She will tell you, Mad Max: How Fury Road became the
vaginal monologue of feminist action movies. Eva Ens, author of the vaginal monologue, will tell you, Mad Max. : fury Road is how to become a "feminist action movie," the
author Elianna Dockterman description link http://time.com/3850323/mad-max-fury-road-eve-ensler-feminist/
legendary drama The writer and activist will explain to you how she participated in George Miller’s box office blockbusters this summer.
You must not have thought: Tom Hardy, who plays Max, is not the star in "Mad Max: Fury Road", Charlize Theron is. What is even more unexpected is that Eva Ens, the author of the vagina monologue, is the consultant of this very feminist film.
In this action movie, the evil ruler is furious when he finds that Charlize Theron's Furiosa (no uniform translation name is found) helps his sex slaves escape. They left a message: "Women are not objects". Furiosa encouraged Max all the way, and was finally chased by a group of bad guys, and ran to the promised land of women in a team. Theron, not Hardy, took the lead, and she also fought most of the tough battles.
Director George Miller invited Enns to the scene to explain violence against women to the cast. Ens shared with Times her experience on the scene, the feminist message in the film, and her hope for more female stories on the big screen.
Times: It is very rare for hot ticket room blockbusters to use this theme, let alone ask someone like you in Beijing to be a consultant. How did this happen?
Eva Ens: I was as surprised as you are, and that's why I decided to do it. I think (director) George Miller listened to a lecture on human rights in Sydney. He asked me if I would like to go to Namibia to spend a week with the actors who are filming, especially the actors who play the wives. He wants me to tell them about violence against women, especially in war zones.
I read the script and the whole person is blown away (blown away, is it the etymology of "blow", or happy coincident). One-third of women on the planet will be raped or subjected to violence in their lifetime-this is a central issue of this era, and violence against women is closely related to racial and economic inequality. This movie is about related issues. I think George Miller is a feminist. He made a feminist action movie. He can realize that he needs a woman with relevant experience to participate, which is great.
It is rare to see women’s stories on the big screen, partly because few female directors have the opportunity to direct large-scale series such as Mad Max. But obviously, this film is still directed by men, but it is very feminist. Do you think feminists would say: "Okay, it's a little progress. But it would be better if it was directed by women"?
I welcome feminists who are male. I am not living in a dual world of black and white. The world I live in is like this, and better. Obviously we need more women, women of more races, and more women who live in reality and have yet to get a platform for display. But I think that when people see how exciting and attractive this is, they will be encouraged.
You have been fighting to end violence against women for 20 years. How do you share this experience with the actors?
They asked me questions about their roles. What is the experience of being a sex slave who has been imprisoned for a long time? How does it feel to be with the child of the person who raped you? What does it mean when you become dependent on the abuser because you have been through it for too long? Why are you afraid of hating your own body after being raped, thinking that it no longer belongs to you, but a place where a nightmare happened? I hope I can help them understand. I told them the stories of Japanese comfort women, and the rapes and violence that occurred in Bosnia, Congo, Afghanistan, and Haiti that I had been to. We also talked about rampant sex-related human smuggling in the Americas.
Many movies claim that there will be "powerful female characters", but they are either women in trouble or attackers. How do you think Mad Max is different?
George wanted to create powerful women, not victims. I think he did. I don't remember seeing any movies with so many women with such a wide age span. I saw the elderly women who were as good at fighting as men in the film burst (again, blown away). I have never seen it before. They are so supportive and independent.
Charlize's role is also very brave and full of compassion. This is very difficult to express. Every woman is burdened with a complicated background story. Even the clothes they wore conveyed a message: the first clothes were torn strips of cloth, fragile and materialized. But in the end, they wore their clothes back. They also regained their bodies, in a sense, they also regained themselves.
And this journey in the movie: Women give up the comfortable life under captivity and risk their lives to fight for freedom. This is the resistance of rising women to patrilineal society.
I am also very happy to see that these powerful women are also sympathetic and have not been punished for this.
All the women in the film maintain their inner femininity. They are gentle and full, but still brave. They have all these qualities. This is a powerful question: How can women survive in a patriarchal, violent culture? How do they keep their souls in the war zone?
And this question is not diluted by the romance in the film.
Isn't this very clever? He could just let Charlize and Tom hook up. But, please, don't engage in the cliché story of a woman turning her fingers around for a man. They should fight side by side. A woman saves his life, and he looks back and saves her.
Do you think that if the film succeeds at the box office, it means that the audience is also happy to see the stories of women?
I hope so. I think George geniusly weaves a story with a lot of brilliance that can attract all kinds of people. At its core is the story of a woman. In a scene in the film, he showed a milking machine. The only value of a woman is the milk produced, which is very symbolic. And when we saw the phrase "a woman is not an object", we seemed familiar with it.
This feminism is a bit cunning. If you tell the story that the core of the story is a female warrior running away with a female slave, no one thinks that there will be any box office. But because this is an action movie, boys will watch it. This is also the case with another movie during the summer. Amy Schumer is a feminist comedian who often speaks. She recently starred in the romantic comedy Trainwreck, partnered with LeBron James (American professional basketball player). James took on the task of bringing men who wouldn't be able to watch the film into the movie theater. Doesn't this go against the original intention of expressing feminist views in the film?
There will be a day when we don't need such cunning. One day, we can do this with integrity. The greatest thing about this movie is that you have a better chance of survival if you stand with a woman. Obviously, it is good for all women to be treated fairly. We don't want to occupy everything. We only hope that our stories are also considered equally and can occupy a place. ("To also get a spot on the playing field." Not sure how to translate it appropriately.)
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