However, what’s a viable solution? Should all the bad guys be women too?
It's not the bad guys that are the problem, it's the good guys and the messaging together.
Your comment actually touched on this problem here...
My only problem with it is that it’s slowly turning into the go-to replacement for romance in female-led films.
Most female led action films in recent times either have the main character as a lesbian or out for revenge for losing her husband/boyfriend/child. So instead of showcasing a female + male action-oriented power-fantasy, it just turns into a female-led romp where she mows down a bunch of dudes and either gets with another chick or avenges her loss.
Now in films where she loses her male partner, it's the equivalent of the male revenge film. That's fine. We expect her dole out vengeance on behalf of those she lost. No different than your Death Wish films, or Pray For Death, or Hard Target.
In the other case, however, we see a stark departure from male-oriented action films. Typically in male action films he's either aided, guided, or accompanied by a woman or multiple women, one of whom is usually positioned as a love interest. This is usually the case both in male revenge films or typical action-adventure films with a male in the lead, like Romancing The Stone, Indiana Jones, Quigley Down Under, Assassination, Murphy's Law, or Hard Target.
There is never a situation where the male action hero is positioned to mow down the opposite sex in almost gleeful fashion.
There's also the subtext -- as the OP pointed out -- of: all men bad, all women good.
Recent films don't even see female heroes getting with males anymore. It's just all men = bad.
If it's something you see then it's something you notice because the theme is reiterating throughout the film; it means it was put there intentionally. The agitprop was purposeful.
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Wint3rFir3 (6931)
3 years ago
There is never a situation where the male action hero is positioned to mow down the opposite sex in almost gleeful fashion.
True, but that doesn't necessarily make it bad or misandrist. Because male action heroes gleefully mowing down people of the same sex is typical, as is being aided and accompanied by women, it shouldn't be that stark a contrast just because it's women action heroes instead of men.
So that's why I can't see a real solution to this minor issue. You could make some or all of the "bad men" women, which we've seen in films like Kill Bill, you could add more males to the supporting cast, like in Tomb Raider, or you could make more movies like this so it's not considered a-typical. But it's not really that big of a deal imo.
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