the nappy robotrix ([info]cleojones) wrote in [info]deadbrowalking,
@ 2007-04-11 21:38:00
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Current mood:indescribable
Current music:Baby It's You - Smith

Grindhouse and Feminism

Now is wasn't perfect, by no means...The preposterous use of "nigga please" to another woman, for one. And Tarentino's need to insert it EVERYWHERE, for another. And I'm sure there are other things, people can point out...But, boy I was impressed with these films almost reverent treatment of women!

So much, so some guys I noticed were turned off by it, wondering why Stuntman Mike didn't kill all the women. Why the women were talking so much (truthfully, so was I, dammit!).

I loved...
that metaphorical rape of Stuntman Mike. It's usually women getting raped in those types of movies.
that he ended up being such a pussy.
that El Wray loved his woman but knew he did not "possess" her. He encouraged her growth and independence as a woman.
that Dr. Block, despite having done the ultimate cinematic death-sentanceable offense, cheating on her husband with a woman, still lived (thrived!) in the end.

It was just that I didn't expect that on top of just being a couple of fun grindhouse flicks. Really, it's almost the opposite of the kind of treatment women get in the Thanksgiving trailer.

I know it's not really "sci-fi", well the first one was... But I had to point this out.


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[info]imfallingup
2007-04-12 04:30 am UTC (link)
whoa! are you kidding?

i'll give you those, but how about the bit where the three women that killed stuntman mike---one of them armed with the gun she got to protect her from rape---left the fourth friend with the creepy lecherous guy selling the car, basically pushing the 'rape this passed out girl in the cheerleader outfit so we can drive your car' thing? in other words, a woman did get raped in that movie; it just wasn't eroticized, the way the near-rape was in the first one (terror planet) (although i'll give it that they didn't make the attempt at rape itself erotic, mostly focusing on making the women as constantly sexualized as possible, and i'll DEFINITELY give that i loved seeing tarantino being penetrated by the wooden leg). all the awesomeness of those three killing mike was totally watered down for me by the whole abandoning the other woman thing, and i know she's some Poor Naive White Girl but still it bugged the shit out of me.

or how the point when mike, who 'butterfly' knows has been stalking her all day, tells her that (and i paraphrase) he loves nothing more than a beautiful woman with a bruised ego, and then starts literally writing her down in a book to be on his shit list, and then she gets all empowered-like and decides she will, after all, give him a lap dance?

'terror planet' wasn't so bad for me, but 'death proof' just reminded me of why i avoid tarantino movies.

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[info]cleojones
2007-04-12 12:06 pm UTC (link)
Butterfly, wasn't empowered.

She was frightened. And I'm surprised you didn't note that the lap-dance scene was cut out of the movie.

The first set of women did not have the benefit of being equally trained and knowledgeable about Mike's work.

They did not know what was coming and therefore didn't have the benefit to defend themselves.

As for the friend, I did see it as she was (implied) raped. She was left to awkwardly fend off his fanboyish questioning and flirtation.

Hence the almost cartoonish "gulp" she utters.

That's how I read it.

That reverse rape is a BIG DEAL. And the fact that the woman can DRIVE and that Mike ended up being a pussy (as he should!).

He kills women in the most cowardly way possible. When confronted with women who are given the opportunity to defend himself, that's what he reveals himself as.

As I said, it wasn't perfect, but damn if most of it wasn't refreshing.

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[info]imfallingup
2007-04-12 02:03 pm UTC (link)
butterfly may have been scared, but they showed her as strong, and when they leave the bar later they're all fabulous and friendly---not scared. and the reel was removed, like in terror planet, as a joke referring to how grindhouse movies would generally get their sex/sexual scenes overplayed and stolen by reel operators. on the one hand, great, we didn't have to see it; on the other hand, as it was an intentional cut by tarantino i think it erases the issue, same as the woman abandoned to rape.

i get that the forward movements are big; i just feel that there's also so much what.the.fuckery, on more levels than just feminism, that i have a lot of trouble seeing most of it as refreshing. maybe with terror planet. definitely not with death proof.

i'll admit to having ridiculously high expectations of everyone and everything, though, as well as to not having grown up with an awful lot of tv or movies in general; my b-movie familiarity is mostly limited to zombie flicks. it's fair to saay that lacking some amount of comparison may be some of my issue here.

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