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?
