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Where Are the Women? The 33

Wed Jan 27 2016, 05:13pm | 0 comments

Women wait, and wail, while men struggle to survive and other men struggle to rescue them.

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: +3

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]

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? (In this case, a male leader calls his male underlings “ladies,” multiple times, in a way meant to be lighthearted; and an ongoing joke is made of two women fighting over the romantic attentions of a man.) [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]

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: -17

IS THE FILM’S DIRECTOR FEMALE? Yes (Patricia Riggen) (does not impact scoring)

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

BOTTOM LINE: With the exception of a female government official, who appears in only one scene and speaks perhaps two lines of dialogue, all the women here are the defined exclusively as the mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters of men. Women wait, and wail, while men struggle to survive and other men struggle to rescue them.

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

NOTE: This is not a “review” of The 33! 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 The 33.

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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