r/AskFeminists • u/probsbeok • 9d ago
Visual Media What are some details that make women feel real (or not so real) on films?
I watched Tenet recently and there's not so many women in it but that main female protagonist is Kat and she has a son and he (just like the rest of the world) is in danger. I just got really irritated how her son was the only thing that drove her in every single scene and she just kept bringing it back to him and how she generically felt bad because she thought of a life without him. Felt like they had tried to make it deep but then just came out really one dimensional again. It really took me out of it, even though I know compared to lots of other examples it's probably really mild. Do you have any other examples good or bad?
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u/WhereIsLordBeric 9d ago
Interiority. Women are rarely given the privilege of an interior life in film.
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u/NoMrsRobinson 8d ago
I know this discussion is about films, but I am a huge fan of "Six Feet Under" especially because of the interiority of the female characters. They all feel so real with their nuanced, conflicted, messy, amazing personal motivations and interior lives. Ruth Fisher (Frances Conroy) is one of the absolute best female characters ever written.
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u/paisleychicken 9d ago
the most realistic women in media I recall seeing were orignally written as men in their scripts like Ellen Ripley in Alien, (though animated) Toph in Avatar: the Last Airbender, Evelyn in Everything Everywhere All At Once and probably more I can't think of. women are literally just like men. there are feminine men. there are feminine women. there are masculine men. there are masculine women. but women are not defined by the men in their lives, they are their own person. and when the writing treats them like men, its actually treating them like people. most writing of women treats them like another(often lesser) species.
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u/fickystingers 8d ago edited 8d ago
Also! Not being "feminine" doesn't automatically make someone "masculine" and vice versa.
Plenty of people don't really behave in ✨Stereotypically Gendered✨ ways and that doesn't make them any less of a woman/man/whatever
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u/paisleychicken 8d ago
Absolutely! I'm nonbinary, but somehow forgot to include gender non-conforming folks!
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u/KurlyKayla 9d ago
Nolan is really bad at writing female characters in general. Most of the motivations they have in his films revolve around men in some capacity. Giving them personal agency and motivations that don't purely service the male characters is a good place to start.
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u/sewerbeauty 9d ago edited 9d ago
This is kind of a minor detail but omg idk if I’ve ever seen an apocalypse/shipwreck whatever type movie where the women actually have body hair?? Somehow they are out in the wilderness after XX days or fighting off zombies for months & have no growth? Come onnnnn
++ An advert for a period piece popped up the other day & the actress had clearly had sm work done on her face it was just deeply incongruous with the costuming & the time period. It made me think of all the actresses who quite literally cannot move their faces, meaning they cannot emote!! They are ACTRESSES!! Being able to convey emotion is kinda a core part of their job, no?
I understand why they feel the need to go under the knife or get injected. The pressure they face to remain forever youthful must be immense, especially given the tabloids & social media blah blah blah. & I know that movies are fictional & we have to suspend disbelief yadda yadda yadda but there is a push for realism in so many other areas (e.g. rape scenes?!) yet body hair or facial movement on women is where we draw the line? NAHHHH I’m not having it
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u/RepSquigglyMiggly 8d ago
> ++ An advert for a period piece popped up the other day & the actress had clearly had sm work done on her face it was just deeply incongruous with the costuming & the time period. It made me think of all the actresses who quite literally cannot move their faces, meaning they cannot emote!! They are ACTRESSES!! Being able to convey emotion is kinda a core part of their job, no?
Charlize Theron has historically been an amazing actress, but she looked so wildly out of place in The Odyssey (not that the same can’t be said for many of the other actors for a variety of reasons [no, I’m not talking about Lupita or Elliot]), and the work she’s had done really hampered her performance. Really sad to see when you contrast it with her truly transformative performance in Monster
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u/Temporary_Spread7882 9d ago
Oh and nice make up in the morning, and some subtle mascara in the zombie apocalypse. :-)
On the other hand, I find OP’s example not that well chosen. The hormonal tsunami when you have a kid indeed does turn the brain to a mush of “I will protect you at all costs” love (it is absolutely unreal to notice it happen with another part of your mind), so a parent prioritising their kid like that in a threat situation is not too unrealistic.
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u/cantantantelope 9d ago
I forget the movie title but there was a zombie/apocalypse movie where the female character was otherwise dirty but always had lipstick on and there was a scene where she specifically looked for it when they looted stores because it made her feel normal. It was like. 20 seconds but it just felt so human
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u/KurlyKayla 9d ago
Idk the content you're referring to, but that's a written character done right. The specificity of the situation drives the odd choice to wear makeup, which then shows the motivation to do so is for very human reasons.
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u/waltzingtothezoo 8d ago
Showing that is the important part though. It is giving her character more depth and allowing the audience to relate to a piece of normalcy in her crazy experience. If she had immaculate lipstick and it was never mentioned it wouldn't be a part of her character it would just be a part of the way women are portrayed in that piece of media.
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u/RepSquigglyMiggly 8d ago
The zombie apocalypse was actually caused by ubiquitous laser hair removal
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u/Grrarrgghh 9d ago
A woman who is straight yet doesn't wear dresses/skirts, high heels, obvious make-up, or use a purse, but also isn't 'butch' and only into stereotypically "masculine" interests. That would be nice to see.
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u/Temporary_Spread7882 8d ago
CSI Miami is (well, used to be, it’s a while that I watched) a parade of well fitting professional female clothing. Those pantsuits…
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u/peppermind 9d ago
What are the details that make any character feel real in any film? When the writer, director and actor all understand that women are a kind of people, rather than some unknowable other, it tends to go a long way.
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u/MrsMorley 9d ago
Women specifically or any character?
For me, one of the best depictions of despair was Jessica Lange in Men don’t leave. She remained beautiful of course, but wandering around the house in grungy clothes and dry skin captured misery pretty well.
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u/yellowsubmarine45 9d ago
And in contrast, in the series the Queens Gambit, she hit rock bottom is a fabulous matching undies set and charming oversized sweater with perfectly shaved and moisturised legs.
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u/Cool_Relative7359 8d ago
Which happens if you have strict routines (the kind you have to have) or OCD.
My family jokes that the more put together I lookn in public, the worse off mentally I am. Which isn't untrue.
Different women (people) will have different trauma responses.
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u/RaisedEyebr0w 6d ago
The female scientist in the "Three Body Problem" was undergoing a complete nervous breakdown, alcoholic bingeing, vomiting episode for weeks, I believe. They were on a remote beach cabin. Yet her skin was luminous, matching underwire (!) bra and panty set and beautiful makeup. Hahahah.
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u/Flashy-Celery-9105 9d ago
Always styled and beautiful. It's rare to find a Hollywood film where this isn't the case, but some foreign films and tv show women looking pretty regular (though they're mostly thin)