Leave it to feminists to be incensed over a dinosaur movie.
“Jurassic World” hits theaters June 12. Presumably a redux of “Jurassic Park,” but this time with one dude taking out dinosaurs instead of a motley crew of paleontologists, it’s a film I can’t wait to see on the silver screen. But that’s probably because I’m not a feminist.
In this edition of Feminists vs. Reality, the gripe is with (gasp!) traditional gender roles.
According to NYU Local, Joss Whedon is to blame for reminding feminists they should be infuriated by traditional gender rolls instead of swooning over leading man, Chris Pratt:
When a clip from Jurassic World featuring Pratt and his co-star Bryce Dallas Howard was released on the Internet last week, Joss Whedon, director of the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron and well known feminist, had some major gripes with what he saw.Online feminist entertainment blog The Mary Sue tweeted out a link to the Jurassic World scene, commenting, “We’re too busy fanning ourselves to talk more about Chris Pratt in this #JurassicWorld clip.” Joss Whedon used his own Twitter account to reply: “…and I’m too busy wishing this clip wasn’t 70’s era sexist. She’s a stiff, he’s a life-force – really? Still?” He has since stated in an interview with Variety that he regrets sending the tweet, saying that Twitter was the wrong medium for such negative comments, but Whedon hasn’t retracted the opinion he expressed to his 1.12 million followers.
Whedon has since abandoned Twitter, but his tweeted seed of outrage has blossomed into a hideously stupid monstrosity.
The NYU Local continues:
Joss Whedon’s tweet wasn’t so wrong though. Upon viewing the Jurassic World clip it’s immediately apparent that Pratt and Howard’s characters fall into stereotypical tropes that are less than progressive. It’s nice that Bryce Dallas Howard plays a female scientist, but if she’s just going to play it straight-laced and one-dimensional the role isn’t really making great strides for women in show business. And the fact that Chris Pratt’s chill, fun-loving character doesn’t stop with his entendre-filled come-ons after Howard’s character rebuffs his advances is disrespectful.A lot of the controversy surrounding Whedon’s comment comes from those who are upset with him for calling out sexism while not being completely innocent of it himself. Though he’s known for writing strong female characters on his shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Angel, and Dollhouse, plenty of people on the Internet have taken note of times where he was less than inclusive with his brand of feminism. There have been occasions where he let white actresses take on roles originally intended for women of color, and non-white slayers are killed while Faith and Buffy survive. A whole collection of Whedon’s offenses can be found on the aptly named site, “josswhedonisnotafeminist.tumblr.com,” but just because he may not have been perfect doesn’t mean that his points about Jurassic World are not valid. It’s 2015, and there’s no excuse for not writing complex, three-dimensional characters.
This is the video clip in question:
CAN YOU BELIEVE HOW SEXIST IT IS?! “It’s 2015, and there’s no excuse for not writing complex, three-dimensional characters.”
I don’t want to see a dinosaur movie that doubles as an exposé illustrating how so and so broke free from the chains of a gender stereotype in order to accomplish a ground-breaking scientific feat, because newsflash — NO ONE CARES. Cripes. We hardly get any dinosaur movies as it is, is it too much to ask that they come without social commentary?
The best way to instantly lame up any movie? Smear feminist insecurities allllllll over it.
Imagine for a moment what a “socially correct” ‘Jurassic World’ plot might look like… A leading lady, accompanied by a dumb man (the man MUST be intellectually inferior to further drive home feminine ingenuity and ability to stick it to the patriarchy) would encourage the rogue, petri dish-created mutant dinorexasaurus to share its feelings in interpretive paintings a la gorillas at the DC Zoo.
The dino drawings reveal (insert another super smart, but totally erroneous non-cisgendered character here to interpret the paintings) deep rooted animosity towards dinorexasaurus’ creator. It’s alone in the world, unlike any other species in its genus. It just wants to be loved, don’t you see? If only mankind (or personkind? I don’t eve know what the PC term is) had hugged it sooner and understood that when it was decapitating the groundskeepers, it was really just crying for help! Plus it can’t control its actions because climate change triggers its rage. I mean, who wouldn’t want to see that movie?
Excuse me while I barf.
As for the film’s leading man Chris Pratt? He’s way ahead of the curve. A few days ago, he made what’s probably the most perfect statement in the history of statements:
Leave the dinosaur movies alone and keep the social commentary for the trite, self-loathing, indie films that no one watches anyway.
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