I wrote earlier this year about the controversy swirling around Lucky McKee’s film The Woman. After a midnight showing at Sundance last January, one angry man in the audience stood up and denounced the film as a “disgusting movie” that “degrades women.” Given McKee’s nuanced treatment of gender issues in his previous films May and The Woods, I suspected that this outraged critic had completely missed the point.
Now I’ve finally gotten to see the film and, yep, he did. The Woman isn’t a misogynist film; it’s a film about misogyny. The Woman revolves around a cheerful , self-satisfied and and superficially charming country lawyer who captures a ferocious feral woman he spots on a hunting trip and chains her in the cellar in what he perversely sees as an attempt to “civilize” her. A patriarchal king of his castle, he introduces her to the rest of the family and assigns them all chores relating to her upkeep.
I don’t really want to give away much more than this; suffice it to say that as the film progresses we learn just how much of an odious psychopath this “family man” really is. But while the film offers a savage critique of his cruelty, and his misogyny, none of the women in the film are unambiguously noble victims, and when they begin to fight back the story is no simple tale of feminist empowerment. It’s a bit more subtle and unsettling than that.
While less overtly violent than, say, your typical Saw film, The Woman is a film that’s often, and by design, hard to take. Yes, there are some grisly deaths, but this isn’t a film that glories in gore for gore’s sake; it’s really about cruelty and complicity and feeling trapped, the ways in which fucked-up families can ensnare even outsiders in their toxic dynamics.
Naturally, the film has drawn sharply mixed reactions from critics. It got a glowing review from Andy Webster in the New York Times, who described the cast as “remarkable” and praised the way McKee invests the film’s “a powerful parable with an abundance of closely observed details.” Marc Holcomb of the Village Voice, meanwhile, dismissed it as “torture porn for people who’d never admit to liking torture porn.” (He also noted sardonically that the feral woman is “apparently tame enough to shave her armpits.” And her legs too, I might add; under the caked-on-grime, she’s what the PUAs would probably rate a HB10. )
But the strangest review I’ve seen so far is one by Rene Rodriguez in the Miami Herald, who perversely describes the film as, er, fun. While acknowledging the film’s feminist themes, she dismisses them as mere window-dressing:
[C]ome on: You want a feminist movie, go rent Norma Rae. The Woman is the sort of horror picture designed to make you throw popcorn at the screen, groan with disgust and shriek out loud when McKee springs a shock on you. … Good times.
Really? Were you throwing popcorn at the screen during Antichrist too?
Of course, it doesn’t exactly help – as Rodriguez and a couple of other reviewers have noted – that the film’s publicists sent out the DVD screener with a barf bag “just in case.” The Woman deserves better than that.
EDITED TO ADD: Regular Man Boobz commenters might want to check out this thread on the IMDb forums, in which a (somewhat oversimplified) discussion of the feminist themes in the film is quickly derailed by a dude who thinks it laughable that a mere woman could possibly overpower the family patriarch:
I feel sorry for you and any other woman who truly believes that they can physically overpower a man.
You know, if women are just as physically capable as men, I’d love to start my own inter-gender boxing league. Sign me up, baby! Equality at its finest. 🙂
And the trailer:
Okay, I know the 1911 Britannica might not cover these issues, but this is exactly 100% the opposite of what happened.
Especially the ERA. Who do you think proposed the ERA in the first place? Christ.
haha, Owly made me laugh with him for once.
NOW, the largest feminist organization in America, supports women being able to be drafted.
What do you like, NWO? I like Jonathan Coulton and costumes and British humor and vampires!
@Holly Pervocracy
And that majority of male leaders has been voted in by women. Women are their only concern as can easily be seen by the thousands of gender specific yum-yums laid out before you.
Every damn one of you has an S&M, piss all over the place sex blog! You’re being shamed for being a slut. You act shamfully. Read your blog once in a while.
Poor baby, you’ve been “threatened?” Could your pampered life be any harder? Stop the world and let me off, poor Holly has been internet threatened. Where’s that safetynet when ya need it?
