NPR. Local movie reviewer does Sin City. The best movie of 2005 so far. Directed by the author of three graphic novels blah blah blah Sexist? Well, you see, the women only seem like they are being taken advantage of- really, they are using their breasts to manipulate men. Yes, there are lots of breasts in the movie, but they aren’t only erotic, they are also dangerous. Ah.
Those are my choices? Breasts as erotic fantasy grist or breasts as weapons? Not enough coffee in the world for me to make sense of how we view breasts, and by association, women, and by association, men.
So when I sprained my ankle and couldn’t reach the remote and Kevin forced me to sit through Wages of Fear I was horrified when the main character’s girlfriend, dressed in pigtails and a sweet smile, gets hit across the face as a matter of daily conversation. Could I have walked, I would have.
Kevin justified the casually misogynist tone of the film to “1950’s France.” Supposedly, 1950’s France was not “a people who will not be slaves again”, at least if the people in question were female characters in a movie. And because it is suspenseful and lacks a happy ending, it’s a great film and I should appreciate men driving trucks with explosives.
I’m guessing, based on past experience, that I’m going to be told that I shouldn’t be upset by the sexist tone of Sin City because it’s stylized and because secretly, the strippers in fishnet are manipulating the brainless men. The specific argument on the radio this morning was that “sure it’s sexist, but it’s male fantasy.” He went on to talk of meaningful themes including castration, breasts as weapons, strippers and “lipstick lesbians.” Oh.
So, to sum up, it’s a great movie with themes that involve men dependent on their penis for masculinity and women who are content to manipulate their way, or else use their breast guns to kill.
I know why some women are upset by this representation- what I don’t get is why men aren’t upset.