The biggest problem with ‘Jurassic World’ isn’t a woman running in high heels
The biggest problem with ‘Jurassic World’ isn’t a woman running in high heels
The Internet is currently obsessed with the gender politics of Jurassic World. The controversy started back in April when Joss Whedontweeted his dissatisfaction with a clip from the film: “I’m too busy wishing this clip wasn’t ‘70s era sexist. She’s a stiff, he’s a life-force—really? Still?” However, since the movie’s release, that criticism has turned into a collective roar that would make Indominus Rex proud.
It seems like everyone is weighing inon the issue of Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), Jurassic World’s chilly female lead. Is she an awful caricature of a career woman? Or is she a flawed human being who Learns a Life Lesson and then starts kicking ass with the best of them? And most importantly—can anyone actually run through the jungle in high heels?
One of the most frustrating things about films like Jurassic World is that they’re not intentionally sexist. In fact, according to their creators, they’re intended to challenge gender roles. In an interview with Italian film publication In Bad Taste,Trevorrow saidthat the movie starts with “characters that are almost archetypes, stereotypes that are deconstructed as the story progresses.”
According to Trevorrow, “the real protagonist of the movie is Claire, and we embrace her femininity in the story’s progression.” It’s hard to know exactly what that means, unless it’s a reference to Claire’s superhuman ability to run through the jungle in high heels. Most likely it has something to do with the final scene, where Claire apparently feels her biological clock ticking for the first time as she gazes soulfully at her nephews hugging their parents; she then shoots Owen a smoldering I-want-to-have-your-babies look before the two of them ride off into the sunset together. Apparently embracing femininity means rolling up your sleeves and getting dirty, while finally realizing that motherhood is your natural destiny.
Perhaps the real problem with Jurassic World isn’t so much that it’s sexist, it’s that the creators don’t understand why it’s sexist. Based on his interviews, it’s pretty clear that Colin Trevorrow thinks that Claire is a Strong Female Character, and this arguably makes it worse than if Trevorrow was just your run of the mill misogynist—ala Michael Bay. It’s one thing to churn out bad sexist media when you’re not paying attention, but it’s quite another to hit so far off the mark when you’re apparently giving it your all.
When explaining the reasoning behind Claire’s character, Trevorrow said, “There’s no need for a female character that does things like a male character, that’s not what makes interesting female characters in my view.” That type of statement right there encapsulates everything that’s wrong with movies like Jurassic World—the idea that women are some kind of specialty characters that need to be handled differently than others.
But instead of wondering what makes a female character interesting, why not ask what makes anyone of any gender interesting? What makes a person interesting? What will appeal not just to women viewers but to everyone watching the movie?
To fix this problem, we need to stop treating female characters as if they have an asterisk next to them and start treating them like people.
This is horse shit. Why should we bring feminism into this? It’s a movie about fucking dinosaurs (who are all female, BTW) meant to entertain but you want to turn it into a soapbox for a rant? Why does anything even remotely resembling old-fashioned femininity suddenly an insult to all women? So, since I believe in true love and romance, I must be weak and dumb? Or if I am not ready and willing to out-do any man in my vicinity, I am holding my gender back? I don’t understand how this MOVIE could raise a feminist issue.
Fun facts, apparently:
- If a movie features dinosaurs, you’re not allowed to make note of the potentially problematic aspects of the human characters
- Movies made for entertainment cannot be criticized or ranted about
- If all the dinosaurs are female, the movie is EXTRA not-sexist
- Criticism against a movie featuring sexist archetypes means your personal and unrelated opinions on romance is a sign of your weakness
- Media is incapable of being either sexist or feminist and talking about it is a waste of time and also somehow insulting to women who believe in true love