Women. Who Needs ‘Em?

Misogyny….it’s so tired, so neanderthal — so repulsive, so useless. Yet and still, unlike the extinct pint-sized sub-species, misogyny and it’s little brother, male chauvinism, continue to live. This post could go anywhere, but we will focus on how this cancer keeps contaminating one of our fave things in the world: film.

It’s hard to believe, but in this day and age, there are still those who are seriously selling the B.S. line that a woman should not/cannot carry a film. Films like the sci-fi flick “Gravity.” Not long ago, director Alfonso Cuarón revealed that he was pressured to change the gender of the lead character of “Gravity,” played by Sandra Bullock, to be male. ( And let’s be clear: Cuarón wrote the “Gravity’s” script about this woman character with his son.)

Sandra Bullock as Dr. Ryan Stone in “Gravity” (2013)

Enough already.

Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in “Alien” (1979).

Enough of this ridiculous knee-jerk assumption that stories of adventure, intrigue, daring or importance are testosterone territory. One of the most memorable characters in contemporary science fiction, Ripley from the “Alien” film franchise (rocked out by Sigourney Weaver), was written as a man, but director Ridley Scott thought the movie would be more interesting if Ripley was a woman. Now imagine how much less memorable “Alien” would’ve been as yet another sci-fi flick with a male protagonist battling aliens in deep space.  See how that works?

Clearly, some people (and by ‘people’, I mean pathetic men and the pea-brained women who let these dudes shape their thinking) are very resistant to the reality that women and men are equal. Not the SAME, but equal in value. Everything in science, nature and divinity confirms this. And no amount of misogyny, chauvinism, male worship or plain old wishful thinking is ever going to change that fact….so for the love of God, deal with it and stop trying to derail great storytelling with your intellectually impotent nonsense. Here’s a 21st century news flash: like so many other things once thought to be the exclusive domain of men (voting, driving, running one’s own sex life, being boss, having a bank account, and yes….even acting), the jobs of lead actor and (gasp!) even film director, have both fallen into women’s greedy little hands. And guess what? We’re not going anywhere.