In your face misogyny is terrible, but subtle sexism is just as bad: A look into celebrated media
My boyfriend and I have been watching a lot of WWII movies lately. Among these are Hacksaw Ridge and Saving Private Ryan. Although none of these feature unnecessary, graphic, explicit sex or gratuitous female nudity, I've come to realize that misogyny isn't always so direct and obvious, but often manifests itself in much more insidious ways.
There are some TV series that are blatantly misogynistic, such as Game of Thrones, for example (uncalled for female nudity, glorified rape, borderline pornographic sex scenes, etc.). But ever since I educated myself on FDS principles, it seems harder and harder to find a movie or TV show that isn't triggering, even if it's "not as bad" as something like Thrones, which is so clearly horrific.
---
Hacksaw Ridge is based on a true story, and tells the tale of Desmond Doss, a pacifist who still wants to serve his country during the war, and so enlists as a medic. Doss was faithful to his wife, and they remained married until her death (although he later [and in my opinion, quickly] moved on and remarried). I don't know how they met in real life, so hopefully it was much more high value than in the movie, but the way they depicted their romance in the film really rubbed off on me the wrong way. Doss essentially sees his future wife at the hospital (she's a nurse) and is immediately attracted to her on nothing more than the fact that she's a beautiful woman. He asks her out and they eventually get to know one another "for real," but the fact that their first interaction was literally just that he thought she was "pretty" seemed so superficial to me. Again, I don't know how they met in real life, and I sincerely hope it was much better, but depicting it like this in the film just normalizes the toxic idea that women are first and foremost prized for their looks; and only as an afterthought, for their personalities, intelligence, and humanity.
Saving Private Ryan is a fictional story that is much more "glamorized" than Hacksaw Ridge, which was meant to be more realistic, but it carries similar moral messages as the other film regarding patriotism, courage/strength, and camaraderie/teamwork. Despite being an overall acceptable film (I mean, it did win five Oscars, if that counts for anything to anyone here), some parts of the movie legitimately upset me:
- a soldier was telling a story of how before he was shipped out, he was trying to sell an undersized bra to a woman with large breasts at his family's shop. She saw that he had a visibly noticeable boner, and he was telling the story to his comrades in a humorous manner, as if him sexualizing this woman, and her taking note of it, was a laughing matter
- the titular character was talking about a memory from home, in which two of his brothers woke him up in the middle of the night so they could all see a different brother about to have sex with an "ugly" girl. The girl saw that the brothers were watching, so she ran away in embarrassment, but in her haste, she ran so hard into a wall that she knocked herself unconscious. As one writer from the Los Angeles Times pointed out, "There were a million bonding stories that could have been told about these brothers. Why pick one that depicts the total humiliation and objectification of a young woman? What was the point?"
---
I realize, understand, and fully acknowledge that I'm being extremely picky and critical of these films, especially because they honestly weren't that bad compared to a lot of other media these days. In some ways, then, I guess it would be a fair criticism for someone to call me overly sensitive and unreasonably triggered by these "small things" which really aren't "that bad," but if would also be fair for me to say that some parts of these films were honestly problematic, and a small problem, is still a problem nonetheless.