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[IWasInSeinfeld]

Yes, but I also agree with what was already said in this thread, no one really had issues with powerful female characters being powerful because they themselves became one.

 

[TaylorSwiftFan]

Why and why not?

I mean, as a parent I would find it enticing.

But why? Ok, you’ll find it enticing. Surely there must be a reason.

 

[Vestal]

But why? Ok, you’ll find it enticing. Surely there must be a reason.

Because it would be a story about how a kid grows up to out do the exploits of their parents. It's what every parent strives for, or at least should.

 

[TaylorSwiftFan]

Because it would be a story about how a kid grows up to out do the exploits of their parents. It's what every parent strives for, or at least should.

Ok, I get you. For some reason, your original post made it sound like it he fact that he had a a daughter was the enticing thing.

 

[jason10mm]

Do both not exist now in modern media? Whereas only the damsel in distress was the main theme of almost every female character in the past. It's new and different characters that excite me.

See, in the context of a stripped down action heavy film, the "damsel in distress" was just a plot macguffin. Those types of films were made by and marketed to, men and the ONLY character that matters is the hero. Even the villain, often a man, is barely more than a cardboard cutout, so to say the film slights women applies equally to virtually every other character, including all the other men. NO ONE has agency other than the hero who is often just punching his or her way from A to B.

That these films gained in popularity and somehow have now ENTIRELLY overshadowed more complex story telling thrillers, romcoms, family dramas, female emotionally resonant films, etc is just a sad commentary that audiences WANT the dumb action film spectacle and writers are not capable of delivering anything more than the standard male power fantasy story just swapping out the male actor for a female one that then goes on to play what is essentially a male character.

The litmus test I use is whether or not I could replace the lead with an actor of the other gender and would it derail the movie. For almost every action film I could replace the female with a male and the action and story would stay the same or even improve (stuff like Gunpowder Milkshake, Jolt, Kate, etc would only get better with a more physical actor in the role and lose nothing if that actor was a male). For HORROR though, this test fails, my enjoyment of most horror films relies on a weak character FINDING strength, so for slashers in particular it doesn't work nearly so well if a weak male finds strength versus a female, mostly because men START OFF with strength and their reactions in these situations would already be different (which is why most slashers polish off these guys right at the start to establish the threat of the killer).

Apply it to traditional "female empowerment" films like "9 to 5" and subbing out the office ladies for men works even less. It's just a fact that societal expectations for men is different than for women and the sex DOES determine responses and options, even if writers refuse to acknowledge it. Imagine the Julia Robert's film "Sleeping with the Enemy" where Roberts escapes from her abusive relationship (or, for an analogy less than three decades old, the new "Invisible Man") and switch the genders so a man has to flee an abusive woman. We know that HALF of domestic violence cases are against men (http://endtodv.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Thirty-Years-of-DV-Half-Truths-Falsehoods-and-Lies.pdf) but is anyone gonna see a film about a man fleeing an abusive woman in a film? No, because women don't wanna see that film, neither do men (unless it is couched as a male power fantasy film of revenge and retribution).

So the real problem, as I see it, isn't that silly dumb male power fantasy films exist, it's that WOMEN don't go out and support FILMS FOR WOMEN enough that those genres can survive and prosper rather than having to encroach on films aimed at men. Guys reliably turn out for the latest CGI laden gore splattered slugfest or capeshit though, at least when the film doesn't try to insult them.

 

[StueyDuck]

I think the most obvious trope is the "Secret lesbian" side character which is never secret and is always painfully obvious when revealed. It's so bad now that if you watch any modern tv show and woman is even slightly friendly to another it usually means there is something lesbian going on. It's so weird because you don't ever get to really see women just be friends anymore.

The same way that two men can't be mates without being presumed and shipped as a gay couple, most recent winter soldier and falcon who were shipped by rabbid fans

 

[thegame983]

I just don't know who these movies are for. Maybe it's an American thing (I'm Irish, live in Dublin), but none, NONE of my female friends watch action movies, watch comic book movies, play video games, watch sport, etc.

They watch reality TV and movies about emotions and stuff and that's fine.

 

[Doom85]

I just don't know who these movies are for. Maybe it's an American thing (I'm Irish, live in Dublin), but none, NONE of my female friends watch action movies, watch comic book movies, play video games, watch sport, etc.

Definitely not just a US thing, but anyway I’ve lived in the US my whole life and most of the women I know pretty well these days are into superhero movies, video games, anime, etc. Even before that, I knew a good amount of girls who played video games (one even had a Mass Effect tattoo) and man one girl I was close friends in college was like the biggest movie buff I’ve ever personally met. And honestly, I’d say in the US in the 2000’s that anime fandom may have had slightly more female fans than male, though that may have shifted slightly since though it’s still pretty damn close from what I’ve seen.

Hell, my mom is in her 60’s and even she watches MCU films and some other action films, and she’s even seen two anime series (Paranoia Agent and Great Pretender). Whereas my dad pretty much touches nothing nerdy outside of some of the Batman, Superman, and Spider-man films, and Star Trek.