{"id":2596,"date":"2011-04-15T19:58:07","date_gmt":"2011-04-16T00:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?p=2596"},"modified":"2011-04-15T19:58:07","modified_gmt":"2011-04-16T00:58:07","slug":"feminism-goes-pop-hannahs-hair-may-be-tangled-but-shes-no-rapunzel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2011\/04\/15\/feminism-goes-pop-hannahs-hair-may-be-tangled-but-shes-no-rapunzel\/","title":{"rendered":"POP GOES FEMINISM: Hannah’s Hair May Be Tangled, But She’s No Rapunzel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rather than falling into the typical princess\/witch or angel\/whore binary most films trade in, Hanna<\/em><\/a> gives us a movie rarity\u2013a female protagonist who is strong, smart, brave and decidedly not<\/em> in need of male rescue.<\/p>\n

The film is overtly framed as a dark fairytale, but rather than taking the characteristic romantic turn fairytale-esque films have taken lately (see: Tangled<\/a><\/em>, Twilight<\/em><\/a>, Red Riding Hood<\/a><\/em>), Hanna<\/em> doesn\u2019t require a princess waiting for her prince. Instead, Hanna is an expert survivalist, able to evade the government operative pursuing her, Marissa (played by Cate Blanchett<\/a> with an icy Texan twang).<\/p>\n

The title character\u2019s name brings to mind other strong female Hanna\u2019s (such as Kathleen Hanna<\/a> of the grrrrrrl band Le Tigre<\/a>, or political theorist Hannah Arendt<\/a>) and, fitting of these strong female role models, Hanna (Saoirse Ronan<\/a>) is quick-thinking and independent. With a storehouse of encyclopedic knowledge handed down from her father (Erik Bana<\/a>) and more than enough training to evade the many assassins gunning for her, she is a combination of Sydney Bristow<\/a> without the glitz, Buffy Summers<\/a> without the vampires, and Jodie Foster<\/a> with all her icy-blue-eyed strength.<\/p>\n

Like other women populating director Joe Wright\u2019s films (such as Cecilia and Briony Tallis from Atonement<\/em><\/a>), Hanna is neither hyper-sexualized, mentally vacant nor a one-note villain\/heroine. As Matt Smith notes in his review<\/a>, Wright has given us \u201cyet another strong female lead in a film culture that is all too often devoid of them.\u201d Contrasting the film to the \u201cbrain dead Sucker Punch<\/a>,<\/em>\u201d Smith argues that the film offers \u201ca complex portrait of a young woman.\u201d<\/p>\n

While I have not seen Sucker Punch<\/em>, the trailer<\/a> indicates a movie saturated in hyper-sexualized female bodies. Framed from a voyeuristic, objectifying male gaze that ogles the female body in action as sexual rather than powerful, and as only holding power via sexuality, Sucker Punch <\/em>appears to fall in line with other female-driven action movies. Thankfully, by Hanna <\/em>not sexualizing its protagonist, the film shows that power for women need not reside in bountiful breasts nor be clad in skin-tight body suits (as in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider<\/a>,<\/em> Cat Woman<\/a>, Iron Man 2 <\/a><\/em>and the like). Perhaps Hanna<\/em> will finally prove that females can successfully helm action films without being booty-bots.<\/p>\n

I agree with Smith<\/a> that Wright has delivered a feminist take on the assassin genre. Even more intriguing, the film avoids romance and passes the Bechdel Test<\/a> with flying colors. In one evocative scene, Hanna talks with her new friend Sophie (played splendidly by British actress Jessica Barden<\/a>). Here, the film offers something even rarer than strong female protagonists\u2013an exploration of female friendship and intimacy completely devoid of boy talk or heteronormative romance. The inclusion of a shot of Sophie\u2019s disgruntled and jealous younger brother speaks volumes about why such scenes (and a widespread acknowledgment of female intimacy in general) are so rare: In short, they threaten male defined hetero-patriarchy, revealing that women don\u2019t need <\/em>nor necessarily desperately desire <\/em> men in the way so many movies make us believe.<\/p>\n

Hanna<\/em> has been derided as unbelievable and thin on plot (as here<\/a>), but I beg to differ. What is unbelievable is that movies like this are so rare. Yes, it\u2019s not entirely believable\u2013what action movie is? Yes, it sometimes values action over dialogue or character development\u2013but it is an action movie, after all. But, finally, it delivers a punch very palatable to those who refuse to be suckers for misogynistic female action-hero stereotypes.<\/p>\n

*cross-posted here <\/a>at Ms. Blog<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rather than falling into the typical princess\/witch or angel\/whore binary most films trade in, Hanna gives us a movie rarity\u2013a female protagonist who is strong, smart, brave and decidedly not in need of male rescue. The film is overtly framed as a dark fairytale, but rather than taking the characteristic romantic turn fairytale-esque films have […]<\/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":[129,5007],"class_list":["post-2596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pop-goes-feminism","tag-media","tag-pop-culture"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2596","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=2596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}