Gender-equality/feminist recommendations?

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emma63194
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Gender-equality/feminist recommendations?

Post by emma63194 »

Hello!
I am looking for a film or series were there is gender equality/feminism, thus that would have:
-> Preferably around 50/50 males-females in main characters and in the universe, ex: if military, there would be preferably around 50-50 males females. (Or at least, that they aren't too rare)
-> Strong, empowering females
-> Characters defy gender stereotypes ex: females who are muscular/unfeminine/ short-haired...
-> Preferably practical clothing for females, thus preferably no sexy outfits
-> No fan service

Examples:
- Alien (film)
- Divergent (film)
- Stranger Things (series)
- The Legend of Korra (series)
- The Promised Neverland (series)

Thank you, and have a nice day!

mattorama12
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Re: Gender-equality/feminist recommendations?

Post by mattorama12 »

I'm not sure if any of these recommendations meet all of the criteria you listed, but I think they all qualify as good examples of feminist films nonetheless. I focused on movies that could be considered feminist but are first and foremost good movies, rather than movies that are the "most" feminist. I've separated them loosely into three categories, but no particular order within.

Drama
  • All About My Mother
    All About Eve
    Silence of the Lambs
    Roma
Action/Adventure
  • Mad Max: Fury Road
    Moana
    Kill Bill
    Zero Dark Thirty
Comedy
  • Clueless
    Booksmart
    The Devil Wears Prada

JSchlansky
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Re: Gender-equality/feminist recommendations?

Post by JSchlansky »

Here are a couple fairly recent options from different genres:
-Annihilation
-20th Century Women
-Unbelievable (Netflix mini-series)

ShogunRua
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Re: Gender-equality/feminist recommendations?

Post by ShogunRua »

mattorama12 wrote:
Thu Jun 11, 2020 4:05 pm

Drama
  • All About Eve
Action/Adventure
  • Kill Bill
Comedy
  • Clueless
    The Devil Wears Prada
These four movies (and possibly others you listed) are all considered anti-feminist, problematic, and/or misogynist nowadays.

mattorama12
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Re: Gender-equality/feminist recommendations?

Post by mattorama12 »

ShogunRua wrote:
Thu Jun 11, 2020 6:44 pm
...
These four movies (and possibly others you listed) are all considered anti-feminist, problematic, and/or misogynist nowadays.
That may be so, but I can only speak for myself. There are probably more definitions of feminist than you could shake a stick at, so I certainly couldn't argue that these movies would meet everybody's definition.

As for why I consider them to be feminist, all of these movies (1) give female characters agency, (2) treat female characters as humans with complex, sometimes contradictory, thoughts and feelings, and (3) recognize the individuality of their female characters.

iconogassed
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Re: Gender-equality/feminist recommendations?

Post by iconogassed »

Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
Freeway 2: Confessions of a Trickbaby (Matthew Bright, 1999)
Foxfire (Annette Haywood-Carter, 1996)
Freeway (Matthew Bright, 1996)
Foxy Brown (Jack Hill, 1974)
Loyalties (Anne Wheeler, 1987)
Wanda (Barbara Loden, 1970)
Sudden Manhattan (Adrienne Shelly, 1996)
Girlfriends (Claudia Weill, 1978)
Blue Car (Karen Moncrieff, 2002)
Kissed (Lynne Stopkewich, 1996)
Anatomy of Hell (Catherine Breillat, 2004)
Queen of Hearts (Valérie Donzelli, 2010)
The Dish and the Spoon (Alison Bagnall, 2011)

paulofilmo
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Re: Gender-equality/feminist recommendations?

Post by paulofilmo »

Maybe something like Girls of the Sun (about the Kurdish fighters).

Alita: Battle Angel was a bit of a tomboy.

Buffy?
Killing Eve?

ok, buffy might be a bad example. And for KE, I have Sandra Oh's character just as much in mind - she takes risks that are easily as stupid as a man would take.

[Of your examples, i've only seen Alien]

ShogunRua
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Re: Gender-equality/feminist recommendations?

Post by ShogunRua »

mattorama12 wrote:
Thu Jun 11, 2020 8:50 pm
ShogunRua wrote:
Thu Jun 11, 2020 6:44 pm
...
These four movies (and possibly others you listed) are all considered anti-feminist, problematic, and/or misogynist nowadays.
That may be so, but I can only speak for myself. There are probably more definitions of feminist than you could shake a stick at, so I certainly couldn't argue that these movies would meet everybody's definition.

As for why I consider them to be feminist, all of these movies (1) give female characters agency, (2) treat female characters as humans with complex, sometimes contradictory, thoughts and feelings, and (3) recognize the individuality of their female characters.
I'm just pointing out how very, very quickly "feminist" becomes "anti-feminist and problematic" nowadays. Which essentially makes any judgment or even definition of the term meaningless, since it's constantly changing and evolving.

coffee
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Re: Gender-equality/feminist recommendations?

Post by coffee »

I recommend Persona (2018).
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt7920978

And it's subtle, the feminist aspect is at the background.
The language is Turkish but I think it's on Netflix. There must be subtitles available.

Velvet Crowe
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Re: Gender-equality/feminist recommendations?

Post by Velvet Crowe »

ShogunRua wrote:
Thu Jun 11, 2020 6:44 pm

These four movies (and possibly others you listed) are all considered anti-feminist, problematic, and/or misogynist nowadays.
That depends on who you're asking. I've seen people make positive feminist remarks about films such as Cinderella and Pirates of the Caribbean. It's why I don't take feminist interpretations of storytelling seriously because it's extremely inconsistent and there's no core idea of what's supposed to constitute as feminist as opposed to what constitutes as individualism or Socialism. The most you can take with a feminist interpretation is saying how women are portrayed in film, but whether or not this is a positive or not seems to run the gamut. Especially since there's often a lot of double standards held for women when making these interpretations.

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