The Movie Guide for Women
  • Home
  • The Books
  • Women in Film
  • Contact
  • Book Blog
  • Excerpts
  • OASIS

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

11/25/2017

2 Comments

 
Thor: Ragnarok (2017), like a surprising number of mainstream movies, fails the Bechdel Test (a test that serves as an indicator of the active presence of women in movies). It fails this test because no woman ever speaks directly to another woman (the second of three criteria). In spite of this lack of interactions between women one woman refers to another as trash (Rachel House to Jeff Goldblum about Tessa Thompson) and a woman (Thompson) refers to 48-year-old Cate Blanchett as a hag. No woman offers another woman tea--as Benedict Cumberbatch does to Chris Hemsworth--and no woman says she would like to hug another--as Hemsworth does to Tom Hiddleston. Here women's interactions are insulting and deadly. It does not include a single congenial interaction between women. One of the two lead females is Hela, the goddess of Death (Blanchett). She is portrayed as a great threat to men--in keeping with a recent trend (also seen in The Mummy, 2017, The Last Witch Hunter, 2015, etc.). Indeed, she kills dozens of men before our eyes and attempts to kill her two brothers. Moreover, her costume and poses are sexualized, as shown in the picture below.

In terms of entertainment for women
Thor: Ragnarok has very little to offer. It is regressive. There are movies from the 1980s that are more progressive and include more positive portrayals of women (e.g. Nine to Five, 1980). Despite this serious drawback Thor: Ragnarok made over US$850 million at the worldwide box office. In the second decade of the 21st century women deserve much more from a mainstream movie.

© 2017 Alline Cormier
2 Comments

    Author

    Canadian feminist and cinephile on the verge of publishing my film guide for women and my opus. My coffee table book about women,
    What is a Woman?,
    ​is now available at Blurb.ca.
    ​I have also posted some related movie clips on my YouTube channel (ACPicks), and you can follow me on Spinster: 
    @AllineCormier@spinster.xyz. I was locked out of Twitter 
    (​@AllineCormier) for five months before receiving an apology (alternate account: ACPicks1). 

    Picture

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Site powered by Weebly. Managed by Web Hosting Canada
  • Home
  • The Books
  • Women in Film
  • Contact
  • Book Blog
  • Excerpts
  • OASIS