Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Homework #6 Matilda Jarvis

   Tropes vs. Women explores the recurring theme of a 'manic pixie dream girl' that Hollywood uses as a support for the hero. Nathan Rabin defines is as "that bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures" (Feminist Frequency). Yes, there are cases of this in movies, but I think that it is becoming more common to have a female as the heroine of the story. In such cases, there are male supports, so are they the 'manic pixie dream boys'?
Another point they made was that "the manic pixie perpetuates the myth of women as caregivers at our very core, that we can go fix these lonely, sad men so that they can go fix the world" (Feminist Frequency). Again, maybe women have a more nurturing nature, but that's certainly not all we do, nor does that describe every female, especially in movies.


   Doofy Husbands: Target Women begins by saying, "Being a woman isn't easy: we work, we take care of the house, we raise children, and we do it all without a shred of help from those lumbering man-beasts known as husbands" (Haskins). It's noteworthy that the stay-at-home mom's work is being acknowledged--it's hard work--but staying at home wouldn't be possible, in this case, if the husband weren't bring in an income for her to do so. So, he's not all together such a 'lumbering man-beast.' This video clip then discusses the before and after of husbands: "Remember what he was like in commercials before he was a husband. Just a fun single dude, driving his awesome car or motorcycle...he was so cool. And then he met you and got married. And now he's slightly dumber than a dog" (Haskins). Harsh words. And not true. But the commercial and advertising industry certainly plays on this as a way to target wives to buy their products.

1 comment:

  1. I noticed the same thing in the tropes video, we definitely don't only take care of men. The video failed to point that out.

    ReplyDelete