![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pigtailed_goddessBecause I'm depressed and dwelling in it, I had a Can't Trust Men double feature with my mom. As she said "Interesting movies, can't say enjoyed viewing."
First was Stepford, then Handmaid's. Must talk about them in reverse though, because Handmaid's didn't grab me the way the other did.
Handmaid's was interesting. I really liked the unnerving opening with the round up of women, of unwanted black men and women, of the putting them in livestock trucks and dividing them in lines. God, it was creepy.
There is alot of great touches this film does with moments. The ropes being pulled by the handmaid's, the marriage vows and interview with Serena Joy for placement, the moment with Janine after she gives birth.
But there is also something that really stopped me from investing, and it was the tawdry-ness. Moira was so liberal in words and framing I kept thinking I've never had a friend be that unabashed, and in the middle of being broken by this system?
Then there was Offred's nudity and relations with Nick and the Commander. Her scene with the Doctor. It felt like ...this sounds weird...but the movie was saying she and Moira had more agency or was giving her agency with her "lovers" and Serena than I found realistic that she could feel she had and that threw me right out of identifying.
The film's ending also bothered me in the same way the show did or does, implying a passive happy end, if she and women keep spirit, and that Nick (or Serena and Nick in show) was on her side being something that matters at all to her personal rebellion. I prefer the bleak warning of the book and also fuck them, fuck waiting/saying others save you, because it's implicit in the story that that thinking is what makes you vunerable and used.
Nick in the film is a different kinda of awful to the Commander, but still predatory and feeling her up and jealous of her when she's being raped!
Also, the movie can't be seriously saying it's the wife, Serena Joy, in control of the fallout of the Commander choosing to play with Offred and the handmaid's success or dismissal, but then kinda does just that? Creeps on a different level for saying men or the commander are honest putting the onus on women that way.
No. This is a story about men robbing women of personhood, not seeing it as inherently worthy, and no, don't give them the control over deciding when and how to put it back because they view this aspect as lovable enough or yours to be responsible for. Others loving you as a person cant save you, valuing yourself saves you.
Which kinda segues into Stepford Wives. What a fantastic disturbing movie! I watched it. I devoured podcasts and saw the Get Out inspirations. I feel so pleased to see such a great work like Get Out nodding to it.
I think what makes me most sad and disturbed watching the movie was I was in no way shocked by it, just haunted. Our main dies because she trusts her husband to love and value her, and she's an other to him. Her dog betrays her and doesn't recognize a difference. Her husband uses her kids, their kids, to lure her to her final death, FFS.
Like, I've seen people question or even seen Jordan Peele get questioned about Rose being in on it in Get Out. Maybe she didn't know her family, maybe she was brainwashed, maybe she can really love Chris, and how to him like duh of course she is in on it, and no she's one of the biggest villains. She doesn't see him as a person like her, even getting to know him the most intimately. Just an other. Walter in this film is the same. No giving him the benefit of the doubt when he is the biggest villian and monster of the film, and was 100% complicit from the start. You can't convince me otherwise. He moved there to do this. That scene where Johanna blasts him in the kitchen about how he said he was thinking of moving, had already been looking, was thinking of this town, already put a down payment on the house, etc.
The overwhelming truth of the film is that the women want to love or be loved and they stupidly pick men to trust to tell them yes, you have it, when it should be internal. They put the men above themselves to even come to Stepford. I cried when Charmaine tells her story at the Women's Lib meeting. Johanna wanted to be recognized for her photos, to be remembered independently, with a neat nod to her wanting it in her maiden name, but she had to have someone else tell her they saw it too. Men, this whole group of men down to your own partner, don't want your love, your personhood. They want you as a commodity, an object. They value you only in as much as it reflects as an image of themselves. They already love themselves, and they will always value themselves over you more.
Johanna takes photographes. Captured reality. Her joy and her light comes from her photographing reality, her seeing and catching a real moment of her and Bobbi's children.
The men craft sketches of the women. Idealized mind's eye views they use to build their perfect fakes. They share their approval amongst themselves. They modify the women to these fantasy ideals.
I saw there were sequels. They sound kinda dumb. But oh the potential I see. What happens to these monsterous men and their poor children?
They really are bores. Do they think they'll never change? Never desire different? Never tire of a doll that fulfills expectations like love every sex move I make, get the groceries and clean kitchens and make me casseroles, be demure but perfectly beautiful and respectful in public for me and know nothing beyond what I teach you, want a pool like me instead of a tennis court, and...It will be like the men never have to think around a woman again. It will be very repetitive very quickly, living with a mirror. Hey, I simply must get that recipe. Or are robot women upgradable? What happens when your robot ideal woman is ideal for you, but not for other men? Loves you, coos at your sex technique and cleans your house to perfection but gives no fucks or understanding to your kids? Does that matter to you? How do you handle that men? The robot can't teach personhood to the next generation. You certainly can't, you can't even play monopoly with them. Who is going to comfort your daughter the next time she misses home? When she grows up is she a person or a robot potential to you and the men around you? Whose going to teach your son what it means to be a man versus a woman or robot? Are your kids up to be made into robots next, to be perfect for you, to reflect back an ideal family you wanted and can make, or so they don't bother you? But surely not, because you can't be remembered by an automaton.
