I really hate those origin stories that have the hero hating her powers because she doesn’t want to be different, I mean I understand why and all but I often find the reluctant hero archetype a little frustrating.  I think I liked the movie Jumper because the main character just accepted the fact and embraced the powers.

There is an exception to every rule and this is no different.  I am entirely fine with the idea of Liz Sherman from the Hellboy/BPRD franchise rejecting her abilities.

Liz has the ability to generate and to a lessor degree control fire, she’s pyrokinetic.  Her powers didn’t appear from birth, they manifested themselves around her eleventh birthday.  The result of that initial manifestation of her fire powers left 32 dead and a city block flattened.  Amongst those dead was Liz’s family and I suggest any chance at a ‘normal’ life.

So I can see why she resents her powers and is reluctant to use them since they have cost her so much.

I think what makes this work is the commitment to the character, she doesn’t just get over it, embrace the powers and pop on a smile.  Far from it, there is a sadness around her, she is reminded of her loss whenever she lights ups.  In fact she often quits the BPRD only to eventually sullenly return.  I suspect that being at the BPRD only reinforces her difference from ‘normalcy’ being surrounded by ‘freaks’, the demonic Hellboy, aquatic Abe Sapian, lifeless Roger and bodiless Johann.

Of course the message here is that it is what is on the inside that counts, admirable message indeed but it’s still a fairly strong visual re-enforcement.

I haven’t seen Hellboy 2 yet but I really liked the way she was portrayed in the first one, I can only hope that she doesn’t smile (too much at least) in the sequel!

Lee is a a huge popular culture freak, loves comic books, science fiction, soundtracks and writes for Quit Your Day Job.

It would not be an unreasonable assumption to make about a movie called X-Men that it was a male orientated film that is driven by male characters and females are not given the same status.  It is a pleasant surprise then after examining the film that it goes to extraordinary (by comic book film standards) to create an impression of gender neutrality and equality.

I wonder if this was intentional to illustrate that it is the mutant gene that defines the characters rather than conventional ideas of gender and race.

Firstly we should examine the naming conventions used in the movie.  There are no gender specific character code names.  Storm, Wolverine, Sabretooth, Magneto, Cyclops, Professor X, Mystique, Toad etc.  In fact the one character in the group that does have or has had a gender biased name is Jean Grey who in the comic books was known for a while as Marvel Girl.  Her codename is omitted completely from the film with her character being referred to simply as Jean Grey (or Doctor Jean Grey).

The only hint then of a gender biased change to the characters is that Jean is given the Doctor role that normally would have been Hank McCoy (Beast) in the comic book.  The traditional concept of women being more nurturing or caring may have had a hand with this role going to Jean Grey however I’m not really convinced of it.  Beast was going to be in the film originally but due to the make up demands for his character he was dropped and the role had to go to someone.

The other key idea I wanted to raise in regards to this was the X-Men uniform.  Often, not always but certainly often women in comic books and comic book films are reduced to visual stimulus thanks to their skimpy and impracticable swimsuit costumes.  In X-Men the uniforms are all the same, the black leather suits that Wolverine is asked if he prefers yellow latex to.  There are only slight deviations for the characters but these are based on their mutant power rather than their appearance or gender.

I’m sure there are instances that can equally be pointed to that shows the ‘normal’ gender ideas coming through, particularly the roles of nurturing and aggression but over all if you were looking for a film that does not present its female members as anything less than equals then X-Men is not a bad place to start.

Lee is a a huge popular culture freak, loves comic books, science fiction, soundtracks and writes for Quit Your Day Job.

I’m currently working on several pieces about the women of X-Men but I couldn’t let this trailer go past.  I think this looks amazing.

Lee is a a huge popular culture freak, loves comic books, science fiction, soundtracks and writes for Quit Your Day Job.

Connie Chan Po-Chu was Hong Kong cinema’s most beloved teen idol in the sixties. She was born 1947 to impoverished parents and sold to a couple of famous Cantonese opera stars. (No, she’s not a relative of Jackie Chan who’s Chinese name is Chan Kong-Sang) Her career exemplary outlines the development of Hong Kong’s movie productions. She played in over 200 movies in many different genres: Cantonese opera, wuxia, action movies, romances, melodramas and youth musicals. (She even starred as a female James Bond in ‘Lady Bond’ and its three sequels - China’s answer to 007 movies.)

