If you keep up with entertainment news, I’m sure you’ve heard about the Twitter battle between Patty Jenkins, the director of Wonder Woman, and James Cameron, the director of Avatar and Titanic, about the portrayal of female characters in movies. It began with Cameron stating in a Guardian interview that Wonder Woman was a step back in promoting equality for woman in entertainment because Gal Gadot is a beautiful actress.
As crazy as it is hearing a male director telling a woman director how to portray women in film, let’s take a step back and ask ourselves: what makes a strong, female character?
Some people take this as a literal interpretation and say that strong woman are women who are strong. This usually translates to very masculine characteristics, characteristics that people today are identifying as a part of toxic masculinity. Cameron promotes his own character, Sarah Connor from the Terminator franchise, as a justification for this, stating she isn’t a beauty icon. Instead, Sarah Connor is a kick-butt action heroine. But does this make her a strong character?
If you judge a woman based off masculinity, then you don’t really see her as a woman to begin with. Instead, there is a disconnect between a woman as a character and a woman as an object. While Cameron acknowledges the male-gaze in Hollywood cinema, he interprets non-objectified women as a male stand in. I could go on about film theory and the male gaze, but there is one point that Cameron and other male directors don’t understand, and it is this: we need to stop judging women by their masculine personalities as a type of validation for their worth in media and entertainment.
Women have feelings and emotions. They can be sad, happy, and angry. The stoic look of many action heroes are toxic enough, and even boring. If a woman is allowed to kick butt, why can’t she be allowed to cry without it being seen as weak?
This brings me to another strong female character, who strangely enough, has ties to James Cameron. This woman is Ripley from the Alien franchise.
While the first film was directed by Ridley Scott, Cameron directed the sequel Aliens, and turned what began as a horror series and switched it to action. Ripley’s strength as a character comes from not only her ability to shoot a gun and take command, but from her connection to the little girl, Newt. Ripley’s strength comes from motherly love and instinct, and the film even ends with a battle of mothers between Ripley and the alien queen. Never is her protective nature over Newt seen as weak. It guides her through the film and makes her strong. I’m surprised Cameron didn’t bother bringing up Ripley in his defense, because Ripley would easily side with Patty Jenkins.
A female character’s strength shouldn’t be based off of her masculine qualities. Let women fight, cry, and laugh. Let women love and hate. This is why Wonder Woman was great. In the words of the original Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter, James Cameron needs to stop. If your worth of women is based off how masculine she can be, then you don’t know how strong a woman really can be.
