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| Image courtesy of www.spotern.com |
This is an alarming fact, that for such a beloved character is only now going to be the lead in her own title movie. I mean yes, it was inevitable that this would happen considering that DC wanted to merge all of their characters into one interconnected universe like how Marvel have done with their MCU, but like how Henry Cavill has succeeded Christopher Reeve and Brandon Routh, Ben Affleck has followed on from Christian Bale and Michael Keaton who all were in movies that didn't cross over, surely Gal Gadot would have had some company in the form of past actresses in standalone interpretations of Wonder Woman. But no, only Lynda Carter when she portrayed the character in the TV series, not a movie.
I believe all of this speaks volumes to how the movie industry is, the old fashioned business that it is. I mean, right this second I just had a look on Wikipedia for women-led movies and I got this article 'Women in Refrigerators', imagine the confusion washing over me at that moment. So I clicked on it and it is actually quite a strong example of what I am referring to, as the term refers to a trope that plague women in not just movies but in many forms of media. From the Wikipedia article it reads, women characters who have been injured, killed or depowered as a device to further the plot within various superhero comics.
Now before you roll your eyes thinking I'm some Social Justice Warrior who will try and make any situation about men being pigs or something, I'm not that at all. What I am is someone who watches a lot of movies and doesn't appreciate how the industry seems to have apprehensions about placing women in the forefront. When it happens, notice how everyone is happy and praising the fact that it happens and not just used to it? Many times in the past we have a female led movie, it's mostly bouncing off of men either as source material, the way it is written and even character motivations.
In anticipation for the Wonder Woman movie, YouTube personality Jack Howard uploaded a video pretty much saying what I'm going to say, but I promise you it isn't plagiarism! Jack pointed out how last year, we had a Ghostbusters reboot and we are going to have another Ocean's movie but with women characters. The Ghostbusters movie was hated but not always for having women as the leads, I believe a large portion of the audience would have hated it just as much had they casted Channing Tatum, Chris Pratt, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anthony Mackie instead of Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon. But because nobody wanted a Ghostbusters reboot anyway, have it with women and watch the audience try and justify not liking it because apparently that makes them sexist, or if it doesn't work out then instead of blaming it on the fact that nobody wanted a Ghostbusters reboot, blame it on the fact that it was women instead of men. You can't help but make comparisons but I'll get to that bit.
As for the Ocean's film, after the trilogy with George Clooney, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt leading the charge, 2018's Ocean's Eight will feature Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway and even Rihanna! Now I haven't seen Ocean's Eight (Because it isn't out yet) - I know already if it is bad, we will have some Hollywood executives believing that "Oh, women as the lead? That's why it did bad surely!" - and it could turn out good for all I know, but here's my issue. Spring boarding off of the name recognition with the original Ocean's trilogy as well as the original Ghostbusters, why must a female led movie have to be latched onto something that was already well known?
I mean yes, the new Wonder Woman movie is an adaptation of the DC comic book character but that's not what I am referring to, when what I mean is could you honestly look at those two examples and tell me how to explain it to someone who has seen the Ocean's trilogy and the original Ghostbusters. Because all I can think of is, "It is Ocean's and Ghostbusters but instead of men, it is women" and that's it! They exist just to have women instead of men, and it's shallow thinking and rather unfair frankly. Later this year, there will be a movie called Atomic Blonde, this example is different to the other two because whilst a lot of people have seen the trailer for it and said that it looks like the female version of John Wick, it has not got any comfort of being able to fall back on that name for the sake of brand recognition, it has earned that audience comparison alone just by what we have seen from it.
Having made a point like this before in an article talking about what I'd love to see from a Queen & Country movie adaptation, my point is if you're going to pave the way for more women led movies, you don't immediately latch onto something insultingly close in comparison deliberately for the sake of name recognition. This Queen & Country comparison being born out of the call for the next person to take up the role James Bond to be a woman, and I've already said my shit about how it would go against what the character stands for but I know I'd be called a sexist misogynist piece of shit if I said that, I know I'm not so deal with it. But having a Jane Bond instead of a James Bond would just show that the big wigs have no faith in something with a woman in the lead standing on its own.
That's before we get into characterisation of most women in film, I mean all that I have just said, that's a lot on just one subject! But anyway, the general vibe from most women in movies as in how they're written, they are written to be very typical and have no extra layers other than just being a woman, and that rings true to more than just women too. Speaking to a friend of mine whose name I will refrain from saying for personal reasons, she is obviously a woman as you can tell by the pronoun, but she also is a part of the LGBT community, and she wasn't happy about how they handled a major character in this year's live action Beauty and the Beast movie.
Disney decided to make a big deal out of the fact that they had decided to make Josh Gad's LeFou a gay character, who had a bit of a thing for Gaston. In the end, I think them making a big deal out of it probably did more harm than good because in the film, it's strongly hinted at but never explicit, and my friend never particularly liked how they decided to pin the homosexual tag onto a character whose name quite literally means 'The fool' just to appease those calling for a gay character. I for one would like to have seen Finn and Poe Dameron from Star Wars be gay, not because I fantasise about seeing John Boyega and Oscar Isaac doing it and want to read Tumblr fan fictions about them.. I mean it may or may not be fitting personally but they could write around it and have it flow.
