So I guess some dudes weren’t too happy when “Mad Max: Fury Road” hit theaters.
Specifically, they weren’t thrilled about the feminist take on what seemed to be, judging by the trailers, your typical, guy-central action movie. According to my personal favorite men’s rights website, Return of Kings, “Fury Road [is not] a movie made for men. It [is] a feminist piece of propaganda posing as a guy flick.”
My reaction to that is just a huge, resounding, “WhatEVER.” Although it also prompted me to see the movie. Men’s rights activists tend to be the same type of guys who think women should stay in the kitchen and make them sandwiches, so anything that ticked them off was sure to fill me with joy. I paid my eight-and-a-half bucks for a ticket and 20 more bucks for a soda and popcorn, and I saw the movie. Then I saw it again. And then I saw it again.
Because “Fury Road” is an incredible movie, so much so that I paid to see it in theaters four times and now, almost three months later, I’m still thinking about it. It subverted my expectations again and again, first because I believed — like the rest of the world — that it was “a guy flick,” and then because, after I’d heard the distant whining of the men’s rights activists, I assumed it would be “a guy flick” that happened to include a lot of female characters. Happily, I was wrong both times.
When I think “guy flick,” I think of white male fantasy. You know the movies I’m talking about, because you’ve probably seen “James Bond.” Some white dude runs around driving fancy cars, firing guns, sleeping with women, saving the world, looking great with his shirt off and otherwise just conforming to society’s warped vision of masculinity. Movies like this are problematic not only because they come from an inherently privileged standpoint and fail to focus on the issues and discrimination faced by less privileged groups, but because they also reinforce the discrimination faced by less privileged groups. Take a long look at the women in these movies. They might occasionally be important to the movie’s plot, but they are not allowed to be plot-relevant unless they first get naked or wear a fancy dress that shows a lot of leg or cleavage. These women might kick ass, but they also have to be attractive to the male protagonist (and, through him, the mostly-straight-male audience). As a viewer, that’s not what I want. I want women who don’t participate in romantic subplots. I want women who aren’t considered strong just because they can aim a gun as well as the guys. I want women in sensible footwear. I want women of color, disabled women, young women, old women, pregnant women, women whose sexual orientation doesn’t matter because they aren’t having sex on-screen, women who aren’t wearing make-up. Real. Women.
“Fury Road” portrays these women — all these women. If that’s feminist propaganda, then fine — sink me in an ocean of propaganda, and I will die happy. I don’t like the word “propaganda” because it sounds so threatening; it makes me think of the Third Reich, and feminism isn’t Nazism, okay? Feminism isn’t about crushing testicles in an iron vise, and it’s not about putting down men. Feminism, as I have experienced it, is about achieving equality, about making a world where both men and women are strong and capable and confident enough to move forward together, without needing to step on each other to get there. If that scares or threatens you, then look at “Fury Road,” which doesn’t portray feminism in a way that threatens masculinity — it includes Real Men as well as Real Women. Max, the titular character, is strong, courageous, loyal, smart and compassionate. He’s also damaged, vulnerable and haunted. He’s complex. He doesn’t just fire guns and drive fancy cars and have lots of sex, and he doesn’t save the world. Instead, he helps make it possible — alongside other women and men — for the world to grow and change in positive ways. If you think he needs to get a nicer car or have more sex to be a Real Man, then maybe you ought to take a long look at the way you think about masculinity.
Personally, I think “Fury Road” was a game changer, and not just because it was the first action movie in like ever to — hey presto — actually characterize human beings, regardless of gender, correctly. The trailers — remember them? Lots of gravelly voice-overs, explosions and a bass-heavy score? The ones that tricked meninists into thinking this was their type of movie? — proudly proclaimed that this film was the work of “mastermind George Miller,” and at first that was sort of a joke to me, but now I can’t even argue. The writing was incredible, the sets and designs gorgeous — those cars are all real?! — and the choreography of the action sequences was almost ballet. Not to mention the flame-throwing guitar. Give it up for Mastermind George Miller, King of Action Movies.
I don’t know about you, but I’ll be buying the DVD.