dm@BBN-VAX.ARPA (08/14/85)
From: dm@BBN-VAX.ARPA If Spielberg IS sexist, what's he going to do to ``The Color Purple''? I agree that there have been a paucity of women who seem to be put on the screen for anything other than fueling male fantasies. [Well, there ARE a lot of men who seem to have no purpose on the screen but to fuel female fantasies. The point is that there are also a lot of men on the screen who are being portrayed in a movie because what they do is interesting, there don't seem to be many women of which this is true.] An exception is Jordan, in ``Real Genius'', (wish I never had to sleep...). She was really a bit of a freak for one to want to emulate her (though I STILL wish I never had to sleep...). On the other hand, everyone in the film is a freak, Jordan not much more so than Chris Knight, and much less so than Professor Hathaway or Laszlo. [REAL GENIUS SLIGHT SPOILERS COMING UP: ] On the plus side, the transmitter they put into Kent's head is her idea (she also installs it, which implies she probably built it). She's seen doing lots of ``unladylike'' things (sanding her floor, building sleds). The romance between her and Mitch is not over-stressed (i.e, it's not made into her raison d'etre, it's just a facet of her personality). It's clear she's part of the goings on because she's vital to them, not because she's somebody's girl-friend (i.e., she's a person, not a sex-object). If I were a young woman in the audience, I could see using Jordan as my surrogate in the film without feeling degraded or embarrassed by what she does. If I were a young girl, I might want to grow up to be like here in some sense. On the minus side, she's 19, and ends up with a 15-year-old boy (well, he's 16 by the end of the movie). It would be nicer if she ended up with someone who was her equal (a romance between her and Chris might be more appropriate). Probably the most damning thing to say about the character in the film is that she implies: ``Hey girls, be smart and you'll end up as a lonely freak like Jordan.'' On the other hand, the same message is broadcast to boys (Sherry the ``head-hunter'' notwithstanding, Sherry is comic because she's so incongruous, her behavior seems slightly perverse and odd, to be PC (Politically Correct), her behavior should seem normal, of course...:-)), so at least they're even-handed in that respect. There's another female character worth mentioning in this film: Susan (``A girl's got to have her standards'') the Chief Baby-killer's daughter, who seems to be the only person able to match verbal wits with Chris. I'm not sure I'd call her much of a role-model, however. Growing young women don't even have Joanie Caucus around in Doonesbury to inspire them anymore. (Have you noticed how many women law students there are nowadays? I really wonder if its just coincidence.) It's not fair.