Holding out for a Heroine

I have been reading on quite a few disgruntled opinions online on the state of women's representation in the recent Super Hero movie trend.  After writing a blog on woman in video games I thought I would try and see how my thoughts fit in and if there is a counter argument to the outcry.

One of the prompting factors of this was a lot of noise made about the treatment of the Black Widow in this years Avengers: Age of Ultron.  There has been much made of her supposedly 'just' being a romantic trigger for Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner/Hulk.  So much so that Joss Whedon, the director (and recognised feminist) has come under a barrage of fire for his handling of it which I think might be  tad unfair on the guy.  Are women underrepresented in the Superhero movie genre? Undoubtedly.  Is it Joss Whedon's fault?  I don't believe so.

I look at the Black Widow's resume and I think she has a grounding role in four of the most recent films and some great feats to get behind.  We see her save the world in pretty much ALL these movies in the process laying the smackdown on an army of robots, an army of aliens, tricking Loki (the freaking God of Mischief) and generally being in control of her surroundings (and the men in them) probably more so than any other character.

There has been some criticism leveled suggesting it's demeaning to the Black Widow to be used as a method to calm the Hulk down.  This is a guy almost broke the Planet with a single footstep he lost it so much... I think talking someone like that down is a pretty big deal - and since when has compassion ever been a weakness? Add to that fact that among all this utter craziness, she's 'just' a regular human.  Batman get all kind of praise for what he does - hanging out with Gods, Aliens and defeating evil galactic empires and being just a regular man (albeit it with genius level IQ, ultimate martial art training and more money than God). And also the car, chicks apparently love the car...

This is by no means meant as a defense but there is a whole concept of women's roles in comics which has coined it's own terminology for using women not as fully fleshed out characters but a plot devices and triggers for the main character to head out and kick some backsides.  The term is called 'Fridging' and stems from a Green Lantern comic where to set off the protagonist, the main villain chops up his girlfriend then chooses to surprise our hero by stuffing her body parts in refrigerator.  

I'm sure there is a joke about raw meat not being on the bottom shelf here but I'm not sure I want to go there...

This has been a staple for a long while now and although the terminology was born from comics, films have been equally guilty for a long time now (just ask any potential Bond girl or look at the majority of 'one man crusade' action films.)   So if we look at the source material it might be a way of understanding about the lack of empowered, fully developed women in this particular genre, which is to say, it still doesn't excuse it.


It's a notable point that by the time we get a film based solely on a female Super Hero from Marvel there will be 19 previous ones that have been 'male centric' which is a sad state of affairs.  Does this make the female action stars we do have any less amazing though?  I don't think so.  Let's take solace, if we take a broader look and drop the  cape and costume idea from the 'Super hero' tag then I think the picture looks much, much brighter.

Superhero Definition

'A ​character in a ​film or ​story who has ​special ​strength and uses it to do good things and ​help other ​people''Someone who has done something very ​brave to ​help someone ​else.'

First and foremost and burned clearly into my mind is Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) from 2015 Mad Max: Fury Road (who is also another big inspiration for the creation of this blog). Tough as nails, fierce, skilled, smart and attractive - Furiosa pretty much out-thinks, out drives and beats the seven shades of hell out of every other character in the entire movie, including the titular Mad Max!  On top of this she does it with one arm! This isn't to say she is just a one dimensional wrecking ball, she resonates depth and compassion (which again, only adds to her strength) and is by far the most complete and complex character in the film.  It is her will to do the right thing that literally drives the film at blistering pace from set piece to set piece. Furiosa, proves that despite the genderless clothes, the unconventional buzz-cut and clunky, steampunk inspired metal appendage that it is still possible to exude femininity even in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.  Whether it be while saving others' virtue or headbutting the crap out of crazed, roid-raging road barbarians she is an inspirational figure in a rollicking good movie. A bold statement but in my opinion she is by far the best character I've seen in films for years.

 Those eyes!! THOSE EYES!

Number two for me is Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) from 2014 Edge of Tomorrow (based on the Japanese Novel 'All You Need is Kill - which is a MUCH better name!) In an unlikely combination of Groundhog Day and Starship Troopers, Vrataski even made me not care that Hyper-midget Tom Cruise is flying around with his usual perpetual impression of a dog hanging it's face out of a car window.  What? You didn't know that was a 'Thing?' It certainly is!

