I'm not going to quote a Virginia Slims ad here, because we have a ways to go.
[CONTAINS SPOILERS]
There’s a peculiar thing that happens, as a traditionally marginalized geek, when you have the experience of consuming media that speaks directly to you as an audience member. 2015 was a year when feminist geeks had some seriously blinding moments in the sun. From BITCH PLANET (check out the URL on that one - so clever) to Mad Max: Fury Road to Jupiter Ascending and Sense8, this year was the year when my reality was reflected on big screens, small screens and paneled comic book pages.
As queer geeks, every single one of you knows what I’m talking about when we experience these too-rare, and often too-fleeting moments. Those moments when your worldview is not mocked, but centralized in the storyline. When people react to fucked-up shit in ways that take words out of your mouth and express them on the page or screen. When expressions of love that too often end in punchlines are instead explored with aching tenderness and sincerity. When a person who shares aspects of your identity is not killed in the first ten minutes, or as an object lesson, but rather saves the motherfucking day.
It can feel a little like this:
So let’s indulge in a little 2015 lovefest for the moment, shall we?
I am not exaggerating when I say that BITCH PLANET is the comic book I’ve been waiting for my entire life. It’s often said that when you are a member of a group that is outside the “norm” - meaning you identify as anything but straight, White, able-bodied and cisgender male - you have to do everything EXTRA PLUS GOOD AND BETTER. It’s not enough to be good, you have to be spectacular. Luckily for us, Kelly Sue DeConnick and the team behind BITCH PLANET not only stepped up to the plate, but knocked it out of the goddamn park.
The premise rests on a dystopian near-future in which the patriarchy has most assuredly won. Women deemed “non-compliant” are sentenced to an off-world penal institution for re-education. Officially, the “Auxiliary Compliance Outpost” is colloquially known as “Bitch Planet,” where the action takes place. Thus a feminist sci-fi take on the women-in-prison sexploitation movies of the 70s is presented for a modern audience, where women are clearly centered.
Everything is so incredibly well-thought out in BITCH PLANET. From the bait-and-switch of the protagonist at the end of Issue #1; to the incredible backmatter essays that provide not just context, but continuing education (including luminaries like Danielle Henderson, Tasha Fierce, Megan Carpentier, and Mikki Kendall); to the truly inspired back cover “ads” from the creative genius of Laurenn McCubbin (of Rent Girl fame, with my sober superhero Michelle Tea, an amazing book that you need to experience, like, yesterday). On top of all of that, as if that wasn’t enough, the action sequences are off the chain, with palpable, heart-pounding thrills - a HUGE feat in this media-jaded day and age.
BECAUSE IF WE DON'T LAUGH, WE WILL NEVER STOP WEEPING
Is there nudity? OF COURSE THERE’S NUDITY!!! This is women in prison, after all. The difference in this kind of nudity is not exploitative - it serves a purpose. It not only shows how women’s bodies are different (SHOCKER! STOP THE PRESSES!), but how nudity is used as a means of control and oppression. Which then hilariously and righteously gets turned on its head as our heroines start a prison riot, proving just because just because they’re naked doesn’t mean they can’t still kick some patriarchal ass.
The women of BITCH PLANET embody different sexualities and body types and races, because although there is a central character that is a badassss woman of color, this really is about teamwork. We can't bring down systems of oppression by ourselves. But more than that, it just makes for good storytelling. When you see it happen, you shake your head at the lack of originality and imagination in other media productions. Like why WOULDN’T you have an ensemble cast of women in all shapes and colors? Isn't that how women exist in the world? And why WOULDN'T you want to tell an all-female story because Jimminy H. Christmas, haven't all-male buddy stories been told to DEATH? The lifeblood of creativity is innovation - surprise us, make us think differently. It's what draws us, especially us geeks, to these genre tales.
But circling back to the theme of teamwork…
Honestly, I could write an entire book about how much I loved this movie. I have seen it four times now, and I cry every single time; it's that good. I would not have believed, in a million years, that the Mad Max franchise was going to take a turn to become a genre- and game-changing FEMINIST ACTION MOVIE. There were so many moments of glorious action-movie-as-testosterone-fueled subversion, and SO MUCH ink and so many pixels have already been spilled describing these in loving detail, that I can only touch on a couple of key points.
