Disclaimer: The following is an opinion-based analysis ofthe discussion around Mad Max: Fury Road. The views expressed are mine and mine alone. I am not an expert nor have significant experience on film critique,feminist theory, general internet drama or any other subject unless I explicitly state as much and the following think piece is not intended as a value judgment on any other opinion relating to the movie or as trying to convince anyone of the correctness of my ideas or point.
Alright, all that out of the way...
Recently the internet did what it does best and got very excited over relative triviality: namely the release of Mad Max: Fury Road. More specifically, the internet community got excited over a laughably easy to lampoon diatribe from “Men’s Rights activists” claiming the movie was covert feminist propaganda. I personally like to imagine they looked something like this while spouting their nonsense...
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| Though admittedly babies might find being likened to MRA's in any way sort of insulting. Babies do at least have SOME measure of class. |
In a move that I’m sure actually did more to help the movie sell tickets than hurt, the crazies boycotted the film but got more people curious and provided more free advertising the studios could have dreamed up as a number of people went to see it just to spite them. But mostly because people were scoffing. This was freakin' Mad Max after all. This franchise was supposedly the ultimate guy movie. Explosions, fast crazy muscle cars, guns, more explosions, badass fight scenes and did I mention explosions? The testosterone was supposed to be so thick in the air of a Mad Max movie you could cut it with a knife and mere exposure to the film would make your testes drop. Nobody went in thinking much of the film on opening weekend I think.
But ya know what? Turns out that even a stopped watch manages to tell the correct time twice a day and this time the trolls under the bridge may have had a point. Other than the one protruding from their sloped foreheads. The movie’s feminist bona-fides ended up being touted all over the place from lots of different groups.
Still, others were more skeptical and made the argument that a feminist film should be more than what we get out of Fury Road.
After finally getting to see the film myself… I can see quite clearly as to why.
Both sides make astoundingly valid points but the internet has this problem where it doesn’t handle nuance well and people think too often that can’t happen. That there is only right or wrong.
Before I delve into the meat of this let me make clear this is not a review of the movie but if you want my take: It’s a competently done action movie and a greatride but this was NOT a movie aimed at me. The high-octane world of car culture and car movies isn’t anywhere I’ve ever felt comfortable and contrary to popular belief it is possible to recognize a movie is well made and not enjoy it much. Beyond that, the feminist ideas in the movie (and yes there are unequivocally feminist IDEAS here) were about all that kept me engaged. That said it’s all stuff as far as feminism goes that I’ve already internalized so I’m doubly not the audience because there are some people who needed to hear what this movie is trying to teach. But as I’m about to elaborate on I’m not sure they end up being applied in the best way possible
Warning: I’m about to spoil pretty much EVERYTHING.
The Feminist Argument
When people make the claim as to the feminism of Fury Road they admittedly have a lot to work with. The movie is not at all subtle in its desire to be a feminist action flick. The movie sets up its depiction of a harsh patriarchal world quickly with a number of powerfulscenes including one where women are hooked up to milking machines and exploited like cattle while another scene reveals the young men of the villain Immortan Joe’s military force known as War Boys feel utterly useless if they cannot go to war for a despicable old man promising them that if they die in battle they’ll be rewarded richly in the afterlife. All of this pales in comparison however, to the opening scene in which it’s revealed that Joe keeps the people he commands under his control by controlling the water supply and even telling them “do not become addicted to water.” Let that sink in a moment. Moving on, the film’s action is kicked off by the discovery Furiosa, Joe’s main general has absconded with a group of women he calls his “breeders.” The rooms of the enclosure in which these women were kept are scrawled with phrases like, “who killed the world?” and “we are not things.” The camera pans down to the floorwhere Joe sees “our babies will not grow up to be warlords.”
Like I said, subtle this movie is not.
