Where Are the Women? Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2

WATWpaulblart2

From his own daughter to a female hotel manager, women exist in this story solely to make the male protagonist feel better about himself.

BASIC REPRESENTATION SCORE: -10

-10

Is there a woman who is mostly pretty awesome and perfect who is present to support a man improving himself? [why this matters]

FEMALE AGENCY/POWER/AUTHORITY SCORE: -7

Is there a female character with insignificant screen time in a position of authority? [why this matters]

Is there a woman whose role could easily have been played by a man? [why this matters]

-5

Is there a woman who is kidnapped (either onscreen or off) whose kidnap motivates a male protagonist? [why this matters]

-5

Is there a woman who dies (either onscreen or off) whose death motivates a male protagonist? [why this matters]

THE MALE GAZE SCORE: 0

[no issues]

GENDER/SEXUALITY SCORE: -10

-5

Is femininity used as a joke (ie, a man crossdressing for humorous intent) in passing? [why this matters]

-5

Is there a female character who is primarily defined by her emotional and/or sexual relationship with a man or men? [why this matters]

-10

Does a man police or attempt to police a woman’s sexual agency? [why this matters]

+10

Is he rebuked for it, either directly (by a character onscreen) or indirectly (by how it is depicted)? [why this matters]

WILDCARD SCORE: +2

Is there anything either positive or negative in the film’s representation of women not already accounted for here? (points will vary)

Even though Blart’s daughter (played by Raini Rodriguez) is not a traditional Hollywood beauty — she’s not blonde or skinny — she gets to enjoy a mutual attraction and flirtation with a cute hotel worker, and the movie finds nothing amusing or even unusual in this. But he turns out to be kind of stupid, so this isn’t as positive as it could have been.

TOTAL SCORE: -25

IS THE FILM’S DIRECTOR FEMALE? No (does not impact scoring)

IS THE FILM’S SCREENWRITER FEMALE? No (does not impact scoring)

BOTTOM LINE: From his own daughter, who is willing to sacrifice her happiness for her father’s, to a female hotel manager who is present only so that she can become besotted with him, women exist in this story solely to make Paul Blart feel better about himself. This is true of many movies, but the failed attempt to combine comedy and sentimentality in the process makes it all the more obnoxious here.

Click here for the ongoing ranking of 2015’s films for female representation.

NOTE: This is not a “review” of Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2! It is simply an examination of how well or how poorly it represents women. (A movie that represents women well can still be a terrible film; a movie that represents women poorly can still be a great film.) Read my review of Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2.

See the full rating criteria. (Criteria that do not apply to this film have been deleted in this rating for maximum readability.)

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Sammi Luester

Sat, May 29, 2021 7:24am

Here’s what I look for personally in any film or tv show. Are there any women who actually interact with each other and get along great with each other? Do they talk about things that have nothing to do with men? When there’s a group of guys is it yet ANOTHER film where it’s the dreaded “all guys and only one girl in the group?” And let me guess, that one girl has no interactions with other women at all. And when or if she does, it’s another woman who she hates and is an antagonist of sorts? So once again stupid misogyny lives on and well in fiction. Ugh