Tell me if you’ve heard these before. How does a radical feminist end each prayer? A-wo-men. What does a radical feminist need to put together her Ikea furniture? A wo-manual. What’s the most humorless country on Earth? Ger(wo)many.
Such is the level of wit on display in “The Misandrists,” Bruce LaBruce’s new cutting-edge satire about how the most extreme elements of Second Wave Feminism — i.e., the version prevalent half a century ago — were, like, totallycray-zay.
If nothing else, the New Queer Cinema icon’s tenth feature is a reminder that transgression need clear the lowest of bars to be glorified as such. “The Misandrists” is much more interesting than to read about than it is to see: A group of lesbian separatists hatch a scheme to persuade the world of the value of gender equality via politically correct porn, but the group’s coherence is threatened by the presence of an injured man who’s smuggled into the isolated, militantly (read: cartoonishly) feminist stronghold-cum-school where a new generation of violent ideologues are being trained.
Set in Germany in 1999, this riff on Don Siegel’s “The Beguiled” includes storylines about compulsory lesbianism, SAT-vocabulary-heavy treatises on academic feminism, a debate about the role of trans women in women-only spaces, (mostly unrelated) threats of castration, snippets of gay male pornography (a LaBruce obsession), and several nubile actresses in sexy Catholic-schoolgirl uniforms, their skin-tight miniskirts so meager you can catch more than a glimpse of underwear.
Why is the next generation of anti-men revolutionaries dressed for the male gaze? If you’re the kind of viewer who expects basic coherence from a movie, “The Misandrists” is probably not for you.
LaBruce’s technique here — and for some of the auteur’s admirers, its probable selling point — is to constantly throw provocations at the audience in the hopes that one of the taboos that he breaks will elicit a reaction. But the result feels haphazard, rendering the 85-minute running time a slog, and is stuffed with bad-on-purpose lines like, “Wake up and smell the estrogen.” Because goading is the film’s ultimate goal, there’s not enough attention paid to basic storytelling elements, like the barely-there characterization and the across-the-board atrocious acting.
And in too many scenes, it’s simply unclear what the writer-director’s intention is. Are we supposed to take the Female Liberation Army’s mission to make the world a better place, for example, as mere foolhardiness? Creative idealism? A surprisingly effective tactic? In lieu of the productive ambivalence LaBruce may be going for, all I’ve got is my hands up in the air.
But the film’s greatest disappointment is how empty and irrelevant its lampooning feels. Despite renewed attacks from the right, particularly since 2016, feminism has become a driving force in pop culture — and thus ripe for a comic reckoning. Shows like “Girls,” “Broad City,” “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” and “Inside Amy Schumer,” as well as sites like Reductress, have captured the zeitgeist by engaging with the feminism of today, not the cobwebbed version of the “Mad Men” years that has few adherents or influence in the 21st century.
An eleventh-hour burst of hard-to-watch violence does get closer to true impropriety, but with so little investment stored up in the characters, it registers as a hollow shock. In the end, the only transgression “The Misandrists” really commits is self-satisfied solipsism.
These 13 Movies Were Rated the Most Damaging to LGBT People in 2016 (Photos)
From perpetuating stereotypes to using violence against queer people as a plot device or straight-up refusing to clarify the orientation of meaningful LGBT characters in film, these portraits were considered the most damaging or ineffective from any major Hollywood film in 2016. [Source: GLAAD Studio Responsibility Index]
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"Deadpool" (Fox) This irreverent superhero was impossible to deny in any way -- except, of course, if you count how the film denied its own promise to feature a "pansexual" Deadpool. Director Tim Miller said he was intent to show the potty-mouthed hero as one not limited in his choice of sexual preference, but it never manifested on the screen.
There was also plenty of conversation about a scene where Reynolds' Wade Wilson is "pegged" (penetrated with a strap-on by his scene partner Morena Baccarin) but "the scene was played as a joke and as a painful moment that Wade himself was not actually wanting to engage in other than as a favor to his lover."
20th Century Fox
"Demolition" (Lionsgate) This Jake Gyllenhaal indie sees the actor befriend a young closeted gay man, whom he advises to remain in the closet until he can move to a bigger, more accepting city. The boy ignores this advice and attends a local gay bar, where he is jumped by a group of straight men. The gay character "never seemed to be actually uncomfortable with himself to begin with, [so] it is disheartening that the film decided to use this kind of violence as a plot device."
Lionsgate
"Zoolander 2" (Paramount) Where to begin with this sequel 15 years in the making, but one GLAAD called "incredibly dated in both story and its attempted humor."
That's a compliment compared to what comes next.
"Prior to the release of Zoolander 2, a petition was launched calling for a boycott of the film after the first trailer included Benedict Cumberbatch as a non-binary model named All. The character is a completely cartoonish portrayal of a non-binary person. [Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson] obsess over the idea of what kind of genitals All has, asking if they 'have a hot dog or a bun.'"
