Maybe I’m just too autistic to understand, but why are all these “gender-swapped” movies going from men to women leads?
I understand that there are far more male-led movies to pick from, but I have not seen any movies that “go the other way”.
Personally I think going in with the intention of gender swapping the male roles for the sake of gender swapping alone is a terrible premise. And the thought of watching The Sound of Music but with a male version of Maria is just weird. Or a male in the lead of Alien.
Granted, there are a lot of movies where the entire direction of the story, while not dependent on the person’s gender, they aren’t conducive to the opposite. Using my own example, Maria was a nun who became a governess, who became a step-mother. The swapped version would have to be a priest who became a (I don’t know if there’s a name for a male version?) live-in childcare provider, who became a step father. While not impossible, or even that wild to think about, it’s not typical.
Is it just one of those “it’s good to have representation” things? Like I personally know someone who thought black people couldn’t be royalty because until they saw princess and the frog, there wasn’t exactly a lot of diversity in Disney’s princess catalogue (with apologies to Mulan and Pocahontas) so clearly there is something to be said about representation in media.
I am definitely over thinking it, but I really don’t get why anyone wants, or thinks audiences want, gender swapped stories from 20/40/60+ years ago.
Thank you for coming to my TEDx Talk. Sorry you can’t get the last 3 minutes back.
Fun fact, the alien script was written without specified genders in any of the roles so it could have just as easily had a male lead or anything really.
because they’re talentless hacks that can’t come up with original content (or just refuse to pay people who can), same reason behind every reboot/remake
It’s because it is now considered (more) socially acceptable for women to take an interest in historically masculine things/exhibit feminine behaviour. You do not need to be a gay woman to appreciate a film about a “tomboy”. This doesn’t work the other way around though, no one is really interested in films about boys/men doing historically feminine things/exhibiting feminine qualities. It’s considered gay and weird/creepy, unless it’s specifically played for laughs.
Like think about any famous film about a girl or a woman and then imagine if it would be successful with a male lead. It probably wouldn’t, unless you massively overhaul the character and plot.
I also don’t get it, and don’t like it. Then again I don’t like reboots either like at all (exception, the KOTH continuation, they’re doing alright).
Part of what made Alien so good is specifically that they had a woman in a typically-male role, Action Hero, but also it was an original movie.
To use an example you provided, I have no problem with Princess and the Frog, not exactly an original concept being based on The Brother’s Grimm style stuff, but it draws from that well for inspiration and at least adds some originality, and representation is for sure important, I’m all for it! Whereas rebooting The Little Mermaid with a race-swapped Ariel is just a reboot with race swapping for good boy points and virtue signaling. Instead I’d much prefer a movie in what we could consider the expanded Little Mermaid universe that featured a black lead mermaid on some new adventure, maybe Ariel is old or dead or maybe not and they’re bffs, maybe Ariel hasn’t even been born and some Greek shit is happening on the mainland idk, but the possibilities are literally endless instead of “rerun same script but swap X.”
(And let me be clear it’s not entirely about the demographic-swapping, I hate live action reboots, reboots that don’t have the same production staff, etc. Oddly the only “change” that isn’t always terrible is cartoonification of live action things, sometimes that actually works like Toxic Crusaders.
KOTH gets a pass because they’re doing the best they can, most OG members are back except the dead ones, the new animation isn’t the best but the old way of cell animation is dead and lost, and the last fully cell animated episode was in season 8 anyway.)
I just want new and good, and preferably a return to practical effects.
Maybe I’m just too autistic to understand, but why are all these “gender-swapped” movies going from men to women leads?
I understand that there are far more male-led movies to pick from, but I have not seen any movies that “go the other way”.
Personally I think going in with the intention of gender swapping the male roles for the sake of gender swapping alone is a terrible premise. And the thought of watching The Sound of Music but with a male version of Maria is just weird. Or a male in the lead of Alien.
Granted, there are a lot of movies where the entire direction of the story, while not dependent on the person’s gender, they aren’t conducive to the opposite. Using my own example, Maria was a nun who became a governess, who became a step-mother. The swapped version would have to be a priest who became a (I don’t know if there’s a name for a male version?) live-in childcare provider, who became a step father. While not impossible, or even that wild to think about, it’s not typical.
Is it just one of those “it’s good to have representation” things? Like I personally know someone who thought black people couldn’t be royalty because until they saw princess and the frog, there wasn’t exactly a lot of diversity in Disney’s princess catalogue (with apologies to Mulan and Pocahontas) so clearly there is something to be said about representation in media.
I am definitely over thinking it, but I really don’t get why anyone wants, or thinks audiences want, gender swapped stories from 20/40/60+ years ago.
Thank you for coming to my TEDx Talk. Sorry you can’t get the last 3 minutes back.
Fun fact, the alien script was written without specified genders in any of the roles so it could have just as easily had a male lead or anything really.
because they’re talentless hacks that can’t come up with original content (or just refuse to pay people who can), same reason behind every reboot/remake
It’s because it is now considered (more) socially acceptable for women to take an interest in historically masculine things/exhibit feminine behaviour. You do not need to be a gay woman to appreciate a film about a “tomboy”. This doesn’t work the other way around though, no one is really interested in films about boys/men doing historically feminine things/exhibiting feminine qualities. It’s considered gay and weird/creepy, unless it’s specifically played for laughs.
Like think about any famous film about a girl or a woman and then imagine if it would be successful with a male lead. It probably wouldn’t, unless you massively overhaul the character and plot.
I also don’t get it, and don’t like it. Then again I don’t like reboots either like at all (exception, the KOTH continuation, they’re doing alright).
Part of what made Alien so good is specifically that they had a woman in a typically-male role, Action Hero, but also it was an original movie.
To use an example you provided, I have no problem with Princess and the Frog, not exactly an original concept being based on The Brother’s Grimm style stuff, but it draws from that well for inspiration and at least adds some originality, and representation is for sure important, I’m all for it! Whereas rebooting The Little Mermaid with a race-swapped Ariel is just a reboot with race swapping for good boy points and virtue signaling. Instead I’d much prefer a movie in what we could consider the expanded Little Mermaid universe that featured a black lead mermaid on some new adventure, maybe Ariel is old or dead or maybe not and they’re bffs, maybe Ariel hasn’t even been born and some Greek shit is happening on the mainland idk, but the possibilities are literally endless instead of “rerun same script but swap X.”
(And let me be clear it’s not entirely about the demographic-swapping, I hate live action reboots, reboots that don’t have the same production staff, etc. Oddly the only “change” that isn’t always terrible is cartoonification of live action things, sometimes that actually works like Toxic Crusaders.
KOTH gets a pass because they’re doing the best they can, most OG members are back except the dead ones, the new animation isn’t the best but the old way of cell animation is dead and lost, and the last fully cell animated episode was in season 8 anyway.)
I just want new and good, and preferably a return to practical effects.
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