I don’t think that you’re talking about all women who have seen my movies. If we’re talking about women who are critical of the way women are treated or saying it’s a misogynist movie, ... I remember one time when I was in Atlanta and one woman said could you explain your thoughts on how women are treated in your movie? I said that moment when he throws Lexus in the street? I said you’ve seen that kind of brutality in movies before?She’s says “no I haven’t,” in this nice little White Southern voice. I said let me explain this one movie to you, it’s about this guy named Stan Kowalski. He’s with his boys and their house playing dominos and their girls are in the next room and they’re making too much racket. Stan’s wife is pregnant. He goes in there and takes the boom box, drunk as all get out, and throws it out the window. Then he starts beating on his wife and punching her in the face. All his boys are grabbing him, putting him under the shower to somber him up. Her girlfriend takes her upstairs and he punches his boys telling them, we can’t have women around when we’re gambling. Then he calms down and says, where’s my girl, my baby? He goes outside and yells “bring her down here.” Her girlfriends say, you can’t be beating on her like that and he yells ‘bring her down her, Stella, Stella! What does she do? She goes
downstairs and she fucks him and she wants to and we kind of want to too. His shirts all ripped, he got put under that shower; it’s Marlon Brando and he looks all good. It’s wrong, it’s really, really wrong!
(How great is it that I'm seeing both this week and didn't make the connection)
Brewer has an excellent point- all this is so wrong, yet so right. It's realistic. The movie may seem harsh towards women, but so is life. We can't have all movies portraying strong, courageous, uplifted women overcoming the men in their lives, because we would have a bunch of fake pretentious movies. I could identify with almost all the women in the movie. I have been the lost Nola doing what I needed to get by. I have been the Lexus being put out on the street by a man because I dared to question his authority, but I rejoiced when she got kicked out. I was even envious of her. As vile and vulgar as she was, she stood her own ground. I wished I had been kicked out at 16 because I grew the balls to tell my father he was my bitch and not the other way around. I grew up and became Yvette, eating alone in my religiosity because my husband was to busy living his own life. I have even been Shug, wide eyed and thankful because some small gesture from a guy meant the world to me. So I don't think the movie is hateful towards women, just honest. If we want a movie where women aren't portrayed as weak prostitutes or bitches who can be discarded, we have to find a way to stop being those things and to stop letting ourselves be treated that way.
2 comments:
Kathryn, I really love the quotation from Brewer talking about "Streetcar" that you included. I mean, talk about appropriate!
But I wonder if there's a difference between Streetcar and Hustle. If I were going to pursue the misogyny argument, I'd have to point out that there IS something discomfiting about Nola's "redemption" (if we want to call it that) at the end of the movie. I mean, she's "hustling" (and finding a kind of new identity from) this music which would be hard for me to see as anything BUT degrading to women. Don't we call that "internalized sexism?" It's almost as if she's so completely absorbed the patriarchal values of her culture that she doesn't even question them. She benefits from them, but she seems blind to how the very song she is promoting really DOES support a patriarchal institution (prostitution) that has been used since the beginning of TIME as a last refuge for women who find themselves in terrible situations--situations they're often in because partiarchy provides no other options.
I'm kind of playing devil's advocate here, but not entirely. I like this movie a lot, frankly. But I'm suspicious of my own motives for liking it. It makes me consider what might be my OWN internalized misogyny. In that sense, I guess it's a good thing. But my "celebration" of this movie I like feels a little hollow, even to me.
"Streetcar" feels different to me. Sure, Stanley is misogynistic. But he's not heroic. I think we're MEANT to see his patriarchal attitudes as opporessive and grotesque. I'm not so sure we leave "Hustle" feeling the same way about D-Jay.
I don't leave Hustle seeing DJay as oppressive and grotesque and I think that's part of the point. Yes he was opressive towards Lexus, expecially putting her out on the street. But at the same time he was protective of Shug and Nola. I don't picture him abandoning them, even if they were to stand up to him. He almost has a friendly relationship with Nola. I'm thinking of the opening scene where he asks her what she wants out of life, him comforting outside the music store, putting her hands on the steering wheel, and making her say she's in charge. I do see Nola's change as redemptive. She may be hustling music promoting prostitution, but she's no longer having to sell herself. She's made a place for herself in a male dominated culture. I'm going to hang myself here by saying this, but I don't think misogyny and things like opression towards women and prostitution will really go away. I think in a way they're needed. My world-view is a little warped and skewed I know, but you need a dominate sex. Having men and women in complete equality sounds wonderful and I have nothing against it, except human nature wants us to dominate over other human beings. I think the most idealic situation is where men don't automatically dominate women, sometimes women would hold the dominating positions in society. I also know I'm setting the women's movement back because I'm not the one to propel it forward. I prefer to be dominated. Even when it pisses me off, I respect a man who can "put me in my place" so to say and use an iron hand when needed. Is this a product of my opressive male-dominated upbringing or an inate biological attraction to apelike men is open to interpretation.
Post a Comment