Was it perfect? Of course not - Toast the Knowing (Zoe Kravitz) as the lone person of color (not counting the snaggle-tooth, water-starved hanger-on outside The Citadel) in the entire landscape was irritating. Of course, the entire ethos of the movie was George Miller showing and not telling us what happened to bring down civilization. The lack of exposition left that question open. Rather than typical Hollywood white-washing of a cast, it could also be horrifically viewed as the result of a genocide of dark-skinned people. Immortan Joe, a man who kept a stable of models as “breeders,” referred to his progeny as his “property,” and who mocked those dying of thirst for their “addiction” to water, would be exactly the kind of person who would prize whiteness above all (see, e.g., the fealty of his pale War Boys) and would support mass extermination of those in opposition of his vision.
But Fury Road's strengths far outweigh its flaws. What this movie does that is both radical and incredibly easy is centralize the women characters, making them active participants in their own liberation. There is a moment when Splendid pulls on Max's chain to get him off Furiosa that you realize this is going to be a very different movie than we've seen before. It has the characters act authentically, and by this miracle, this makes the movie feminist. Chew on that for a minute - the fact that the characters are fleshed out, to be more than tropes or background eye candy makes this movie feminist. As Miller himself said, in response to the “feminist agenda” question: the premise was “for there to be an extended chase -- the thing that [the five Wives] were chasing was to be not an object, but human. They needed a warrior, and it couldn’t be a man taking five Wives from another man.” It’s mind-blowing in its simplicity and paucity. Also, like BITCH PLANET, this action in this movie is incredible, as as it involves LITERALLY SMASHING THE PATRIARCHY, so you get where my glee comes from.
Furiosa: Smashin' the Patriarchy
It cannot be overstated that at least some of this movie's feminism can be attributed to the inclusion of the advice of a vocal and radical feminist. Eve Ensler, of The Vagina Monologues fame, was enlisted by Miller to consult on the film, specifically to provide depth to the characters of The Wives, who had been subjected to extensive periods sexual slavery and imprisonment. Ensler has done extensive activism with survivors of sexual slavery. She was brought in to flesh out these characters, and, ostensibly, to make sure they did not fall into tropes. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Miller explains how he also brought in military men to consult with the actors playing the War Boys, to help them embody the blind loyalty of warrior-minions (totally my characterization, but it’s telling). Eve “left her imprint,” he said, giving “some glue to those Wives and the story as well, from that perspective.” Miller describes how she conducted workshops for the actors playing the Wives that ended up being attended by stunt men, too.
Miller describing creating Furiosa is so straightforward that you wonder why everyone can’t approach female characters with this kind of matter-of-factness (“Where Did Furiosa Come From?”). Miller makes a statement that everyone who has every asked female creators, “How do I write women characters?” needs to sit up and really listen to, because it’s obvious, but completely ignored: “You start with the kernel of an idea, and you build the architecture around it, you’ve got the foundations … and the characters, if they remain organic and as authentic as possible, basically flow from that.” Furiosa’s gender came from a central story premise: you “couldn't have a male stealing the wives … from the … tyrant, she had to be female” because otherwise it would would be a different story. Referring to the actor who played Furiosa, “Like Charlize said, ‘I’m going to shave my hair off because she wouldn’t mess with hair out there in the desert, in the heat.’” From there, the details about Furiosa’s backstory flowed: “Her tribal homeland is a matriarchy,” and her missing arm fit with her warrior status (and Charlize Theron’s dancing background). [Side note: you must read this: young woman who identifies as a fetal amputee describes what seeing Furiosa on screen meant to her. Have a hanky handy.]
But the movie was feminist in so many other ways, not least of which was the incredible sharing of credit that George Miller insisted upon in every interview. The impression from all involved was that this was a collaboration - not a dictatorship; not one man’s vision, but the fruit of many bodies’ labor and their combined visions. At the Mad Max: Fury Road panel at Cannes, Miller discussed why he gave the movie to his wife, Margaret Ann Sixel, to edit, who had never edited an action movie before, “When [Margeret’ asked, ‘Why on earth would you want me to cut the movie?’ And I said, ‘Because if it was the usual kind of guys, it would look like every other action movie we see.’” (Emphasis mine). Rather than a traditional script, it was reported that actors and set designers and FX crew worked off a storyboard outline, interpreting as they went.
There are so many scenes I read as feminist in the movie (major spoilers ahead): Splendid using her pregnant body as shield for Furiosa’s protection; Splendid’s death as grievously mourned; Max offering the last shot to Furiosa and his shoulder as a rifle stand because she's the better shot; Max tenderly patting Nux’s head as he takes over sucking and blowing gas into the War Rig’s blower (I can’t be alone in seeing the homoeroticism here); Max serving as nurse and blood donor (do I need to mention the connection between femininity and menstruation here?); the Milk Mothers freeing the water (aqua-cola) at the very end without any help from Furiosa OR Max. You can argue this is just good storytelling - I would argue that when the storytelling is so good as to have fully-actualized, authentic female characters, then that, my friends, is the very definition of feminist.