The study found that while "comedy can be a powerful too to hold a mirror up to society and challenge expectations, cheap jokes constructed without thought that use an already marginalized community as a punchline only reinforce ignorance and prejudice. Further, positioning an LGBTQ identity as something which is inherently absurd and worthy of mocking does real harm to actual people who experience harassment and violence on a regular basis."
Paramount
"Sausage Party" (Sony) This animated orgy from Seth Rogen might as well be disqualified given how offensive it was to all of god's creatures (and some our finest foods and beverages). GLAAD raised one point, however, about reinforcing stereotypes.
"Characters are a shallow pun based on their name, including Twink the Twinkie and the overly effeminate produce who are not actual characters so much a series of jokes based on the derogatory term 'fruit,'" they said.
Sony Pictures
"Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates" (Fox) In their quest to land plus ones, Zac Efron and Adam Devine interview many candidates -- including a man in a wig trying to pass as female.
"This very clearly furthers the dangerous cultural narrative that someone who does not look conventionally female is a joke to be laughed at, and that straight men might be 'tricked' by a woman who’s 'really a man,'" GLAAD said.
20th Century Fox
"Nocturnal Animals" (Focus) It's surprising that a film directed by a gay icon (the notoriously provocative designer Tom Ford) would get dinged by GLAAD -- but the film's two gay characters (one played by Michael Sheen, one only referenced in the history of characters played by Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal) did not pass muster.
"Though it is clear that this film takes place in a world inclusive of gay characters accepted by the protagonists, it is disappointing that their stories are centered on the straight women in their lives," the SRI said.
Focus Features
"Zootopia" (Disney) A same-sex couple lives next door to crime-fighting bunny rabbit Judy Hopps, but vagueness kills any clarity and, therefore, visibility.
"While confirmed inclusion is a step forward for children’s films, we would like to see these characters be more forthrightly defined within the film itself going forward."
Disney
"Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" (Warner Bros.) The film got points for cameos from out journalists Anderson Cooper and Andrew Sullivan playing in fictionalized versions of themselves, but these do not gay characters make, the study said.
"We continually hope that future superhero films will include substantial queer characters. While more out comic book characters are making the leap from the page to television, mainstream hero films are still cutting them from the big screen."
Warner Bros
"Hail, Caesar!" (Paramount) In this Coen Brothers old-Hollywood dramedy, Channing Tatum plays an ambitious actor-dancer who sleeps with his director (Ralph Fiennes) to get ahead. It's also revealed that an established star (George Clooney) climbed the ladder the same way.
"The trope of predatory gay characters bribing or pressuring a straight man into sex is both offensive and incredibly overdone through the years," GLAAD said.
Paramount
"Dirty Grandpa" (Lionsgate) GLAAD had zero respect for this elder, calling the film "one of the more offensive lms released recently by a major studio." The crux of their issue came from an African American gay male character named Bradley, who "has no agency or story, and is only present as a punchline for Dick’s racist and anti-gay jokes."
Lionsgate
"Central Intelligence" (Warner Bros.) This film ties with "Dirty Grandpa" for top offender. The Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart (a top repeat offender in this annual survey) buddy comedy is described as "a near two-hour gay panic joke that relies on the long-running homophobic 'sissy' stereotype for most of the lm’s intended punchlines."
Warner Bros
"Suicide Squad" (Warner Bros.) GLAAD was bummed that this widely-panned film did not reference Harley Quinn's bisexuality -- explored in many of the comic books, especially a romantic relationship with fellow villainess Poison Ivy.
"If they follow the source comics, audiences can look forward to seeing some of the romantic relationship between Quinn and Ivy. This would be a huge moment for superhero films, which continue to leave out meaningful LGBTQ characters," the study said.
"While Harley Quinn is bisexual in the pages of many DC Comics and continually veers between her love for fellow anti-hero Poison Ivy and returning to her abusive relationship with The Joker."
Warner Bros
"Finding Dory" (Disney)
Much ado was made about two women being a same-sex couple in the animated film -- but their cameo was so fleeting and, as the study points out, director Andrew Stanton refused to confirm or deny this as true. GLAAD did not count the characters in its tally of 70 represented in mainstream films -- a big missed opportunity given the film's voice star Ellen DeGeneres is arguably the most visible lesbian in the world.
Disney
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GLAAD’s annual Studio Responsibility Index takes the major studios — and their harmful content — to task
From perpetuating stereotypes to using violence against queer people as a plot device or straight-up refusing to clarify the orientation of meaningful LGBT characters in film, these portraits were considered the most damaging or ineffective from any major Hollywood film in 2016. [Source: GLAAD Studio Responsibility Index]
Handout
20th Century Fox
