a brain aneurysm/hemorrhage ten years ago, doctors still tell me im faking my disability BECAUSE YOU CAN TOTALLY FAKE LIMITED MOVEMENT OF THE LEFT SIDE
My sister had intercranial hypertension which was causing headaches, dizzy spells and loss of vision, and you know what the hospital told her? She was being a hysterical girl and making it up. A few weeks later she spent roughly a month in hospital and had several lumbar punctures to relieve her RECORD HIGH spinal pressure that was causing so much strain on her brain and optic nerves she was being sent blind.
Everytime I see this post (and it’s been a good 5/6 times), it has different stories and experiences of women who have been horribly mistreated by doctors and it just blows my mind that this is so big. It’s absolutely disgusting how terribly women are treated in the medical world and something needs to be done about that.
my friend lea had back pain, then pain in her legs and feet, and then numbness. despite seeing 7 different doctors over 2 years, by the time they found the cancer it was inoperable. chemo and radiation didn’t work. the cancer spread. she died and left behind a 5 year old daughter.
A few years ago I would go through spells where I literally could not stand on my own and I couldn’t get out of bed. I would be freezing and too weak to eat. I would keep having heart palpitations as well. I got up the money to go to a clinic and they told me it was just stress and to basically just work on chilling out. I saved up money for a few weeks to do this and I pretty much get a “chill out” from them.
As time went on it got worse, most noticeably the heart palpitations were happening almost constantly. I went again to a different clinic and was told it was normal and that it was probably stress. They did no tests, and they told me it would “just go away”.
Two weeks later I ended up collapsing going down some stairs, and at the hospital it was discovered that I had such severe anemia that my heart could barely keep up with trying to get enough oxygen to my body. I had developed left ventricular hypertrophy (my heart muscle is too big) and because of them ignoring me and dismissing me I’m at a much higher risk of heart attacks and stroke now.
I went to the doctor with severe intermittent pain in my upper right stomach area that was so bad I had to miss school. Despite the fact that my period has been on a regular 3 month cycle for years, and I still had two months left until my period, my doctor told me it was period related cramps and or indigestion. 2 months later I’m in the hospital getting my gallbladder removed. It was so obstructed that there was gangrene developing my my system.
So…everyone who’s given me shit for that one post (about medicine and equal treatment and shit) can just read this because I’m sick of defending my case.
Say that at 18 I slap down enough money so I could have my whole body covered head-to-toe in tattoos, piercings all over myself, a mountain of cigarettes, plastic surgery, and plan to have like 20 babies… but if I try at all to safely make it impossible for me to breed for the sake of my health suddenly its like WOAH THERE SLOW DOWN MISSY YOU’RE NOT READY FOR THIS KIND OF COMMITMENT YET
I have stage III Endometriosis, which means I have to get my uterus removed because I literally have terrible cramps ALL THE TIME and not just when I’m on my period. Now, I’ve always said I don’t want any children for personal reasons and I don’t need my uterus, really. I am not worried about that surgery and I don’t feel any kind of nostalgia over an organ I won’t ever use.
The thing is, my doctor is a ‘man’. This ‘man’ told me I had to get pregnant right now before it’s too late. I told him I didn’t want to get pregnant and explained the multiple reasons but what, do you ask, did my doctor have to say about this? ‘Well, better have a kid now because just imagine how depressing it must be being a thirty-something woman without children and a husband?’
I was diagnosed a year ago. I should have gone through surgery six months ago and I still can’t find a doctor that will perform the surgery without trying to force me to have children first. Basically, if you’re a woman you don’t have a say in what can and cannot be done to your body without a shitload of people getting in the way AND I’M FUCKING SICK OF IT.
A dear friend of mine wanted to have her tubes tied. She was about to give birth to twins and the doctors wouldn’t consent because she wasn’t 21 yet. She had already had children and they still refused to let her have the procedure.
My friend got a vasectomy a week after asking his doctor for one, no problem. He was 25.
Me? I’ve asked 4 different doctors for some kind of permanent sterilisation—tubal ligation or Essure or whatever—and I get a pat on the head and a “You’d regret it if you did.”
Oh, DIDN’T REALIZE YOU HAD A DIRECT LINE TO MY BRAIN.
happy Easter 2 me Jesus has risen and I truly feel His presence God bless
Deanna Troi was a poorly written character and Marina Sirtis was an even worse actress.
I admit that the writers could have done more w/ Deanna b/c the TNG writers were notoriously sexist but Deanna Troi is a great character and I adore Marina Sirtis and also why are you trying to ruin my fun I mean damn
I don’t think that the TNG writers were notoriously sexist. Look at Dr. Crusher. She had a strong presence aboard the Enterprise whenever she stepped on the scene. She confidently clashed with Cpt Picard many times and never worried about anything besides the good work that she did. However,
Mz. Sirtas’s acting style was extremely bland. She was half human and half betazoid but she showed less personality than her betazoid mother and any human (besides Denise Crosby playing the super half-assed Tasha-Yar).