And pictures of kitties!
I do not have a sex blog NWO and the gender gap did not show up until after second wave feminism came into being.
What aisle of the HEB has the gender specific yum-yums, NWO?
I don’t have an S&M, piss all over the place sex blog, maybe I’ll start one just to piss you off, NWO.
C’mon, what do you like? I like cats and books.
Also, NWO, are you saying Ozy and Holly are lying on their blogs? You said they act “shamfully.”
NWO, could you kindly explain to me how my romantic life is at all shameful? Your answer should include explaining why group sex, casual sex, BDSM, polyamory and queerness are shameful.
That’s because:
1. We choose from the available candidates. Who are mostly male.
2. We’re not going to vote for a woman just because she’s a woman, but a lot of people will vote against a woman just because she’s a woman.
3. Most women are not feminists.
I don’t have any pissing posts! Gawrsh. Keep your pissers straight.
And saying “I’m shaming you because you deserve it” means that you do acknowledge that I receive shaming. Because I have sex that doesn’t hurt anyone and is a lot of fun and even gets men laid!
Being threatened is a bad thing that should not happen to people.
Do you need Elmo to explain this to you again?
@PosterformerlyknownasElizabeth
What gender gap?
What quota is needed now?
Where do women need to be given what men have to earned?
Is it STEM?
Is it CEOs?
Is it confidence?
Where is it that Big Daddy needs to place the net?
@NWO
WTF….most feminists WANTED the ERA you dumbass. NOW supported it. Alice Paul, a suffragette created the damn thing!
If you think Phyllis Schlafly is a feminist, then there is no hope for you. At all. She’s an anti-feminist conservative. According to wiki the only other woman who opposed it was Esther Peterson and I have not heard of her before.
The point still stands. The ERA was created by a feminist and supported by the majority of feminists.
Jeez Holly, stop your shamful behavior.
I don’t have a sex blog. I can’t post about sex on my blog because my grandma found it.
And again, women fought to be allowed to serve in the army. They fought against people who thought they were fragile little flowers, against people who thought they were to valuable as baby-makers, people who thought they were naturally less comptetent,…
Guess what? Women want that to, and many fought for that! Responsibility means being treated as an adult, and that something women quite enjoy. Also, many of them have families, children that need to be taken care of, and jobs to support their families.
Women also had/have dangerous jobs, and are not responsible for accident in male-only environments. Women also can be responsible for the welfare of their families.
Men are more likely to be shamed for unemployment than women, which is a BAD thing and is due to the idea that it’s men role to be responsible fore the family.
My argument is that it’s bad leadership is owned almost only by men, yours is that it’s bad women exist??
Nobody ever said women couldn’t be sexists. Politic is a boys’ game is an idea well establish in our society, and 52% of women (I don’t have the exact number) won’t change that.
On what planet do you live? Women get insults for wearing skirts to short, for wearing pants too long, for walking in the street while having boobs and for talking while not having a penis.
We want misogynists to stop yelling bitches, cunt, whore, slut just to punish us to exist. Not worship.
Which does not work like that in the real world. But that have been discussed so many times. Also, non-homophobic people tends to call these people ‘gays’ or ‘homosexuals’, but whatever. And prison rape is not related to sexual orientation as far as I know.
NWO: I… don’t actually have a sex blog. And the kinks you describe don’t really float my boat. But why let actual truth get in the way of your being an asshat, amirite?
The gender gap, NWO, is the difference in voting patterns between men and women. It first showed up statistically in the 1980 election. The pattern is 4-11 points.
Further breakdowns
2nd wave feminism started in the early sixties.
@Holly Pervocracy
Yes Holly, when you do something shameful, you deserve to be shamed. That’s the purpose of shaming a shameful act. So you won’t do it anymore. Unfortunately, like the spoiled children women have become in the modern world, they demand praise for acting like sluts.
