I initially planned to write an Antichrist-inspired list of most misogynistic movies ever made. But after some minor research, I decided that as a man, even one who has studied feminist film theory, I’m not the best judge of what titles to choose. Besides, I figure there are already enough places on the web where we can debate whether or not Neil LaBute and Lars von Trier are misogynistic filmmakers or if they are in fact the opposite.
I could have instead attempted a list of movies that are misandric, but I don’t think hatred towards men is equally as off-putting to male viewers as misogyny is to women. So, here’s something slightly similar, also inspired by Antichrist (particularly a disturbing genital-mutilation scene in the film), because there’s certainly nothing more difficult for men to watch than scenes in which male sex organs are harmed.
Of course, cinema has been hurting guys’ balls for laughs throughout the existence of motion pictures. And plenty of action and horror flicks depict castration by shotgun, knife, van door and other means on a regular basis. Therefore, I’ve gone specifically with these six sex scenes, since they add to the pain by first teasing pleasure. But no, masochistic delight is nowhere to be found in any of these hard-to-watch movie moments.
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It’s super-old news that Michel Gondry has published a comic book called We Lost the War But Not the Battle. In fact, Vulture published frames from the book almost a month ago –– which, ironically, we missed while we were at Comic-Con. But due to a confluence of forces through which you probably don’t hare to hear about, today I stumbled on Jog The Blog’s review of the book, which very much piqued my interest. An excerpt:
There’s certainly a winsome appeal to Gondry’s curly graphics, and anyone who draws their own back-of-issue merchandise ad gets a smile from me. The story, however, is also about what I’ve come to expect from the solo Gondry (more solo than usual, this being a comic), chock-full of knotty thematic threads and some determined immaturity, this time with an added splash of over-the-top misogyny, underplayed narratively so as to become disquieting nonetheless.
A bit of a surprising “splash”, considering I’ve always found Gondry’s work to be rather worshipful of women, even if it’s always really about adolescent boys. The the rest of the post basically spoils the plot of the book, but it’s a great read. Suffice it to say, “blood is spilled, sexual organs are unveiled, and Mia Farrow appears to fuck the main character, which I think is funny?” if you’re still interested (or, more interested?) you could buy We Lost The War here for $5.99.
Not to make a career out of Woody Allen apologia, but I thought it was interesting to see critics slam Vicky Cristina Barcelona for what they perceive as Woody Allen’s misogyny when, for the first time as far as I can tell, he’s cast a woman in the typical Woody Allen role, which you’d think would be a step-up from the typical Woody Allen woman-as-love-interest paradigm.
Not that there was anything wrong with that. …Read more
