Were you stranded in a big city full of zombies, it would be handy to have at least one SWAT team sniper in your gang. And once you've got two, the testosterone is practically contagious! Was the group machisimo responsible for any of the character deaths? And what happened to Steven -- was his carelessness driven by a desire to protect Fran? A need to be one of the boys?
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The death of the SWAT team member was due to individual machismo. He didn't seem as prone to group machismo, but he had some personal issues.
And I think Steven's carelessness was due to a need to be one of the boys, and a desire to seem manly to Fran.
I sometimes wondered whether Romero was making fun of sexist, patronizing guys the same way he was pointing fun at racists. He may have been a little.
But the doe-eyed blonde was sort of hapless. When the zombie was approaching at the hangar and Steve kept telling her to run (same scene where the sharpshooters were pushing him aside and chastising him), she just stood, frozen in fear like a frightened girl. Linda Hamilton in Terminator Two would have blasted every undead mutha-fucka in the place!
Fran's a big step up from the WASP in "Night." She went into a catatonic state as soon as she found lead character Ben and let him do everything. I thought Fran was supposed to be a more liberated woman, demanding a say in matters and wanting to learn to fly the helicopter.
Well, the first film was in 1968 and the second (ours) in 1978. The sistahood surely made a few strides in that decade. (Although, I'm sure you saw the latest study everyone's talking about showing women still make between 69 cents and 80 cents for every $1 that a man of equal experience makes. Even OUR editorial board was pissed off about that).
And I believe there was some significance obviously to showing her as the principled one at the news station. She refused to lie to the public about the rescue centers. That established her right away as the moral center.
I had mixed feelings about Fran. She was hapless and doe-eyed, as kc aptly put it. I was rooting against her for a while there, especially after she just stood there gaping as Steven was telling her to run. She did redeem herself somewhat by demanding to be included in the plans and such.
Steven felt out-machoed by the SWAT guys, I think. Like after he repeatedly failed to shoot any zombies and Roger had to step in, that was emasculating. Steve worked at a TV station; he obviously wasn't cut out for this paramilitary stuff, but he kept trying to be a cowboy so he wouldn't be shown up.
Erin, I enjoy how you nurture an active hostility toward pansy women. I believe you have mentioned on other occasions that you were "rooting against" female characters for fulfilling the stereotype of the weak, helpless woman — as though such types clearly must be culled from the sistahood. Hehe. You rock.
I just made a comment and deleted it, because I think it could be taken the wrong way -- it looked sexist.
Let me try to express myself more clearly. I know that gender discrimination exists and is pervasive, especially with older male bosses (although I'm sure some younger male bosses and some female bosses are also among those who think, consciously or subconsciously, that women deserve less pay or don't belong in certain jobs).
That being said, after reading about this study and some other studies, the optimist in me hopes that the disparity is less than this study showed, and it may be quite a bit less (some studies have shown there is no gender discrimination in pay, but I know those studies must be biased, just based on what sexism I have personally witnessed).
So while we still need to work for equality, I'm hoping that things aren't as bad as the AAUW study showed. The other studies I've seen, plus my personal experience with men and women in the education and legal fields leads me to believe that the AAUW study didn't do quite enough normalization for other variables. The AAUW study showed a 25% disparity, and I'm hoping it's more like 5%, but I know it's likely to be at least a little higher than that.
If this comment still looks sexist, let me know and I'll try to explain myself better. You all know I'm not sexist, so I hope this comment doesn't look sexist to you.
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