At 10:51 PM 7/15/97, Ann Wheeler wrote:
>I've just seen _Contact_, and I would be interested in hearing how other
>people react to the female characters in the film. While I think that
>there's much to like about Ellie, the Jodie Foster character, I wish that she
>had some contact with other women at some point in the film.
See, there's this problem, as it is perceived: IF you actually have a major
female character with the normal complement of female friends, relations,
enemies, colleagues, etc., THEN she is going to complain mightily to those
very female cohorts about the crap she is being force-fed by the men in
power; well, what the hell *else* are they going to talk about, if they're
supposed to be close to her and she's having all this trouble? This intru-
sion of the real world necessarily throws the whole story off course. It
becomes centered on that conflict instead of on the Great Project. (See
also altering Readercon programming, which is actually not another story
but the same one, of course).
So it's "easier" to *show* the sexist crap happening to a woman with no
significant female others in her life, and letting the omitted discussion go
on among women in the audience afterward, where it won't distract and disturb
men who want to see stuff about alien contact, pop. science, and Big Ideas
(except feminism, socialism, etc.).
Suzy
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