Where Are the Women? Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism

WATWmollymoon

There are lots of girls and women in this movie, which is good. Most of the women, however, are caretakers of children or mothers, which isn’t great.

BASIC REPRESENTATION SCORE: +25

+25

Is there a female protagonist? [why this matters]

FEMALE AGENCY/POWER/AUTHORITY SCORE: -9

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

+10

Is there a female villain or antagonist? [why this matters]

-20

Is her villainy/badness defined primarily by her gender (ie, is it related to motherhood, or is it of a sexual nature)? [why this matters]

THE MALE GAZE SCORE: 0

[no issues]

GENDER/SEXUALITY SCORE: -5

-5

Is there a female character who is primarily defined by her emotional or biological relationship with a child or children? [why this matters]

-3

Is a dead mother mentioned? [why this matters]

Is a dead father also mentioned? [why this matters]

WILDCARD SCORE: 0

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

No.

TOTAL SCORE: +11

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

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

BOTTOM LINE: There are lots of girls and women in this movie, which is a good thing. Most of the women, however, are defined as caretakers of children or as mothers, which isn’t great. (There are plenty of men who are not defined as fathers.) At least the girls get more scope to their lives. And the presence of a female protagonist still manages to trump those issues.

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

NOTE: This is not a “review” of Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism! 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 Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism.

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

This project was launched by my generous Kickstarter supporters. You can support this work now by:

• buying some Where Are the Women? merch
• becoming a monthly or yearly subscriber of FlickFilospher.com
• making a pledge at Patreon
• making a one-time donation via Paypal