Misogyny and Ivory

The other night I got into a sliiiiight argument dealing with Quentin Tarantino and his treatment of women in his movies. Basically, I'm of the belief that Quentin not only worships women but that they've been his main protagonists, rivaling Ripley in the "Alien" series. They are some of the strongest female characters in cinema history, and anybody who claims different has to have a REAL good case to make me think otherwise.

The scene in question had to deal with a rape racket that a certain nurse had been running in a hospital in "Kill Bill". It's not a huge spoiler if you haven't seen the flick, so don't feel like I'm giving too much away by stating the intricacies of the plotline as it pertains to this certain scene.

The greatest warrior who has ever lived (Uma Thurman) has been in a coma for four years due to a gunshot to the head. During the time of her stay in the hospital, a crooked nurse runs a pimping business, using Uma as one of his "comatose" prostitutes for creepy, horny truckers. It's a disgusting scene when we realize that he's been running this ordeal for some time (he drives a truck called the "Pussy Wagon", his name is Buck and he's "here to fuck".). Well, after Uma wakes up, she fakes sleep, overhearing Buck go over the rules of the $75 fuck. Buck leaves his client at the whims of his lust, to whom Uma bites the lower lip clean off of in a bloody mess. Buck discovers this massacre, and is then tortured by Uma by way of a slit Achilles and a number of head bashings between a door and a door frame. He gets his "just desserts" by way of "revenge movie" logic. She even takes his car as her main means of transportation afterward, turning a belittling term into a source of feminine power and ownership.

Now, given that Uma has been taken advantage of for the past four years, having been solicited to untold amounts of unconsented rape, one could hear of this scene and be shocked to find it glorified in an action/comedy. But if only they went so far as to then focus on the brutality Uma forces upon her rapist pimp. I think this is less a case of a misogynist director than it is a case of an insecure critic playing the gender card as an outlet for their insecurities.

"Death Proof" is another example of women triumphing over crooked male antagonists. Without giving anything away, you basically leave the movie thinking "God, women kick fucking ass!" Watch this clip of a "Death Proof" premiere in Glasgow where a non violence against women association shouts "SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!" over and over again at Quentin as he walks into the movie.



There is another clip online of the same situation in Glasgow. In this one you hear Quentin say "You obviously haven't seen the movie," before doing his own "Shame" fingering toward the group.

"Jackie Brown"? Jackie kicks ass! She makes a ton of men pawns in her get rich scheme to make off with a million dollars.

To the person I argued with two days ago: sorry if I'm making this a bigger ordeal than it was. I'm merely just stating something that was on my mind these last couple of days. We talked about this for maybe two seconds and moved on.

But it strikes a dischord whenever I feel like pro-feminist males get called out for seemingly anti-feminist behavior when it's potentially not. I am not a Women's Studies major, but I have dabbled in my Feminist lore, namely for my Burlesque project a few years back (I've touched on this a few times in the blog). I am a Feminist, but I feel like some of you female Feminists make it damn hard for us male Feminists to even discuss things we agree on with you. I've been told that cocks are arbitrary, women don't need them. Men in pop culture are idiots (name a modern sitcom where a woman is portrayed as a complete idiot opposite an all knowing male prodigy. I state "Married With Children" as the only red flag in this debate, but I also state that Al Bundy is the bigger idiot between the Al and Peg comparison. The whole Bundy family is a raging bundle of idiocy. The Simpsons, The World According to Jim, The King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond, etc. All of the dad figures and main characters are complete buffoons with their wives acting as teachers.).

I work in a female world as a teacher. There aren't a lot of guys in the field. I'm privy to the corporate world's salary unfairness only in literature, and I am aware that it continues to persist. And that's one of the areas where the Feminist in me is fighting for equality. I'm talking about the art world, I'm talking about my world. The world where women are treated equal.

The world where Bi-curiosity reigns and all is accepted. Yet why do I feel like I'm still an antagonist to the cause of Feminism? Am I threatened at the prospect that the Other is trampling all over my male aura and cause? Not at all. Men in the past and present have and are pigs. But not all men.

So when it's kosher in a society for women to say things like "men aren't needed" or "men are idiots" even in jest . . . why do I feel like it's not okay to say that I'm offended?

Bikini Kill -- "Rebel Girl"