Girls on Film: Loathsome Female Clichés

"I get tired of the cliche of Woman as The Victim, and even more frustrating: in response to woman as the victim, it's The Powerful Woman Who's Made Palatable (Conventionally Sexy) Enough for The Male Gaze."

Hear hear! It's funny how the second one feels even more aggravating than the first, somehow. Maybe it's because it feels like they're made more for men's sensibilities than women's... or because they're so perfect and removed from normal women that they remain a "them" rather than an "us" and their displays of strength seem not to apply to "us"... or because the filmmakers tried so hard to create female characters who "have it all" that they make cardboard characters - and when so many strong female characters seem unrealistic and as flimsy as cardboard, it makes the whole concept of the strong woman seem the same way. When it's that difficult for writers - even good ones - to *imagine* good, strong female characters, we know we're not out of the woods yet.

The Shrew Mom is a good one.. It's probably good that one didn't come to mind while writing this -- it would've been hard not to rant for a few thousand words. :)

Saying, "get over it" won't do anything. But you bring up a point, women of color get the even shorter end of the stick when it comes to cliches. The outspoken, tell-it-like-it-is, bootylicious black woman, the submissive, geisha-like Asian woman (which I particularly loathe, being a non-submissive, ungeisha-like Asian woman), the fast talking Latina, etc., etc. Both men and women characters of color in film are tacked on for humor (as the joke maker and joke taker) or just as racial accessories for the white main character to unload their problems on. You could say the same for gay and lesbian characters. Cliches abound everywhere for everyone, but "getting over it" won't do shit about eradicating that.

I'm not saying we should do anything about it lol. Its just how it is so whatever. If I was advocating some kind of action I wouldn't be commenting on some blog. We're not gonna eradicate anything. Funny thing is for examole there are more stereotypes in a black produced and directed mivie then there as in one with a white protagonist. I've seen the same with other races. So....yea get over it, deal with it, suck it up, so what who cares. Sound shitty well its been like this for a very long time, things change slowly. Write your own story if you have issue with the stories that are out there.

"maybe an asian should get a chance to rant. or someone of hispanic distant."

I agree. I really love that Cinematical talks about women's stuff, but sometimes I feel they do it to the exclusion of other, similar issues (i.e. race and homosexual issues). I say this as a white, basically straight woman - I think perhaps they should balance things a bit more. I do not, however, think they should just "get over it." Discussion breeds awareness, and that's the first step towards eliminating stereotypes.

That's the stock response every time someone is asked to think even a little bit about what they are seeing on screen. Sexist cliches? Racist robots? It's just a movie, shut up and stop having an opinion!

People who are passionate about movies care what goes into them. If you don't, fine. But think about the truly great movies you've loved - I'll bet that at least a bit of thought and care went into making them, and there was something more unique than a bunch of worn-out stereotypes.

Bride Wars was not a movie. It was a pile of hot, flaming garbage.

Kinda covered that here: http://www.cinematical.com/2009/05/18/girls-on-film-desiring-real-femme-fighters/

:)

"The trouble is, women who have It All — who are successfully and good and well-rewarded at everything in life — would make for unbelievably boring subjects of movies."

Wow..

Well, first, having a successful personal life doesn't mean being "well-rewarded at everything in life." It means a person who isn't one-dimensional, whose talents aren't miraculously pigeon-holed into one segment of life.

Second, it's probably pointless to argue this if you think a woman's only worth on the big screen is with cliched inadequacies. As if there's no worth in a successful female character who deals with the comedy of everyday life, the challenges of death, the struggle to help someone less fortunate, the intricacies of dealing with the world at large, romance, mysteries, drama, so on and so forth.

Monika, my statement was only about women because this article was about women.

There is no worth in ANY character, male or female, who does not have shortcomings. There is nothing interesting about perfect people. There is no STRUGGLE for people who are perfect.

How are success and shortcomings mutually exclusive?

Success doesn't equal perfection, and even if it did, we live in an imperfect world, so there's always room for struggle.

I didn't say success and shortcomings WERE mutually exclusive: by calling successful women with shortcomings a "loathsome cliché," it seemed (to me, and to another commenter below, as well) that YOU were doing that.

Sure, you loaded your argument with ridiculous (and regrettably familiar) examples of the trope, but those seem to be better examples of bad writing than of any actual cliché (loathsome or otherwise) in action.
You even mention a palatable example (Street in DWP, which I have not seen), the existence of which seems to undermine its purported loathsomeness.

I didn't say they WERE mutually exclusive.

That's what you suggest by taking "We've grown accustomed to this notion that successful women on the big screen probably won't be successful in their personal lives." and applying it to "women who have It All."

I didn't call women with shortcomings a loathsome cliche. I called women who are written as being very professionally successful, bitchy, and inept at every other area in their life a cliche.

"those seem to be better examples of bad writing than of any actual cliché"

Isn't cliche, by its very definition, bad writing?

"You even mention a palatable example (Street in DWP, which I have not seen), the existence of which seems to undermine its purported loathsomeness."

I don't believe it does, because not a whole lot is black and white. Streep is a great actress, which makes the character more interesting than most, but her acting talents don't make her character any less cliched.