Hollywood reboots are nothing new, but when beloved franchises decide to change things, it’s always a good idea to look at how and why. Gender-bending of old roles is a trend that’s starting to emerge, and I think it’s for the better.
For example, the “Ghostbusters” reboot that is currently filming features an all-female-lead cast with Chris Hemsworth playing the hot secretary. The popular action series “The Expendables” is expanding with a spinoff called “The ExpendaBelles,” featuring a cast of female action heros, according to the Telegraph. Most recently, Entertainment Weekly has confirmed Sandra Bullock will be star in a reboot of “Ocean’s Eleven,” with a — you guessed it — all-female main cast.
The influx of women taking over all your favorite franchises seems to indicate Hollywood is finally deciding to branch out a little, especially within two categories that have a history of relegating women to the sidelines — comedy and action.
Still, four out of five movies nominated for the 72nd Golden Globe Awards earlier this year in the “Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy” category were movies about men.
No one can claim action movies are an equal- opportunity genre.
Action movies have for a long time been perceived as specifically for men, but with the numbers Hollywood keeps cranking them out in, women would barely be able to go to a movie theatre if they didn’t mind seeing at least a few of them.
That is the crux of the problem: the untapped female movie-watching market. As half the audience, it makes sense for women to have half the leading roles, yet Hollywood is just now catching on. Perhaps Hollywood just didn’t think women would shell out the money it takes to make a blockbuster, but a statistics taken in 2013 from the Motion Picture Association of America show the majority of people attending movies are actually women.
Perhaps Hollywood doesn’t think women can successfully carry an action movie, but whoever thinks that needs to watch Sigourney Weaver in “Alien.”
Putting women in these famous roles is a great opportunity for a diversification in portrayals of women in the media.
It also helps to diversify the monopoly of male action stories, showing women are badasses too. And it’s a great way to freshen up franchises for a new generation.
The one caveat with gender-bending is if you aren’t careful with subverting the gender stereotypes, you might just end up reinforcing them. That was Stephenie Meyer’s mistake with her own gender-bent version of “Twilight,” “Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined.” Meyers released this version on the 10th anniversary of the original. In her forward, she claims to have written it because “people have complained about (Bella) being a typical damsel in distress. My answer to that has always been that Bella is a human in distress.”
She attempted to refute that common criticism by switching the genders. However, in that same forward, she completely defeats her own purpose by claiming that in order to make the gender swap work, she had to make the male version of the character less “flowery,” according to the Boston Globe.
The trick with gender-bending characters isn’t to change storylines to fit different genders; rather, it’s to show there is no difference. A person of any gender can find themselves in any situation, whether it’s fighting ghosts or robbing casinos.
That message gets lost if the creators have to make the situations more “flowery” in order for women to star in them. It’s a step in the right direction for Hollywood, as long as they step lightly.
jordrile@indiana.edu
@riledupIDS