Exactly like a spoiled little child, women walk around slutwalking and demand Big Daddy spend lotsa time and money to guard their precious feelings. Big Daddy says, “sure” I’ll take your money and bill it to the people. Next, these same moronic women tromp about in their idiotic wallstreet protest. None of them have a clue as to why anyone is poor, (think entitlements). And these same moronic women are also tromping about in the wallstreet protests. They’re also the ones at the State union rallys. Big Daddy says, “sure” I’ll be happy to take your money to employ State workers who produce only debt.
Teachers, “sure” theres half as many students and twice as many teachers as 20 years ago but Big Daddy’ll take your money if ya want. Oh and the feminist education you get is just scruptdillyicious. You’ll come out all pro-gay and maybe even be able to spell gay. Huzzah, huzzah!
Funny story for NWO – I got a concussion at my last job. I was in the back of the ambulance when it was moving, my partner slammed on the brakes, and I hit a metal pole with my skull. Fortunately I was behind the patient and they weren’t very sick (and also demented…), so I don’t think they noticed me sinking to the floor clutching my head while everything went all wibbly. I didn’t black out, but later that night I had to go to the ER because I had the worst headache of my life and couldn’t stop barfing.
Tell me again about how only men have dangerous jobs?
I’ve had dangerous jobs and I get called a slut for having sex. (I notice you didn’t call my boyfriend a slut. What is he, chopped liver?)
NWOslave on why Holly is shameful: Word salad word salad grr feminism.
Irrefutable!
Economics With NWO: the economy went toes-up because feminism.
You been told several times why this is not true. It’s not our fault that information cannot penetrate your ant-knowledge coating.
My husband’s nonprofit is organizing a fundraising event at Pixar Studios right now, and I’m trying to figure out how NWO would think that works.
So… Pixar releases “Cars 2,” the story of a girl car revenge-killing the boy car who raped her (because that is the plot of all movies). Thanks to rampant anti-man, anti-car sentiments, it racks up $500 million in worldwide box office.
John Lasseter takes the 500 mil, gives it to the HR ladies (like corporations do), and tells them to spend it however they see fit. They decide to donate it to a nonprofit. Pretty nice of them, huh? But no! The nonprofit is actually a front owned by Pixar! So Lasseter gets all the money back, plus a tax write-off! He doesn’t know about this, of course; it’s all orchestrated by evil women.
Which raises the question of what the HR ladies get out of this. They don’t own Pixar, so they don’t actually get any of this money they’re laundering. Hmm… this is a puzzle…
Aha! ALPHA MALES! Obviously John Lasseter is a sexually irresistible alpha, and the HR ladies are brainwashed by his raw male magnetism. Please ignore his collection of 3,000 Hawaiian shirts. The man is sex on legs.
And so the nonprofit gets $500 million except it doesn’t because Pixar takes it all back, John Lasseter unwittingly gets a tax break, and the HR ladies sit back and light cigarettes. Another day in corporate America.
NWO is ignoring me again. 🙁
Why is my sex life shameful, NWO?
Also, entitlements don’t cause poverty, which is kind of like explaining that bacon doesn’t cause fluctuations in the euro, but still.
Alsoalso, protesting is one of the ways you get things done. Possibly your aversion to protesting is one of the reasons you so rarely accomplish what you want?
That’s an interesting statistic. I never saw that before. Where did you learn it?
Why didn’t it work on you? Why aren’t you indoctrinated? (Are you sure you’re not?) What makes you different from all the people who were fooled? What did you hear, or read, or learn that indoctrinated people didn’t?
…and it’s scrumdiddlyumptious, you Philistine.
Moewicus – I think he’s been more than clear that we need to shame sluts because being slutty is shameful. And being slutty is shameful because it’s a shameful thing that we should shame.
Tell us NWO, what make sex become shameful. Is is when someone cheats? Is it when it’s outside of marriage? Is it when it involve more than two people? Is it when it’s kinky, bdsm or whatever? Why is gay sex so wrong, apart for the ‘ew’ factor?
Does any of the rules that apply to women apply to men as well?