Be Your Own Hero, Damnit!

It’s no secret that men dominate the film industry. Many of the biggest blockbusters are jam-packed with explosions, violence, and muscly male leads in major power positions. Sure there are women. Busty and leggy females in spandex playing the sexy love interest of the male lead whose roles are largely shallow and offer little insight into what’s going on in their minds. There’s nothing wrong with a busty and leggy woman. Heck, more power to you if you’ve got the whole sexy package, but that’s not all any woman has to offer. But in a male-dominated media industry, it’s sometimes difficult to see women as more than just objects of sexual desire. It’s become the culture of society to accept these patriarchal and frankly archaic gender roles set forth by the media. However, recently there’s been a lot of buzz in the motion picture industry about a recent blockbuster featuring two female leads that’s trouncing the male-centric summer flicks.

The Heat was released this year on June 28 and stars female powerhouses Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy. Written by female screenwriter Katie Dippold and directed by Paul Feig, The Heat tells the story of “an uptight FBI Special Agent paired with a foul-mouthed Boston cop to take down a ruthless drug lord” (IMDB). According to a recent article published in The Huffington Post entitled “Women in Film: ‘The Heat is on,’” the film earned double its production budget of $43 million in just its first ten days in theaters, squashing the man meat-driven films this summer. Recent releases Lone Ranger (Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer), White House Down (Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx), and After Earth (Jaden Smith and Will Smith) all tanked upon release despite the number of award-winning actors filling the roles.

By placing two females in the typical “guy roles” as powerful cops and FBI agents, the overwhelming success that The Heat has had proves the point that women have been trying to make for generations: Anything he can do, she can do better… or at least just as well. This is the one of most important lessons a movie can teach. Films have the power to reach millions of people, shaping the way viewers perceive not only their own roles in the world, but others’ as well. The mindset the male-dominated media has created by placing men in powerful roles and women in “lesser” ones is obviously damaging to society as a whole. But what about the children? Young girls learn by age three or four that men are the cops, the world-savers, and women are solely love interests, mothers, and damsels-in-distress shouting, “I need a hero!” (Personally, I just want to shake those women and shout, “BE YOUR OWN HERO, DAMNIT!”).

The media shouldn’t hold such power over self-perceptions, but as long as it does, it’s time for the playing field to be leveled. Bring on the female power leads! It’s time girls starting seeing themselves as the cops, the heroines, the spies, the surgeons, and maybe the characters that save others along the way.

Sarah Rosen

Lead Copy Editor Scr ’16