By David Futrelle
The ridiculous misogynists who hang out on internet garbage site Return of Kings are pig-biting mad at yet another female character in an action movie. Only this time she’s a talking car.
The Return of King-ists were furious about Furiosa in Max Max: Fury Road; they railed against Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens as a fake Jedi girl.
Now they’re mad about Cruz Ramirez, the talking racecar in Cars 3 who steps in for aging racer Lightning McQueen and (SPOILER ALERT) wins the big race. Despite being a girl, and kind of a fatty to boot.
Call it the fat and the furious.
In a post on the site today, regular RoK contributor “Kyle Trouble” complains that “Cars 3 is the latest movie to brainwash young boys into being subservient to females.”
In Cars 3, Trouble explains, former hotshot McQueen is an aging racer who enlists the help of personal trainer Ramirez to whip him back into shape. But then, coming in for a pit stop during his big comeback race, McQueen decides to step aside and let Ramirez race instead of him. And she wins.
Trouble is outraged. I mean, this cartoon talking girl car had never even been in a cartoon talking car race before! And even worse, she’s a fat cartoon talking girl car.
I’m not sure how one even determines that a cartoon talking girl car is fat, exactly, but apparently Trouble is more of an expert on car BMI than I am.
Ramirez’ success on the race track “sends the message to young girls of, ‘You’re beautiful no matter what,‘” Trouble laments.
And it says to the young boys, “This is the way that life is. No matter what, you are going to be upstaged by girls because you are inferior.” Unlike the first Cars movie, there was no mentorship … There was no sign of guts and hard work on her part … The girl car just came in the race, took over, and that was that. The irony is made even greater by the fact that it’s the land whale Cruz who is playing the personal trainer.
The film, Trouble complains,
sends a poor message regarding body image to both boys and girls.
Cars 3 says that ultimately your physical looks don’t matter—you’ll still win at life, despite this. Even if you’re fat and out of shape, you can still win races. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Naturally, RoK’s commenters are equally outraged by the fat girl talking car as Trouble is.
“I took my kids,” commenter Seth Falconer laments.
At the end, Cruz Ramirez wins. By trash-talking the insecure male race winner … A woman tears a man down, and then gets glorified for it, recognized by fame, and celebrated by her friends. Then she gets to dismiss her (male) boss after she directly disobeys him, because Lightning (a man) digs her out of her problem.
Her win was literally … a pussy pass.
At least they didn’t make the cars gay.
“The worse women do in real life, the better they have to do in the movies,” complains someone calling himself michaelmobius1. “Art isn’t about representing reality – realism of any kind – any more.”
Roger Berens thinks films like this are corrupting the young women of today.
Feminism is giving women unrealistic expectations. I’m hearing stories about young SJW women screwing up jobs, being reprimanded, and quitting in a huff because their “feelings” were hurt. Guuurrll power is complete bullocks. There are feminist/Marxists who really believe that they shouldn’t have to compete with other people, and that their bosses should be happy with whatever crappy work they are turning out.
Bob Smith imagines a weirdly transphobic sequel:
I can’t wait for Cars 4 – the transmissions in the cars will all be actual, living, breathing trannies who yammer about SJW ideals at the lead characters as they drive; the lead characters will laugh at every word uttered by the trannies, and they will be empowered feminists who ridicule men throughout the film; and all of the lesser characters will be idiotic, subservient white men wearing hipster glasses and skinny jeans.
The appallingly named Iloveduterte proclaims:
My children will NEVER be aloud to watch Disney products. EVER. I will punish them if I ever see them watching Disney products.
One can only hope his children are entirely hypothetical, less because of the Disney thing than the Duterte thing,
PepeTheShort has an even more restrictive notion of what children should be allowed to watch:
The only acceptable movies for children were made in Germany between about 1933 and 1938
Englishbob thinks the real “take away from this movie” is that “[g]irls only win because guys let them.”
Boothe agrees:
Quite right Bob! Who granted women suffrage? Who allowed them to burn their bras? Who let them have unfettered access to breeding age males in coed colleges? Who granted them preferential treatment by lowering the physical standards to be police, fire fighters, military, etc.? Men, of course. I understand why, for pussy. But that denotes a serious lack of strength and self control on the part of our gender to have allowed this to happen and puts the lie to the whole rape culture schtick. It’s past time to take back lost ground…
Or you could just spend your time complaining on the internet about fat girl cars winning races in cartoon talking car movies.
Y’know, I might actually see this; it sounds like it’s a real sequel to the first, rather than just “The writer did all the drugs while James Bond was on TV and the bastard refuses to share.”
Being fat or thin isn’t a cultural universal standard of attractiveness. On average, certain waist-hip ratios (which include both thin and fat people) and facial symmetry seem closer to culturally universal beauty standards for both men and women. Many people think that people look more attractive wearing sunglasses, for example, and it’s possible that’s because they obscure facial asymmetries.
@History Nerd
Gonna need a citation on this one, cos all th3 studies like that that I’ve seen have a serious WEIRD bias.
@Steampunked
NO CAPES!
