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The Genders of Mad Max: Fury Road

Iselynne wrote: As most of you have probably noticed, a little film called Mad Max: Fury Road was recently released in cinemas. The adrenaline fueled film has been met with almost unanimous praise by both critics and audience. The incredible action, the fantastic stunts, and the performances of the cast have been lauded by fans. However, not everyone is happy about the long-awaited continuation of Max’s journey through the Wasteland. The issue some people call out is the presentation of the female characters in the film. In the lead up to the film’s release Men’s Rights Activist groups called for their fellow men to boycott the film. They believed that Fury Road was an action film that would trick men into giving in to feminist propaganda. While the outcries of the MRA are perhaps the most extreme in this debate, they are not alone in taking issue with the representation of genders in the film. Some feminists argue that the women are being portrayed as masculine and violent. This portrayal shows women acting like men, and is therefore not feminist because they lose a lot of their feminine nature. As I watched the film, the thought of a feminist storyline struck me too.

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annoyedgamer3251d ago (Edited 3251d ago )

This film was in production during the height of the feminist fad. Since then they have blown their little game out of proportion and now receive almost unanimous criticism.

This feminist man-women characters trend will go the way of the Dinosaurs and this movie might be the nail in the coffin. Why?

Pitch Perfect 2, a CHICK-FLICK left tire tracks all over Mad Max.

Tomorrowland is similar with a teenage girl scientist which also bombed, even George Clooney could not save it.

Another film with this fake masculine female character is Terminator Genysis which is also getting alot of criticism and is on track to be a major let down as the box office. (Now I know T2 Sarah Connor was similar but let's be real here, which looks more believable?) T5 looks like garbage inside and out.

The bottom line is audiences just are not interested in the nonsense, they want believable characters and entertaining plots, if they cannot get that the film bombs. This is why American Sniper, Furious 7, The Avengers: AOU, and Pitch Perfect 2 all went on to be profitable. Another film that is on track to make bank is Jurassic World which features a believable set of characters.

Defectiv3_Detectiv33251d ago

Being so offended by women - is there anything less manly?

Crazay3251d ago (Edited 3251d ago )

To be honest - I'm sick and tired of this bullshit. Can't believe this garbage was even approved. This post needs to actually die and be pulled. I suggest people flag it as lame and email JL

Crazay3251d ago

oh and time to downvote the site.

annoyedgamer3251d ago

Who was offended?

Ah, I get it its' a generic liberal SJW response. No brain required.

hazelamy3250d ago

wow, strong capable women really scare you don't they?

where's this "unanimous criticism" coming from?

the movie has 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and 89% on Metacritic.
a 45 million opening weekend in the US and over a hundred million worldwide.

it's not the flop you wish it was.

i bet you were sitting in a corner rocking back and forth telling yourself it wasn't happening when Lucy trounced Hercules at the box office.

oh yeah, Defectiv3, in answer to your question, yes there is something less manly, being scared of strong women.

pasta_spice3250d ago

I hate to break it to you, but the reason Furious 7, The Avengers, and Pitch Perfect 2 were so successful has very little to do with the 'believability' of the characters. Same goes for Jurassic World. It's not going to be a success because of it's believable human characters. It's going to be a success because its a well-known franchise that people love....and it has awesome CGI DINOSAURS!

And considering crap like 50 Shades of Grey, the Twilight series, and the Night at the Museum series can also be extremely successful and top the box-office, it's a bit rich to claim that audiences are only interested in believable characters and entertaining plots. People will like whatever the hell they like.

Oh, and T5 will probably be bad because the Terminator series hasn't had a decent track record of quality in recent years...not because it has a 'fake masculine female character' in it.

coolbeans3250d ago

"This feminist man-women characters trend will go the way of the Dinosaurs and this movie might be the nail in the coffin. Why?

Pitch Perfect 2, a CHICK-FLICK left tire tracks all over Mad Max."

This is a pretty myopic interpretation of box office performance of two films, especially when considering one of them is an R-rated blockbuster. Something like Furious 7, which has a diverse cats and 'man-woman characters' that perform some pretty good stunts on screen, is also one of the biggest blockbusters in history so that harms your theory.

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Stringerbell3251d ago

@annoyedgamer

You think this film performed poorly in the box office? A 30 year old property with an R rating and your comparing it to a PG-13 film? I think that's a but unfair. R rated films always have trouble garnering bigger numbers as literally less people can see them. That's just the industry.