There's a lot to like about Edge of Tomorrow, the fact that Cruise dies a lot is the second best thing next to how incredible Emily Blunt is as Rita.  Powerful, commanding and able to easily comprehend multifaceted time problems which reset themselves every single day. Understanding time bending concepts is as easy as disarming crazed tentacled aliens for this woman. Rita is possibly the hardest woman I have ever seen in film, whether it be  her impressive physicality, hewn from rock or her nerves of steel and an iron will.  She also shows a calm and calculating demeanour that extends to be full blown stone-cold killer at one point. Breathtaking stuff.

Okay, so she wins extra points for looking a little like a Ghostbuster in this image! McCarthy, eat your heart out.

Rounding out my top three would be Michelle Rodriguez who you could almost pick any character she's ever played but my recommendation would be her as Letty Ortiz from the Fast and Furious Franchise (856BC-2015AD).  A hard edged, soft-centered woman regularly whipping men at their own game in the testosterone filled field of street racing and international heists/kidnappings/assassinations.  A woman so confident and cocksure she spends as much time riding on top of cars as she does racing them.  You know a woman is ultimately ferocious and intimidating  when beating the snot out of Rhonda Rousey (before Holly Holm made it trendy) should actually rank as one of the more mundane feats that Letty has accomplished! Letty Ortiz proves she is equally stunning as she is tough, not letting wearing an evening gown hamper her ability to venomously kick people in the face with high heels.  She also does have a very soft side too and in a movie series like Fast and Furious, (which is admittedly as complicated as folding a piece of paper in half) this makes her easily the most interesting and curious aspect of the franchise.

700bhp Skateboard ftw!

If I ransack my pop-culture addled brain then I can also think of a number of other woman who make up a fairly impressive list - ones that would be the very last selection of people to end up in the Green Lanterns fridge:

• Sarah Connor from The Terminator  
• Ellen Ripley from Alien
• The Bride from Kill Bill
• Trinity from The Matrix
• Selene from the Evolution series
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Xena Warrior Princess
• Hermione Granger from Harry Potter
• Princess Leia from Star Wars

I can appreciate the type of characters I'm talking about and the very specific genre of film isn't everyone's cup of tea but in each instance these characters exude a form of strength and intelligence that fully qualify them in my eyes as bonafide superheroes. Fun to watch, interesting to listen to, impossible to understand - my idea of a great combination!

I should also point out that I'm not particularly fond of Katniss Evergreen from the Hunger Games, I can fully appreciate how she might fit the criteria in many aspects but after watching the third film I think she's probably #1 candidate for the top 3 movie mood faces. Conversely, 'The Bride' from Kill Bill would have made it onto the list had the film been a little more recent - possibly the only character that actually technically starts in the fridge (metaphorically, of course).  

Over the course of writing this blog it did occur to me that the criticisms on female superheroes may have been a bit harsh in general... several sprung to mind as I continued to write this such as:

• Hit-Girl from Kickass (Warning, this is pretty violent)
• Jean Grey from X-Men 
• Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy 
• Mystique from X-Men 

So we still eagerly await a starring Superhero role to bring us a stand alone film with a fleshed out female lead but I don't believe the landscape is as bleak as the naysayers and trolls online would have us believe.  It might be a good time to mention the Netflix original series 'Jessica Jones' that debuts on the 20th November this year - if it follows the source material faithfully not only will it show a very different kind of female superhero but it will be a thrilling, frightening ride since she is pitted against a truly chilling adversary in 'The Purple Man.'

Please feel free to let me know if there's been any glaring omissions from my hastily cobbled together list or if one/some of the women didn't deserve a mention in your eyes.

Thanks for reading and I'll leave you with this (if the vid works!!)

  

To Kill a Mockingbird? Go read a watchman...

Warning - this blog has spoilers for To Kill a Mockingbird,  Go Set a Watchman, a rubbish Spider-man story from 1994, a ridiculous version of Batman and the ending to the Man of Steel (2013)


I have been keeping abreast of the developments surrounding Harper Lee's much discussed 'sequel' for 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and I have been struggling to come to terms with the situation in regards of what it means to me and for Atticus fans everywhere.

