Charlie’s Angels: I’m still a fan

Posted on November 8, 2012 by margotmagowan

Last week, when I turned on the TV to put on a DVD, with my kids surrounding me, “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” blared into our den.

We had caught the movie in the middle of an action scene featuring all three Angels. My daughters’s mouths dropped open. They were so transfixed that I paused to let them watch, but then the hours of ads started, and I popped on Miyazaki.

But after that, I couldn’t get “Charlie’s Angels” out of my head. With the exception of “The Powerpuff Girls,” I don’t think my daughters had ever witnessed three females working together to save the world. I thought about the looks of delight, excitement, and awe on their faces and wondered if I should let them watch the movie.

Not only did I love the first Charlie’s Angels movie (the second one, “Full Throttle,” dragged) but when I was a kid, I was a huge fan of the TV show. I was eight years old when I started watching, and I loved that it was all about girls. I didn’t have to wait around, bored, to finally see a female saunter in to wander around the margins of the TV show. I also liked that the show was about three girls (I know “women” is correct here, but from my eight year old self point of view, I distinctly remember thinking: it’s all about girls doing stuff.)

Another reason I was a fan of the show was that the Angels were in different disguises every week. I couldn’t wait to see what roles they were all going to play. I think that watching them be different people gave me the idea that multiple identities were possible.

I was inspired by “Charlie’s Angels.” When I was nine years old, I began a novel that when completed was 120 pages, typed, about Kris Monroe (Cheryl Ladd’s character) and her adventures as a girl. My book was called “Look Out! Here Comes Kris” and besides “Charlie’s Angels,” my protagonist was influenced by Ramona, of “Ramona the Pest” fame and, also, my little sister. When I showed my book to my teacher, she asked me to read a chapter a day to my fifth grade class in homeroom. That whole experience helped to solidify my identity as a writer.

So did it matter that “Charlie’s Angels” was “jiggle TV?” Like I said, I was excited to see females get to be the stars of the show. But that is not to say the flowing hair, cleavage, and skinny bodies were lost on me. Early on, I got the importance of “beauty” in a woman’s life, in no small part, from my experience as fan of this show. To me, it seemed like “beauty” was a means to an end. If you wanted to have an exciting life, if you wanted to have adventure, if you wanted things to happen to you, if you were a girl, then first, before any of that, you had to be “beautiful.” I put “beauty” in quotes because I’m referring to the cultural definition of beauty.

One thing I love about Drew Barrymore’s movie is that she mocks that stereotype with the slow-mo flowing hair and exaggerated sexual innuendos. But back to considering the movie for my kids, as I posted just a couple days ago, kids don’t get irony. So would the movie, with all the Cameron Diaz’s butt shaking, be bad for my kids?

Here is what sucks: in 2012, there are still no action-adventure movies where three females work together to save the world. Even in adventure-fantasy books, from classics like Alice of Alice in Wonderland, Dorothy of The Wizard of Oz, and Lucy of Chronicles of Narnia to the contemporary ones like Lyra of The Golden Compass— the female protag is surrounded by a constellation of mostly male characters. When do you get to see females bonding not over men or make-up, but skill?

So the bottom line is I got the movie for kids. Right when I opened the DVD, one of my daughters picked up the box, turned to her sister and said: “Who do you think is the prettiest?”

I stopped and wondered: is this a bad idea? “Which one is smart? Which one is brave? Which one is fast?” I asked them. But that thought process is hard to generate when the picture shows them all just standing there, skinny, hip-cocked, not doing anything they are in the movie, not driving a race car, breaking into a safe, or making a bomb.

I went ahead and pushed play.

My kids loved the movie. I did, too. But my daughters and I, we’re all waiting for more action-adventure movies starring women, as in plural.

Reel Girl rates “Charlie’s Angels” ***HH***

A Cat in Paris HH

Posted on November 3, 2012 by margotmagowan

It’s been a while since I’ve done an actual movie review. The TV ads and the posters I’ve seen are so sexist, its been hard for me to get myself to an actual theater. But I’ve wanted to see “A Cat in Paris” ever since it received an Academy Award nomination. (I was so thrilled that “Tintin” didn’t get nominated.)

I really liked “A Cat in Paris.” So, for the most part, did my kids (ages 3, 6, 9)

Here’s the summary from imdb.com:

In Paris, a cat who lives a secret life as a cat burglar’s aide must come to the rescue of Zoe, the little girl he lives with, after she falls into a gangster’s clutches.

