Xerxes Worldweaver wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 9:26 pm
Octavious wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 1:22 pm
Oh? Do you think that the views expressed on the forum reflect the views of the American people, which make up the largest chunk of membership? Do you think the views reflect the typical views of the populations of the wider global community from which we have members? Not at all. What webDip reflects more than anything else is CNN, with a handful of invited guests to give the illusion that a mix of views is represented.
If you want a greater mix of views in this forum, I may be able to be of some assistance... provided that I don't get myself banned for my extreme (though hopefully civil) political incorrectness. Perhaps I'll demonstrate what I mean by that in giving my own three cents in answer to the original topic of this discussion.
(Reading back through this giant post, I feel as though I bit off more than I could chew. Kindly let me know where my opinions could be improved.)
Before I begin, I feel obliged to inform my audience, such as it is, that I rarely watch movies at all, let alone superhero movies, let alone female superhero movies. That being said I am somewhat familiar with the nature of the stories that underpin them - and it is the stories of the movies which inspire so much hatred. I mean, you can dislike a movie because it's a visual disaster, but to give credit where credit is due, have Marvel or Disney or any other big movie company made a movie in recent memory that's a literal eyesore? Not as far as I'm aware. I hear more often that the actors are terrible or that the script is terrible or, such as with the new Little Mermaid, that the producers are pushing diversity solely for diversity's sake. All three of those faults are, in their own way, the faults of story.
And what makes a story a bad story? I say that there are only two faults that a story can have - it can be boring, and it can be filled with lies. The latter offence is far worse than the first, but female superhero movies are guilty of both. Aye. But allow me to attempt to give this accusation some depth.
Proving that female superhero movies (hereafter referred to as FSMs) are boring is difficult for me since I haven't watched any and consequently cannot be concrete, but here is the synopsis for an imaginary FSM which I hope isn't too much of a strawman:
Fictitious movie reviewer wrote:Mary Heroine was always bullied in school by straight white men and oppressed by her totalitarian government. Then she got struck by lightning and gained superpowers! Joining the Resistance, an organization headed by a sage old woman who cusses a lot, Mary soon becomes an important figure for her insanely adept use of her powers. Everyone begins doing everything that Mary Heroine says they should do, or if they don't, really bad stuff happens because of it. Mary Heroine is never wrong about anything. Eventually she comes face to face with the villain, another straight white man who has trained for 10,000 years and mastered every type of combat. He says something like 'A woman's place is in the kitchen, go make me a sandwich, Mary,' and Mary shouts in response 'I'll make you a sandwich, alright!' and suffocates him to death with two slices of bread, thus proving the superiority of women over the patriarchy. She then falls in love with a hot [insert diverse race of your choice here] guy, sleeps with him but doesn't marry him, becomes the queen of the universe, and lives happily ever after.
Mary Heroine is never presented with an obstacle which she can't overcome by blasting it harder with her superpower juice, Mary Heroine is never seriously forced to question the morality of her actions, Mary Heroine never treats anyone with any respect at all (especially not her lover), Mary Heroine never has to actually sacrifice anything of her own for the greater good, Mary Heroine never gets beaten by a man that she doesn't get back at in the end.
Hopefully you'll agree with me that this story which I've summarized is rather boring. If you're not quite convinced, imagine that it took me an hour and a half to tell it to you, and perhaps you will be. This generic FSM is good at conveying one thing and one thing only, and that is feminism.
The story which feminism tells - well, I think it's a blatant lie, but I haven't gotten to that part of the argument yet - but I think it's also the epitome of boring. Feminism tells you (if you're a woman) that you're perfect just as you are, that your only flaw is that you don't believe in yourself hard enough. This comes through clearly in every feminist movie, I should think, and it leads to zero character development (since you can't improve on perfect). Every heroine has to be without flaw, and her only weakness is her lack of complete power at the beginning of the movie. The most notorious, and dare I say defining aspect of FSMs is the ability for the heroine to kick the butts of fully grown, fully armed, and fully armoured men, generally three or four times her size. This always has to happen. Women can't lose a fight, because that would be demeaning...
Et cetera.
Few men in the modern world can bear to admit that they hold erroneous opinions. Acknowledging one's failings is a mark of maturity. Feminists rarely possess such maturity, and the movies they make reflect their lack of maturity. That lack of maturity is what makes their movies boring. They don't want to grow up, because to grow up means that they were somehow imperfect, and their imperfections cannot be admitted. Better to live in a world of lies than to admit the truth.
A world of lies... that's what feminism is. A complete refutation of it and a proper defence of the patriarchy is beyond the scope of this post (though it shall be given if requested), but suffice it to say that it is a complete and utter lie that women as a whole were meant to be anything other than wives and mothers. Women were not meant to be soldiers - they are those whom soldiers fight to protect. Their lives are too valuable to be wasted on the battlefield. When we are shown in FSMs that a woman can beat the crap out of a man, we know it's a lie. Whenever a woman orders a man about, we know something's off.
FSMs try to empower women by making them into, basically, better men. This does not reflect real life, and the subconscious of the masses knows this. Hence the low popularity of such movies.
TL;DR: Female superhero movies are feminist. Feminism refuses to acknowledge that women are imperfect and consequently cannot develop their characters. Feminism is also a big fat lie and to some degree every non-feminist knows it and is repelled by it.
I spent quite a lot of time on this small essay, trying to be convincing, but towards the end I said 'screw it' and let fly my political incorrectness. I doubt anyone has agreed with everything I've said - hopefully I don't get banned from the forum and can reply to the reply which you're probably already typing. I enjoy a good debate; I welcome your disagreement with open arms.