That richness of characterization, and trusting the audience enough to not spoon-feed us a million details about the events leading up to this moment, made for an incredibly compelling film. When Furiosa tells Max that she’s seeking “redemption,” we can scarcely imagine the incredibly fucked up things she had to do, murdering her soul all the while, in order to gain enough trust to be one of Immortan Joe’s Imperators. Tumblr provides a very convincing reading of Cheedo and The Dag as a couple. It creates this bleak, but rich, landscape with a decidedly eco-feminist point of view about the dangers of toxic masculinity. Completely thrilling and utterly unique.
Which … brings us to the ultimate betrayal that is the MAD MAX: FURY ROAD comic book by Vertigo/DC. I want to thank Ana Mardoll, of The Mary Sue, for her exceptional and detailed critical reading of the first issue. I thank her mainly in the way that Media Matters bills itself: “We watch FOX News so you don’t have to.” Ana Mardoll read the comic book so we don’t have to, but you should DEFINITELY read her excellent analysis. Superb points, clearly explained, READ IT.
[NO PICTURES OF THE MEDIOCRE, UNWORTHY PANELS]
As someone who works in comics, who deeply, DEEPLY loves the potentiality, symbolism, and archetypal and historical importance of the genre of comics, especially in an American pop culture context, “betrayal” seems much too gentle a word to describe what happened here. If I spend too much time actually thinking about what happened to the characters with the comic, after the feminist action splendour that was the movie, I get shaky with rage. Because it was a violation.
[STILL NO IMAGES OF THE COMIC BOOK]
Maybe this was a giant misstep on George Miller’s part, but I will note the distinction in the credits of the first issue. George Miller gets a “Story by” credit, while the storyboard artist and concept artist for Mad Max: Fury Road, Mark Sexon, and Nico Lathouris. Mark Sexton is insistent, in his introduction to the series, on DC Comics’ site, that these stories come from Miller. After seeing interviews of the man, I find this hard to believe, because they just DO NOT FIT with the characterizations that appeared on screen. Suffice it to say that the Vertigo (oh how far this imprint has fallen) comic book is offensive, overly rape-y and relies on ridiculous stereotypes of women.
[NUH UH]
This comes down to who the media creators are. I would LOVE to say that the identities of those making the movies and the comics and what have you don’t matter - and really, they shouldn’t. This is not to say that male writers should just give up on writing women, or straight people should give up on writing queers, or white people should give up on writing POC - NO. This is not that. In the immortal words of my grandmother Elvia, “Don’t be stupid.”
Characters, when written well, are authentic. You don’t need to be a 13 year old boy wizard to write Harry Potter, right, JK Rowling? You don’t need to be a freaking HOBBIT to write Lord of the Rings, RIGHT, JRR Tolkien (RIP)?
Not a boy wizard, but WRITES a boy wizard...
The most infuriating thing of all is that EVEN IF you are a strict capitalist asshole and say that the reason why sexist, misogynist dreck continues to be put out there is because “that’s what the audience wants” (i.e. “that’s where the money is”) then you
CLEARLY
HAVE
NOT
BEEN
PAYING
ATTENTION.
It is obvious and infuriating when a room full of men (or male decision-makers) write shitty female stories, mostly because there are literally hundreds and thousands of women they could just tap on the shoulder to say, "Here, read this, what do you think? Is this bullshit?" Did I WANT to be right about the estrogen desert of the Jem and the Holograms movie creative team delivering what can only be rightly termed as JINO (Jem in Name Only - h/t Eric Diaz at Nerdist for that “jem”)? No, no I did not. What does it say that IDW’s JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS comic book, which happens to be helmed by lady creators Kelly Thompson and Sophie Campbell, has been widely lauded, while the Jem movie is widely panned?
BITCH PLANET was written by Kelly Sue DeConnick, in collaboration with folx of many genders. The same can be said of Mad Max: Fury Road. So at the very, very least, Hollywood and adjacent industries, can you make sure that some of us are in the room with a voice that can be heard? That goes for more identities beyond female - we don't even have to start there. There are just too many talented people to tap for a take on whether it rings true. It just makes for a better story. And if it happens to come wrapped in a sweet side of revolution, then all the better.
N