...But who really cares...?

Now, I've been looking forward to the new movie 'Avatar' -- it looks like a pretty cool sci fi movie. It has a pg13 rating so I thought, okay, maybe for the kids--the trailers look really breath taking and exiting--suitable entertainment -- until one of my fellow students pointed out THIS: [link] and all I could do was hang my head.

Basically, it was a Playboy interview with James Cameron. He talks about the women in his life and movies as if they're tools and objects. Apparently, Ellen Ripley was actually a "...Powerful sex icon..." and talking about the female char on the new movie:

PLAYBOY: Are her breasts on view?
CAMERON: I came up with this free—floating, lion’s-mane—like array of feathers, and we strategically lit and angled shots to not draw attention to her breasts, but they’re right there. The animation uses a physics-based sim that takes into consideration gravity, air movement and the momentum of her hair, her top. We had a shot in which Neytiri falls into a specific position, and because she is lit by orange firelight, it lights up the nipples. That was good, except we’re going for a PG-13 rating, so we wound up having to fix it. We’ll have to put it on the special edition DVD; it will be a collector’s item. A Neytiri Playboy Centerfold would have been a good idea.

PLAYBOY: So you’re okay with arousing PG-13 chubbies?
CAMERON: If such a thing should ­happen—and I’m not saying it will—that would be fine.

It gets worse as they talk about his wives, the reason behind his repeated divorces is because he's a 'erfectionist' and how he found a shrink to tell him “You don’t do this for her; you do this for you, so things make sense to you.” You get into a relationship and make certain promises, and you have to live by a code, a set of values, for your own reasons, not to please the other person".. Does that mean that once the partner no longer serves your purposes, once they no longer please you, you DUMP them? And here, I thought marriage was a matter of thoughtful compromise and mutual respect--silly me!

I've read similar 'interviews' with many directors and 'men' of power in Hollywood. I'd have read them on the female directors, but the woman director who did 'Twilight' was just replaced by a guy without any reason given. There just aren't that many. But the discussion always comes up with making whatever they direct appealing to the main audience, which is always male--the only thing that changes is the AGE of them.

I admit to being appalled, but again, not surprised; I can see the attitude of the hollywood boys in the movies they produce. Which is why a lot of movies I watch are from other countries--when I can find them. Of course, you can add this to the commercial I've been seeing about sneakers that supposedly give a woman a better body for 'men' and to 'make other women jealous'. Why the hell would I want to do EITHER of those things? One makes me an object, the other ostracizes me from those who could comfort me after I get sexually harassed or raped because I was too provocative for a man to resist (and I wasn't wearing a burka damn it!). I'm not happy about an interview for school with a few guys about how they felt about that sexy man and oven Quizos commercial--they didn't like being 'objectified' for queers. When I mentioned that women thought it was sexy, one comment I got was, why would "you girls" need THAT when "you all" have husbands or boyfriends? One didn't like the competition.

Great.

At least the ONE concession I get out of this, is that I really DON'T have to go far to prove the institutionalization of misogyny by media -- all I have to do is walk into a movie theater to have it just slap me in the face...