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osprey_archerI didn't watch The Women when it came out. The concept - an entire film with an all-female cast - is just the sort of thing I'd like, but the reviews put me off. I got the impression that the movie was terrible, and moreover that it was ostensibly about female friendship but was actually about how "female friendship" is an oxymoron.
But I saw the movie today, and apparently I got entirely the wrong idea from the reviews. It is a film about female friendship, and as such there are conflicts within the friendships (because conflict is the thing that moves a plot), but it's not a film about how female friendships are conflict ridden and aren't women so catty? and isn't that hilarious?, but about how relationships are difficult, and conflict happens, for women as well as men.
There is this pernicious ideal of Sisterhood, which probably has a more nuanced definition in actual feminist thought but in pop-feminism generally seems to translate into "Women don't fight each other ever, except they do, which obviously makes the whole idea of Sisterhood bogus, and if even women don't like each other than no one can be expected to like them which makes this whole feminism thing faintly ridiculous, doesn't it?"
It's funny how pop-feminism is often diametrically opposed to the real thing.
But The Women doesn't buy into that at all. I cannot help but think that this is one of the reasons the critics disliked it, just like they disliked The First Wives' Club and Mamma Mia!.
But I saw the movie today, and apparently I got entirely the wrong idea from the reviews. It is a film about female friendship, and as such there are conflicts within the friendships (because conflict is the thing that moves a plot), but it's not a film about how female friendships are conflict ridden and aren't women so catty? and isn't that hilarious?, but about how relationships are difficult, and conflict happens, for women as well as men.
There is this pernicious ideal of Sisterhood, which probably has a more nuanced definition in actual feminist thought but in pop-feminism generally seems to translate into "Women don't fight each other ever, except they do, which obviously makes the whole idea of Sisterhood bogus, and if even women don't like each other than no one can be expected to like them which makes this whole feminism thing faintly ridiculous, doesn't it?"
It's funny how pop-feminism is often diametrically opposed to the real thing.
But The Women doesn't buy into that at all. I cannot help but think that this is one of the reasons the critics disliked it, just like they disliked The First Wives' Club and Mamma Mia!.
