Category: Movies

Sexism and the Lord of the Rings. There’s been a lot of ink (virtual and otherwise) spilled on that. How marvelous to find that the latest example is …

… written by a woman, Barbara Ellen, who wonders why women are enjoying the LotR movies. Or at least wonders about why men are wondering that.

Aside from that “They’s good movies” thing, of course. Because, natch, that’s not an Appropriately Profound Answer.

Everyone is asking — well, lots of men, anyway — why so many women are raving about Peter Jackson’s trilogy.

I haven’t heard one man — or woman, for that matter — asking this. Of course, maybe my man friends aren’t real men. Or something.

You can understand their confusion. Thus far with The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers it’s been Nerd Nirvana all the way.

Maybe the women I know are nerds, too. Nah.

Of course, I know a lot of “normal” folks who have enjoyed the movies. Oh, they must be nerds, too. At least the men. The women … well, we must read on to find out why they’ve enjoyed them.

All those lovingly recreated Middle Earths, Helm’s Deeps and Enchanted Forests. All those hobbits, wizards, elves and orcs. The fact that the best clinches you’re likely to see are when orcs grapple with elf warriors on quasi-medieval battlefields. None of this sounds particularly conducive to making the chardonnay pound fly out of the average woman’s handbag. I’m pretty sure that Jackson didn’t look through his lens at shots of Gandalf battling with Sauron, their beards fluttering in the wind, their nighties billowing around their knobbly knees, crabbing to each other about ultimate power, and think: “Chicks are going to go crazy for this’. Yet women everywhere, including myself, are going crazy for it.

Because, of course, women are only interested in what are marketed as “Chick Flicks.” Only interested in Austinesque, Notting Hill-style romances. Nary a Hugh Grant to be found in Middle Earth.

Never mind that there are plenty of women who enjoy the battle scenes. Or the bucolic splendor. Never mind that, at it’s heart, LotR isn’t about manly grunts and severed heads, but about deeply romantic things. Nah, folks must be crazy.

As crazy as Peter Jackson, who obviously never considered what women would think of his movie. I mean, why run the risk of running off his main demographic target, nerdly males?

So, what’s the appeal? Contrary to male opinion it isn’t all just a terrible misunderstanding. Women don’t see the words “Lord” and “Rings” in the title and think they’re going to see some Tolkien chick flick in which some lucky girl gets married to a hairy-footed hobbit.

Yeah, that’s been the confusion amongst all my male friends. Uh-huh.

Because actually, guys, women have heard of the books, even though we probably didn’t bother reading them, having had much more time for Max Factor than Tolkien when we were teenagers.

Right. No sexist stereotyping here. Move along …

Movies such as The Lord of the Rings are a good way to spy on men, see within the most primitive areas of their psyches — all those yearnings for transcendence, nobility and majesty that still tickle away deep within the male soul. In this way, Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings is not so much a sex symbol as a human symbol, a male-decency symbol. And, as any woman could tell you, that’s always sexy.

Right. Women are going to see LotR because it’s a way for them to know what the heck is going on with men. Especially all those nerdly men who are so much into it. Because they’re the target demographic of all those women out there. Of course.

Jackson is actually lucky we’re still in the market. Considering the level of swill aimed at them, it’s a wonder that women bother to go to the cinema at all. While the guys get Pulp Fiction and The Usual Suspects, all the women get is patronised. Sometimes you get a semi-decent chick flick, a Bridget Jones’s Diary or a Kissing Jessica Stein, but mainly it’s “Kissy-kissy, boo-hoo, hurrah, he loves me, the end’.

Never mind that I know of a number of women who enjoyed Pulp Fiction and The Usual Suspects. That’s an aberration. Never mind that I know of a lot of women who also like the “Kissy-kissy, boo-hoo, hurrah, he loves me, the end” style of film. That’s just pap. Never mind that I know some men who like crappy chick flicks and women who like crappy blow-em-ups. And women who dislike the former and men who dislike the latter. Out of the way, here, I’m making a Deep, Artistic and Sociological Point Here.

Above all, though, The Lord of the Rings is just Gladiator syndrome all over again. Gladiator was the last “male” movie to hit the female spot, proving that women were just as interested as men in complicated themes such as glory, honour, destiny and valour, and, you know, the “big stuff” of life.

Imagine that. Once they set aside their Max Factor, women are sort of like men. How deep.

Where men go wrong is that they think that just because they were more likely to read The Lord of the Rings as spotty adolescents, just because they’re genuine fans, they own the concept for life. And in some ways you can sympathise. Having done their time with Tolkien, and been mocked for their sins, they must resent female interlopers barging in when it’s all been laid out in nice easy form.

Yeah, all the guys (including those beyond their “spotty adolescence”) I’ve seen at the LotR movies have been glaring at the gals who are intruding on their private male fantasies. Not.

What was once a safe boys’ locker room has been forced open. It has been invaded by lots of annoying “instant experts” in skirts suddenly thinking they know what they’re talking about, when they haven’t paid their dues and can barely tell their Aragorns from their Legolases.

And the guys I know all resent it, horribly. They sullenly shut up when gals start talking about LotR. They glower, and pout, and suggest that the womenfolk ought to retire to their parlor and talk about sewing and recipes and John Cusack movies, and leave the menfolk to smoke their cigars and drink brandy and compare their knowledge of elvish poetry.

Which planet, exactly, is Ms. Ellen from?

Still, all those miffed men out there had better get used to it. Females are on to this Lord of the Rings thing now. We want in, and there’s very little you guys can do about it. Come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough.

Oh, no! Women who are reading and watching the same geeky, nerdly, off-beat genre stuff that I am! Gads! Run for the playhouse, guys! Those slimy girls are after us!

Obviously I hang out with the wrong sort of folks, male and female alike.

Feh.

It sounds to me like Ms. Ellen is herself confused by this whole thing, and desperately trying to understand why all her chicky friends are abandoning the normal snarky conversation in the Ladies Lounge for discussions about LotR. In the process of trying to explain it away, she manages to insult both women and men.

Heck, maybe she’s not sexist after all, if she can manage that.

(via Andrea)