Though she quit the silver screen in 1972 she still has a strong fandom. In 1999 she came back from her retirement and has starred in different successful stage productions. In January this year she was honored with the lifetime achievement Hong Kong Drama Award - kind of Hong Kong’s oscar.

It seems like not one of her movies is available on DVD, so I was happy when I found some very interesting and odd movie clips of Connie at YouTube, just click to watch them and let yourself be carried away to Hong Kong in the sixties:

See happy pilots and flight attendants dancing merrily to a simple tune. This is the first clip I found. It made me wonder if she really worked in Hong Kong - it looks more like propaganda from Peking…

Here she is acting with cartoon characters - seems like electric irons went through times of trouble in the sixties.

See Connie Chan and Lydia Shum singing the Chinese version of the Monkee’s hit ‘I’m a believer’.

Here’s a typical Cantonese Opera movie: ‘Flag of Pearls’. The male part is played by Connie.Here are two interesting fansites: Movie-Fan Princess and in Chinese: Chan Po-Chu Net.

This article first appeared at The In-Sect 

Zep Hopper lives near Munich, Bavaria, Germany. He was born 1964, has a family and worked as a media designer for over twenty years now. Zep saw the rise and fall of DOS, Basic, the Newton, multimedia CD-ROMs and of Web 1.0 and naturally is a little sceptic about Web 2.0, but thinks the Internet is a place full of wonders and surprises. Zep says that the internet is as huge and multifaceted as humankind itself. It is as unpredictable and chaotic as life itself. It is the greatest picture that humans ever painted about being alive as homosapiens. Its main color is pop culture: The language and symbols we all learned as children. This diversity, these colors, these emotions are exhibited day by day at the In-Sects site. Seeing is believing.

Since time immemorial, or rather the 1950’s B-movies have entertained popcorn-chomping audiences all over the world. In America, these movies are usually dismissed by the more highhanded members of the public and enjoyed ravenously by the rest of us. In the 1970s, the post feminist era if you will, the female action hero was first conceived. She’s sexy, smart (ish) and takes absolutely zero crap from anybody! The first that comes to my mind is Foxy Brown, Pam Grier’s tough as nails, female crime fighter. The others are more recent: Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez in Resident Evil, the Girls from Grindhouse and a slew of others, bequeathed upon this earth by the Sci-Fi Channel, a B-movie powerhouse, if there is such a thing

The B-movie heroine is usually gorgeous and can handle any weapon handed to her. If she’s in the right kind of B-movie, she can also be part zombie or demon or even bear. At first she seems like she’d be impossible to crack, but her love for people/the environment/fluffy kittens/her man, make her human in a vague sort of Momish way. Obviously, even if she is tormented, tortured or a mutant of woman and fish, she is somehow the perfect woman.

The exception to all of this rigmarole is Michelle Rodriguez’s character in Resident Evil: Rain. She does not overplay her sexuality, she does not have special powers or even a weakness other then her basic humanity. When watching this particular film (or schlock-fest, which ever noun you prefer), she is one of the only believable characters. Though she is in the military, she wavers from her mission. She is self-sufficient, even when her best friend is killed, and when, he returns as a zombie, she must kill him again. Throughout most of the film, she is dying and forcing herself to be strong. She refuses help from everyone around her, never denying what she feels to be inevitable.

This may sound like a normal B-movie heroine, but that is only when one takes a quick and dismissive look. Miss Rodriguez plays this script to the best of her abilities and she shines. She is tough but human, bitchy yet flirtatious and independent but not sexist in it. In fact, she may be what all of those other films were looking to have, but not really achieving: a real person.

Julia is an avid over-thinker of pop culture and the b-movie. You can find her online journal here

It can be unfashionable and oh so very uncool to fall in love if you are a strong, intelligent, ass-kicking woman. But the reality is that no one can exist in an emotional vacuum. Independent and capable people still have emotions, and occasionally they even follow them.

As an officer on the Nebuchadnezzar, Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) is in the business of freeing the minds of those deemed ready to accept the truth about The Matrix. One such person who she helps ‘free’ is Thomas ‘Neo’ Anderson (Keanu Reeves), someone with which she feels an immediate bond. As it turns out Trinity was told by The Oracle that she would fall in love with a man who would be ‘The One’, a person with amazing powers. She keeps this information to herself, but with her feelings for Neo growing, she allows herself to wonder.

