“We [Fraction and his wife, Kelly Sue DeConnick] were pregnant at the time, and while I was out there I started to realize that if I had a daughter, there would come a day when I would have to apologize to her for my profession. I would have to apologize for the way it treats and speaks to women readers, and the way it treats its female characters. I knew that if we had a daughter, because I know my wife and I know the kind of girl she wants to raise and I know the kind of girl I want to raise, she was going to look at what I did for a living and want to know how the fuck I could stomach it. How could I sell her out like that?” Fraction continued. “That conversation is still coming, and I’m bracing for it in the way that some dads brace for their daughter’s first date or boyfriend. I became acutely aware that I had sort of done that thing that lots of privileged hetero cisgendered white dudes do. ‘I’m cool with women, and that’s enough.’ It’s not enough. It’s embarrassing to say, because we somehow have attached shame to learning and evolving our opinions, culturally, but I became aware that there was a deficiency of and to women in my work, and all I could do at that moment was take care of my side of the street.”— Writer Matt Fraction on his role on expanding the profile of female characters in the Marvel Universe. (via goodmanw)
better late than never, dude. we can always learn and always do better.
Tag: feminist portrayals
evaanverlaine-blog-deactivated2:
You and Pepper share a track of the film just together that was interesting because it wasn’t a jealous, “We’ve both been with the same man” kind of thing. It was all business.
Rebecca Hall: To be honest with you, it’s one of the main reasons why I took the job. When I initially heard about it, I thought, okay they’re bringing another woman in, it’s going to be two females in this, it’s going to probably end up in this horribly reductive, stereotypical cat fight. When I saw that it wasn’t and that it was actually daring to write something that was grown up and sophisticated, where women are actually bigger than being defined by the people that they’ve slept with, I thought it was kind of great! I applauded it and I applaud Marvel for keeping it in because it would very easy for them to have gone, “Well, no one’s interested in that sort of stuff in a film like this.” But the truth is, actually, that they are because I have yet to do an interview with someone who hasn’t said exactly that.
Have you heard of the Bechdel Test before?
Rebecca Hall: No, what’s that?
It’s by a cartoonist called Alison Bechdel. The test for a movie is, is there more one woman in the film? Do they talk to each other about something other than a man? And most movies will fail it.
Rebecca Hall: I’m sure! That’s brilliant! I’ve never heard of that. That is brilliant.
They’re talking to each other about technology. The guy they slept with is almost incidental to the whole thing.
Rebecca Hall: Exactly. They’re smart women. That’s what people want to see now, that’s the stuff that women are complaining about when they say, “Nobody writes good female characters.” Sure, you can get big characters in movies that are women, but nobody’s writing them particularly interestingly or making it real. It’s that sort of stuff. [Iron Man 3 is] taking a different take, not the obvious one. That’s great. (x)
#okay but honestly MORE#M O R E#like wow it’s 2014 we’re surprised we can have wOMEN NOT IN A LOVE TRIANGLE?!#CAT FIGHTS?!#WOW FEMALE RELATIONSHIPS WOW – via aglassfullofhappiness
knitting in the dark 