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:
Ugh. Slightly off topic but I really, really hate the idea that women are 100% incapable of ever physically standing up to men in a physical altercation.
It’s untrue, of course (says the black belt with two X chromosomes, who learned in a completely co-ed school). As in just about every human endeavor, knowledge and practice count a lot more. While your average man is larger than your average woman and as such has a bit of an advantage in a hypothetical fight, and while men are socialized to be physically aggressive far more than women while coming from a cultural history laden with male-on-female violence, it’s only a predictor.
But more importantly, it’s damaging. It’s common to hear from misogynist bundles of insecurity, of course, but you’ll also hear concern-trolling of this sort from lots of people who’ll know better, telling girls that they’d never be able to stand up to an opponent so it’s much better to nicely cooperate. In reality, attackers are much less likely to press an assault or murder a victim who fights back, even unsuccessfully, and I know of at least one case where a perpetrator of a mass attack on female students who demanded to know if any of them “knew karate” before he tried to hurt them. The more women you tell to cooperate rather than struggle, the more dead and injured women result.
Quackers, in most horror movies both men and women are targeted. I can think of one or two horror films where men are targeted specifically, and NONE where wimminz are targeted specifically (because fymynysts like you would get that 10 foot log wedged even farther up your ass). In other words, you’re full of shit.
Futrelle, I guess that the wife was not exactly innocent but Lucky Mangina clearly portrays her as a victim of circumstance whereas the Evil Man is evil because, I don’t really know, he just likes it. That’s Lucky Mangina’s opinion of the difference between men and wymyn, except for in reality, it’s the other way around.
I’ve read some true crime stories like this:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-5279162-504083.html
Issues of gender and violence in horror movies can be pretty complicated. In this film, I don’t think the violence against women is exploitative; it’s supposed to make the audience (male and female) uncomfortable and at least in my case it was quite effective at this.
@MRAL
Do you know what a “scream queen” is?
I’m not denying men get attacked in horror films, but there is underlying misogyny and even sexual undertones in a lot of horror films which I’m not even going to attempt discussing with someone like you.
In other words, piss off.
P.S. Deliberately misspelling “feminist” does not insult us and just makes you look like a jackass.
@David
Maybe I’ll check if out one day out of curiosity. I’m still working my way into making myself watch human centipede lol.
Nah, all these “misogynistic undertones”, are so much projection and bullshit.
And yeah, a scream queen is an actress known for horror films, usually she’s who plays the FEMALE who survives the attacks while NO ONE ELSE DOES.
FTFY
This def looks interesting. I think I’m gonna watch it tonight and come back with some thoughts 😛
So this blog isn’t going to turn into “all horror films all the time,” is it? Because I’m really not into that.
Do DKM and his china dolls count? He talks to them.
This blog seems to be mostly dystopian sci fi novels in the comments, thanks to DKM and Slavey. Although Brandon and MRAL occasionally try to turn it into a bro-tastic comedy.
Nah, dystopia is more Zarat than Slavey. The Milkboy seems to be more about conspiracy thrillers.
MRAL, you ragepost, like, a lot, huh? It kind of makes me wonder why you hang around here if it just makes you ANGRY GRR ANGRY. I hope at least you have spaces (online or in the place where people walk around and look each other in the eyes and stuff) where you can feel happy and positive.
Who is infinitely more likely not only to be a decent human being but also pleasant company: the person who genuinely thinks that the term “mangina” is some kind of insult, or his intended target?
It’s doubly pointless in the context of criticism, because its usage indelibly labels the author as someone with ideological blinkers welded onto both sides of his head, and therefore most unlikely to be able to deliver something objective and unbiased – and therefore worthwhile.
Actually “mangina” does mean something. It means “hated by MRAs.”
Which is no achievement if you’re female, but if you’re male it frequently means “did or said something awesome.”
So I would have said that “mangina” was a badge of honour.