The cat, the star of the movie and the character in the title, is male. But the movie has three strong female characters: the mom, her daughter Zoe, and her Nanny. They still are a Minority Feisty because the whole band of bad guys, led by the evil Costa, are all male. The hero cat burglar is also male.

I was particularly fascinated by the mom character. She is a superintendent, a police detective who is definitely the boss in this movie. I loved that my kids got to see a professional woman be smart and in charge, take risks and engage in all kids of brave acts. There are fantasy sequences where the mom fights a giant, red octopus that are really cool. I did have some issues: there is the cliche of working mom neglecting her child and the evil nanny. The mom’s breasts were also distracting to me, though my kids, who often comment on the the way females– animated and actual– wiggle their butts on TV, didn’t mention anything about the mom’s anatomy. There is also an idol, a piece of art, with a distracting penis. Don’t get scared. The movie is French, people. My kids didn’t mention the phallic symbol either.

Zoe doesn’t speak for most of the movie, and at first that annoyed me, and annoyed my three year old as well. (MAMA, WHY DOESN’T SHE TALK? followed by frustrated tears.) But by the end of the movie, Zoe is speaking, so I look at “A Cat in Paris” as the story of how she gets her voice back, and that’s pretty cool.

The animation in this movie is spectacular and the images of Paris are gorgeous.

This movie was just released on DVD, and I liked it so much that I bought it.

Reel Girl rates “A Cat in Paris” ***HH***

Girls go missing in new Christmas movies for kids

Posted on October 26, 2012 by margotmagowan

Last night on TV, while watching World Series Game 2 with my three young daughters, we all saw a commercial for “Rise of the Guardians,” the Christmas-themed animated movie coming out November 21. Guess who was missing from the multitude of characters in the preview?

Females. Not one damn female voice. Seriously.

A Google search tells me there is, in fact, a Minority Feisty (the tiny minority representation of strong females you can usually find in animated films for kids): the Tooth Fairy.

I know, I know, “Rise of the Guardians” is derivative. Mythical characters throughout history are males. “Rise of the Guardians” features the Easter Bunny and Jack Frost, just like “Hotel Transylvania” features famous monsters like Dracula and Frakenstein or the bad guys of “Wreck-It Ralph” are based on pre-existing video games. What can Hollywood do about that?

Hmmm..what about not being so lazy and using a little imagination? Why not conceive of previously male characters as female? Or what about creating some brand new female characters? Ever heard of Santa Claus’s evil sister? If that use of imagination is too challenging for Hollywood, why not make the Tooth Fairy the star of the movie instead of Jack Frost?

But come on Hollywood, aren’t stories for children supposed to be imaginative?

Here is the crazy irony. This is imdb.com’s synopsis of “Rise of the Guardians:”

When an evil spirit known as Pitch lays down the gauntlet to take over the world, the immortal Guardians must join forces for the first time to protect the hopes, beliefs and imagination of children all over the world.

Protecting the imaginations of kids is the whole reason I started this blog, Reel Girl. After having my three daughters, I was blown away by the gender stereotypes marketed to my kids through animated movies. These images and narratives in children’s movies repeatedly teach little kids that males are the adventurers, the risk-takers, and the stars, while females– half of the kid population– are continually limited to a sidelined minority.

Anyone remember 2011’s holiday movie, “Arthur Christmas?” Can you find the lone female here?

I honestly don’t know if you can even say that “Mrs. Claus” qualifies as a Minority Feisty.

And by the way, if you scoffed at my reference to Santa’s evil sister above, isn’t Santa’s son Arthur, the star of this movie, a newly made-up character? Why not put Santa’s daughter at the top of an elf-girl pyramid?

Can you imagine that? Try hard to think up a poster for an animated movie in 2012 that shows this gender ratio here but reversed. Would you do a double take? Would parents think “Fantastic Ms. Fox” was some crazy lesbian movie? Is that the concern here?

There is no good reason for the imaginary world to be sexist like this. It’s the imaginary world! Anything should be possible, even equality.

How do you think seeing these stereotyped gender roles repeated again and again is affecting your child’s imagination? Her aspirations?

Here’s an interesting “coincidence:” 16% of characters in movies for kids are female; in 2012, in top positions in professions all across America, women rarely make it past 16%.

Tell your kids that it shouldn’t be normal for females to go missing, either in movie poster after movie poster or in a boardroom.

