Yeah, women being cast as warriors is totally unrealistic...
Star Wars Page 9
Quote: zooo @ 17th April 2015, 2:36 PM BSTI'm sure everything will be okay.
Maybe she'll have a scene where she's tied up and wearing a bikini and you can feel that the world is making sense again.
Odd that, how I have not made any implications regarding your own person. 
Quote: Tony Cowards @ 17th April 2015, 3:10 PM BSTYeah, women being cast as warriors is totally unrealistic...
How silly of me. I forgot that barely any men took part in World War Two.
And that it was largely fought hand to hand or with swords.
Meanwhile, let us not forget Star Wars here.... 
Quote: Gussie Fink Nottle @ 17th April 2015, 3:26 PM BSTOdd that, how I have not made any implications regarding your own person.
Eh? I didn't say you were in a bikini.
But yes, back to Star Wars by all means.
Quote: Gussie Fink Nottle @ 17th April 2015, 12:12 PM BSTHere's why I'd prefer a Jedi knight to a Jedi dame.
(I don't actually think I'm alone in that.)The role reversal switcheroo may be an interesting device, but once it becomes standard fare it becomes rather dreary. It's effectively a standard film trope these days.
In that regard, I think there is an element of patronisation which has taken hold and which goes way further than in the days of the unchallenged patriarchy.
So just as the men taking off their tops is sexy and enthralling, whereas the women doing the same is sleazy and exploitative, so now no girl needs James Bond or - in this case - a Jedi to come to her rescue anymore. What once was playing with an audience's expectation, has now become the default setting.
Whatever the number of women people know who might be able to set up island habitats, the proportion of ass-kicking action ladies in the real world is actually very small. Tiny.
Sure, the proportion of he-men among the male population also has its limits, but it is fairly sizeable.Having been called into standing up for the odd damsel in distress myself once in a while, I know that there are not too many women who'll fight their way out of trouble with some Matrix slow-mo karate moves.
The ubiquitous film trope of high kicking teenage girl is rather scarce on the ground.So yes, following recent trends, I obviously expected the ladies in the new Star Wars 'not to need saving anymore', as that has fallen from current favour.
But the main protagonist in what is essentially a sword wielding epic being yet another slip of a girl I find tedious.
So, literally thousands and thousands of stories where strong men rescue women is okay, but when a few films reverse this dynamic it becomes boring an clichéd?
Quote: Tony Cowards @ 17th April 2015, 6:41 PM BSTSo, literally thousands and thousands of stories where strong men rescue women is okay, but when a few films reverse this dynamic it becomes boring an clichéd?
Interesting.
Mention high kicking film girlies with pony tails being preposterous and you have this.
Post about a sitcom in another string. Nothing. Welcome to the comedy forum!
Ah well, if this is the hot issue of the day, so be it.
The strength of your reaction, Tony, seems to suggest to me this isn't really about an opinion regarding action films or TV series, but that I'm falling down in my duty to be a 'modern man' and accept some god-given pc mantra.
But I can't help it. I feel this phenomenon is perfectly ridiculous.
In fact, to me at times it falls into the territory of unwitting humour.
Anyone here seen Kate Blanchet riding across the battle field in 'Robin Hood' in full armour?
Anyone at all raise an eyebrow?
And Keira Knightley again is a totally believable bruiser, right?
It has gone way beyond a few movies, as you claim. Far more, by now the waif warrior has become standard fair. You'll find her in most, if not all action movies and action TV.
What once was Buffy and Lara Croft has morphed into some bizarre expression of feminist wish fulfilment.
Apparently the female of the species has no physical disadvantage toward the male at all.
This seems to run counter to all of human history. But so what.
However, just as you have weight divisions in martial arts for a reason, in fighting size does actually count for something.
The idea of myriad catwalk girls taking out armies of heavyweight male henchmen with roundhouse kicks has got beyond tiring.
I contend that the battling pinup is these days' most overused trope of them all.
Suspension of disbelief is a very delicate affair.
Have Arnold Schwarzenegger take on Dolph Lundgren and folks will buy it.
Have it be Sylvester Stallone and people will begin to strain. 
Have it be Miley Cyrus and the likes of me will laugh out loud.
But I feel that anyone who is claiming not to have noticed a marked shift in action movies in this regard over the last decade or more is perhaps not being completely straight forward.
In a way, I believe all these tight clad gladiatrices almost represent a kind of fetish by now.
