Jurassic World
I was pumped to see Jurassic World. Because I love Jurassic Park, special effect monsters and:
But enough male objectification. I actually was pretty pleased in feminist terms while I watched the film--happy that Claire runs the park, that she has a lady assistant, that Claire had a sister and their conversation passed the Bechdel test, and that there were tons of close ups of little girls thrilled to be hanging out with stegosauruses. But when I got home the internet informed me that Jurassic World was really sexist.
The Great Heel Debate
The internet is up in arms about Claire's heels. The heels! How could a woman wear heels that whole time! Running for her life! Unleashing a T-Rex in heels! Nude heels! Heels in the jungle! Heels in the plains. Heels on slick cobblestone. What foolish heels!
I believe the heels are not so much a symbol for sexism as they represent a bunch of unfired Chekovian guns for Claire's character.
Anton Chekhov on writing:
"Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there."
The heels could have been engaged (or "fired") in a couple of ways.
...And then to prove that the heels aren't insensible, but helpful:
2. Claire stabs a raptor in the eye with a heel. Or a a bird grabs her by the shoe and by squirming out of the shoe she is able to escape.
OR
1. Owen asks Claire if she's really going to wear the heels.
...And then to prove that Claire is growing and understanding the power of nature:
2. Claire takes the sneakers off a dead man's feet to replace her heels. Or Claire steals a pair of hilarious light-up dinosaur shoes from one of the wrecked clothing stands. Or while running, Claire takes a moment to kick off her shoes.
OR
1. Owen asks Claire if she's really going to wear the heels.
...And then to prove that Owen loves Claire:
2. Claire puts on some sneakers, but at the end of the movie Owen gives her the heels back, having carried them secretly the whole film.
OR
1. Owen asks Claire if she is really going to wear the heels.
...And To make an awesome reference to Jurassic Park:
2. Claire finds a '90s pair of gym shoes when they explore the old park.
OR
1. Owen asks Clarie if she is is really going to wear the heels.
...And then to prove that women are helpless and stupid for trying to achieve fashion standards.
2. Claire breaks a heel while running and Owen has to pick her up and carry her.
But instead, the writers drew our attention to the heels, but never pulled the heel trigger. And while I rarely argue for meaninglessness of symbols in movies, sometimes a heel is just a heel. If the writers weren't actually trying to say anything, which I don't think they were, and she was just a woman wearing heels, you can argue they were sexist or feminist either way and be correct.
Unfortunately, the heels weren't the only rifle left unfired. And if the writers had simply followed through on a few of the characteristics they had set up for Claire, she would have seemed less like a "stiff" (Joss Whedon's Twitter description of Claire).
Claire brought an itinerary to her first date with Owen (before the movie takes place), and it's one of the reasons Owen makes fun of her. Why couldn't Claire later have a useful itinerary to taking down the Idominus Rex? Claire runs Jurassic World. Why couldn't her intimate knowledge of secret tunnels be the key to saving everyone in the park?
Life Force (LF) and the Stiff (S)
Months before the film's release, Joss Whedon took to Twitter with "She's a stiff. He's a life force-really?" And although JW intuited all of that from a Jurassic World clip the movie is full of evidence to prove his case.
LF Owen has a natural connection to people and animals; he even helps ease a brachiosaurs's passing.
S Claire can't remember her nephews' ages, isn't sure if she wants kids, and thinks in dollar signs.
LF With just his arms out and a stern look, Owen can control a group of dangerous, cunning, flesh-eating velociraptors.
S Claire fails to run the park with intelligence again and again by underestimating the danger into which Indominus Rex has placed the staff and guests.
LF Owen and his motorcycle are always ready to go off roads.
S She drives her nice car on nicely paved roads.
But being connected to nature and the animals from the start of the film means Owen doesn't learn anything by the time the credits roll.
Which means that Jurassic World is really Claire's story. A protagonist needs to change throughout a movie, to learn. Claire learns to shoot a gun in order to defend the people she loves. She faces death multiple times, even taunting it when she sets *spoiler alert* to lets the T-Rex out of its cage.
However, I do have to disagree with the argument that Claire's emotional journey is that of a stereotypical "stiff" female. Her path, from not knowing her nephews to having a deep connection with Zach and Gray is an arc identical to Dr. Alan Grant's emotional journey in Jurassic World. And Dr. Grant didn't even run the park, he was just a semi-notable archeologist! Similarly, is there a more archetypal male movie character than the guy-who-works-too-much-and-takes-a-whole-movie-to-learn-that-family-is-what-counts? The sheer fact that a woman gets to have that discovery is remarkable in and of itself.
And then the wheel of sexism spins again, and I am left to wonder if female characters only get to be leads when they are etched into male grooves? This is one of the biggest questions of female narratives and frankly, Jurassic World is hardly worthy of it. Instead, here are the:
Sexism Stats
-The four main characters: Owen, Claire, Zach, and Gray, embody the classic film 3:1 ratio of males to females.
-The choice to make the two children, Zach and Gray, two boys seems inevitable. Because Jurassic Park's kids were a girl and a boy and Jurassic World needed to make a different choice so the movies weren't exactly the same. But having two girls as sisters would be ridiculous, right?
-Karen, Zach and Gray's mother, openly weeps when she finds out that her sons aren't with her aunt. If it weren't for the boardroom behind her, she would be the perfect hysterical woman/mother.
-Zara, Claire's high-powered, model-esque assistant, endures the ultimate punishment for not keeping track of Zach and Gray by *spoiler alert* getting eaten by a bird who gets eaten by the mammoth water-dinosaur. All this for a woman who was asked to babysit two kids when I'm guessing that wasn't really in the job description.
-While Zara, Zach and Gray's mother; Claire's right hand woman; and Zach's girlfriend are side characters with distinct voices and purpose, the subplots, the rest of the park, and the speaking roles are dominated by men. Besides Owen, Zach, and Gray we have: The dinosaur feeder? Male. Owen's dinosaur trainer friend? Male. The security guard who gets eaten? Male. The army guy who wants to take the velociraptors? Male. The army guy's assistant? Male. The guy own owns the park? Male. The guy who runs the lab that created the dinosaur? Male. The other control room operator? Male. The guy who ran the gyro sphere attraction? Male. The guy who is in charge of animal control? Male. The security guard with the bloody hand who warns Claire to escape? Male. The boys also have a dad. He is Male.
(I'm not counting a few computer voices.)
Total ratio of people I can remember (and memory is faulty) in the film who spoke: 15:5 male to female. Which, hey, look! It's the perfect 3:1 male to female ratio of all films. So it's clear that out of those female role parts which were determinedly set out for women, there wasn't much room for the daily operations of the park.
But all of this sexism, again, I really didn't see it until after the movie. I was so primed to be pumped about the dinosaurs, I so wanted to have a good time, that my critical eyes grew cataracts. Because Claire didn't have a random scene where she stripped to her bra (Star Trek), or was filmed in a slow pan from her feet to her head while a man described an expensive car (Transformers 3), or whispered silky innuendos into Owen's ear while wearing a barely-there ball gown (every James Bond), I felt Jurassic World was doing great female character work.
But now, with distance, I see that my standards for summer movie blockbusters are so low, that even a stiff, non-life-force-esque, woman masquerading in the title of "high-powered executive" seems like an amazing role for a female protagonist.
