Yeah, I feel the same way about all the internalized misogyny in this movie too, dude.
Chastity Bites
We were scrolling through Amazon,, watching the trailers of terrible looking movies (because that is the sort of thing we do for fun,) when we came across this truly execrable cover art:
I mean- awful, right? So we watched the trailer, and...it did not look bad. at all. It had Allison Scagliotti in it, who I had enjoyed in Warehouse 13. We thought it might be fun to watch after "Once Bitten" since we have similar themes presented at different times. We expected it would be way better than "Once Bitten" We were hoping for a funny and feminist film. And then we watched it, and...
Oh you were so so disappointing, Chastity Bites. Now, so many of us have gone through that "I'm not like other girls!" stage. Internalized misogyny is a helluva thing. We have felt secretly superior because we weren't that into makeup, or boys, or...whatever. A lot of that tends to be a useless defense mechanism against the attitudes and treatment we see towards women/femmes in our society. But hopefully, we outgrow that and realize that even if we have different interests, other women can be awesome. Liking makeup doesn't mean you are shallow. Calling other women "sluts" is shit behavior and perpetuates misogyny. And running like hell from anything coded "feminine" unfortunately does not mean you will not also be subject to the exact same rain of crap from the patriarchy. Skills coded "feminine" are not less-than those coded "masculine." Even Xena, Warrior Princess could do embroidery, for hell's sake.
Our main character oozes her own sense of superiority over the "shallow, slutty, popular" girls. Despite the fact that this movie thinks it is skewering the whole "abstinence education" thing, there is slut shaming like whoa. Having sex is okay if you can spout feminist philosophy while you're doing it, apparently. (Oh, and your life is in danger. That too. )
The dialogue from the "popular" teenagers is painful and unrealistic. I'm pretty sure whoever wrote it was yelling at kids to Get Off Their Lawn in between looking up slang on urban dictionary. Sure, teenagers can be mean and teenagers can be selfish and self-absorbed. I get that. (For that matter, adults can be mean and selfish and self absorbed.) But they are also human beings with all the complexity that brings, and if you want to write them successfully, even if they are the villains, you need to realize that. (And they are not even the true villains of the piece, just convenient victims.)
There are just so many damaging tropes - we have a lonely, single, desperate cat lady. (Who dies. I'm not sure how you write that scene and still think you have pretensions to feminism.)
We have a giggling group of "mean girls" with stereotypically feminine interests.(Yup. Every single one of them dies. every. single. one. But they are not "cool" like our main character, so we are very obviously not supposed to care. In fact, it's fairly obvious that this movie wants us to think they "deserved" their fate, which...victim blaming much?)
There is a line from the main character about perpetuating the Madonna/Whore complex, but - this entire movie is basically just another form of that. If you are smart and snarky (especially about the mean girls) you get to live. If not, you apparently deserve to die. The whole thing ends up coming across more like a revenge fantasy against the girls who were mean to you in junior high or high school than any sort of feminist statement. But hey, we have the main character strut about in a "this is what a feminist looks like" shirt, and quote Simone de Beauvoir so it's all good, right? (barf)
Our main character oozes her own sense of superiority over the "shallow, slutty, popular" girls. Despite the fact that this movie thinks it is skewering the whole "abstinence education" thing, there is slut shaming like whoa. Having sex is okay if you can spout feminist philosophy while you're doing it, apparently. (Oh, and your life is in danger. That too. )
The dialogue from the "popular" teenagers is painful and unrealistic. I'm pretty sure whoever wrote it was yelling at kids to Get Off Their Lawn in between looking up slang on urban dictionary. Sure, teenagers can be mean and teenagers can be selfish and self-absorbed. I get that. (For that matter, adults can be mean and selfish and self absorbed.) But they are also human beings with all the complexity that brings, and if you want to write them successfully, even if they are the villains, you need to realize that. (And they are not even the true villains of the piece, just convenient victims.)
There are just so many damaging tropes - we have a lonely, single, desperate cat lady. (Who dies. I'm not sure how you write that scene and still think you have pretensions to feminism.)
We have a giggling group of "mean girls" with stereotypically feminine interests.(Yup. Every single one of them dies. every. single. one. But they are not "cool" like our main character, so we are very obviously not supposed to care. In fact, it's fairly obvious that this movie wants us to think they "deserved" their fate, which...victim blaming much?)
There is a line from the main character about perpetuating the Madonna/Whore complex, but - this entire movie is basically just another form of that. If you are smart and snarky (especially about the mean girls) you get to live. If not, you apparently deserve to die. The whole thing ends up coming across more like a revenge fantasy against the girls who were mean to you in junior high or high school than any sort of feminist statement. But hey, we have the main character strut about in a "this is what a feminist looks like" shirt, and quote Simone de Beauvoir so it's all good, right? (barf)
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