You do know that Gates McFadden was literally fired because she spoke out against sexism pertaining to her character, right?
Denise Crosby left the show because they gave her hardly anything to say
Marina Sirtis was constantly objectified and told she was too fat to wear the normal uniform and was only allowed to wear it when she lost weight
And I’m not denying that Star Trek has had great female characters but they were certainly not treated as well as the male characters nor were they given enough to do
Were NOT sexiest?!?! You are joking me.
Marina talked about how she was on a constant diet to fit into those insane outfits, which had spandex in them anyway.
Those scenes where she eats chocolate, they would give her a bucket to spit the chocolate out. On top, they would give her milk chocolate because she doesn’t like that and so she wouldn’t want to eat it without feeling sick, so just spit it out into a bucket. All so she could fit into her outfits.
Also the amount of times I have watched and worked on a TNG episode and note how the men are eating, but not the women is shocking.
One of her favourite episodes is a Fistful of Data’s because she didn’t have to wear one of those outfits.
Gates stood up for her character. She played a single mother yet she NEVER got credit for raising a child as smart as Wesley. It was always the men. She stood up for herself, her character and single women who don’t get credit everywhere. And her payment was to be fired. You can see her talk about this at many comic cons with Marina.
She was lucky that EVERYONE just rebelled against that and she was brought back. But too this day she hasn’t watched series 2 of TNG. And can you blame her? She asks for more depth and she just gets fired. Well you know, good on her for doing it! She deserved to be heard.
Denise. Well. Let’s be honest, I see where Denise was coming from. She did deserve more. Tasha was barley given the chance to grow, barely any words. She deserved more than to be remembered as the lady who shagged Data. She was head of security and she saved the men more than once in the few episodes she was in. She stood up, and she left. Have you seen code of honor?! Johnathon Frakes has called out what shit that is at Comic Cons defending Denise.
The fact that ALL the women of Star Trek (yes, ALL OF THEM. In EVERY series has dealt with this shit) managed to act and slay in outfits where they couldnt breath (some have literally passed out from these outfits or been left crying because they hurt them so bad) is nothing short of amazing.
I mean heck. Marina has had to deal with Deanna being sexually assaulted TWICE for plot development (which she has spoken about and how it was the hardest thing she had to do in Star Trek).
You can not say that TNG did not suffer with sexiest writers. In fact, you can’t say Star Trek on the whole hasn’t suffered with them. It is well noted how bad it has been. All the Star Trek actors spoke about it.
You can not like their acting, that’s fine and completely fine everyone enjoys different things, but you will damn respect them as women in this industry who have stood up for themselves and note the complete shit they have had to deal with.
Also while I am bloody at it. The amount of women SHITTED on in acting for having bland characters or whatever is stupid.
Have you ever thought that maybe, if they were given decent story lines this wouldn’t happen?! Perhaps if the writers actually cared about these women beyond their breast and hips size, we would of gotten better story arcs?
Note how Marina said when she was given a proper Starfleet uniform suddenly she could solve problems which Data and Geordi couldn’t even do?!
Maybe if Denise was given a chance she could have worked like the champ she is (she has worked on Gates theater stage) that perhaps she could of given more?
Actors are as good as the material they are given.
I will never not reblog a stirring defense and acclamation of Star Trek women, particularly Marina Sirtis.
Fun fact: in the Robin Hood episode Troi and Crusher were the only characters that did not sword fight (they had vases to smash over people’s heads instead) DESPITE the fact that Marina Sirtis and Gates McFadden were the only cast members who could fucking fence.
At this point, when I see a “-justice” blog (or more-or-less “REAL JUSTICE” sort of blog) I know it’s going to have shitty opinions.
Marina Sirtis did the best she could with what she was given. They all did. Bland? My Deanna? Have these people seen her trying to deal with her mother?
Seriously though: Denise Cosby deserved better. Her character deserved better: a better backstory (RAPE GANGS are you fucking SERIOUS???), a better chance, BETTER WRITERS. I mentioned this somewhere, but she was pretty amazing in one of the early “alternate Enterprise” storylines (coincidentally one of the best-written of the early storylines according to several of the actors IIRC).
What I’m really saying is THANK YOU for standing up for the women of ST:TNG, lovely bloggers that did so.
When boys complain about bra straps being distracting, and start comparing it to pulling out their cock, do they fucking realise that a bra is underwear, not genitalia? And the equivalent would be them walking around with their pants so low that their boxers are showing, which they would never do… OH WAIT