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| Pretty much the only tool it knows how to use. |
The movie then becomes one long elaborate chase scene with Furiosa trying to get herself and the rescued women to safety with Max aiding but mostly along for the ride. Though the ‘wives’ are dressed rather skimpily through the film they’re never really sexualized in the way they would be in other action movies of this type. Much has been made of what’s been dubbed the,‘Max lusts for water, not women’ scene and the movie keeps away from the male gaze for the most part–though in the scene in question I wonder if the camera guy was following orders properly sometimes–and keeps an almost laser focus on the women’s faces in the film.
That may not seem like a big deal but in a medium that pretty much codified the idea of the male gaze I assure you that kind of conspicuous focus is saying something.
The survivors–the movie calls them Joe’s wives but other articles have called them what they in fact are in the story’s narrative and I will too: rape survivors–are not warriors but nor are they damsels in distress. Yes, they rely on Max and the much lauded badassery of Furiosa to survive and don’t really assert much in the way of separate character traits or personality, but nor are they the burdens they’d be in a lesser film. They don’t even flinch to help Furiosa in a fight against Max when they first meet, they’re not stupid and each pulls their weight in their own ways with one survivor, Splendid, even going so far as shield the others with her pregnant belly to assure Joe can’t take a shot that would have killed Furiosa (because he desperately wants the baby inside of her). They are different, but they are not less. They all contribute, which, if one understands feminism as the idea that women and men are inherently equal and should both be able to shape their destiny according to their own will without prescribed roles, is depicted rather gloriously.
The movie also takes aim at patriarchy itself in the cartoonish exaggerations of the villains. My girlfriend and I had a long conversation about what the three old, white, male leaders of the various towns represented in the grand scheme with us agreeing Joe represens the conflation of war and religion, the leader of Gas Town representing capitalistic greed and the leader of the Bullet Farm representing the dangers of gun culture and unrestrained violence. We’re expected to see these men as what they are: exploitative of women, who they see only as objectsof sexual satisfaction and for breeding, and also of other men for labor, the waging of war and aiding in the oppression of others. It’s more than a little telling that the War Boys are brainwashed to the point that they’re suicidally stupid and engage in ludicrously dangerous behavior in an attempt to go to ‘Valhalla.’ The movie makes no attempt to hide its disdain for that which Joe and the villains in this movie stand. A woman by the name of Rebecca Cohen notes here that “Our babies will not grow up to be warlords” demonstrates the desire of the survivors to be free of the power structure that “killed the world,” and break it for their children.
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| Pictured: The physical manifestation of a misogynist's soul |
Then there’s the partnership between Furiosa and Max; probably the crux of the film as feminist masterpiece argument. They value each other’s skills and recognize where each is most useful. Nobody is inherently smarter or more badass than the other. Again, different but not less.
In one of the most symbolically powerful moments in the flick; low on ammo and with villains approaching rapidly,Max takes two of their three shots and misses. Remembering that Furiosa is a master sniper, he hands her the gun, recognizing that she has a greater chance of success than he and prioritizes survival, even going so far as lending his shoulder to be Furiosa’s rifle stand. It’s a powerful metaphor about teamwork and lending what skills we each possess to the cause.
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| Teamwork. It's a beautiful thing |
The counter argument
It might be a bit disingenuous to boil the entire critique of the side that isn’t sold on this being a feminist masterpiece to this single image...
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| Sometimes a guitar is just a guitar. Other times... |
But it’s certainly not helping the other side's case!
Some of those who argue the movie falls short of being truly feminist make the point that our society still equates strength and power with awesomeness and links those things with maleness almost exclusively. It goes out of its way to make the crazy warparties look cool. The film feels like the epitome of cool as defined by a fourteen year old boy’s brain.