Firstly, a confession:  I have only recently read To Kill  Mockingbird within the last six months so for me it's not something I have carried with me for a vast portion of my life.  That said, the impact of the book upon me was nothing short of profound.  For me the greatest part of the book is down to one character - Atticus Finch.  Taken from the perspective of when the book was written and the subject that carries the narrative forward I found myself impressed that he seemed to be not just a moral man with principles but probably one of the all-time great fathers in literature that I have encountered. If you need a quick refresher or a brief introduction to the mans wisdom and character- it's worth checking this page. He is a small town Lawyer in 1930's Alabama who defends Tom Robinson, a young black man wrongfully accused of raping a white girl.

"I put everything I had into it – all my feelings and everything I'd learned in 46 years of living, about family life and fathers and children. And my feelings about racial justice and inequality and opportunity".

Gregory Peck on playing Atticus.

From the the vast swathes of reports flooding in from various media we are now drenched with the knowledge that Atticus may not have been the progressive, understanding and honourable gentleman that we were given in Mockingbird but one tarnished with a more unsavoury view on race. It's hard to see how quotes from the new book like 'Do you want your children going to a school that’s been dragged down to accommodate Negro children?' can be viewed as anything but racist no matter the context. This and the fact that he joins a branch of Ku Klux Klan have caused general outcry as well as chilled my soul somewhat.


I now stand on the precipice of a monumental personal decision - do I read the new book, 'Go Set a Watchman' and have my view of this model father potentially tainted forever more (let's face it, a third book is a nigh on impossibility) or do I close my senses off from it, look at the decidedly suspect situation in which the book was found then released and let 'my' Atticus remain unspoiled?

I found the 'original' Atticus an inspiration and a fantastic figure to aspire to. In this day and age any motivation for betterment of ones self can only be a good thing, regardless of where the source comes from.  I always find myself wanting to cover all the angles and each side of every argument but I'm not sure that my personal feelings towards besmirching such an epitome of patriarchal virtue will allow me to do so this time.


As an avid comic fan and general geek I have seen this kind of thing before.  Over the many years there have been decisions with exceedingly well loved characters that have warped the essence of who they are and what they stand for for a myriad of reasons.  Usually the reasons for such strange moments are simple - shock and awe tactics to boost sales and create a buzz about the character.  The one good part about comics on a whole is that invariably, after a time, common sense prevails and things are reset (or to use the correct terminology 'retconned') back to the regular status quo.

It's these moments of madness where a character does something so unfitting to what has previously been established that it actually destroys part of what that character stands for and the true meaning behind their legends.

Among such gems are:

Spider-man (Peter Parker - Spoiler!) using the proportionate strength and speed of a spider to beat his wife, Mary Jane.

Want to know what makes this even more ludicrous? She's actually pregnant here as well.  Class act and the 'Spwat' is just the sound of his last vestige of honour being slapped out of of the window. Along with his unborn baby girl.

Frank Millers 'All Star Batman & Robin' was a new (extra, super, mega) gritty take on the dynamic duo but had Batman actually kill people and pretty much psychologically torture his ward, Robin.This is before Batman won't give Robin any food and suggests he eats the rats in the Batcave... I kid you not.

Batman seems to be believing his own hype train... What a Batdouche.

Proving that strange decisions affecting heroes isn't confined to comics, Zack Snyders 'Man of Steel' Film had this very controversial finish with the main man snapping the bad dude Zod's neck much to the incredulity of fanboys everywhere. Er, more spoilers!

What's that Zod?  Kal-El proving a pain in your neck... I'll get my coat...

Other questionable moments include:

• Superman makes a porno
• Wonder Woman's race of Amazons takes to getting pregnant by sailors, then killing them. Not so much blurring the lines between Feminism and Misandry but obliterating them. Girl Power to the max - take note for the reunion, Spice Girls. 

Now there may be an argument to say that flaws add to character and that by showing the warts and all of otherwise 'ideal' characters it allows development. I agree to an extent but it does depend on the character.  I don't think there are any problems with having a few ultimate examples to aspire to.  I have previously blogged about asking myself 'what would Optimus Prime do?' In recent moments of personal reflection I have also posed 'what would Atticus do' too?  In some ways this has provided me with a good alternative since Prime has a tendency to be physically awesome and imposing, jumping out of spacecrafts, off buildings and bringing a level of smack-down to the forces of evil throughout the universe that as a modern day regular human I struggle to live up too.  Atticus gives me a slightly more realistic benchmark for day-to-day issues that don't involve planets getting eaten or arguments being settled with Ion Blasters or Energy Axes. Atticus provides someone noble, selfless and open minded who shows courage in not following the crowd and standing up for what he believes in. How could you not want to emulate that?  To be smart, strong, understanding and compassionate - why would I want that aspiration tarnished?

