Finding ourselves without our sons (both getting on a bit but still kids when it comes to trees and presents) this Christmas, my husband and I have grabbed the chance at being entirely non-consumerist in the way we endure..I mean spend the holidays. No tree, no tinsel. Only the obligatory presents have been bought – on amazon where possible to save trudging the streets of Brighton with the hungry shopping throng.
I sound like Scrooge but when you do suddenly choose to reject years of habitual behaviour, you start to see things in very interesting ways.
Take shopping…
In the spirit of sharing, my husband and I decided we would not let either one of us suffer the fate of our ‘mall’ – we would dish up the necessary shopping between us. When it was my turn, I was amazed how many women are filling the shops, loaded down with bags like festive pack donkeys. The men, I noticed, are much more low-fi in their approach. One of two bags, max. Slip in and slip out, undetected. Purposeful and focused. Whereas the women are on their cellphones to all and sundry, discussing the pros and cons of this sweater, those pyjamas. Shopping therapy or masochism, I can’t decide. Still, judging by the vast numbers of women in the shops, we are the sex who have great seasonal expectations of family, love, giving and sharing. Sexpectations, if you like.
Shopping modes do seem to be gender-skewed, a bit like genre audiences.
Last month..or a bit over, losing time here at an alarming rate..I wrote an article for Scriptshark about gender of the protagonist and genres:
http://www.scriptshark.com/script-journal?detail/C17/genre-and-gender-bending-Choosing-the-genre-of-your-screenplay
In response, someone quite rightly pointed out the relatively low success of action genres – the one genre I ahem..overlooked – when they have female leads. The female audience just doesn’t seem to dig the action movie with a woman, rendering it supremely ‘gender locked’, according to my commentator.
But why are there still so few? Is it thatwomen are still so conditioned by femininity that action and violence remain a turn-off? Do we really only want to watch relationship/identity/motherhood-orientated stories to validate our existence, simply because we only want to see what we think is authentic versions of our lives on screen?Are women still the best slaves, bound by the limits of their imaginations? Why don’t we want female action heroines out there, questing, killing, taking on the bad guys, being a bad guy, loving and leaving, or never even loving in the first place? Do we simply just not believe action heroines unless they reflect back our notions of what it is to be a woman?
I can’t answer this, but I do know I’m getting more interested in the action genre, and being a woman, I’m I do want to see more women leading the action. I loved the Bourne trilogy, like most people I know. Bourne worked because it blended action conventions with a strong quest for identity that is normally a character convention in drama. The Bond franchise was revitalized with Casino Royale by letting the audience see James get emotionally wounded by love. In other words, male action genres have been treading into relationship/identity story terrain that still dominate so many female stories.
I think this is a very positive departure for mainstream storytelling and their audiences. It means that young male minds are allowed to identify with heroes who actually have emotions and aren’t just in it for the kill and winning. It is a very subtle and necessary pushing of gender boundaries.
So what about the women?
It’s true there are some early pioneers of more action-orientated female heroes, even if they’re not in purely action genres. On TV: Nikita, Buffy, CSI agents like Katharine and Calleigh. And in film, Ripley, Thelma and Louise, Scully, Salt and now Helen Mirren’s ageing assassin in Red. But we need more, for our own good. Female heroes should be out there in greater numbers grabbing their plots of in what was previously no woman’s land.
Why is this important? Because otherwise the female character has no place to go except into some hyper-feminine narrative space which is dominated by family, love and er..well..making a family, and finding love. It’s funny how even if a character has a fascinating career (Medium, The Good Wife) her main dramatic dilemmas are posed by…family and love!
The argument is simple. Family and love are so central to female identity that they have to figure largely in a narrative for the female audience to relate to a central character. And so the Sexpectations get constantly reinforced unless writers are conscious about how they represent these – questioning and subverting where possible. Or being brave and dispensing with them altogether.
It’s high time for our imaginations to expand our horizons – and not just through sci-fi action adventure or vampire movies. And I’m not just talking about having cancer (The Big C) or going back to work in your forties (The Good Wife) or being a fatty brainiac (Drop Dead Diva). All of which I love, by the way, for their subversive but subtle explorations of women’s roles. I’m talking about female lead characters that I’ve never seen before. I know they are out there. I’ve seen them lurking in the back room of the Secondary Female Character bar. Or slipping in and out of the mall, with one stealthy shopping bag in their hands.
Personally, I want less love, less family and more Fringe, more Salt, and more Red.
Maybe I need Sexpectation therapy.
