tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post5630185667406485511..comments2024-03-28T03:16:14.104-04:00Comments on Noahpinion: Feminist Mad Max is real, y'allNoah Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09093917601641588575noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-7691255527084479302015-06-08T20:28:53.977-04:002015-06-08T20:28:53.977-04:00Just flat out wrong, but regardless, what part of ...Just flat out wrong, but regardless, what part of "hundreds of years" didn't you understand?The Donkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14153840277624094270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-90111658898909551732015-06-04T16:26:56.144-04:002015-06-04T16:26:56.144-04:00"Women should be permitted to volunteer for n..."Women should be permitted to volunteer for non-combat service,… they should not be accepted, voluntarily or through the draft, as combat soldiers…. We know of no comparable ways of training women and girls, and we have no real way of knowing whether the kinds of training that teach men both courage and restraint would be adaptable to women or effective in a crisis. But the evidence of history and comparative studies of other species suggest that women as a fighting body might be far less amenable to the rules that prevent warfare from becoming a massacre and, with the use of modern weapons, that protect the survival of all humanity. This is what I meant by saying that women in combat might be too fierce." Margaret Mead Scotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11386125388118386199noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-83397860561435535982015-06-04T11:08:01.539-04:002015-06-04T11:08:01.539-04:00You forget that for much of history, the bulk of a...You forget that for much of history, the bulk of an army could be underfed peasants and street urchins. When that's the case, sex just don't matter, biology is against you with a penis or not.<br /><br />Plus, women have always fought. Archaeologists now think shieldmaidens may have made up as much as 50% of Norse armies and raiding parties. Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05488549160544951639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-83276674864160794912015-06-02T07:39:05.863-04:002015-06-02T07:39:05.863-04:00Eh, what do you mean"unfair"? Nux is the...Eh, what do you mean"unfair"? Nux is the same age as Joe's harem - did they have a libertine education? But being "fair" is besides the point, anyway: it's rather that I think that the film itself is crystal clear. Max is utterly confused as to what is going on in that world (beyond saving his own life, and only his own life - note that this theme gets corroborated several times before he finally sees the light); Nux follows a completely illusory and eventually nihilistic path; Imortan Joe and his clique form a oppressive, enslaving and obviously male-dominated regime. When we get to the action, the only ones doing anything in terms of bringing about change are women. This is not to say that any of them is holy, least of all Furiosa. It is also not to say that Max and Nux do not end up being important to how everything turns out, and even maintaing the moral. It's about who generates the original impulse, the ones who clearly see at some point that something has to change and that they themselves have to do it - and I think the film is really clear that a) it's women, and b) that the two men that are rescued from their life-denying fates are converted to the good side after having failed in ther respective worlds, rather than getting there themselves. Whether this is fair I do not care: it's a strong message containing a certain brand of feminism (but clearly that), in which men are very welcome, but where there is not much hope that they will see any reason to change anything on their own. I dispute that the message is "egalitarian": it is only so if you reduce the film to its action sequences (and not even then IMO).Martinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-64855651279289120362015-06-01T21:23:38.556-04:002015-06-01T21:23:38.556-04:00Eh, I'd say that's kind of unfair to Max a...Eh, I'd say that's kind of unfair to Max and Nux. Nux was a child soldier raised in a cult whose only hope for salvation was serving his lord and commander without question, while Max just stumbled into Furiosa's escape plan knowing virtually nothing about who they were. I think Max and Furiosa would have behaved rather similarly had they been in the other's shoes. Remember that Furiosa followed the script long enough to reach a position of real respect and prestige within the system before she finally went rogue. A few months or years before the events of the movie you could have said she was simply getting by by whatever means necessary as well.Into the Skyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08558633905293504222noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-63129756799877158492015-06-01T18:02:48.179-04:002015-06-01T18:02:48.179-04:00Technology has narrowed the gap or almost eliminat...Technology has narrowed the gap or almost eliminated it in some roles, but as for the infantry soldier, the gap is still there and it is still significant. Eggs and sperm don't have nearly as much to do with it, and haven't for at least hundreds of years, as weight and strength do. Sure there are exceptions, but on average the male is still the better infantry soldier. The Donkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14153840277624094270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-41286705533341484712015-06-01T17:19:24.598-04:002015-06-01T17:19:24.598-04:00Fair point.Fair point.Noah Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09093917601641588575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-60096305101623824932015-06-01T16:33:04.366-04:002015-06-01T16:33:04.366-04:00There was also considerable effort to interpret th...There was also considerable effort to interpret this movie not as feminist but egalitarian, e.g. by Freddie de Boer. Apart from the implicit message here that 'feminist' is supposed to mean something like 'women-dominated', I disagree even with that premise: I thought it was an obvious feature of the film that what gets overthrown is absolutely a male-dominated dystopian society. And the driving force - the ones that actually seek change rather than just get by by any means necessary, looking on while the world is getting destroyed - are women: that Max and Nux see the light is solely a consequence of their stumbling into this group of women (and in both cases as outcasts!). That the battle efforts are equal does not change this. And I think this makes the comparison with the metonymic Kobane situation even more astute: women fighting for the future against a testosteron-driven monstrosity (as Gary Brecher keeps pointing out) - and showing men who are not sure who is actually crazy "as the word fell" (they themselves... Or everyone else?) the way, thereby saving us all together. I think the movie conveys a strong feminist message even without the Kobane comparison in this regard, but it drives the message home.Martinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-50787845627317120022015-06-01T15:46:00.224-04:002015-06-01T15:46:00.224-04:00Where do you keep fining this balding beta -- oh s...Where do you keep fining this balding beta -- oh sorry sorry, omega, you pedant -- males to have an imaginary debate against? And what next, perusing stormfront or zerohedge for some semi-human to be the contra to the argument 'Jews arent running a world wide conspiracy to deprive white guys of asian women' ? <br />If you are play the game of blog war at least pick an opponent who has something interesting to say, not just "Wah, modern society makes me feel completely asexual and I am invisible to the women I imagined I have the right to sleep with Waah and why is my hair falling out as fast as my breasts are coming in waaah" Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-28544730581790064432015-06-01T15:37:44.443-04:002015-06-01T15:37:44.443-04:00100:1 kill ratios are totally realistic.... unless...100:1 kill ratios are totally realistic.... unless the protagonist is female. Also, since we care about realism, all hand to hand fight scenes should pretty much look like <a href="http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/07/15/the-ball-region" rel="nofollow">MMA</a>.gamorejonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15936451716712344809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-81112089161732144832015-06-01T15:32:56.946-04:002015-06-01T15:32:56.946-04:00Paraphrasing: "God made big men and God made ...Paraphrasing: "God made big men and God made little women. (Insert weapons manufacturer here) made them equal"yastforthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07227349037991272074noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-76900028275876141712015-06-01T13:55:16.989-04:002015-06-01T13:55:16.989-04:00I can't speak for anyone else, but I took the ...I can't speak for anyone else, but I took the "girls are icky" sign of my treehouse about one year after my voice began to crack.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01843290249295183564noreply@blogger.com