As for me, when I saw the trailer, I groaned.
I've got a bad feeling about this
Quote: Steve Sunshine @ 17th April 2015, 9:36 PM BSTI've got a bad feeling about this
Shouldn't that be?
'A bad feeling about this I have.'
Quote: Gussie Fink Nottle @ 17th April 2015, 9:29 PM BSTI contend that the battling pinup is these days' most overused trope of them all.
Suspension of disbelief is a very delicate affair.
One, really, the "battling pinup" is more overused than the "strong man rescues weaker woman" trope? I must've forgotten all those "woman warrior rescues the prince from the tower" fairytales from my childhood.
Second, suspension of disbelief is a funny one, you're prepared to accept The Force, Aliens, spaceships making sound in space, lightsabres, laser cannons, ice worlds, desert worlds, faster-than-light travel, etc, etc, but a kick-ass female jedi is a step too far?
As for this being a "hot topic", I'm not really that bothered and when I watched the trailer it hadn't even occurred to me that the main character was possibly a woman. In fact I'm amazed that this could possibly even be an issue.
Anyway, have a good day.
Are we talking about the same trailer? I saw a woman hold her hand out to assist a man in getting up. From the level of discussion here, I had expected her to have single-handedly battled her way through legions of Sith Lords whilst carrying a helpless man in a furry G string on her back.
Quote: Nogget @ 18th April 2015, 9:12 AM BSTAre we talking about the same trailer? I saw a woman hold her hand out to assist a man in getting up. From the level of discussion here, I had expected her to have single-handedly battled her way through legions of Sith Lords whilst carrying a helpless man in a furry G string on her back.
I freeze framed the trailer in a few places and the bit where all the Stormtroopers look round appears to be Hoth.
There's snowy landscapes in the background anyway.
Quote: Ben @ 18th April 2015, 1:18 PM BSTI freeze framed the trailer in a few places and the bit where all the Stormtroopers look round appears to be Hoth.
There's snowy landscapes in the background anyway.
It's been confirmed that the desert planet in the trailer is NOT Tatooine, so my guess would be that the ice planet is not Hoth but a new planet we've not seen before.
I remember way back in 1999 watching the first trailer for The Phantom Menace and thinking it looked just like the original Star Wars trilogy.
However, I just rewatched the trailer and it looks bloody awful.
The latest trailers for The Force Awakens, however, genuinely do look like they've captured the magic of the original trilogy.
Let's hope I'm not apologising for this in another 16 years.
Quote: Nogget @ 18th April 2015, 9:12 AM BSTAre we talking about the same trailer? I saw a woman hold her hand out to assist a man in getting up. From the level of discussion here, I had expected her to have single-handedly battled her way through legions of Sith Lords whilst carrying a helpless man in a furry G string on her back.
Well, Nogget, I did ask whether I was the only one to see it this way.
I'm interested to learn if it really is just me.
Ok, third time lucky. Let me watch it again.
So 1:00 Luke Skywalker announces, 'You have that power too.'
At 1:09 we have the girl running toward camera, the black guy close behind.
At 1:13 we have close up on the girl's face looking up.
At 1:16 we have black guy in storm trooper outfit.
At 1:22 we have another close up on the girl, followed by a hand reaching out to the black guy, which might or might not be hers.
But clearly, as this clip goes, she is the most prominent protagonist.
Put together with Skywalker's 'You have that power too,' the assumption is a fair one that she is Skywalker's daughter and is to take over from dad. No?
If this simply a random collection of characters, how come the lady appears centre stage?
To me the message of the clip seems obvious. Am I merely imagining things, or does someone else see it too?
I read it that she is Skywalker Jr and the heroine to be.
Anyone?
Quote: Gussie Fink Nottle @ 18th April 2015, 9:56 PM BSTBut clearly, as this clip goes, she is the most prominent protagonist.
Put together with Skywalker's 'You have that power too,' the assumption is a fair one that she is Skywalker's daughter and is to take over from dad. No?
If you're right, then she has 'The Force', which is a form of omnipotence that makes even the 2' tall, 900 year-old Yoda practically invincible, something which doesn't seem to bother you; and yet you can't get on with imagining that a young woman could be equally strong, when given these magic powers?
I assume you can't watch anything featuring powerful witches?
I will admit that I find your aptly-named 'waif warriors' terribly boring, but I also find the make versions boring, too.