However, feelings as powerful as love and thoughts of soulmates cannot be kept silent for long. A critical point follows a betrayal by one of their crewmates which results in Trinity barely escaping The Matrix and leaves Neo locked in battle with Agent Smith. A battle which ends in Neo’s death. ‘Watching’ this unfold from outside The Matrix, Trinity refuses to accept he has gone and holds to her trust in what The Oracle has told her. She kisses Neo’s lifeless body and tells him that he must be The One because she loves him, and so he must get up and fight. Defying belief, Neo comes back to life, kills Smith and with that finally steps into the role of The One. Without Trinity’s connection to Neo, her refusal to accept his death, and her transference of emotional energy and strength to him, Neo would not have been able to complete this transformation and fulfil his prophecy.

Time passes and the strength of the connection between Trinity and Neo is now openly displayed. With guidance from The Oracle, Neo and the team set out to rescue The Keymaker from his imprisonment by the luxuriously rich and powerful The Merovingian. Unable to broker a satisfactory deal with The Merovingian, help comes from an unexpected corner. Persephone, The Merovingian’s wife offers The Keymaker up on one condition. All she asks is for one kiss from Neo so that she can sample the love between Neo and Trinity. As could be expected from any red-blooded woman in love with the man in question, Trinity reacts rather negatively to this arrangement and takes immediate and decisive action. Pointing her gun at Persephone she asks, ‘Why don’t you sample this instead?’

Given the importance of the trade deal at stake, the terms are agreed much to Trinity’s displeasure. Persephone takes her kiss, but she is not satisfied. She is not just interested in the physical sensation of a kiss, she wants to be able to feel the emotion of the kiss; she wants to experience love. Unfortunately then a second kiss is required, and Neo has to summon the intensity of feeling which he shares with Trinity to meet Persephone’s needs. Filled with love, longing and passion, this is a kiss that finally satisfies Persephone. In any case, with Trinity growing more irritated by the second, it is unlikely whether she would have been given another chance to ’sample’ further.

In the world of The Matrix though things are never far from taking a dramatic turn. Following a particularly gruelling battle between Neo and several Sentinels, Neo is left unconscious and in the care of Trinity. After discovering that The Merovingian is holding Neo’s mind prisoner, Trinity and Morpheus plan an attack on The Merovingian’s club. While getting inside the club proves to be relatively easy, they are soon captured and brought to see The Merovingian, who of course knows why they are there. After The Merovingian elaborately explains the details of the terms under which he will agree to Neo’s release, Trinity quickly loses patience. Driven by something more than just frustration at wasted time, in her own inimitable style she simply says, ‘I don’t have time for this shit’. With that a fight ensues and she convincingly negotiates the terms of Neo’s release by trapping The Merovingian at gunpoint.

After successfully returning Neo’s mind to his body, Trinity accompanies Neo to the Machine City on his mission to stop the war. While on their journey, Neo is forced into battle with an incredibly powerful opponent whose body is being controlled by an Agent Smith clone. While ultimately winning the fight, through the course of their duel Neo is blinded. With his sense of sight now gone, Neo depends on his other senses to guide his path, and of course is reliant on Trinity to be his eyes and provide the support he needs to continue.

Unfortunately just as they make it past the Machine City’s defences, Trinity is fatally wounded. With a kiss she says goodbye to Neo for the last time. Neo’s last personal human connection has been severed, and so he is now able to focus his mind entirely on the fulfilment of his prophecy. Even in death, Trinity provides Neo with the motivation, strength and power which he must channel to face this, his most important of tasks.

The course of love is never smooth, never easy and always challenging. Trinity demonstrates that the power and strength to be gained and to be given through the sharing of love, does not have to compromise a person’s spirit or impact on their fighting prowess. Without experiencing this love, Trinity’s life path would have been somewhat incomplete and Neo’s prophetical journey could never have been embarked upon.

Tracey is the author of Quiet Paws

It’s been 16 years since Thelma and Louise blazed their way across the big screen and the film has certainly attracted its share of analysis and critical review during that time.

One of the main reasons for the attention is that the film took what is generally considered to be a male genre, the buddy, road, action film and placed two women in the lead. More than one comparison to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid has been made in the past and quite rightly so.

Amongst the questions raised in analysing the film is that because it does have firm roots within a male dominated or themed genre does this have the effect of removing or reducing the feminine gender traits from the main characters?

Since the genre is so soaked in testosterone could Thelma and Louise with minor script adjustments just as easily been Bill and Jack?

