The movie has some normal superhero movie flaws. The plot is absurd. The villains are ludicrous and hard to take seriously. There are plenty of points that are meant to be emotional, heartwrenching, or full of tension but instead become a joke because the writing is weak. (Seriously, dying in space from being in hard vacuum and you save yourself by phoning someone, who picks you up in five seconds? From across the galaxy? Why even pretend to have a plot?)
I often enjoy interesting tech ideas in science fiction books and movies, but this one is a mess. Some people use knives to fight, some people use laser cannons, and some people use pencils that can fly through the air and kill hundreds of enemies (and ships) in a single second. It is ridiculous.
However, it is a superhero movie about a talking tree with magic powers, a cybernetic raccoon with super intelligence, and two random guys who don't seem to be much good at anything really, but they are in the movie anyway.
Oh yeah, also there is a woman on the team. Which is where all the trouble starts.
See, I get that when you have an intellectual property that has a five person hero team with one female on it, you don't have gender balance. That is the breaks, when using specific source material. But when you are making up a universe around those heroes you could at least try a little not to have everyone be male, right?
Evidently not.
And okay, fine, the movie portrays nearly all men, but at least the female lead gets to be treated reasonably, right? Because while I don't like the male dominated universe, surely the writers and editors wouldn't just have the sole female protagonist be the target of gendered slurs for no reason, right?
Wrong again.
For some reason the raccoon, when being introduced to the female lead, refers to her as a broad. He could have just used the word she, he could have asked about the green skinned lady, or found some other way to refer to her. But no, lets just slip in a gendered slur for no reason. To establish the raccoon as a tough guy, or something. Because it is totally worth torpedoing the female character to establish a male one, right?
Even more egregious though is a scene near the movie's end where one of the male team calls her a whore. Not because he is angry, or because she has done something that might suggest promiscuity or sex work, but just because why not. It is just casually tossed in there without any justification or sense. Seriously people? Use her fucking name!
This stuff really bothers me. I get irritable at movies that have preposterous science sometimes. I grump at plots that are ridiculous. But otherwise I had a reasonably good time and suspended disbelief long enough to enjoy the ridiculous scenes and pretty visuals.
But when writers toss in garbage like that it just breaks the movie for me and makes me sad. That shit had to go past editors and public relations people and nobody did anything about it. Nobody even realized how unnecessary and shitty this kind of writing is. Is there really a demographic who wants silly space romps and insists that women in them need to be randomly degraded for absolutely no reason? Are we pandering to those assholes still?
We can do so much better than this.
Is broad a slur? I agree with you wholeheartedly on whore. Broad, while certainly gendered, has never seemed like a slur to me, but I'm open to new information.
ReplyDeleteThat was my reaction too. It's very dated, so no one uses it without looking old and out of touch.
DeleteIt would be like someone calling me a "cur" or perhaps a "rake" (except even more antiquated) - no one does that anymore, so it seems weird. But that character is supposed to be offensive so it didn't throw me off, it gave me a sense that he's like a gangster. If he used "toots" I'd have gotten the same impression.
Nick, yes, in most contexts I'd take broad as a slur. The exception is if you're Humphrey Bogart or a film noir gum shoe.
ReplyDeleteSlur might be a bit too strong, it's definitely not anything you'd call a lady ;)
DeleteNick, if you google 'is broad a slur' you will find pretty much universal agreement that it is. Or you could try calling women in your life broads and see what happens - I can pretty much guarantee you will find them taking offense in a big way. I know for certain that if I did that I would get nothing but horror and anger. It is the sort of thing my mother would have considered far worse than swearing when I was young, and I am sure nothing has changed on that front.
ReplyDeleteWell, it turns out your guarantee was wrong. Now, I didn't actually start calling people broads, but I did ask them how they felt about the word and being called it.
DeleteOf course I don't actually have many women in my life, and they're significantly younger than your mother.
http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2015/05/20/how-generations-of-women-powerfully-reinvented-the-word-broad-2/
ReplyDeleteThat movie has people referring to each other as assholes and dicks as well, right? I really enjoyed the movie, as did my wife, but we're not in the easily offended camp. I believe that comedy is better when all things remain in bounds.
ReplyDeleteI find the word 'broad' to be within that stupid racoon's vernacular. He talks like a 50s mobster, and that term was ubiquitous during that time.
The whore comment did stand out a bit -- the character that said it has been established to speak only in blunt truths, and not understanding of subtlety or nuance. Not enough to pull me out and not enjoy the movie, however. It was fun and light. It is by far my favorite of the MCU movies.
The assholes and dicks thing is true, for sure. I should note that I have reservations about insults that rely on certain body parts being stand ins for 'bad' but far less so when they are centred around privileged groups (say, males) than oppressed groups. Basically I have some feelings around that whole issue, and I recognize that I treat it differently based on sex, but I think given the way society is that such a stance is warranted.
DeleteI like most of the MCU movies a lot, but this one not so much, largely due to the reasons I describe.
Thing is, I can understand how sometimes you push the boundaries for reasons. There are times and places for gendered insults in film, certainly. But I can't see any reason whatever for the way they were used in this movie. It accomplished nothing in terms of character or plot development, and indeed felt out of place. I am not advocating banning such language, but I think it should be used with forethought considering the way society is.
A responsible movie has the need to be responsible. A farce should remain farcical. Comedies _must_ be free to offensive, or they may become less funny, which is antithetical.
DeleteIf I remember correctly, when the strong alien woman was called a whore, she responded forcefully that that wasn't OK. Which is actually the teachable moment. People will always be dumb and offensive, but she was a role model in how she handled it. This reminds me of your last blog post where you said children playing in dangerous waters was good for them.
Actually, anon, the previous post was about how children playing in safe waters was good for them, in part because it would provide simulation training for more dangerous waters -- not that playing in dangerous waters was okay. (It seems Sky's mother in law might have a different opinion on whether the waters in question were safe or dangerous; it sounds as if she was subscribing to the "2 inches of water is dangerous" school of thought respecting the kids in their blow up raft at the cottage )
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ReplyDeleteIs Groot male? Or are you projecting your own tree-like nature upon it/her?
ReplyDeleteGroot is voiced by Vin Diesel, and the pronoun he is used in all instances I could find. So unless you have some support for the 'groot is female' theory I think we can set this objection aside.
DeleteI'm pretty sure other characters refer to Groot using the pronouns he/his
DeletePerhaps they used Vin Diesel because they lacked any actual talking trees that could more accurately capture Groot's "real" voice?
DeleteAnd maybe our unenlightened heroes just went with the default assumption that "all things are male" and what Groot is really saying is that it is not male or female, it is Groot. And it is confused that everyone keeps calling it by it's sex and not using it's name, which unfortunately is unpronounceable by non-plant life forms.
It's a tragedy really.