Mirror Magazine

Mirror Magazine

Win back the real power
By Scribe
I’ve watched like a zillion so called ‘Girl Power’ movies and not felt any better about my gender or myself at the end of it. I mean, it’s kinda cool seeing men get totally slammed left, right and centre by women, but there’s something about the making of these movies that is just not right.

For starters, all the women are like ‘P-E-R-F-E-C-T’… tall, slim, flawless skin, blonde, brunette, red-head, black – hair colour is really irrelevant actually, because whatever the colour, they look ‘wow.’ More often than not they would be clad in skin-tight or skimpy outfits, accentuating their every curve and contour and just oozing sensuality. This makes me question whether women are the target audience at all.

I mean, how is any of this related to saving the world from evil??? Correct me if I’m wrong, but that is the main intent of these movies, is it not?
Anyway, in all likelihood ‘the team’ would comprise three (give or take a few) specialists in some art of combat, an escape artiste and a computer hacker. Together, ‘the team’ is invincible, able to get themselves out of any tough situation, through the use of their individual expertise. This is all a part of the hype expected of these types of movies of course, and is common to both ‘Girl Power’ and the random ‘Macho’ movies. However, we arrive at the numerous differentiating points at this time.

The typical Charlie’s Angels (at least the re-make) and She Spies kind of movies, range from the sublime to the ridiculous. You’d have huge hulking men (some with guns even) posing as the enemy, who they’d have to get past, in order to save the day. This of course they accomplish with the greatest of ease. A few slow motion, mid-air jump kicks and lethal martial art strokes later, the unsuspecting rivals are out cold, defenceless, having not known what hit them and the all-girl team, strides out unscathed, unruffled and still as gorgeous as ever.

As realistic (NOT) as the entire proceedings look, it doesn’t make me glow with pride that the woman has successfully managed to overpower or conquer the man, but rather, gag at the absurdity of the entire sequence. I don’t mean to sound harsh, but come on, this is not our idea of equal rights for crying out loud. We are quite comfortable and have even come to accept the truth that the average man is physically stronger than their female counterparts. We’re good with that.

It’s all the rest of the issues, if at all, that for centuries women have been fighting to attain. Having achieved this, we don’t see the need to have to be consoled by these supposed ‘feel good movies,’ which attempt to give us a false sense of security we could do without.

Another commonly used ploy is to make a member of the team seduce the enemy in order to get the necessary information. This obviously means that one of these ‘hot’ babes will have to dress in anything revealing, from lingerie to low-cleavaged, short-skirted outfits that cover only the bare minimum, to lure the predator into their snare. Once done though, these poor men are mere putty in the hands of ‘the team.’ Is it just me or can anyone recall the last time a man was made to use a similar strategy to extract vital information from the enemy?

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