Sexism! Rape! Murder!

It seems that my interest in gender has permeated my life as of late.  I'm currently rereading "the lovely bones" which is the tragic tale of a 14-year-old girl who is raped and murdered.  She tells the story from heaven, while she watches her family grieve and try to move on.  I also watched the world's most disturbing movie, "Hard Candy." (starring the Watchmen's Patrick Wilson, and Juno's Ellen Page) which also deals with issues of guilt, rape, murder, and pedophilia.  And did I mention that I watched the new Star Trek movie on Sunday?  And did you know that there is only one character of any prominence that is female?  Anyway, let's start with the benign.

      With Star Trek, I don't think the sexism is anyone's fault, at least not in the remake.  The original series only had one or two female parts, tops.  There was the women in the mini-dress who looked like Foxy Brown (AKA. pam grier), the character of "Nyota Uhura,"who never did anything but act as secretary.  I think there was also a nurse too.  (Because nurses and secretaries are ALWAYS women!)  Anyway, in the remake, there were no female leads, because, alas, the TV show from 1966 had no female leads. In the remake, Nyota is a more intelligent and articulate character, but at the end of the day, she was really just Spock's love interest.  And what made the dynamic so weird is that she is in love with him, but since he's Spock, he's not exactly emotive, and the whole thing is pretty weird.  Fortunately, they did one thing right by making her resist Kirk's super tacky moves.  If she had fallen prey to him, I would've been really pissed, because there would be NO strong female character roles in this film.  Overall, I didn't think it was the film's fault---it's just how the series was 40 years ago.  Fortunately, later versions of the show had some fierce females (Captain Janeway!  Deanna Troy!)  Yet, even in Star Trek TNG (the next generation), the men still have the power.  Deanna just looks good in a jumpsuit.  I mean, I guess I can't really talk, since I grew up having a crush on the only teenager in the show, Wes Crusher (aka. Wil Wheaton).  Anyway, that's my rant about sexism and sci-fi.   

    I highly recommend "The Lovely Bones."  I think it is more of a book about death and life than about violence against women, but the author, Alice Sebold, was raped in college, and elements of this do manifest in the writing of the book.  To remember that such crimes happen anywhere and at any time can remind us that the war against violence is truly not over.  Sexual crimes are still happening here, and abroad.  (They are also making a movie of "The Lovely Bones" with the girl from Atonement, Saoirse Ronan, who is very talented, and will probably do an excellent job even if the movie sucks.)

I also watched "Hard Candy" which is ridiculously disturbing, a la Stephen King's "Misery".  14-year-old Hayley has been chatting and flirting online with a 32 year old photographer, and plans to meet him for coffee.  She throws herself at him excessively, and they seem to get along.  She ultimately invites herself to his house, makes them some drinks (screwdrivers in middle school?), but laces his with drugs so he passes out.  She then tortures him excessively, saying that he is a pedophiliac and a murderer.  It is never entirely clear whether not any of this is true, but it seems that he has done things that are questionable.  The movie is then an intense drama-thriller, where you don't know who is crazier, and who is to blame.  But at the end, he admits to having been involved in the murder of a young girl whom Hayley seems to know, suggesting that he is guilty.  This was such an odd movie because the teenager has the power throughout the movie, strapping him to tables, duct taping him to a chair, performing a fake castration on him (he thinks he's being castrated, but she fakes it, making him cower), stunning him with a cattle gun, and loads of other violent acts.  I didn't come away with a clear feeling of relief at the end, and I didn't ever feel that Hayley's acts were merited, even if he did do something wrong.  But the moral was more that he tried to seduce a nymphet, and she bit back...hard.  She set him for the attack, and prepared herself well to ruin him.  

      I don't know what any of this has to do with the state of women in life, but I did think it was all rather interesting, and it continues to remind me that sexism and violence are still issues that I have to grapple with, whether in the media, or in classical music.  (If I was in a wordier mood, I'd do a rant about the role of women in Twilight...but we'll save that for another time).

Currently listening to:  the Slumdog Millionaire Soundtrack.  Fun times.