FEMALE AGENCY/POWER/AUTHORITY SCORE: +11
THE MALE GAZE SCORE: -35
GENDER/SEXUALITY SCORE: -13
WILDCARD SCORE: -5
Is there anything either positive or negative in the film’s representation of women not already accounted for here? (points will vary)
Important storytelling note for writers: Your protagonist has to do stuff. Is she doing literally nothing to affect what is ostensibly her own story? Think about fixing that. Mila Kunis’s Jupiter is a horrifically weak central character who has almost no agency of any kind, and is present in the story only to be used, abused, and constantly rescued (by a man, of course).
TOTAL SCORE: -17
IS THE FILM’S DIRECTOR FEMALE? Yes, one of the two (Lana Wachowski) (does not impact scoring)
IS THE FILM’S SCREENWRITER FEMALE? Yes, one of the two (Lana Wachowski) (does not impact scoring)
BOTTOM LINE: This is how you squander a female protagonist: Don’t let her make any decisions about her own life, don’t let her affect the story with her actions, and make sure she is in constant need of rescue by a man.
Oh, and give her an ignominious ending that no male protagonist in a similar story would ever have to endure.
Click here for the ongoing ranking of 2015’s films for female representation.
NOTE: This is not a “review” of Jupiter Ascending! 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 Jupiter Ascending.
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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To fix: well, gender-flipping both Jupiter and Caine would probably be too much for Hollywood to stomach. How about just gender-flipping Caine, so that there’s a contrast of strong woman vs weak woman?
I get a little tired of the way “strong vs. weak” is the only axis of differentiation for female characters. How about they both have strengths and weaknesses in different areas? You know, like real people.
Baby steps. These are pro screenwriters we’re talking about, not normal people.
It’s even worse when “strong woman”=”masculine or acts like a man”, while “weak woman”=”feminine or acts like a woman”. So you have a Tomboy and Girly Girl duo(which is also already overdone and somewhat limiting)…in which the tomboy is portrayed as stronger and superior for being able to hang with the boys’ and fit into a “man’s” world…while the girly girl character is derided and seen as shallow, her femininity treated as her shortcoming, if not made into a joke.
How would Kunis’ Jupiter character compare to the one in the Mortal Instruments (Lily Collins) film? Who do you find to be stronger, or more effective?
What is the point of such a comparison?