Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Why Hollywood Produces Such Junk

This is a pretty interesting post regarding why Hollywood is hostile to female-dominated movies. Evidently, it all comes down to the Bechdel/Mo Movie/Dykes to Watch Out For test.

1) there are at least two named female characters, who

2) talk to each other about

3) something other than a man.

As humorous as this test is, it's also amazingly true. There are very few movies with female leads that aren't about getting the guy. It's as if Hollywood thinks the only books women read are Harlequin Romances or something.

But, as usual, this was just a leaping-off point for me. After all, those same Hollywood directors and producers who are so concerned about not putting too many icky girls on the silver screen at once are also spending a lot of time and money telling us how evil big corporations are, and how you can't trust the government, unless, that is, you want them to regulate the evil corporations. The only thing better than an evil government movie is a evil corporation screwing the little guy movie. But, better still, are the "It's all a government conspiracy" movies or, best of all, the "The government wants to screw the little guy and help the greedy, evil corporations" movies.

So, why should anyone be surprised that Hollywood doesn't want women in movies talking about something other than men? The same execs don't want you to think we're winning in Iraq or that everything isn't a war for oil. Is it any wonder movie ticket sales have dropped through the floor?