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Apr. 11th, 2010 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynneToday I saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D IMAX on the biggest screen in Britain. It was rather more expensive than I like my movies (though I imagine I'm also a bit spoiled from having worked at a theater and gotten to see movies for free), but worth it, not just for the movie (which I very much enjoyed) but because I actually got invited to see it. When I first got here a lot of people just seemed to click into their own groups and I was sort of drifting on the outskirts, and pretty much had to invite myself if I was going to do anything with anyone. It's taken me several weeks, but finally I'm not the one making the first move all the time, and that's worth more than expensive cinema.
Anyway,
I am so pleased with it from a feminist perspective alone. Alice starts out with pretty much everyone wanting to crush her individuality and make her get married because being an maiden aunt is the worst thing ever, and then she gets to this place where people are expecting her to be a warrior and save them and she rises to the occasion and wins and then goes home to take care of unfinished business and create a real life for herself. That is so utterly awesome I am still excited about it.
I enjoyed the UST with the Mad Hatter, especially at the end when they both seemed to recognize it, but I think I would have been just a little bit dissatisfied had she stayed with him. There's always that tradition of the woman giving up her old home to stay with the man she's fallen in love with, often giving up some intrinsic aspect of who she is as well, like The Little Mermaid. Of course the storytelling tradition comes from the real life tradition of women leaving their own homes to join the man's family, though fantasy often makes the woman's sacrifice more noticeable, but I love stories that subvert that tradition. That's one of the things I really grew to appreciate about Journey's End -- Doctor Who, and the D/R relationship, started out with the traditional format of woman joining man's world and leaving hers behind, but the D/R storyline concluded with the Doctor joining Rose's world, not the other way around. I love JE for that.
So while I enjoyed the UST and do feel mildly shippy of Alice/Hatter, I am so glad this movie subverted the tradition once again. Alice, the conquering hero of Hatter's world, goes back to her own world to be a different sort of conquering hero there, that has nothing to do with her relationship with a man except as an apprentice. That is just so wonderful.
Oh, also, before the movie started my friend and I were discussing books and she just asks me "So you read fanfiction, right?" Apparently that's pretty obvious. XD I said yes, and for some reason added that I write it too, and she got so excited. She said writing fic made me like sixteen times cooler. Best reaction to the writing-fanfic revelation ever.
Anyway,
I am so pleased with it from a feminist perspective alone. Alice starts out with pretty much everyone wanting to crush her individuality and make her get married because being an maiden aunt is the worst thing ever, and then she gets to this place where people are expecting her to be a warrior and save them and she rises to the occasion and wins and then goes home to take care of unfinished business and create a real life for herself. That is so utterly awesome I am still excited about it.
I enjoyed the UST with the Mad Hatter, especially at the end when they both seemed to recognize it, but I think I would have been just a little bit dissatisfied had she stayed with him. There's always that tradition of the woman giving up her old home to stay with the man she's fallen in love with, often giving up some intrinsic aspect of who she is as well, like The Little Mermaid. Of course the storytelling tradition comes from the real life tradition of women leaving their own homes to join the man's family, though fantasy often makes the woman's sacrifice more noticeable, but I love stories that subvert that tradition. That's one of the things I really grew to appreciate about Journey's End -- Doctor Who, and the D/R relationship, started out with the traditional format of woman joining man's world and leaving hers behind, but the D/R storyline concluded with the Doctor joining Rose's world, not the other way around. I love JE for that.
So while I enjoyed the UST and do feel mildly shippy of Alice/Hatter, I am so glad this movie subverted the tradition once again. Alice, the conquering hero of Hatter's world, goes back to her own world to be a different sort of conquering hero there, that has nothing to do with her relationship with a man except as an apprentice. That is just so wonderful.
Oh, also, before the movie started my friend and I were discussing books and she just asks me "So you read fanfiction, right?" Apparently that's pretty obvious. XD I said yes, and for some reason added that I write it too, and she got so excited. She said writing fic made me like sixteen times cooler. Best reaction to the writing-fanfic revelation ever.
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Date: 2010-04-12 01:42 pm (UTC)Hm. I like that kind of story, too. But I think I liked it better in Stardust than I did in Doctor Who. For that matter, I liked it better in season one of Doctor Who than I did in “Journey’s End.” In both of those stories, the hero changed to become more like the heroine. I loved that.
The problem I had with “Journey’s End” (well, one of the problems) was that the hero didn’t change. In fact, the writers flat-out told us that he couldn’t change. So the heroine had to settle for what he was willing to give her. Feh.