Role Models?

Today I was looking at movies on Amazon and they had a list of “Empowered Women Movies”.  I was curious to see what they put on the list and among the top three were “Laura Croft: Tomb Raider”, and “Basic Instinct”.  Granted the first on the list was “Thelma & Louise” which I think is a more valid choice, but I could not believe that the other two were considered “empowering”.  Needless to say, I need to rant about this and I think Adrienne Rich’s “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” will allow me to do so somewhat academically.   

Starting with Tomb Raider, I unfortunately saw this movie and the plot is terrible.  Of course it made a lot of money anyway because it relies solely on Angelina Jolie in booty shorts.  Am I supposed to feel “empowered” by a ten-minute shower scene?  Although many argue that Jolie is a strong female character because she can shoot a gun, I believe the fact that the absence of any coherent plot demonstrates how blatantly the creators of this film relied on sexualizing her (as if she wasn’t sexy enough).  Looking over the “characteristics of male power” it seems like this film is a modern day version of number 7 “cramp their creativeness” (5).  The plot is embarrassing, and her outfits are just distracting.  Can anyone be taken seriously in combat boots and hot pants?  Encouraging women to look to this film for support, as indication that there are strong women out there is just sad.

“Basic Instinct” is even worse.  This film centers on a bi-sexual woman named Catherine who is suspected of murder.  She is portrayed as cold, manipulative, and extremely sexual.  This film is the perfect example of compulsory heterosexuality.  Catherine has a female lover (who is also psycho and tries to kill someone but fails), who is killed, which leads her to pursue the lead male (detective) instead.  This demonstrates the idea that “heterosexual romance has been represented as the great female adventure, duty, and fulfillment” (14).  The film couldn’t continue with two women together for long, one had to die so that the other could discover the true ‘adventure’.

 In the last scene of the film Catherine and the detective who has been pursuing her are making love and he starts to talk about getting married and having children.  As he does this she reaches under her bed for an ice pick (her weapon of choice), but stops as he changes his mind and tells her that he doesn’t want her to feel pressured.  Of course, the woman that isn’t interested in marriage, and who is sexually attracted to women is a psychopathic killer.  Rich states, “If we think of heterosexuality as the ‘natural’ emotional and sensual inclination for women, lives such as these are seen as deviant, as pathological, or as emotionally and sensually deprived” (13).  An unfeeling killer is pretty deviant, especially one that is hypersexual, flashing her interrogator in the famous leg-uncrossing scene.  This ending scene pretty blatantly lets the audience know what type of ‘person’ abhors marriage: the deviant, malicious, manipulative woman.

As if these films weren’t bad enough on their own, they are on a list of empowering films for women.  The women appear to be in a position of power within the film, however in reality they are being used in order to create ‘norms’ of sexuality for the female viewers.  If anything, these films categorize women, limiting their power by classifying them.  Beyond this, their appearance on this list demonstrates just how integrated these thoughts of women are within our society, and how they are not only accepted, but also are supposed models for women.  We are meant to internalize this, and that is a huge problem.  I love Amazon, but I don’t think I’ll be taking their advice.