I strongly suspect the costume designers for Maz in SW:TFA to have watched The Incredibles.
I’m having serious trouble figuring out which car in this scene is supposed to be the fat car.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fctVYaHsNVg
The plot sounds like the logical continuation of Lightning McQueen’s character arc. In the first movie he’s a hotshot young racer who learns to appreciate the past and gives up the glory of winning the big race to help an older athlete*, and in this movie he’s the older athlete and gives up the race for a newcomer who represents the future. This is only the plot of about a million sports movies.
Yes, I do overthink Pixar movies, thank you.
*Cars is one of the two times I’ve seen my husband cry at the movies. The other was at the end of the Bernie Mac movie “Mr. 3000,” when Bernie gives up his 3000th hit for the hotshot rookie who reminds him of himself. My husband is moved by stories of sports-related sacrifice.
Hello.
Never seen this kind of cartoon. But i did not know that cars have BMI. I mean, there are the kind of guys who love Monster Trucks or trucks with the bigger tonnage, or fast cars (which is not realizable with a light frame).
But well, i guess they are imagining dialogs like :
Car-oline : “Hey, darling, does this new steel body color makes me look fat ?”
Car-l (of Swindon ?) : “Yeah ! And you leave trail of axle and gear grease all over the place, you fatty !”
No, seriously… To dig this deep in ludicrousness and assholery, they must have some kind of adamantium shovel (probably inserted deep in their… well).
I guess he is not hearing stories about MRA and MGTOW men viewing cartoons, being shocked to see that women in said cartoon succeed, and whining all over the place because their “feeling” were hurt.
I sometimes envy their ability to see only what they want to see. I could use it to unsee them.
Have a nice day.
Awww, geez. On one hand, I have absolutely zippo interest in seeing this. On the other, I have a personal rule of seeing every movie and TV show that conservatives/MRAs/alt-righters rant about*. What do people think I should do?
*Sooner or later, I might have to amend this rule, considering that conservatives/MRAs/alt-righters rant about close to every movie and TV show these days…
I have a DVD of wartime nazi films. They’re rubbish and have subtitles. Cars 3 is much better.
Axecalibur:
Incidentally, Kyle Trouble is the same douchebro expat who originally wrote about that black winner in Finnish local level beauty contest. He seems very concerned about media’s influence on culture.
I have a problem.
You know the classical Catholic sin of Lust? It doesn’t have to be about sex. It’s fighting for pleasures, fighting for experiences, and putting those above sitting in a burlap sack on your knees praying to god, or whatever medieval Catholics were assholes about.
Star Wars functions as my expression of Lust, and so does Pixar.
Anything Star Wars, and most things Pixar, I love and it makes me feel so giddy and happy and special and even if I know it’s bad or horribly flawed or whatever I still love it and I’m willing to fight to keep it.
I loved Cars, The Incredibles, Monsters Inc (The girl with the self-aware snake hair is a nice touch, and so is the twist that the slug lady runs the secret police), Monsters vs Aliens, Megamind, Kung Fu Panda and geez I’m some kind of weirdo.
Anyway, I was ignoring Cars because I could tell Cars 2 was gonna break my heart if I saw it. Now I wanna see Cars 3.
Also, my work is having us dress up as superheroes on the 11th. In five days. So, last minute and I’m not doing it. But I was thinking about doing it and Elastigirl is probably one of the best options because NO CAPES near the conveyor belts.
Oh, and let’s note that she looks like any other racecar in those movies. And also exactly like the love interest in the first movie. My point being, SHE’S A FUCKING CAR. There is NO POSSIBILITY of being fat. And even for a character that cannot possibly be fat by nature of what she is, these people project “fatness” because they dislike her. Which says everything we need to know about how they think of women’s bodies. Constantly dissecting and inventing flaws as if they’re allowed to do that.
Also, I wanna note that 1933 to 1938 was juuuust before it became clear to the Nazis that they probably weren’t going to win their war.
So…says something about these people. Says they think the threat of consequences for bad choices helps people not make bad choices. I heartily agree. Bring back consequences for white men.
Likewise. I was happy to bring more male tears into the world by trekking to the cinema for Mad Max, Star Wars, and Ghostbusters. But this “Cars” thing might be telling kids how awesome and friendly private motor vehicles are, and (as an able-bodied city dweller) I’m less inclined to financially encourage that.
If I bring a note from Katie, can I sit this one out?
I had something to smart to say but my record hit “my children will NEVER be aloud to watch Disney products,” and it’s just been skipping ever since. Also, thinking of “no dogs aloud” and gigglesnorting.
I might have to watch this, purely too see what all the fuss is about. Did they get upset about Turbo? Bevause that was about a racing snail not a car. Do they think a feeemale is the equivalent of a racing snail?
Cars one had a plot which basically mixed up Jim Carrey’s The Majestic with Johnny Knoxville’s comedy The Ringer, in which he pretends to have learning disabilities so he can compete in the Special Olympics to rig a bet for his uncle. Cars 1 has exactly the same ending as that movie. Haven’t seen Doc Holliday.
Monster Trucks was a terrible film, Free Willy and ET mixed up together. Boring too.
