Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Hollywood's Gender Role Reversal
I recently checked out last year’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith which is pretty sweet film with the uber-hot Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt (who i actually like). What dawned on me while watching this movie is how they’ve written the roles to be completely opposite of their gender stereotype.
For example:
| Mrs. Smith (Brad) | Mrs. Smith (Angelina) | |
| Demeanor | Creative and inventive | Cold and calculating |
| Domestic Trouble | He really wants to work it out and “talk about their issues” and continues to go to their therapy even after she bails. | Doesn’t want to talk about their problems and convinces him to cancel the sessions. |
| Breakup | On breakup, goes over to a friend’s house, talks about what’s happened and goes to sleep on his couch | Buys a bottle of scotch, goes to work, drinks the entire bottle and passes out |
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| Reaction to Other’s Job | Tries to discuss it with her | She tries to kill him. Repeatedly |
| Guns | He always has a very small pistol, even called by Angela the “girly gun” | She carries a ball breaking assault rifle. I don’t know what it’s called but it’s huge |
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| Sex | Has had 1/100 the amount of sex of her | Slutted it out and is able to easily separate herself emotionally from the sex. |
I think it’s really interesting that they flipped these roles around. If you think about it further, it seems that all the leading roles for guys in Hollywood these days are pretty weak. Thinking about the summer movies, i can think of My Super-Ex Girlfriend, X-Men 3, Pirates of the Caribbean where the men (Luke Wilson, Hugh Jackman, and Orlando/Depp) are more vulnerable and weak characters compared to the colder, stronger and more promiscuous women (Uma, Franke, and Kiera). Apparently, strong women characters are all the rage now, its just disappointing that it’s at the expense of quality dudes. Hell, even Tarantino had his latest kung-fu action flick starred Uma where she’s on a quest to take out her ex-boyfriend. I guess us guys are on the way out and it’s all about the women.
What do you think? In the quest for gender equality women have just become more like men and men?
I read an article earlier this summer (I think it was actually a review for My Super-Ex Girlfriend) in which the author asked the same question; why so many movies based on relationships between strong, successful women and weak, unachieving men (like Failure to Launch as well as My Super Ex-Girlfriend)? The same goes for age; according to the author, in movies these days, it’s not okay for a younger woman to be seduced by an older man (Shopgirl) but fine when it’s the other way around (Prime). Of course this isn’t true for everything- obviously there are tons of movies with tough guys and idiot girls etc etc etc, but the author was making the same point, almost literally, about guys being on the way out. I hope women aren’t becoming too much like men. I like being a chick (:
Redmark (redmark.vox.com) left a good comment about this saying:
This is a very good social analysis of this supposedly action film (to be taken for just the face value)…..and i like your take on this… I too always try to look for deeper and the ‘bigger picture’ over films and art in general…. and hey nice observation about the other moview where you found that the male characters portrayed tend to be weaker while the female leads are far more strong, will-powered and determined….is this Hollywood’s endorsement of the metro-sexual males (just evolved as uber-sexuals apparently)…. have u also noticed that the music pop scene is also inundated by desperate, longing, and emotional songs from male singers such as Chris Martin of Cold Play, James Blunt (i hope u know them as they are mostly British), etc… these outpourings have been known in the past to only have been from female artists….what a gender-shift hey!…
He left this here: http://pescatello.vox.com/library/post/mr-mrs-smith-and-hollywoods-gender-role-reversal.html
great site! come check out my blog site on music.
Hi there,
I agree with your observations. I am starting a personal research on role reversal, due to a personal experience. I believe that women are taking over the role of the men. This is ver sick. However, I believe that this has to do with the fact that there are no more real men in this country. I atribute it to the divorce rate, where most children are left to be raised by their mothers. They then develop a more female personality than a male one. So, they raise weak men. I think that divorced women and single mothers hate men. So, the ones they keep to raise the raise them weak so that they don’t do to other women what their men did to themselves. This is a very sick dynamic, but that may be what is happening.
On the other hand, men are weak before women because men want to get laid. So, if they are to get it they have to first submit to the woman. This is man’s weakness. Men need to learn to not need women’s approval and body if they are to keep their manhood and authority in this society. Otherwise, it will crumble down at the hands of women who have no conscience but a complicated world of emotions and perspectives based on feelings.
I think you men need to re-evaluate what is happening. Firstly, I would like to point out that movie themes come in waves as to create competition so one will not monopoloize the movie industry. i.e. Bugs life and Ants, then the huge wave of scary movies, the huge wave of comedy movies with Will Ferrell and or Vince Vaughn, Cars and Talladega nights, War movies, et cetera. Secondly, open your minds a little bit to not include sex in everything. The reason this is happening is not because people are finally realizing that men want to get laid. Trust me when I say, this is known. This is happening because it is the twenty-first century and it is about damn time that the hierarchies of a male dominated society be challenged. Discuss the implications that could happen, what has happened, the equality of the matter. You’re right when you note that movies have always been male dominated. I feel stupid even asking this but: don’t you think this is a little sad? Movies are a huge part of the media. It is a self perpetuating cycle that men play these dominating roles and have dominating roles in real life. Bitch not about how much it sucks that your gender is no longer portrayed as being “on top” (which it still is… by the way), bitch about why this hasn’t happened before if we do live in a place where we preach of equality and justice.
Persian Ark – Great points, i agree with you
I know this article is almost two yrs old. also, you seem to not have posted since 4/26/07, but while researching the film Mrs. and Mrs. Smith for a sociology assignment on gender roles and sexism I cam across your article “Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Hollywood’s Gender Role Reversal”. I was very impressed with not only your insight, but that you actually took the time to break it down into so many different categories with spot on examples. Except the Sex category is not correct. It was the number of Kills committed and not sexual partners they were discussing. I really hope you receive this and look into the validity of the sex catagory because once again you wrote a very good article that may be used at somepoint by other students or researchers and I’d hate for that to be misconstued.
thank you
stephen wilczak
just stopping by to note my appreciation for your insight. i particularly enjoyed your info vs. mike lewis and persian ark’s responses. keep thinking!