X-Men 3 - Totally anti-woman
Warning: Spoilers.
I saw X-men 3 this weekend and I was furious, furious, over the message in the film. If you're a woman with the strongest powers ever known, stronger than the strongest man (Magneto) then you must be controlled because that power is bad. It is dark, unconscious, dangerous. If it cannot be controlled by the men around you then you must be destroyed. You have no choice and no say in the matter. Don't even bother trying to control it yourself. You can't, you woman. You cannot even find harmony with your "darker" self. You just have to die at the hands of a man. How can the most powerful character be the weakest?
Where was Jean Grey's choice in the matter? She had none. Charles Xavier, the leader of the X-men, placed "conscious blocks" in Jean Grey's mind as a child, separating the feared, feminine, strong, primal part of her, controlling that part for Jean Grey. The X-men storyline, at least how the movies have presented it (I've barely read the comic books so I can't speak for them), has been one about accepting yourself for who you are, regardless of the discrimination and alienation. It's also been one about choice. How does this jive with what happened in this film when the most powerful X-men character is reduced to a mute, her powers menacing and in need of being controlled and dominated by men?
By far, this was the most anti-woman film I've seen in a long time. Along with this storyline another character, Rogue, who cannot touch others because she drains their energy, takes the "mutant cure" and becomes 100% human, just so she can keep her boyfriend and fulfill his sexual desire.
Talk about denegrating the feminine and giving the message that strength is unwelcomed in a woman, that we must give up our powers to fulfill a man's sexual desire, that our power is derived from dark and mysterious place that must be dominated by a man and ultimately feared and destroyed.
uggggggh.
I saw X-men 3 this weekend and I was furious, furious, over the message in the film. If you're a woman with the strongest powers ever known, stronger than the strongest man (Magneto) then you must be controlled because that power is bad. It is dark, unconscious, dangerous. If it cannot be controlled by the men around you then you must be destroyed. You have no choice and no say in the matter. Don't even bother trying to control it yourself. You can't, you woman. You cannot even find harmony with your "darker" self. You just have to die at the hands of a man. How can the most powerful character be the weakest?
Where was Jean Grey's choice in the matter? She had none. Charles Xavier, the leader of the X-men, placed "conscious blocks" in Jean Grey's mind as a child, separating the feared, feminine, strong, primal part of her, controlling that part for Jean Grey. The X-men storyline, at least how the movies have presented it (I've barely read the comic books so I can't speak for them), has been one about accepting yourself for who you are, regardless of the discrimination and alienation. It's also been one about choice. How does this jive with what happened in this film when the most powerful X-men character is reduced to a mute, her powers menacing and in need of being controlled and dominated by men?
By far, this was the most anti-woman film I've seen in a long time. Along with this storyline another character, Rogue, who cannot touch others because she drains their energy, takes the "mutant cure" and becomes 100% human, just so she can keep her boyfriend and fulfill his sexual desire.
Talk about denegrating the feminine and giving the message that strength is unwelcomed in a woman, that we must give up our powers to fulfill a man's sexual desire, that our power is derived from dark and mysterious place that must be dominated by a man and ultimately feared and destroyed.
uggggggh.