It appears that I am not the only person to think this and the entire situation including the dubious nature of the manuscripts publication is discussed excellently here in the Irish Times.

I would imagine that the need for having to keep Atticus on that pedestal will prevent me from reading Go Set A Watchman and I openly apologise if that in itself is something, ironically that Atticus himself wouldn't do.  As it stands I can believe that this new book is an alternate timeline, one that happened in a different reality to the steadfast, uplifting character that I found so engaging. That way I can accept it's existence without the completionist and collector in me feeling I have to read it. 

If I need tragic, fallen idols I'm sure I can make do with the vast number that populate the actual world around me.  I'd rather do without having to tear apart or dismantle the very few whose characters shine like beacons amidst the moral sea of murky greys.

I should make it clear that I am still interested in this situation and look forward to hearing what others think of the book and the developments of how it has come to light.  I'm sure that there may be room for both versions of this man. I'm just intent on holding on to something that has become quite dear to me in a very short period of time. I'm going to stick with my Atticus for now.

5 Minute Nerdgasm

Is it my imagination or has been no finer time than right now to be a  geek or nerd? As I was growing up there was always a certain stigma attached to having a little bit too much of an interest in particular subjects. I'm trying to wrack my brains to remember what the 'cool' kids were into. At school, they played football (that's 'Soccer' to our North American friends) and hung out around benches in the playground and in the high street.  Still not sure on that one,  if I'm honest. Does a bench make you cooler? They never even sat on down on them... maybe that's why they were so cool? They had a bench but never used it. They just all stood around, shirts untucked looking distastefully at all and sundry.

I've never totally understood where I fit in, and at the early part of secondary school I hadn't worked out that I didn't give a shit about that fact.  I was big, strong and fast and enjoyed playing sports but I had secrets. Awful, terrible secrets. I loved reading comics, playing computer games and listening to a wide range of alternative music.  That sentence seems crazy now. Comics are huge, with the spread into full mainstream media they are the base for some of the biggest forms of entertainment and the most popular films in the world.  The gaming industry has been elevated to the largest economic source of entertainment and has been fully embraced by most as part of the fabric of society. The debate of 'games as art' still rages and gaming channels and Esport on the internet are massive.

Yet back when I was growing up it still felt that you had to hide certain sides of this if you were pertaining to be cool (which I'm not sure I ever did,  let alone achieved.)  I can however imagine the derision if I'd confessed at 14 years old how I was still in love with the idea of giant talking robots or secretly wished I was going grow up to be Tony Stark (okay, so maybe I didn't want to be an abusive drunk, but I'd have taken any superhero who's tights would fit - let's settle for 90's pin up Gambit).

Drunk Iron Man...                                or            Gambit aka 'Captain Abs'

I remember the chaos, the bedlam, the outrage I caused on a school trip when I dared pass up a cassette of a favourite band of mine to the front of the bus. You would have thought I had sneaked the sounds of burning kittens being stomped on with the frenetic fury I caused. I think the coach load of cool kids only stomached half of 'Give it Away' by a little known group called The Red Hot Chili Peppers (Blood Sugar Sex Magic) before the cassette was literally flung back at me. Strangely enough it must have been a teacher who lobbed it back at my head since we know all the cool kids have to sit at the back of the bus. All thirty eight of them wedged into the five seats at the back like a bunch of awesome sardines. With their shirts untucked. The only way they would have been cooler is if they'd somehow got that bench in there.

Nope, I still don't get it...

In retrospect being a nerd these days is more about having exceptional knowledge or enthusiasm for a particular subject as opposed to what that actual subject is. Whether it be Harry Potter or the Twilight series, fans accept the label 'nerd' or 'geek' proudly.

If you are being kind enough to read this just think of yourself for a minute. Has there been an instance where you've kept a hobby or an interest a secret because of what it was?

Does this help?