As for this article, ehhh its certainly one way to look at the film. I say this:

Barring the first film Max is the side character. He was the vehicle for characters realizing their escape from Lord Humongous, being Captain Walker to save the lost children in finding tomorrow morrow land, and here helping a band of women escaping a crazy cult.

In fact again barring the first film, we are never even hearing the story from max himself. It is almost always a survivor telling the tale of their mythical encounter with Max.

He is along for a great adventure (never his), helps those in need, and in the end leaves in search of the next big thing. Thats always been my take on the character.

annoyedgamer3250d ago (Edited 3250d ago )

Its not Mad Max directly but a trend. A trend to pander to a fringe group. I cannot think of a decent action movie made in the past few years that was not based on history that was not cliched by the "oh-so-mart men beating" female character.It had no thought put into the plot at all.

The latest Terminator is suffering from this. Look at T2 Sarah Connor being gritty made sense considering she was only partially insane and was locked in a mental asylum and likely abused and even then she was not beating down men like it was a walk in the park. Then T5 comes along with this beauty queen spouting one liners yelling and acting like a man with no basis.

Then there was "The Book of Life" Oh boy where do I start with that piece of work. I will say that it came of as offensive and insensitive to Mexican culture. It features the poor, stupid Mexican girl travelling to the morally and culturally "superior" white people village to learn the ways of a "real woman". I was amazed at how blatantly racist it was. Better to see it than explain it.

And yes I understand R rated films do not make as much as PG-13 and it has resulted in alot of good films that would have been R rated getting watered down to PG-13. But when considering American Sniper and Unbroken raked huge haulings during traditionally slow seasons all is not lost. And note the story matter, real life based plots which prohibited the cliched "Strong man-woman characters from popping in and saving the day with their superhuman wisdom and strength".

Now contrast that with Mad Max: Feminist Road and it becomes clear that audiences just want believable plots. It was even apparent in the marketing, very little of these warrior-women were shown, it almost looked like they were being hidden so as not to hurt ticket sales. But word got out and audiences decided to save their $13 rather than watch yet another rehashed plot.

Let's just hope this trend died out before Skeptre went into production, I had heard to soft but disturbing rumbling that Bond would not be allowed to take in the girls since that would be "sexist".

Stringerbell3250d ago (Edited 3250d ago )

'Becomes clear that audiences want believable plots'. In a Mad Max film? Are you having a laugh? This is Miller's character doing what he's been doing since forever. Meeting random people and lending them a hand. There is no feminist conspiracy in this film. The author of this article and perhaps you are ignorant to what Max has always been a catalyst for others surviving the wasteland. As for rehashed plots again this is Mad Max. Its what he does meets people- , cue villainous baddies and commence with a giant chase. Its iconic and its what the Mad Max fan base wants and Miller delivers. And lastly its not as if this universe was devoid of strong female characters anyway. Hello Tina Turner.

Scatpants3250d ago

Oh my god women did something other than get rescued and kiss the leading man. BOYCOTT!

SilentNegotiator3250d ago (Edited 3250d ago )

The "outrage" against this film is fake. It all started when a feminist blog claimed that a non-MRA website (a website vehemently not MRA, in fact) was pushing for an MRA boycott of the film.

Any actual outrage is residual or fringe nonsense.

The website that started the "MRA boycott" isn't even MRA: http://www.returnofkings.co...
http://www.returnofkings.co...

MRA is about fighting back against men unilaterally losing legal rights and being treated as second class in places such as academia. This website is something entirely more extreme, if you actually read their about page.

hazelamy3250d ago

it really sickens me when the same gg wally, well one in this case, but i'm sure foxwhateverhisnamewas is waiting in the wings, spout about letting the creators do what they want with their creations yet condemn them when what they want to do isn't the usual only guys matter crap.

this was made by George Miller, creator of the series, this is the film he wanted made, and because he has strong women in it you say he's wrong and call the movie a failure?

hypocritical and oh so very wrong.
i mean wrong in a very literal sense, as looking at both the critical response and the box office numbers, this movie is anything but a failure.

maybe the only thing failing here is your alleged masculinity if it's this easily threatened.

and when did they hide these warrior women?
wasn't the whole point of that idiotic halfwit from the rok site's call for a boycott that the trailer showed too much of Theron's character and not enough of Max?

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