Many have raised concerns over the use of violence and guns as empowering sources. That because the characters resort to what are typically recognised as masculine behaviour that any positive role model for women is removed.

For the longest time female orientated entertainment has been considered second class to male related entertainment. Men dominate sports, film, comics and up until recently the music scene. Take a look at the highest paid actor and then compare that to the highest paid actress.

So does having female characters as the lead of traditionally male orientated films serve simply as a token gesture? Is it the sheep in wolf’s clothing?

But does any of this even matter? Is being there half the battle? Nichelle Nichols says that at one stage she was considering leaving Star Trek as she saw her role as limited and not going anywhere. It was an encounter with Dr Martin Luther King Jr that changed her mind. When explaining to him why she was thinking of leaving he demanded that she reconsider as it was so important that she be seen there on the bridge of the Enterprise as an equal.

In a perfect world Thelma and Louise would have simply been an interesting outlaw buddy film perhaps with a little more depth than usual instead of the political gender piece it became.

So is Thelma and Louise still an important film for women? Or is it a harmful gender role piece that encourages masculinity over femininity?

I’d love to read your thoughts on the topic even if you don’t feel you have much to say. Commenting is pretty easy and very welcome!

Lee is a a huge popular culture freak, loves comic books, science fiction, soundtracks and writes for Quit Your Day Job.

In the Firefly episode “Out of Gas” we are given an insight into how each of the crew members found themselves about the spaceship Serenity.  Through flashbacks we are shown the interviewing processes that Captain Malcolm Reynolds used to decide on the right people for the right jobs.

Mal has but one thing on his mind when is comes to selecting members of his crew. Does he hire them because they are friends? Because of their gender? Because he is attracted to them? No to all three! For Mal the only thing that matters is that they are good at what they do and they’ll keep his ship running.

No better example can be found in the ships engineer/mechanic Kaywinnit Lee “Kaylee” Frye. The story of how she became the ships mechanic is encouraging in that it is her suitability to the job that gets her the job in the first place and not her looks or connections.

Ironically though it is sleeping with the previous mechanic Bester that does indeed help her get the job! Not in the way many non-browncoats* would assume though. Kaylee is obviously a sexually liberated individual illustrated by some rather frank statements in the later film Serenity. And it is this activity that she is engaged in with Bester in the engine room when Mal enters and demands to know why his ship isn’t ready to fly. Bester who clearly is in over his head tells Mal that the ship can’t be fixed right now but is proved wrong by Kaylee who tells Mal how to fix the ship.

Mal awards the position of mechanic to Kaylee on the spot after being impressed with her understanding of the engine.

It is Kaylee’s skill set that has earnt her the traditionally male orientated job of mechanic. All because she can do the job and not simply because she is cute or fulfilling a demographic!

*Fans of the show Firefly and film Serenity 

Lee is a a huge popular culture freak, loves comic books, science fiction, soundtracks and writes for Quit Your Day Job.

Last May, a collective wail of despair could be heard round the world. Brett Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand hit theaters and promptly destroyed not only a good storyline but also several good characters and Marvel mythology itself. Though many complaints were voiced (I’m still not over Rogue’s simpering end), one seemed to ring louder and more often then all the rest: ‘DARK PHOENIX WHAT?!’

The Dark Phoenix Saga is considered by many to be one of the most important story arcs in Marvel history. The story is viewed as epic and to have changed X-Men mythology. But why? Why is Jean Grey’s tale of power, sacrifice and humanity so captivating?

Jean Grey is central to the original X-Men: the first female member, an accomplishment all by itself. Marvel Girl, like she’s the only girl in the whole comic! Her power was at first insignificant, lifting a few books, reading a few minds, all rather passive. But when the Phoenix is unleashed (Uncanny X-Men #101), watch out. Suddenly Jean is the most powerful mutant alive. Those close to her are apprehensive of her powers, but say nothing. The Phoenix is said to be a creator, a source of life. As Jean, she risks her life to save all of existence. But through subtle telepathy, Jean’s darker side, all fantasy and lust, her ‘id’ if you will is set loose and the Phoenix becomes a great destructive force, killing billions. And yet while this goes on, Jean does not distinguish herself from the Phoenix. In fact when asked (in Greg Pak’s Phoenix: Endsong) whether she is Jean or the Phoenix she replies ‘I’m always Jean and always the Phoenix.’

