Enough snot & movies

[janestarz]

After four women's movies I've quite had it. My head is still not up to spec, though I'm feeling better.
One Night At McCool's, Charlie's Angels, Charlie's Angels Full Throttle, Bridget Jones's Diary and Bridget Jones's Diary the Edge of Reason have all been watched. Enough with the female movies already!

ETA: I'm getting sick of books about women, written by women, where the main character is shunned by all males. If you read the Clan of the Cavebear novels by Jean M. Auel, or like I'm doing right now "She who Remebers" by Linda Lay Shuler, the similarities are striking. Just like Jacqueline Carey must write about all forms of sex and Lauren Weisberger insists on writing how all New York Women must be fabulous creatures tottering about on ten inch heels, these women authors seem to revel in the idea that women in prehistoric societies are shunned for being a witch or being different and then cast out, at which point they find a mate or a lovely young male that goes on to protect them and shelter them and makes the world alright.

I wonder: how much of this lives in our daily society? Are women who are different cast out and shunned by their society? And do they then find a mate to protect them? Does Lauren Weisberger actually write the same kind of books as Jean M. Auel and Linda Lay Shuler, only from a different vantagepoint?

Comments

[nathreee.livejournal.com]

If you want to watch a manly movie with a manly character, go for Army of Darkness! Hail to the king, baby!

And more get-well-soon-hugs!

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

I'm now reading, and I added a bit to this entry to vent....you might find it interesting.

[nathreee.livejournal.com]

I have no idea, really. Cast out from society is a very broad term, and though I think it's possible for a person to become cast out of a group, I don't think social isolation happens very often, except to people with very serious problems obviously.

I think it's more of a metaphore for how women in western culture develop. First, they belong to a group of giggling girls, and some women are perfectly happy to stay there for the rest of their life. But most women want to be strong, independant, original, and they are eventually shunned by the group of giggling girls, because that's what they do to people with original ideas. And in the end every woman from our culture dreams of a happy ending with someone who loves her.

But this is only seem from a female point of view. Women do seem to like to form homogenic groups, and if a women becomes too different from the rest of the group, they'll gossip about her and do other negative things until she leaves. Mixed groups, like people who share the same hobby, don't seem to have this problem.

I'm no expert, because I've never had much female friends. I never fit into any kind of girl-group. Roleplay groups with lots of guys were no problem, though.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

It's funny how both you and muizenstaartje assume that this is about a girl-group. Mostly, these books deal with societies. Prehistoric society = men are in charge, women are subservient. They have to work together to survive, and each has their own part.
Perhaps the books are also about learning how to do something you're not supposed to do. Women who hunt and are the boss of them. Very feminist, very irregular for that time and society.

I'm now even more confused what the author is trying to say.

[nathreee.livejournal.com]

Well, I talk about girl-groups, because mixed groups don't usually cast people out because they are being original. Men are much more tolerant like that and usually admire people who dare to be different. Except maybe for the typical dominant male stereotype who doesn't like it when people disagree with him, but there are not all that many of those around, I think.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Oh, they are around, but mainly they keep their opinions to themselves because they are not socially acceptable, I think.

In other news: Dusty does not leave my side - she has the best spot in the house, snuggling up right next to me on my blanket. =)

[sna.livejournal.com]

Try "Repo - the Genetic Opera". I think you can appriciate it's dark humor.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Michelle would feel right at home in that setting. All those lovely emo girls don't even have to dress to go to her club....How droll!

[muizenstaartje.livejournal.com]

Haha, you'll probably "love" Twilight too judged on what I've heard about it.

I didn't use to have many friends and thus not many female friends. When my friends group grew I still had more guys as friends, but ever since I got my doll hobby I was faced with women groups. Put women together and they'll turn into bitches or so it seems.
Sheesh, the amount of goship I was suddenly faced with... appears to be normal with women groups...
And wouldn't it be better to say "in your face" to all those stuck up all the same bitches when you parade with you handsomely hot knight in shining armour saying you don't need them, which isn't all that true, because you still need an audience to show off your hot catch to or why else would you even bother with that guy who probably snores in his sleep and scratches his butt like any other guy does.

Fiction. Just another word for fantasy. ;)

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Thing is in both the Clan of the Cavebear novels and the book by Linda Lay Schuler, the woman is cast from her society. Not by girls! By those in power, and in prehistoric society this means men. It's a medicine man in She who remembers, and a clan leader in the Clan of the Cavebear novels. While all the women moan and moarn the loss of this female, it's always the men who act on their being different.
I'm now more confused about the book than before.

[nathreee.livejournal.com]

Being cast out of primitive societies usually happened for superstitious reasons. I'm not sure what that has to do wit male and female role models.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

I always think that the superstition comes from fear. Especially in the Clan of the Cave bear books, you see that this woman is growing stronger than the men around her. She takes intelligent decisions, and becomes a danger to the authority of the clan leader, who tries to oppress her, and when he finds he no longer has power over her, he casts her out.

In the book I'm reading now (She Who Remembers), there is a disease killing many people of the tribe, and because the woman has blue eyes (okay, not prehistoric society, because she's a descendant of Norwegians and the book plays in ca 1200 AD) she is called a witch and the cause of the death of all these people. She is feared because she is different, or perhaps the disease is so feared they point to her as a cause because she is different.

Superstition has fear at its roots? I think we can agree on that.

[muizenstaartje.livejournal.com]

Penisnijd? Sounds like the author has issues with men in power. It is true that some men do not respect women. Some men fear women who are different. Some men fear women in general. It's not strange to have books about that.
It does tire to read about it all the time. ;)

Maybe you should watch a classic like Jurassic Park. No complicated man-woman issues there.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Unless the raptors (http://xkcd.com/87/) are females. >.

[muizenstaartje.livejournal.com]

They were supposed to be only females! Studid scientists and frog DNA. Now the whole prehistoric cast out the strange female starts all over again in raptor-world.

[historicfashion.livejournal.com]

Unlurking to say, if you don't mind later fiction, try 'Miss Miles' by Mary Taylor. Originally written in the 1840s by a friend of Charlotte Bronte and similarly well-written. Scholars have tried to say it's really Charlotte's writing but the themes are different. Just like Bronte's characters the women are bound by the social mores of the time, but these girls aren't slavishly devoted to men in the same way as Bronte's girls. It's ultimately about women creating a niche for themselves WITHIN the community and bonding across classes and backgrounds.

Lots of passages in Yorkshire dialect though. Ugh.

[historicfashion.livejournal.com]

I'm not so keen meself on books/film where women are supposed to be independent but somehow always end up needing a man to look after them. Seems there just aren't enough women characters who end up in relationships as partners rather than protected. And the alternative? Man-hating ball-breaker women. Oy vey.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Since you're unlurking, how about introducing yourself first?