You might not have previously noticed, but some of your top Hollywood picks are very sexist! Sorry to ruin your favorite movies for you, but a whole lot of them out there are celebrating sexist behavior.
Common Romcom Tropes
Take a close look at all the movies you’ve watched, and I bet you’ll wonder what is up with Hollywood? Why do we need movies where a girl always needs to find the perfect guy to have a meaningful life? Why do we have to watch women as slaves of their male counterparts or merely as sex objects in other mainstream movies? What’s the desperate need of showing women as weak and emotionally distraught who only exist to serve male interests?
Even when the producers don’t think of this as a big deal, it surely doesn’t send any positive messages to society. Imagine taking a break from work and going out to watch a movie. The romantic story you’re about to see revolves around a woman trying to fix her love life in an effort to fix herself. We constantly see female pride being shattered to pieces just to satisfy male ego. Well, that certainly tells us a lot about the problems in our society.
Taking a Trip Down Memory Lane
If you think we’re over analyzing, let’s take a little flashback into what the Hollywood considers its finest creations. Take for example, Grease. Olivia Newton John’s character changes herself completely in order to John Travolta’s character to fall in love with her. Not a great message to send out. The Notebook might be a great love story. But can you not see how Noah’s persistence is just a shocking reality of how men have zero consideration for female wants? What about Pretty Woman where the title itself attributes physical attraction to a female? The movie bluntly tells that the only way a female can gain respect is if she buys it. Of course, that means we sell our self-respect, ego, pride and body to get anywhere in life. That is not the case!
Hollywood is crammed with problematic concepts like these. Since one of our greatest industries is normalizing all this, who are we to object? Stalking on screens has been romanticized and now there are more and more creeps doing this in real life. If you disagree, take out a few hours to watch American Beauty and Love Actually.
All we need is just a little bit of understanding from our filmmakers. You see women have an equal right to entertainment, and we surely don’t want to pay just to see ourselves derogated on your screens. What’s the issue with having films that make females feel secure and confident too? Can’t we have careers and individual lives, or even respect? The problem is that unless you stop giving people such content to watch, we can never end sexual abuse, assault, harassment, stalking, and everyday sexism we have to deal with.