I think it's fitting the brain behind this scheme is a childless bachelor.
First was Stepford, then Handmaid's. Must talk about them in reverse though, because Handmaid's didn't grab me the way the other did.
Handmaid's was interesting. I really liked the unnerving opening with the round up of women, of unwanted black men and women, of the putting them in livestock trucks and dividing them in lines. God, it was creepy.
There is alot of great touches this film does with moments. The ropes being pulled by the handmaid's, the marriage vows and interview with Serena Joy for placement, the moment with Janine after she gives birth.
But there is also something that really stopped me from investing, and it was the tawdry-ness. Moira was so liberal in words and framing I kept thinking I've never had a friend be that unabashed, and in the middle of being broken by this system?
Then there was Offred's nudity and relations with Nick and the Commander. Her scene with the Doctor. It felt like ...this sounds weird...but the movie was saying she and Moira had more agency or was giving her agency with her "lovers" and Serena than I found realistic that she could feel she had and that threw me right out of identifying.
The film's ending also bothered me in the same way the show did or does, implying a passive happy end, if she and women keep spirit, and that Nick (or Serena and Nick in show) was on her side being something that matters at all to her personal rebellion. I prefer the bleak warning of the book and also fuck them, fuck waiting/saying others save you, because it's implicit in the story that that thinking is what makes you vunerable and used.
Nick in the film is a different kinda of awful to the Commander, but still predatory and feeling her up and jealous of her when she's being raped!
Also, the movie can't be seriously saying it's the wife, Serena Joy, in control of the fallout of the Commander choosing to play with Offred and the handmaid's success or dismissal, but then kinda does just that? Creeps on a different level for saying men or the commander are honest putting the onus on women that way.
No. This is a story about men robbing women of personhood, not seeing it as inherently worthy, and no, don't give them the control over deciding when and how to put it back because they view this aspect as lovable enough or yours to be responsible for. Others loving you as a person cant save you, valuing yourself saves you.
Which kinda segues into Stepford Wives. What a fantastic disturbing movie! I watched it. I devoured podcasts and saw the Get Out inspirations. I feel so pleased to see such a great work like Get Out nodding to it.
I think what makes me most sad and disturbed watching the movie was I was in no way shocked by it, just haunted. Our main dies because she trusts her husband to love and value her, and she's an other to him. Her dog betrays her and doesn't recognize a difference. Her husband uses her kids, their kids, to lure her to her final death, FFS.
Like, I've seen people question or even seen Jordan Peele get questioned about Rose being in on it in Get Out. Maybe she didn't know her family, maybe she was brainwashed, maybe she can really love Chris, and how to him like duh of course she is in on it, and no she's one of the biggest villains. She doesn't see him as a person like her, even getting to know him the most intimately. Just an other. Walter in this film is the same. No giving him the benefit of the doubt when he is the biggest villian and monster of the film, and was 100% complicit from the start. You can't convince me otherwise. He moved there to do this. That scene where Johanna blasts him in the kitchen about how he said he was thinking of moving, had already been looking, was thinking of this town, already put a down payment on the house, etc.
The overwhelming truth of the film is that the women want to love or be loved and they stupidly pick men to trust to tell them yes, you have it, when it should be internal. They put the men above themselves to even come to Stepford. I cried when Charmaine tells her story at the Women's Lib meeting. Johanna wanted to be recognized for her photos, to be remembered independently, with a neat nod to her wanting it in her maiden name, but she had to have someone else tell her they saw it too. Men, this whole group of men down to your own partner, don't want your love, your personhood. They want you as a commodity, an object. They value you only in as much as it reflects as an image of themselves. They already love themselves, and they will always value themselves over you more.
Johanna takes photographes. Captured reality. Her joy and her light comes from her photographing reality, her seeing and catching a real moment of her and Bobbi's children.
The men craft sketches of the women. Idealized mind's eye views they use to build their perfect fakes. They share their approval amongst themselves. They modify the women to these fantasy ideals.
I saw there were sequels. They sound kinda dumb. But oh the potential I see. What happens to these monsterous men and their poor children?
They really are bores. Do they think they'll never change? Never desire different? Never tire of a doll that fulfills expectations like love every sex move I make, get the groceries and clean kitchens and make me casseroles, be demure but perfectly beautiful and respectful in public for me and know nothing beyond what I teach you, want a pool like me instead of a tennis court, and...It will be like the men never have to think around a woman again. It will be very repetitive very quickly, living with a mirror. Hey, I simply must get that recipe. Or are robot women upgradable? What happens when your robot ideal woman is ideal for you, but not for other men? Loves you, coos at your sex technique and cleans your house to perfection but gives no fucks or understanding to your kids? Does that matter to you? How do you handle that men? The robot can't teach personhood to the next generation. You certainly can't, you can't even play monopoly with them. Who is going to comfort your daughter the next time she misses home? When she grows up is she a person or a robot potential to you and the men around you? Whose going to teach your son what it means to be a man versus a woman or robot? Are your kids up to be made into robots next, to be perfect for you, to reflect back an ideal family you wanted and can make, or so they don't bother you? But surely not, because you can't be remembered by an automaton.
I think it's fitting the brain behind this scheme is a childless bachelor.
