I got drawn back into this discussion, but I actually came in to post something else :P
Because then there are the times that I just think, oh ffs, get a grip. The IBM campaign was an own goal, because it was clumsy and could easily have been done so much better. A major player - one of THE major players in tech and they couldn't be bothered to get it right on a campaign for something they apparently consider very important.
And then there's this - where really, you have to ask, are they damned if they do and damned if they don't?
We just had the 'how many female characters are on the screen and how many good female roles are available in comparison to men' debate - indeed it is currently raging. One of the key players in big budget hollywood movie making tries to do something about that and seems to actually, largely, get the point and this is the response:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...ioned-nonsense
Quote:
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Abrams’ assumption that in order for a movie to be female-friendly it has to have women in it is on the same spectrum as Wells’s claim that women won’t cope watching men clobber each other for a couple of hours.
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No, it isn't. And no, that's not what he said. A male film-maker decides that, in an iconic sci-film film franchise, with a large cast of characters who have traditionally tended to be mostly male, having some of them be female, and those female characters not be gold bikin-clad, decorative rescue objectives, might make the film more appealing and enjoyable for female fans and allow that franchise to possibly occupy a similar cultural role amongst mothers and daughters as it has previously occupied for fathers and sons - and gets roasted.
Nowhere did he say, or even imply, that women only watch films with female characters. He did recognise the extreme imbalance, not just in the number of female to male characters, but in the level of agency those characters are given, and in how they are presented, that has always existed in the Star Wars franchise. There were always girls and women who liked Star Wars - and girls and women have always read/watched fiction with male protagonists and mainly male casts of characters - because otherwise we'd have about 30% of current fictional output to choose from. But actually - it is kind of nice to watch a movie, or read a book and have some good male and good female characters. It does get a bit wearisome, as a sci-fi fan, when all the good characters are guys and you can count the interesting female characters on one hand.
A film with a small and tight cast of characters that is all or mostly male, doesn't bother me - why would it? I get just as into that - I'm just as happy to associate into a male character as I am a female character, if it's well-rounded and engaging. But a film or show with a large cast of characters, unless it is set in the army or a male prison or something, that doesn't have some interesting and active female characters feels off. And if the female characters that are included just seem there for ornamentation or mission objective, or are always declawed or made powerless, undercut in some way, no matter how kick ass they seem to be, that gets a little stale.
I was into Star Wars as a little girl. We all were - kids, I mean. When it first came out, it wasn't a boy's film, it was a family adventure film. I went to see it with my mum, dad and big brother. My best friend, David, had all the models. Millenium Falcon and everything. Our little gang used to play Star Wars. I used to get really pissed off, because I always had to be Princess Leia. Because she was the only real female character, and whilst, at times I could be a boy, if we were playing army, for instance, none of the boys could be Princess Leia, because she was a girl. And as Leia, I mainly got rescued. I got to dance about doing toy fighting, but it always ended up with me waiting to be rescued. David was a bit of a stickler for the plot of Star Wars.
And that's my roundabout way of saying that I appreciate the effort with this new Star Wars, to do something a little better and have female characters who are relatable and exciting for the little girls who see it and play it with their friends.