Hyper-gender roles marketed to kids in animated movies

Posted on October 13, 2012 by margotmagowan

Looking at my last two posts, the representation of masculinity and femininity marketed to kids is radical. I wish these images were unusual. Kids brains are being wired up. Are these kinds of repetitive images the ones we want to be molding their minds?

Fairy or fashion model? Disney’s direct to DVD girl ghetto

Posted on October 12, 2012 by margotmagowan

Reading this week’s People Magazine, I saw this ad for “Secret of the Wings:”

So this is how Disney prefers to allow females to be front and center: Go straight to DVD (or, alternatively, a 1:46 minute homage) and pose animated, magical creatures like fashion models.

In your wildest imagination, can you picture male, fantasy creatures advertising a DVD in People, standing just like this? Why is it so rare for females to get to star in major-motion pictures made for kids? Why is the imaginary world so sexist?

Girls gone missing from kids’ movies: “Wreck-It Ralph”

Posted on October 10, 2012 by margotmagowan

Another day of driving my three year old daughter to school, another day she gets to see, and point at, a giant animated sexist ad go past her plastered on the side of a bus. Another day that my daughter gets to learn, along with the rest of the kids in America, that boys are more important than girls.

Do you know that in 2012 Hollywood won’t allow females to be in the title of movies for children? Yet, after “ParaNorman” and “Frankenweenie,” we get “Wreck-It Ralph” making three in a row of animated movies named for their male stars? In fantasy world, children are supposed to dream big, let their imaginations go wild, and anything should be possible, unless, of course, you happen to be female.

Parents, it’s not OK that kidworld shows males front and center, while females get sidelined and represented as a minority again and again and again.

Read Reel Girl’s review of the movie “Wreck it Ralph and the Minority Feisty.”

Disney throws girls a bone in YouTube video

Posted on October 5, 2012 by margotmagowan

Dear Disney,

Thanks so much for this feel good video “I Am a Princess.” It’s so great that you think girls are important. But you know what might be more convincing, and make more of an impact, than a 1:46 minute video on YouTube? If half of the characters in your big budget, animated, major-motion-pictures were female.

Females make up about 16% of characters in animated movies for kids.

Ending your little YouTube video with a quote from Rapunzel about how she never breaks a promise is sweet. But allowing Rapunzel to headline her own movie– instead of switching it “Tangled” because you didn’t want a girl’s name in the title— would’ve been much sweeter. As long as Disney keeps pumping out movies that star males while girls go missing, all the 2 minute YouTube videos in the world aren’t going to be empowering.

I hope the public doesn’t buy this patronizing attempt at PR.

Can you answer these 3 questions about Disney on Ice?

Posted on October 3, 2012 by margotmagowan

My 3 year old daughter and I were driving to school this morning when a giant ad for Disney on Ice plastered to the side of a bus passed right by her window.

When I see an image like this, I wonder why I ever hear parents shrug about their daughter’s princess obsession, saying something like, “Girls will be girls.”

I have three questions for you:

(1) How many characters are there on this poster?

(2) How many of those characters are female?

(3) How many of those females are princesses?

Reel Girl’s list of monster movies starring females

Posted on October 2, 2012 by margotmagowan

This Halloween season, Hollywood put out not one, but three new monster movies that star males. Once again, in children’s movies, male characters are in the majority while female characters are in the minority. You can read about these new movies in Reel Girl’s post Girls gone missing in new Halloween movies for kids.

The Reel Girl community put together a list of monster movies starring females that you can screen this Halloween and show your kids that girls and boys are equally important. There is no reason for kidworld or fantasy world to be sexist.

So here are the historical exceptions we found, but a few things first:

Given the slim pickings, we took some liberties here with what really qualifies as a monster movie. Teen movies are not included, these are recs for young kids who you’d think would be too young to be learning about sexism.

I have not seen several of these movies, and must admit the poster for “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” so dominated by Jim Carey, who takes over every movie he is in, as well as the boy leading the pack of kids, makes me a nervous. The Corpsebride rec comes from a source I trust, but I personally didn’t see it when it came out, pre-Reel Girl, because I couldn’t stomach another animated bride. I hear this movie is great though, and I’m going to rent it.

“Coraline” is one of my absolute, favorite animated movies. Some little kids get scared, but, I think repetitive sexism is scarier to expose your kids to than any monster. My younger one loved it and my older one was the most frightened, though a couple years later she loves it as well. And the book, too.

This is a list in progress. Please send in your suggestions.

Coraline