The Dark Phoenix manifests itself in Jean only when she is under insane emotional stress: when she believes her husband, Cyclops, has been hurt or killed. This seems to indicate that she has a physical manifestation of her dark side, the part of herself (and everybody else) that she represses: the want to kill, to take revenge, to alienate others for want of power. All of these are very base human emotions. What is even more interesting is that a woman displays this ‘id’ factor. Jean goes about doing whatever she likes with no thought for consequences; she has power, why would she limit herself? Perhaps that is the reason the Dark Phoenix holds such a mass appeal. Everybody has a dark side that nobody actually wants to use, no matter how tempting it may be, because of the limits we place on ourselves. We see the Dark Phoenix as something deep within us, always whispering in our ear to key that car, say some mean thing, or even to beat the crap out of somebody.

This story arc also imposes a mythological connection: The Judgment of the Phoenix, the idea that life is not possible without death. This is a hard hitting truth, that things need to be stripped away for new things to grow. In Phoenix: Endsong, this is a central theme. Jean can see herself as the Phoenix destroying worlds over and over again, simply because they are evolutionary dead-ends. The Phoenix deals with it calmly but Jean cannot bear the emotional weight of it exclaiming ‘This is hell.’ Endsong is also when Jean Grey tells the Phoenix ‘Don’t you remember? I am you,’ indicating a deep connection with the Phoenix rather then just being it’s puppet.

The Dark Phoenix Saga concludes with Jean Grey’s suicide as does X3. Jean sees herself as a human being and the Phoenix Force (or her split-personality) as something that robs her of her humanity, because it makes her a god: limitless and heartless. The Observer states that it is more important for her to die human. And that is what essentially makes Jean Grey a hero, her ability to overcome her darker impulses and lust for power to save others. With X3 it is hard to remember that.

Julia is an avid over-thinker of pop culture and the b-movie. You can find her online journal here

*Spoilers ahead! You’ve been warned.*

Anne Hathaway is a gem isn’t she? There is something about her eyes and smile that pull me into anything she’s in, so it was mainly because she had the lead in The Devil Wears Prada that I paid good money to see it in the theater.

Anne plays Andy Sachs a young woman fresh out of college who aspires to be a great journalist. Its luck that she scores a highly coveted job at a very prestigious fashion magazine; trouble is she knows nothing about the fashion industry nor cares to. Of course that’s not the least of her worries and this is where our devil comes into the picture. Her boss Miranda Priestly (played perfectly by Meryl Streep) is a real nightmare to work for, assigning impossible task after impossible task while holding every employee to a nearly unobtainably high performance standard.

Time passes and Andy finds the more time she spends in the job, the more she comes to understand the industry and her co-workers’ obsession with it. She even grows to understand her boss Miranda who, as it turns out, is only human after all. This understanding comes at a cost. Spending all this time working causes trouble in her personal life; she loses her friends and even gets dumped by her boyfriend. Seemingly because they were jealous she would not drop her professional dreams to do what they ask of her instead. For Andy, however, this is not the end of the world, as she is given more responsibility at work, a sign she is doing well. Miranda even asks Andy to serve as her personal assistant at the biggest event in the industry: Fashion Week.

As with every job, politics come into play and Miranda is forced to cheat an old friend out of a coveted new job in order to keep her own. It’s a pretty rotten thing to do but the business world can be brutal and she had to do what it took to survive. I think this is a concept that most of us can relate to. We’ve all done things that maybe we thought we’d never have to, to help us succeed at our jobs. Anyone out there ever kiss up to that boss you hated, to get a promotion or better raise?

So, offended by Miranda’s strength of will, Andy chooses to quit. Her reason for leaving seems to be nothing more than not wanting to be perceived by the world as a bitch. Instead of choosing to be a strong, independent woman, willing to do what it takes to obtain success, she demurely backs down and runs home to all but ask permission of her ex-boyfriend to start her life over.

Overall it’s a great movie, with a good script and excellent performances on some well-rounded characters…until you get to the end, where the final message seems to be telling young women to take a step back from their personal strength, defer to your man for any decisions and most of all never, ever do anything that can cause you to be perceived as a bitch, because there is no greater sin in the female world. And that’s just so wrong. Strength can be one of a woman’s best qualities, and it just hurts my head that in this day and age anyone could hide such an insidious message in their movie.

Becca is the author of No Smoking in the Skull Cave a blog dedicated to pop culture, movies and more.