What movie do you believe has portrayed men or women the most negatively, and why? What in particular about the movie bothered you as a feminist/anti-feminist/whatever?
2007-12-10 05:00:27 · 16 answers · asked by Kinz 4 in Social Science ➔ Gender Studies
Disclosure wasn't particularly offensive. After all, two of the women (Susan Sanders and Catherine Alvarez) were lawyers, and another woman (Stephanie Kaplan) ended up getting Meredith Johnson's job after she was run out of it. They were only showing the downside of lax harassment regulations.
Anyway, it would probably be Fatal Attraction for me. Beth Gallagher was the perfect little wife, and Alex Forrest was the homicidal, baby-hungry career woman; there was no gray area for either of them. Furthermore, Dan Gallagher didn't get any blame for the affair. He was just a victim.
2007-12-10 05:12:37 · answer #1 · answered by Rio Madeira 7 · 7⤊ 3⤋
Great question! There are a lot of movies that are overtly or subtly sexist toward men or women, but I can only speak about what I consider disturbing. I think the entire "slasher" genre is disgusting and definitely skewed against women. I don't understand the appeal of this kind of violence and can't stand how sexualized violence is made to be in such movies. A movie that is deeply troubling, but purposely and effectively so is Neil Labute's "In the Company of Men." It is really disturbing, but also very provocative in its message about misogyny. That travesty of a film, "Monster" was the exact opposite, and it portrayed a female serial killer far too favourably for my taste. Many films treat women as nothing more than background noise with men at the fore--certainly film is one of the areas in which women are lagging behind in terms of representations of power and autonomy. Movies that do feature women are termed (and dismissed) as "chick flicks" and that is somewhat irritating. I've seen a lot of disturbing material on film, but I'm aware I have the option of continuing to view such material or not watching it altogether. The media produces what sells, meaning that we are the media. Obviously, there is an appetite for everything that's out there or it wouldn't continue to be made.
2007-12-10 05:19:37 · answer #2 · answered by teeleecee 6 · 4⤊ 3⤋
Fatal Attraction. Glenn Close's character is an exaggeration of the needy desperate woman stereotype. Michael Douglas's character cheats on his wife but is shown not shown in a negative light really. The other Michael Douglas movies mentioned also, what is up with him? Also Indecent proposal with Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson, Robert Redford. G.I. Jane is another one with Demi Moore, she wasn't an empowered woman in that movie, just a woman acting like a man, there is a difference.
2007-12-10 05:32:03 · answer #3 · answered by aml0017 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Without all the labels, Five Easy Pieces and Chinatown...thought they were excellent examples of moviemaking, but the way the women were treated was appalling. Come to think of it, I don't recall any movies where men were portrayed in a negative light.
2007-12-10 06:35:57 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
All of the American International Beach Party movies with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. They make me want to gag every time I watch one on the Retro channel.
Aside from those, "Fatal Attraction." The Godfather movies were sexist and racist, but they are so fabulous, who cares?
ETA: I just remembered THE most offensive movie ever made. I saw it when I was very young, even before modern-day feminism took hold, and I'll bet no one here has ever heard of it, much less seen it. It's called "How to Murder Your Wife," and it starred Jack lemmon, Virna Lisi and Terry Thomas. It was a comedy. Jack played a crime writer who play-staged all his crimes before writing about them. Lisi was the stripper at a party whom he married in a drunken stupor. When he sobered up, he realized he had made a mistake, but didn't know how to get rid of her. She disappears, he's charged with her murder, and he convinces the jury that all men would kill their wives if they could - and he's acquitted. She returns from wherever she was and they live happily ever after. Even as a pre-feminist little girl, I watched the movie in tears because of what it said about ME.
2007-12-10 05:37:59 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
All humans in my movie were impressively stupid.
The hero was a geeky nerd who couldn't even talk to a girl
The girl was stupid, shallow, and had a criminal record for "not turning in my dad", like if the police needed her statement for grand theft auto. She was empowered, because she was a "mechanic"...
The army attracted all the bad giant robots to a huge city, effectively producing a lot of casualties, all this with the conscent of the minister of defense.
And much, much more.
2007-12-10 07:39:00 · answer #6 · answered by Optimus Prime 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I can think of a lot of examples but one of those most offensive I've seen in the past 20 years was "Fatal Attraction". It was the man who was cheating so why did his wife shoot his lover? I know the ending was changed because test audiences didn't like the original but I would have liked this movie better if it had been left in. In the original ending, the lover committed suicide and fingered the man for killing her.
2007-12-10 06:27:55 · answer #7 · answered by RoVale 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Not the MOST offensive, but I just watched "Deck the Halls" this past weekend with my kids. While parts of it were funny if one could suspend belief, but I am growing very weary with the "grown-men-acting-completely-immature" theme that seems to get played out in TV and movies over and over and over and over...
I find slasher films to be very offensive ... the level of violence in some of these movie is offensive to human beings, regardless of gender.
2007-12-10 05:54:10 · answer #8 · answered by TimWarneka 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Basic Instinct with Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas--- a bisexual, female serial killer and a male chauvinist pig male cop who is sexually attracted to the bisexual serial killer.
Showgirls starring Elizabeth Berkley was terrible it portrayed all the women as vapid sex addicted monsters who were jealous of each other
2007-12-10 05:32:02 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 1⤋
Disclosure starring Demi Moore and Michael Douglas
2007-12-10 05:05:15 · answer #10 · answered by Loenla T 3 · 2⤊ 2⤋