By this logic one could argue that Furiosa is, intentionally or not, coded male. She’s relatively stoic save for a single moment of profound and utter anguish, hyper competent at dishing out violence and her short cropped hair and attire all downplay her femininity in favor ofher more masculine tropes. While this isn’t inherently bad in the least, it becomes worrisome if it’s seen as the ONLY way to make a woman badass is to make her “manly” for whatever value you put on that term. Furthermore this side of the argument goes on to make the point that the movie is rather uncritical of the violence throughout its run noting it to be largely violent spectacle that even with the answer to the question “who killed the world” asked repeatedly being men and the hyper aggressive militant patriarchy, the movie still resorts to violence to eliminate the problem.
If I understand correctly, this side argues that there has to be a better way. They argue that feminism advocates not for women to be allowed to engage in the same violent, exploitative system men do, but to find a better path; one that recognizes the equality and dignity of all. They claim the Fury Road fails to provide adequate critique when it has the heroes solve their problem by simply lobbing the same violence at the villains.
My thoughts
I do take some issues with what I currently understand the movie’s detractors points to be. The issues of violence strike me as odd partially because there’s an argument to be made that violence is inherently human, rather than gendered. I’ve trained with many women more than capable of dishing out plenty of damage and while violence is pretty much the favorite tool of patriarchal oppression, that doesn’t mean men have a monopoly on it. In fact in more than one species, the female is much more deadly than the male. Furthermore sometimes making the highly violent, sociopathic people the villains is enough of a critique itself. If you can’t see the villains as having some pretty distorted decision making processes, that might be a problem with the viewer, not the movie.
Beyond that, violence as a tool of self-defense and of revolution is also tied almost intrinsically to human history and when all else fails I see nothing wrong with protecting oneself from destruction with violence. Even the women’s suffrage movement sometimes used tactics that weren’t exactly non-violent protest so it’s not like feminism is above violently throwing off oppression. And I’d argue there really wasn’t much of a different choice in the world we’re given in the film for the women to make. It’s not like the three war parties were particularly apt to listen to reason. They weren’t likely to be defeated with a stern talking to.
Even with all the violence in the movie and the women engaged in that violence I feel like some of the critiques of the film that call its feminism into question ignore the fact that the final decision in the movie’s climax to turn back and fight their pursuers isn’t made by Furiosa, the Vuvalini, or the survivors; it’s made by Max. He’s the one who makes the suggestion to fight. That’s the last thing the women want. They didn’t want to engage and that theme flows through the whole flick. Furiosa’s initial plan is to run from the citadel (under the guise of something she'd be doing anyway), eventually lose the War Boys who were sent out with her somehow, seal off the road behind her and book herself and the survivors into the safety of her tribe. She only engaged in violence when she couldn’t come up with anything better and originally, after meeting up with her old tribe, the women wanted to load up their supplies and keep running.
Admittedly, that wouldn’t have made for as much of a satisfying ending though.
If I examine my own inclinations and beliefs I can’t be perfectly on board with the idea that this movie is not feminist. It desperately wants to be and it believes in the inherent equality of the sexes earnestly.
And yet I also can’t be entirely onboard with those who believe this is a feminist masterpiece. I do in fact, believe that part of feminism is and should be finding another way rather than lobbing the weapons of oppressive patriarchy back at it. So I find myself stuck. Unwilling to side with the detractors but also, being unwilling to call this film – which is a great action movie, a powerful story and apparently fora lot of folks, a ton of fun – truly feminist.
Here’s the thing though, I’m not sure how much that matters. I like to consider myself a feminist and ally but I’m not trained in feminist theory and most of my knowledge is second hand from women I’ve listened to describe their experiences and ideas, or instinctive from growing up in a home full of intelligent, wise, strong and capable women. That however, does not provide me any unique perspective. I don’t get to be some arbiter of what is or isn’t truly feminist.
What I will say is that even if you’re not willing to call the movie truly feminist, I think the one thing that everyone can agree on is that the film is extremely ANTI-PATRIARCHY. After all, the film knows EXACTLY and without question who brought the apocalypse and killed the world.
Alright guys, that was fun. Definitely going to do this again. Hope to see you when I do.
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