Women only Talk About Men
We forgot who came up with it, but we once heard a rule about evaluating whether or not how women are portrayed in movies, film or TV was realistic. It went something like this:
If two or more women are in a scene and they only talk about men, it’s no good.
At first glance, it seems fairly simplistic. But take a look at all the shows, movies or books where women talking about men (or more specifically, their romantic interests or partners) takes up a lot of the dialogue. Jane Austin? Sex and the City? Pretty much any romantic comedy ever made?
Where are the conversations about art or politics or the lesser works of Ovid? Of course women have these conversations in real life, but they seem to be far less represented in fiction and film. Think about all the TV shows, movies and books where every conversation is about men; finding them, looking at them, evaluating them, living with them, thinking about them, etc.
It was also pointed out that while this may be how women are portrayed, it may not be far from the truth. Do women spend more time talking about relationships than men? Yes. Do they spend more time talking in general? Perhaps. Is the majority of that time spent talking about men? More importantly, is that what they think about? Is the conversation merely an expression of their inner thoughts?
A lot of women respond negatively to these ideas. But that doesn’t mean they are false, does it? And if they are true, why is that a negative thing?
(Photo courtesy idoherty81’s Flickr page, through Creative Commons. Thanks, idoherty81!)