Wednesday, July 07, 2004

"Ass-kicking babes", violence and feminism

I'm not sure that I completely agree with this article, as I am an Alias addict, but I do agree with her analysis of Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. Lisa Jervis makes the connection between "hot chicks kicking celluloid ass" and p*rnorgra*hy, and I think it applies in the case of the second Charlie's Angels film. Not that I've seen it, mind you - the preview gave me enough to see. I also haven't seen any volume of Kill Bill yet. Here's the last paragraph:
The simplistic questions to ask are if these images make for good role models, and whether they're good or bad for feminism. But what we need aren't better role models, or images that can easily be labeled "good" or "bad." Once pornographic iconography thoroughly saturates women's film violence, we'll be stuck with that tired old depoliticized sexualization clouding our vision whenever we watch it. What we need is substance beyond the pornographic. What we need are conceptions of female violence that preserve the potential of the threat that our rage and our power represent.

AlterNet: MediaCulture: Decoding Hot Girl-on-Girl Action