My name is Alex Andrews, and I was a tabletop gamer. I used to collect and paint Warhammer miniatures. I still would if I had the time to make the most of it. I also have a massive Dungeons and Dragons-esque board game 'Descent' that no one will play with me. I have encyclopedic knowledge of the entire Marvel universe, I have the complete collection of the Dragonball Z Manga (as well as countless others) and a toy collection (still mint on card, of course) that would make the 40 Year Old Virgin blush with embarrassment.  On top of this I have managed to flirt with a number of other Nerd topics (I'm even giving it it's own capital letter now) such as I understand the danger of wearing a red shirt on an away missions, that muggles will never understand us, I know Jon Snow knows nothing and that all your base are belong to us. That last sentence is meant to read like that - I promise. I do confess that I haven't got my head round it all and never expect to, there just isn't enough wibbly wobbly, timey wimey for that.

I'm actually rather enjoying the fact that so much uncool stuff is now cool and it could be argued that Nerd and Geek-chic have now been absorbed into popular culture to such a degree that the whole terminology has been turned on it's head.  

It's actually tougher to be a nerd now because what was once a hobby that caused social segregation is now everyone's hobby. Of course there will always be the hardcore few that will read this and decry me as not a real Nerd which is probably true to a point. Maybe I'm a 'jack of all nerds' - I love a good Geek out session on all sorts, from cult films, obscure games and different musical tastes but I acknowledge that I'm small time compared to some. I've gone to Film and Comic-cons but never dressed up as Princess Leia  (now there's a thought), I can talk to girls but think being married by guy dressed as He-Man is a step too far. Getting married to a guy dressed as He-Man, well - long as the Leia costume thing pans out, who knows?

While doing a little research on this it did confirm a hierarchy of sorts, there is a cracking flow chart below that it doing the rounds on the internet, check it out below and see where you stand. 

So in summary, I am now very proud to consider myself somewhat of a nerd.  I would love to think that in my ways I have been somewhat of a trend setter, able to make things 'cool' by sheer perseverance and my own magnetism.  The truth I think is more the case of me just being so stuck in my ways there was bound to be a time when the things I was into came around as being trendy.  In the same manner as my father never changed his style of hair, always saying that fashion will come around and it will be trendy again.  I laughed at him for years for that but technically the Beatles then Oasis proved his point eventually.

An instance of the more things change, the more they stay the same.

It often heartens me to see the passion and love displayed in pursuit of being fully immersed in peoples chosen field of  geek.  I'm sure the internet has been an overriding factor in this, allowing people who might have been cultural/interest islands previously to join together and form bigger co-joined states (Continents, to expand the metaphor, maybe?) in which the strength in numbers gives legitimacy. The validity has always been there, perhaps it was simply harder to see before the dawn of the digital age literally put everyone on the same page?

Of course, I understand that this is just one mans perspective through the narrow course of his own timeline and life. I'm sure that this is not the case for everyone but I think most people would agree that there has been a lot of progression in this direction.  It does leave me at a little bit of a loss though: Is there anything left out that people feel the burning need to keep undisclosed? I should maybe add a disclaimer that I'm not talking about true deviancy (put the goat, the carrot and the desk-lamp down and back away from the garlic sauce) but has the actual scope of Nerdism (yeah, lets make that an actual word) grown so large it accommodates everything that once was niche or is there still a perceived stigma on some levels? Conversely, what of those self styled cool kids I knew at school? Do they remember or recognise the change in patterns or is it something as simple as changing themselves so as just to fit in and remain trendy? Would they be happy with being labelled a geek or nerd now? Football may be as popular as ever but it's still not something one would associate with 'Nerding' out to. In actual fact there a plenty of other names and labels applied to fanatical football supporters and I would go out of my way to distance myself from from the majority of them.

Being a geek and an X-men fan I also wondered if there should be a way of describing the Nerd and Geek culture as an offshoot of mankind like mutants were referred to as Homo Superior as opposed to Homo Sapiens (Man the wise). The best I could come up with was Homo Exterus which (dodgy translation aside) should mean Man the Outsider. Have I just created a whole new level, looking to create a Nerd name for the Geeks? If so then I am proud of the monster I have become.  

I look forward to seeing where the evolution of nerd/geek/popular culture takes us and I am sincerely relieved to see that the segregation and isolation because of an enthusiastic interest is becoming less and less. Let's not forget our roots though, I'm sure there's a lot of people out there who have suffered for their devotion. Think of all the Atomic Wedgies that have been taken in the name of Nerdom. 

Thank you for your sacrifice, long may the up rise continue.

This actually happened.