Anyhow, my point with this, and it applies to all minorities, the industry is desperate to play catch up with society and tries to throw in elements that they think will empower such groups but do it in a very shoddy manner. They take characters that could vary from not developed enough to maybe even fully fleshed out, but add on the fact that they're let's say, a woman, black, Latino, homosexual just to be all like "Hey! Look at us! We are all inclusive!". In the end, a character should be fully developed and have everything written to be a fully fleshed out a character, adding in a minority aspect to it to ruin the flow comes off as lazy. Plus like in real life, gender, skin colour, sexual orientation is not all a part of someone's identity, and focus should be to have well fleshed out characters that diversely represent society rather than making characters just to tick boxes
But more than that, the way these characters are written also is very much flawed because as well as being very bland and cookie cutter, and most of this is down to in the early years of writing films, it would be mostly men in the writing room who wouldn't know how women would behave other than the typical stereotypes. A film I saw recently illustrates this perfectly, 'Their Finest' which stars Gemma Arterton as a Welsh screen writer who is tasked with writing a film to help keep the public's spirit up during a wartime Britain. At first, her role demonstrates the lack of power a woman had in those times and how often the men around her would underestimate her, and be surprised that she would ever propose that the female characters in the film she was helping to write ever do something other than sit there and be pretty?! It's an amazing watch by the way, it taught me a lot about the need of studio interference in movies. Go watch 'Their Finest' when you can.
Now onto the main bit, I am frankly very surprised I had enough to talk about here before getting onto who you see at the top of the page! If you have known me for any amount of time, you will probably know that I am an absolute fanatic about the movie Kingsman, and the person you see in the picture is none other than Roxanne 'Roxy' Morton, portrayed by Sophie Cookson.
Whilst not the main character of the first film, Roxy played a surprisingly large part and made the story play out a bit differently than what we expect. Roxy was a candidate for the Kingsman agent role of Lancelot, since the previous person who had that title was killed and Roxy won that despite the focus being on the main character, Gary 'Eggsy' Unwin.
Roxy was received unbelievably well by audiences and critics alike, they praised how she wasn't introduced to be someone for Eggsy to save constantly, or someone for Eggsy to just fall in love with, she displayed a level headed and focused nature yet with some vulnerability to make her believable as a well grounded character, she and Eggsy quickly become close friends. It was such a breath of fresh air to have a character like this where she could stand on her own two feet and merely not provide a motive for Eggsy.
I even saw an article posted by a Sophie Cookson fan account on Twitter which reads: A damsel out of distress, actress Sophie Cookson is a femme fatale who sucker punches her way into the big screen and pulls all the cookie-cutter cut-outs back to the drawing board with her role as the gun-toting heroine Roxy in Kingsman: The Golden Circle. This couldn't be more true, but why am I bringing this up?
The trailer for the upcoming Kingsman: The Golden Circle was released not that long ago, and I was obviously excited and after watching it multiple times, I started having some concerns. The synopsis for the film is that the main antagonist of the film Poppy, destroys the Kingsman Headquarters which forces the Kingsman to have to seek out their American cousins, the Statesman, and this is obviously shown in the trailer. Before we see that, we see Eggsy arrive at the tailor in his brand new E-Type Jaguar and walk into the meeting room where he is greeted by the new head of Kingsman along with Roxy, but after the Kingsman HQ is destroyed, we see very little of Roxy.
This thought has me awake at night, I know that's a bit pathetic to say that but from now until September (When the film is released), I am petrified at the thought of Roxy being killed off due to how she was portrayed in the last film. This may all very well be all smoke and no fire, as my friend told me, they could be hiding her to prompt conversation and discussion, not playing the card to get as many people talking about the film. I certainly hope this is the case and in the next trailer, we see her playing a big part.
With all that being said, it wouldn't be a surprise given how bold Matthew Vaughn (The director and writer of both Kingsman films) has proven himself to be. But this would be too much, given how Roxy hasn't even been explored as character and for her just to be killed off, going against all that she stands for as a character and the role she is playing in this Kingsman franchise, and what she represented in the first film, it would be a massive step backwards.
I want to say something just slightly off topic. Not too long ago, I was scrolling through Instagram as I do so often, I came across a post of a product advertisement with a family playing together in one of those blow up pools, and you had the father, mother and three children. Then it showed the same advertisement but from Saudi Arabia, the mother was replaced by a ball.. This is upsetting for me.
Now I'm not saying that having a fictional character killed off in a film is the same as for example, not having the right to vote or having to cover your entire body. It just sucks that there are varying levels of oppression and non representation for any minority, not even just women.
Starting this article off, I was thinking I just wanted to talk about how I don't want Roxy from Kingsman to be killed off, not even just because she represented a rarity in film and media, but also because she's such a likeable and interesting character. I can very well think of how to further explore her character in further Kingsman films, with Eggsy being a rather reckless and funny but well meaning character and Roxy being - and the pun here is completely intentional - the 'straight man', being more focused on the job at hand.
I say all of this because I saw a video by one of those big movie talk channels on YouTube detailing the 'Seven things we want from Kingsman 2' and one of them was, more of Roxy. I peeked down in the comments section and they said "All of them apart from number (Whichever one that 'more of Roxy' one was)" followed by a few sexist remarks, and I went to town on them. I can't remember what they said but they were genuinely sexist, didn't want a woman to have any part in it. I was disgusted by it.
That's all I can say on that, and it's a lot, I am very aware. I couldn't let this one go unnoticed, I want to see this ship pointing in the right direction to help women and other minorities to be represented in more flowing and centred stories. I am also very aware that I can't single handily achieve this with this single blog post, but it was something on my mind and I just hope you enjoyed reading.
Last thing before I end this off, the friend I have constantly referred to in this article, I am not naming her but she knows who she is. I am unbelievably grateful for her contribution to this in the many ways that she has done so.
Anyway that will be it from me. Check back in September for my inevitable article on whether Roxy is killed off or not, let's hope it is the latter. In the meantime, as ever you can follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat or type your email address into the Follow By Email bar if you're on desktop. So until we meet again.
Luca.
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