May 19, 2011
This is the fourth of a six part series created for Bitch Magazine. Tropes vs. Women explores the reoccurring stories, themes and representations of women in Hollywood films and TV shows.
The Evil Demon Seductress is a supernatural creature usually a demon, alien, robot, vampire etc. who is most often disguised as a sexy human …
Filed under: Movies
Tags: Batman, Battlestar Galactica, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sexuality, Species, Tropes, Vampires
April 21, 2011
This is the third of a six part series created for Bitch Magazine. Tropes vs. Women explores the reoccurring stories, themes and representations of women in Hollywood films and TV shows.
The Smurfette Principle was named two decades ago by Katha Pollitt, when she noticed that there were a disproportionate amount of male …
Filed under: Movies
Tags: Bechdel Test, Daily Show, Hollywood, Inception, Jim Hensen, Jon Stewart, Katha Pollitt, Smurfette Principle, Smurfs, Star Trek, Star Wars, The Muppets, Tokenism, Transformers, Tropes, Winnie the Pooh
April 4, 2011
As soon as I saw the trailer for Sucker Punch I correctly guessed that it would be another adolescent boy fantasy masquerading as a pseudo-female-empowerment film. What I was surprised about however was how the mainstream media and the blog-o-sphere called Zach Snyder out on his disaster of a movie. Check out some of …
Filed under: Movies
Tags: Pseudo-Empowerment, Sucker Punch, Warner Brothers, Zack Snyder
March 24, 2011
This is the first of a six part series created for Bitch Magazine. Tropes vs. Women explores the reoccurring stories, themes and representations of women in Hollywood films and TV shows.
The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is a cute, bubbly, young (usually white) woman who has recently entered the life of our brooding hero …
Filed under: Movies
Tags: (500) Days of Summer, Almost Famous, Autumn in New York, Charlize Theron, Elisha Cuthbert, Elizabethtown, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Garden State, Hollywood, Joe Versus the Volcano, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kate Hudson, Kirsten Dunst, Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Meg Ryan, Movies, My Sassy Girl, Natalie Portman, Orlando Bloom, Rachel Bilson, Sweet November, the Last Kiss, Tropes, Tropes vs Women, TV Tropes, Winona Ryder, Zach Braff, Zooey Deschanel
March 9, 2011
Mattie Ross is the star of the award winning film True Grit. She is a remarkable character being cast as a strong, tough, independent, and determined young woman. While I think Mattie’s character is (unfortunately) rare in major Hollywood films, many people have been quick to call her a feminist character… I have a …
Filed under: Movies
Tags: Coen Brothers, Ethan Coen, Female Characters, Hailee Steinfeld, Joel Coen, Mattie Ross, Oscars, True Grit, Violence
February 24, 2011
Oscar season is a time when members of Hollywood are celebrated and reward for the work that they do. But it is also a time when we see just how male centered the movie industry really is. As Allan G. Johnson points out, “If you want a story about heroism, moral courage, spiritual transformation, …
Filed under: Movies
Tags: Academy Awards, Best Director, Best Picture, Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow, Male Centeredness, Oscars, Patriarchy
December 7, 2009
The Bechdel Test is a simple way to gauge the active presence of female characters in Hollywood films and just how well rounded and complete those roles are. It was created by Allison Bechdel in her comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For in 1985. It is astonishing the number of popular movies that …
Filed under: Movies
Tags: Allison Bechdel, Bechdel Test, Dykes to Watch Out For
November 23, 2009
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Here is an easy to follow guide for the guys on the right versus the wrong reasons to hate on Twilight. With the release of New Moon, there has been an awful lot of sexist, homophobic, patriarchal crap floating around the internet and I …
Filed under: Movies
Tags: Damsel in Distress, Homophobia, Patriarchal Protection, Twilight, Vampires, Violence