This past Wednesday, I attended the free screening of The Huntsman: Winter's War, sponsored by the University. It is a sequel (kind of, but also a completely different story) to Snow White and the Huntsman.
Cinematically, I really enjoyed both movies. They are really beautiful, the costumes are amazing, and the action sequences are well choreographed. However, I found the message of the second movie in particular to be very sexist.
The story follows the Ice Queen, who before becoming an evil queen who bans love in her kingdom, was a sweet girl. She was in love and had a baby. SPOILER: After her baby is born (both out of wedlock and with a married man), the baby is murdered in an intentional fire. It is after this when she turns evil and does not believe in love.
The message I received from this is that when motherhood is taken away from a woman, there is nothing else to live for. This message is troubling, as her entire life seemed to be valued simply from the love of a man and a baby. Without both of those, she was nothing.
Not every message in the movie is bad. There are some progressive moments. However, the fact that the main plot line revolves around a woman's purpose to be a mother is very misleading and sexist.
I agree completely! Plot lines like this, often written by men, play into negative stereotypes and subliminally support misogynist messages. Good for you for pointing that out in this film.
ReplyDeleteI agree! This idea that women can only be happy being mothers is grossly untrue. A lot of women don't want children or can't have children, which does not make them any less of a a women! The media needs to stop with these stereotypes and heteropatriarchical ideas about women and motherhood.
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