So. I got into one of those discussions you don't want to get into with a co-worker. Short version: we're talking about the death of Alan Rickman and I don't want to be too too much of a Harry Potter fanatic, so I mention Love Actually.
She goes into a tirade about how she hates Love Actually because of the "messy structure" and how she totally couldn't get into any of the characters and yadda yadda.
I say, well... it really does a great job of depicting love. Really illustrating it --
Then she goes on that the reason she hates it is that she feels the movie objectifies women.
Ok. Well. I just watched the deleted scenes and the movie was originally close to three hours long. He cut it. That can lead to some structural- wait, objectification of women?
These are people that are falling in love with each other. There's not objectification. In fact, Hugh Grant's character specifically likes Natalie for her personality. Okay, yeah, there's that cheesy dancing video thing. But that's just for contrast-- to show we live in a gross, petty kind of world but some people are really in love. There's the Walking Dead guy in love with Pirates of the Caribbean woman, but even though he clearly thinks she's beautiful, he's in LOVE with her. He's not objectifying her. He loves the details.
Anyway.
Question is:
Do you think a movie about love or a rom com or a romance or whatever can escape the wrath of feminist theorists? If so, how? (For example, the theme song for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend gets all meta and calls them sexist for calling her that.) Or does a writer just move on and know this person isn't the audience?
Second question: Do you think people have higher/stronger/weirder/ expectations for female writers than for male ones?
And -- how do write about love in a cynical world and in a feminist world etc? There's nothing wrong with writing a good love story and yet there are some people who so fundamentally don't believe in love it's like they're atheists about it. They get outright angry. Threatened.
My theory: Love Actually has the ridiculous dancers and porn people just like chocolate chip cookies need salt. Otherwise it would be too sugary.
Finally: How do you deal with readers who want your script to be something it's not -- it's like they have an agenda of what the world needs or something. Like -- does it mean what you're writing is "out of style" or out of synch with what the world is looking for or ...?
I don't even have my feedback yet. I'm just thinking if this person read what I just wrote it doesn't have any brave Frozen freedom "I don't need a man, I'm so awesome on my own" kind of scene.
Anyway. Have at it. Skewer me. But advice and wisdom is helpful, too.
She goes into a tirade about how she hates Love Actually because of the "messy structure" and how she totally couldn't get into any of the characters and yadda yadda.
I say, well... it really does a great job of depicting love. Really illustrating it --
Then she goes on that the reason she hates it is that she feels the movie objectifies women.
Ok. Well. I just watched the deleted scenes and the movie was originally close to three hours long. He cut it. That can lead to some structural- wait, objectification of women?
These are people that are falling in love with each other. There's not objectification. In fact, Hugh Grant's character specifically likes Natalie for her personality. Okay, yeah, there's that cheesy dancing video thing. But that's just for contrast-- to show we live in a gross, petty kind of world but some people are really in love. There's the Walking Dead guy in love with Pirates of the Caribbean woman, but even though he clearly thinks she's beautiful, he's in LOVE with her. He's not objectifying her. He loves the details.
Anyway.
Question is:
Do you think a movie about love or a rom com or a romance or whatever can escape the wrath of feminist theorists? If so, how? (For example, the theme song for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend gets all meta and calls them sexist for calling her that.) Or does a writer just move on and know this person isn't the audience?
Second question: Do you think people have higher/stronger/weirder/ expectations for female writers than for male ones?
And -- how do write about love in a cynical world and in a feminist world etc? There's nothing wrong with writing a good love story and yet there are some people who so fundamentally don't believe in love it's like they're atheists about it. They get outright angry. Threatened.
My theory: Love Actually has the ridiculous dancers and porn people just like chocolate chip cookies need salt. Otherwise it would be too sugary.
Finally: How do you deal with readers who want your script to be something it's not -- it's like they have an agenda of what the world needs or something. Like -- does it mean what you're writing is "out of style" or out of synch with what the world is looking for or ...?
I don't even have my feedback yet. I'm just thinking if this person read what I just wrote it doesn't have any brave Frozen freedom "I don't need a man, I'm so awesome on my own" kind of scene.
Anyway. Have at it. Skewer me. But advice and wisdom is helpful, too.
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