dark fate, charlie’s angels, birds of prey, and the sapphic fantasy film
Evangeline Lilly posted something on her Instagram after Greta Gerwig’s Little Women came out. Her thesis is ultimately that it’s worth it to support women’s stories, which is true, but it also cast shade on female reboots of male franchises, which is not quite as legit to me.
I get the thought behind it. Just making male characters female doesn’t make them feminist (see also: Jeri Hogarth, the worst lesbian representation). But I also think there’s value in a lot of recontextualized stories, especially in action and sci-fi/fantasy. I doubt that Evangeline Lilly, whose recent franchise work includes playing the female OC in the Hobbit movies (created very openly to make sure there was a woman in that story, although it didn’t end up going well by audience standards or Lilly’s own) and being the first woman to headline (albeit co-headline) a Marvel movie, was speaking against women’s stories in genre fiction. But it got me thinking anyway, and it ties into something else I’ve been meaning to discuss.
That’s the Sapphic fantasy film.
Now, only one of the movies I’m about to discuss actually and explicitly features queer women. (And if you’re looking for a fantastic current film about those, may I recommend Cécile Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire. It doesn’t end with them getting together, but it’s beautiful and no one dies and it’s the very definition of a woman’s story on and off-screen.) But I’m talking about movies where ladies kick ass and (subtly or no) make eyes at each other. I’m talking about movies where men are narrative devices, harmless friends, or villains to defeat. I’m talking about movies where promotional stills are released and men whine about how the women in them aren’t sexy but (queer) women scream “WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? THIS IS TWENTY KINDS OF HOT.”
Full article here.