"Feminism is For Kids"

Source:http://scroll.lib.westfield.ma.edu:2108/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=mlin_w_westsc&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA488626243&inPS=true&linkSource=interlink&sid=AONE

"Feminism is for kids. At least that's what the Academy would have you believe."

That quote opens Kelly McGarry's article, which goes on to focus on pop culture, specifically the box office. He talks about how "Zootopia" won The Best Animated Feature Film - telling the story of a female police officer overcoming discrimination. He says that the movie's lead character was female and uplifting, even if though she wasn't human - which seems to be a "win" for feminism. As such, is is a great thing that this movie won such a prestigious award. It seems that a movie staring a female lead, about overcoming discrimination, can be a top-seller after all!

Well, only if it's a childrens movie, is what McGarry points out. He talks about "Manchester by the Sea" which contained "best actor" winner, Casey Affleck, and how it failes the Bechdel test - designed to grade how "female friendly" a movie is. The Bechdel test asks whether a movie has a female lead - whether females talk to other females in the movie, and when they talk to each other about something other than a man. According to McGarry, Manchester by the Sea fails the Bechdel test quite miserably. While the childrens movie about an inspiring female managed to win awards for it's feats, it seems adults don't care so much for feminist-friendly movies, as the movie which won one of the most prestigious awards (best actor) was anything but feminist-friendly. Is this a bad thing? Should directors be conscious of this when creating their films? If every movie producer made it their primary goal to pass the Bechdel test, there would no longer be any movies about men. Perhaps, the best selling movies are those about men. In this case, you can't blame hollywood for making movies the way they do - film producers are simply looking to profit off of their content. We would need to blame our society then, for being more interested in the affairs of men, than women. However I would love to challenge the Bechdel test by reversing the genders that it considers. I'm sure there are few movies where men talk to other men about something other than women (action movies aside). Still then, why aren't there more action movies with female leads, which pass the Bechdel test? Likely, because fewer women have the desire to be the action-heroes/villains that we see on screen. While men want to be like those movie-stars, women want to be with those movie stars! While this does explain why the Bechdel test is relevant, as there are more action movies featuring men, that does not make it just for hollywood to present us a skewed perspective on action adventure. In this way, Hollywood plays a large role in perpetuating gender roles in our society.