{"id":9289,"date":"2015-03-31T18:51:19","date_gmt":"2015-03-31T18:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/?p=9289"},"modified":"2015-03-31T18:52:10","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T18:52:10","slug":"feminist-fatales-young-women-become-our-movie-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/?p=9289","title":{"rendered":"Feminist fatales: young women become our movie heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"

In March 2012, The Hunger Games, <\/i>starring then-22 year-old Jennifer Lawrence, opened with $152.5 million domestic gross, delivering\u00a0what was then the third-biggest opening weekend of all time. The plot: a girl in a dystopian future <\/span>must fight\u00a0oppression\u00a0in order to save those she loves.<\/p>\n

\"Lawrence<\/a>
Catching fire: star Jennifer Lawrence at Comic Con in San Francisco,\u00a0July 2013. [Photo\u00a0\u00a9 Gage Skidmore]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It didn\u2019t take long before other movies with similar premises started popping up: Divergent<\/i>, The Host<\/i>, Mortal Instruments: City of Bones<\/i>, and How I Live Now. <\/i>Not to mention the next\u00a0films in The Hunger Games <\/i>franchise: Catching Fire <\/i>and Mockingjay Part 1 <\/i>and Part 2.<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/i>Many of these films are based on best-selling books. But what may seem like Hollywood studios just seeking\u00a0a piece of Hunger Games <\/i>success actually carries heavier connotations. More than ever now, there is a market\u00a0for female heroes onscreen, instead of traditional\u00a0\u201cdamsels in distress\u201d\u00a0<\/span>stereotypes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Katniss effect<\/h2>\n

Lawrence\u2019s character, Katniss Everdeen, has become\u00a0a feminist role model\u2014even being named one of Time <\/i>magazine\u2019s Most Influential Fictional Characters in both 2013 and 2014. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat The Hunger Games <\/i>did was put at the centre of this universe a very strong female character,\u201d <\/span>says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Rentrak, a media tracking company.\u00a0<\/span>\u201cThese movies have been able to combine a hybrid situation where they may have a movie that will appeal to females, yet also has elements of action, edginess, and not necessarily the most optimistic view of the future, which a lot of movies that are aimed at young people generally tend to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/i><\/b>Movie critic Richard Crouse agrees. \u201cThey\u2019re putting young, good looking adults in perilous situations that are all kind of similar,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>he says. \u201cAnd there\u2019s the underlying subtext about strength, loyalty, and family. It\u2019s really basic stuff that is primal and appeals to people, and involves concepts that everyone can easily grab.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Back to the future<\/span><\/h2>\n

These \u201cperilous situations\u201d often involve\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0futuristic, post-apocalyptic settings wherein\u00a0the young heroines are thrown into conflict with\u00a0an oppressive force:\u00a0either a dictatorship, invading aliens, or a World War Three scenario.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s escapist, which is maybe part of the draw,\u201d <\/span>says Kerrie Bible, a box office analyst at Exhibitor Relations. \u201cParts of fantasy, part of the illusion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But perhaps it is more than just a setting for moviemakers to distort reality and create unrealistic situations. Perhaps the dystopian setting of these films is commentary on our world today.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Laura Horak, an assistant film studies professor at Carleton University, sees The Hunger Games <\/i>as a class critique of the \u201cone percent.\u201d<\/span> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s looking at consumption from the point of the view of the workers\u2014<\/span>like the miners and the loggers\u2014<\/span>and the people in the Capitol [the government] are sort of the ones who are using all the resources,\u201d <\/span>she says. \u201cIt reminds me of a critique of the way North America is using resources and providing them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Young women working together is more common on screens than ever before.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The concern about the future of our civilization extends globally. \u201cI think that this concern about the dystopian future and the concern about class inequality is going to stay with us as we have all of these environmental challenges and class inequalities around the world and within every country,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Horak says.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Girls<\/a>
Saoirse Ronan (Daisy) and Harley Bird (Piper) must stick together to survive Wolrd War III in How I Live Now<\/em>. [Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Girl power<\/span><\/h2>\n

<\/i><\/b>It\u2019s hard to ignore such\u00a0movies\u2019 message of female solidarity. Katniss during the Games <\/i>finds her ally in Rue, a younger girl. In How I Live Now, <\/i>Saoirse Ronan\u2019s character, Daisy, takes guardianship of\u00a0her young cousin, Piper, to try and unite their family. Young women working together without needing men to help them is more common on screens than ever before.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s part of the new \u2018girl power\u2019 <\/span>thing where it\u2019s great to be spunky and independent, as long as you\u2019re very young,\u201d <\/span>says Horak. \u201cThose qualities might not be as interesting or as attractive in an older woman.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just the fictional characters whom audiences can relate to. The actresses who play them are just as quirky. Whether it\u2019s tripping on the red carpet (Lawrence) or\u00a0being a self-proclaimed environmentalist (Divergent <\/i>star Shailene Woodley) or\u00a0skateboarding (Chloe Grace Moretz, star of the upcoming\u00a0The Fifth Wave<\/i>), these actresses present themselves in ways that relate to female audiences.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you were a teenage girl and look at someone like Jennifer Lopez, you can\u2019t really say, \u2018Okay, she\u2019s going to understand my life, and I\u2019m going to relate to her,\u2019\u201d <\/span>says Bible. \u201cBut look at someone like Jennifer Lawrence. She comes across, whether it\u2019s manufactured or not, as more human and more relatable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Tough<\/a>
Tough love: Shailene Woodley stars with\u00a0romantic interest Theo James in Divergent<\/em>. [Photo courtesy of Lionsgate]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Typically these\u00a0onscreen characters\u00a0are just coming into their own\u00a0in a world that (much like reality)\u00a0seems\u00a0unforgiving for girls\u00a0trying to grow up. <\/span>While in the films there are romantic interests and hints of young love, Horak points out that viewers don\u2019t normally get to see\u00a0how the characters progress as adults.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause they\u2019re young, it plays on the tradition of the tomboy, that it\u2019s okay and it can even be great and interesting for a young woman to be not that girly and be very independent,\u201d <\/span>she says. \u201cBut we don\u2019t see what happens to them when they grow up. What happens when they enter a\u00a0<\/span>relationship or if they get old enough to have a career? That picture we see less often.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While moviegoers may not see any weddings or babies, these films arguably are breaking down doors for all\u00a0female characters onscreen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time a Hunger Games <\/i>does well where at the centre there is a strong female character, it changes people\u2019s perceptions and they\u2019re more open to accepting a character like Angelina Jolie in Maleficient<\/i>,\u201d<\/span>says Dergarabedian. <\/span><\/p>\n

Women haven\u2019t completely won yet. But they\u2019re getting there.<\/span><\/p>\n

[Front page photo courtesy of Lionsgate. Photo \u00a9\u00a0<\/span>Murray Close]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Move over, James Bond. Today’s action-survival movie, aimed at a new demographic, is likely to centre on a young, smart, tough female.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":9334,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9289"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9718,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9289\/revisions\/9718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}