Hammer it Home, Hollywood: A Feminist Look at Thor

AKA: Hottie with a hammer.

First and foremost: I enjoyed this movie.

Please keep that in mind as you read these words. One can like something and still critique it. But since this is the Internet, home of trolls and newbies to critical thinking, I feel it necessary to state right from the start that it was a fine, entertaining, enjoyable movie. I am not personally insulting anyone who enjoyed this movie, because I myself enjoyed it. Also necessary: I'm only talking about the movie, not the comic books.

While there may be other problematic elements to the film (race, mythology, an abundance of vaguely British accents for Norse gods), this is only focusing on the characters through a feminist lens. And if I've missed something in that respect, please join in and comment.

It's spoiler free. If you've seen the trailer, you know the plot. All the action mentioned below can be gleaned from the trailer. But if you're the type that doesn't want to know anything about at all about a film before seeing it, I suggest you step away now.

Shall we then?

All images via Marvel.com.

Awesome: The character Lady Sif, played by Jaimie Alexander, is an equal member of Thor's inner band of warriors.

Flaw: Lady Sif was the first to fall down in the first battle.

Redemption: Luckily, this is a minor flaw. Lady Sif is an equal member of Thor's inner band of warriors. She is the only warrior to hit a major Big Bad other than Thor. Lady Sif is also the speaker, and one could assume, de facto leader of group when Thor is on earth. When introduced, the companions of Thor are called Lady Sif and the Three Warriors.

(Click READ MORE below for the rest of this article.)

Awesome: Natalie Portman's character, Jane Foster, is a scientist.

(Fanboy reaction: Yeah? So?)

So? So the last Marvel movie I saw was the first Iron Man. There was one female character, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, and her main job was to take care of often inebriated Tony Stark. If I had a hypothetical daughter, I would rather her watch Thor and think, "Hey, when I grow-up I could totally be a scientist and calculate the movements of the stars!" rather than Iron Man and think, "Hey, when I grow-up I could totally clean Tony Stark's puke! And then maybe he'd fall in love with me!"

And for once, my hypothetical daughter would have a choice in which female character to emulate or play-pretend when out in the yard with her mates. Scientist or warrior? Who do you want to be today? Because both are better than secretary/puke cleaner.

Not only is Natalie Portman's character Jane a scientist, she is the head scientist. She has a team. Apparently, Jane is also a stellar grant writer, because she has a lab with a dozen computers, a van full of equipment and a mobile home. That, or maybe the rent in her small New Mexico town is dirt cheap; because the lab is in a retro building full of windows smack in the center of town, yet still has a landscape desert view. Fuck yeah, science!

More awesome? Jane's intern is Darcy, played by Kat Dennings. Jane and Darcy talk to each other about science, mythology and theory. Not just how cute Thor is. Find me another summer movie blockbuster with two women scientists talking about their jobs and NOT talking about the hot half-naked man in the room and I'll buy you a beer. Hell, I'll buy you a dozen, one for every computer in Jane's lab. Not because I'm loaded, but because that's a rarity worth celebrating.

Flaw to all this awesome: The male scientist (played by Stellan Skarsgård), who works with Jane, makes it clear at one point that he worked with Jane's father.
Sigh. Heaven forbid (or in this case, Asgard forbid) that Jane gain the respect and admiration of an older male scientist on her own merit. Of course not. Her father had to be brought in to it.

(Fanboy reaction: But, but the parallels! Thor and his father! Jane and hers! Living up to their fathers standards! They are destined to be together! They are the Edward-and-Bella!)

Had this tired trope been left out it would have made no difference to the film, and all the difference to the character of Jane Foster as a role model. Really, the revelation that Stellan Skarsgård's character worked with Jane's father adds nothing to the character but completely plays on the stereotype that men and women cannot be friends and that an older male only shows interest in a younger female in two capacities: as sugar daddy or father figure. It would have been entirely unique to a Hollywood movie and more plausible if he respected her work as a colleague based on her own accomplishments. It's like the filmmakers didn't trust the audience to be smart enough to realize that a male character can be around a female character and not fall in love with her.

To balance this, a bit of redemption: The scientific experiment the team works on is called the Foster Experiment, Jane's last name.

Large flaw and possible mild spoiler: Thor is insulted by being called a princess.

Groan.

As stated in this space before, if guys are taught the worst thing that they can be called is a girl, what does that say about girls? This quote by Tony Porter sums it up:

"I can remember speaking to a 12-year-old boy, a football player, and I asked him, I said, 'How would you feel if, in front of all the players, your coach told you, you were playing like a girl?' Now, I expected him to say something like, 'I'd be sad; I'd be mad; I'd be angry,' something like that. No, the boy said to me, the boy said to me, 'It would destroy me.'

And I said to myself, 'God, if it would destroy him to be called a girl, what are we then teaching him about girls?'"

And what makes it worse is that the gendered insult was totally unnecessary.  Prior to this, we're shown that Thor sees his female companion Lady Sif as an equal.

Without spoilers, here's a vague run-down.
The insult was thrown at Thor by a Big Bad. At that point in the movie anything the Big Bad said would have caused a reaction from Thor. The only reason the Big Bad spoke was to goad Thor. So sometime in the production, someone in writing (in a film that boasts screenwriter Ashley Edward Miller among the writers) or in directing or editing or ad-libbing, someone had to make the decision, "What can be said here?" knowing whatever is said, no matter what, will move the plot forward. No matter what. Does the Big Bad say something about the weather? Or have a nice day? Or fuck you? Or your head looks like an ass? No. The Big Bad calls him a girl. Because nothing's worst than that.

(Fanboy reaction: But! But! That's pre-character development Thor! He's hot-tempered! He hasn't gone on his hero's journey and discovered himself!)

Fair enough. But? It is entirely possible (and this may be a foreign concept, so hold on to your brains), to have a hero go on a journey without enforcing gender and sexist stereotypes in the telling. I know. Crazy, right? Especially, as stated before, it is an unnecessary choice of words by the filmmakers just to reinforce the idea that nothing is worse than calling a big man a pretty princess.

Redemption: Well, um, hmm. Yeah, no redemption for this one. Thor grows as a character, but looks like even while making noble attempts, Hollywood is still stuck in the same sexist rut.