Except now it’s being applied to the director of this movie, which doesn’t sound awesome at all to my tastes. I guess MRA hatred, even of other men, just isn’t a sufficiently scarce resource to have value.
That’s right, MRAL, the horror film industry is one big plot against men.
Katz, no more horror films for a while; back to the ongoing horror that is the manosphere.
Quackers, if you’re not a big horror fan, I’d say give this and both Human Centipedes a pass. Have you seen Let The Right One In? I’d recommend that one to everyone, horror fan or no.
@MRAL
yea, I could say the same for your delusions of being oppressed by women and FUCKalphas.
Anyway, even TV tropes acknowledges the underlying misogyny and it’s not even a feminist website http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MonsterMisogyny
Actually David, I do enjoy horror movies lol. I know my comments don’t make it seem so, I just get frustrated with misogynistic undertones so I’ll tend to avoid slasher flicks or torture porn. Occasionally I’ll feel like grossing myself out so I’ll watch one though.
My favorite types of horror are ones that deal with the supernatural. Japanese horror do this well, and while I still have to see the Japanese version, I do love The Ring.
And yes! Let the Right One In has been on my list for awhile, I’m quite a fan of vampires so I think I’ll enjoy it 🙂
I just read the spoilers. Did MRAL really just say that 2/3 victims being male, in one movie, is evidence of MISANDRY on the part of the director?
Honey, let me tell you how many 5 man bands are 3 men/2 women…
@Quackers: TVTropes has an awful lot of idiots. I mean, it may be correct, but I wouldn’t use it as gospel. ‘course, David seems outnumbered on this point, but see previous XD
TV Tropes is your citation?! That fucking site is run by 75% feminist bitches, and the rest are mostly manginas.
Futrelle, I don’t think there a plot against men, but I just think the horror movie is like every single other thing in society, indicative of toxic misandry. Who’s always the killer? MAN. Who gets killed most often? MAN. Who survives? WIMMINZ. And yet who paints themselves as the ideological downtrodden here? WIMMINZ BITCHES.
None? Seriously? I know you’re pretty young, but you really can’t have seen that many horror movies if you genuinely can’t think of any where women are targeted specifically.
In fact, if you take the 1978-83 period where overtly misogynist slasher films were predominant in the genre, it’s harder to find a film that doesn’t engage in such targeting – even comic horrors like The Evil Dead can’t resist having one of the female characters raped by a tree. And do you think the avowedly heterosexual killer rapists in, say, The New York Ripper and Don’t Answer the Phone! were completely gender-blind in their choice of victims? The evidence very much suggests otherwise.
Stating what I always thought was pretty blindingly obvious (although it seems not), this is a time-honored way of letting horror filmmakers have their cake and eat it that dates right back to the dawn of exploitation filmmaking.
They’ll say “How can you call me a misogynist? OK, so 95% of the film consists of women being stripped naked, humiliated and gorily slaughtered, but I let one of them live at the end!”
Oh, that should be “2 out of 3”. If there was a huge body count and the victims stacked that way, that might be a problem, but “Token” only works if it’s an insignificant addition XD
Perhaps MRAL should watch Cannibal Holocaust then get back to me on the misogyny thing.
Actually no. Nobody should watch Cannibal Holocaust 🙁
Oh and there is an Eli Roth film I enjoyed, haven’t seen it in awhile though. It was mostly cause it was so absurd- Cabin Fever.
PAAAANCAKKKES!!!!!!
@Rutee
ah okay, will keep that in mind for next time.
But you see, by MRAL logic, if there is a woman alive at the end that means she’s a SHIT FUCK HER HOLY HIGHNESS and the filmaker was clearly too afraid of feminist retribution to kill her too. It couldn’t possibly be (in, say, the Halloween movies) kind of integral to the plot that that specific person be the one to survive.
(I invite everyone to come to my screening of Halloween 2 – The MRA version, in which the killer’s sister is already dead and thus everyone just sits around and plays Monopoly.)