{"id":2275,"date":"2011-03-11T17:52:32","date_gmt":"2011-03-11T22:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?p=2275"},"modified":"2011-03-11T17:52:32","modified_gmt":"2011-03-11T22:52:32","slug":"pop-goes-feminism-well-there-little-lady-you-didnt-expect-to-be-a-hero-did-you-a-review-of-rango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2011\/03\/11\/pop-goes-feminism-well-there-little-lady-you-didnt-expect-to-be-a-hero-did-you-a-review-of-rango\/","title":{"rendered":"POP GOES FEMINISM: Well there, little lady, you didn\u2019t expect to be a hero did you? A review of Rango"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/em><\/p>\n

Rango<\/em> opens with our lizard hero accompanied by a headless, legless, one-armed Barbie as his female companion. Rango (voiced by Johnny Depp) imagines himself as a suave leading man instead of the googley-eyed lizard he is, draping his arm around Barbie and asking \u201care those real?\u201d Ah, the joy of objectifying sexist jokes in kids films. What fun!<\/p>\n

As you can imagine, this opening did not bode well for my hopes that this film might just be the one that has equal<\/em> female and male characters (in numbers as well as in narrative arc) and maybe, just maybe, a representation of femininity that goes beyond the princess, witch, dead mother meme stamped on our psyches by Disney.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, the film moved beyond dismembered Barbie, introducing us to a key female character \u2013 Beans (voiced by Isla Fisher) \u2013 a rebellious, smart, and outspoken female lizard trying to save her farm as well as discover the truth behind her town\u2019s water shortage. Alas, she is not the hero, Rango is. He has to mosey in with his Depp swagger to save the town \u2013 and, in the end \u2013 to save Beans as well, with the obligatory blossoming romance between Rango and Beans closing the film.<\/p>\n

Yawn, you might be thinking.<\/p>\n

But wait — even though the representation of females is problematic (not to mention the stereotypical depiction of the one Native American character who is \u2013 surprise surprise \u2013 a noble warrior type of few words), the film itself is a visual treat with the dessert dwelling animal protagonists vividly portrayed, the action scenes expertly paced, and the narrative itself offering a lovely blend of adventure, mystery, and humor.<\/p>\n

Yet, I don\u2019t want to like this film, damn it<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

Yes, I like Johnny Depp, yes I appreciated the updating of the western genre with the tongue in cheek critiques of corruption, consumerism, and our apathy towards the environment, but NO NO NO I don\u2019t want yet another film that has scant female characters and for the billionth time relies on the damsel in distress being saved by a plucky male hero. Puke.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that in a key escape scene, Beans does the driving and she is the one (yes ONE!) woman to join the group setting out to save the town, but is this type of paltry tokenism really enough? Why not make her Rango\u2019s EQUAL? Why not nix the romantic, hetero-monogamous ending? Why not cut the horrid cat-fight scene between Beans and one of the few other female characters, a fox named Angelique, in which Beans and Angelique call each other \u201ctart,\u201d \u201ctramp,\u201d and \u201cfloozie\u201d?<\/p>\n

To keep with the \u201call women are catty sluts\u201d message, there are also a handful of saloon-hall prostitutes in the background. Why place women front and center when you can instead place them on the side, all tarted up and ready to claw each other apart? At least Beans is closer to the center of the film \u2013 too bad she has an affliction where she freezes up, going all catatonic at the most inopportune moments. How feminine of her!<\/p>\n

I can hear the groaning right about now \u2013 why do you have to be so picky? Can\u2019t you just enjoy the film for what it is \u2013 a crazy take on the western genre with several metatexual components, a great voice cast, and jaw-dropping animation? Well, yes, I can, and I did. Yet, I can also, like Rango, call for a \u201cparadigm shift\u201d \u2013 one that stops representing the world as if it was 90% male, 7% slut, 2% silent\/catatonic female, and 1% headless Barbie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rango opens with our lizard hero accompanied by a headless, legless, one-armed Barbie as his female companion. Rango (voiced by Johnny Depp) imagines himself as a suave leading man instead of the googley-eyed lizard he is, draping his arm around Barbie and asking \u201care those real?\u201d Ah, the joy of objectifying sexist jokes in kids […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1921,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21110],"tags":[21626],"class_list":["post-2275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pop-goes-feminism","tag-movie-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1921"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2275\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}