@IgnoreSandra
Totally with you on that one – not wrt Star Wars or Pixar specifically, but the “expression of lust” feeling. Love how you defined it 🙂
Also, I may well have misunderstood this,
But WWII didn’t start until 1939, and from recollection the Nazis were fairly confident about winning for most of it.
(it’s late here, and I’m tired and tipsy – so apologies if I’ve completely misinterpreted what you said!)
@Alan
If that’s true, think how frustrating it would be to be a chef on Gallifrey. You’d start roasting a chicken and end up with roasted eggs.
You couldn’t even eat a carrot before it reverted to seed. What a nightmare.
I’m hearing stories about young SJW women screwing up jobs, being reprimanded, and quitting in a huff because their “feelings” were hurt.
I’m an ‘old’ millennial lady who had to suffer through several sexist men at my first job out of college. I managed to stay for a year, and the only reason I left was to go to grad school.
My younger, 6’5″ brother’s first job out of college was with a bunch of Republicans that he had to quit because he couldn’t handle the awful discussions they had day in and day out.
This is just random, anecdotal evidence taken from my personal life. I know many more woman who have suffered through and stayed in jobs because there is nothing else around or it would be the same behavior somewhere else.
AND, if you are in a job that is literally ruining your mental health because of the day in and day out awfulness you have to endure, you should be able to quit and find another job, because driving yourself into a mental breakdown should not be a necessity to have a job.
(And as a side note, as a historian of city planning, the entire set up of the Cars universe makes me want to scream. If sentient cars are what has evolved on this planet – why would they make roads like us? Why would they need roads? Did they evolve after humans have gone extinct and are living in a society they didn’t create? But wouldn’t they then just change the way the landscape looked? Why would they make traffic cones?)
… Ahahaha, oh shit, who wants a laugh?
I’m watching the Ninty Direct for Splatoon 2, and it just introduced the two new main NPCs… And one of them’s black. The chat immediately exploded with screeching mangry racists and it’s kind of amazing to watch them utterly melt the fuck down in real-time. <3
@ iseult
True, but on the plus side Gallifreyan ovens must be amazing. If you’ve got time travel and that ‘bigger on the inside’ technology that must make dinner parties a doddle, even with unexpected guests suddenly turning up.
@Bonnie McDaniel,
Well it sounded like Lightning runs half the race first, so I’m sorry if I leapt to a conclusion.
The are beginning to become a parody of themselves. They must realise that it’s a kids film about sentient cars!
This is so nice to start the morning with. Seriously, David, thanks for making me laugh with the “Fat and the Furious” and Car BMI jokes!
I found Cars boring and dismissed the series, ended up seeing Cars 2 as the free movie on a plane ride and thought it was dumb but at least less boring than the first. Still will probably not see Cars 3 but it at least brings me joy to hear sexists get upset over another movie.
But didn’t someone else who saw the movie say that the male car tries to tear her down first?
@BritterSweet
Yes. During the race, after Cruz takes Lightning’s place, Jackson Storm realizes she is coming up on him and drops back to trash-talk and bully her, and try to shake her up mentally so she won’t win. Lightning takes over the crew chief microphone and tells Cruz that Jackson Storm is afraid of her, that she’s gotten into his head, and that’s the reason he did this. At that point, Cruz charges up on Jackson’s rear end and follows him very closely (which is also a previously established plot point, as this gets into the “sweet spot” and reduces drag, which is a thing I think real race car drivers do), and calls Jackson out on what he said. This leads directly to the final confrontation I mentioned earlier. So yeah, Trouble or whoever wrote that is full of shit.
@Mish
Thank you <3
The Seven Deadly Sins were a big deal for a long time, and media that focuses on them tends to assign a single sin to one character but the truth is that we all have all of them at the same time, it's just that different situations bring different ones out.
I don't subscribe to the theory that the sins are a BAD thing, not ever since I became an atheist. That's just to be evaluated based on consequences.
Everyone is greedy, lustful, slothful, wrathful, gluttonous, envious, and prideful. Just at different times and in different ways. It's almost like it's a trap designed to label ordinary feelings as bad so the Church can maintain supremacy over a penitent congregation.
Still, though, I was raised catholic, so I see me through the seven sometimes.
Oh, it’s no worries. I posted that after a 12-hour shift. I was tired and annoyed.
I think I lost track of when the war began, but it’s still interesting that they explicitly exclude films made during the war.
FTFY.
By all means, though, keep severely underestimating women, and then screaming and blaming the “p*ssy pass” when they surpass you in the workplace. Oh, and whipping out the “fat” card every time a woman dares to be independent. FFS. Cruz Ramirez is a sleek sports car who can go 0-60 in 3.8 seconds. She’d leave these guys in the dust and laugh about it.
It makes me wonder, though. Since they view both cars and women as status-enhancing accessories, are they going to start fat-shaming each other’s cars? Will only microcars like Isettas and Minis be acceptable? Or does that conflict with the car’s other manospherian role as dick proxy/compensation?
Probably the same people who conned you into attending a university located inside a horse paddock.