Place your hand on your head and collapse, woman

Having watched The Godfather and questioning whether I actually liked it or not, I found myself asking certain questions. It's not that the film was particularly bad, but something about it was just rather irksome. Acting was amazing and its influences can be tasted everywhere. Whether I'd place it on my 'best films' list is a completely different story.

However: what is with the glorification of murder/crime in so-called 'masculine' films? And of the misogynistic themes that recur into films like Se7en, being somewhat of the same genre. I know I would be criticised for being too serious about a film, but when you are told that your place is passive and with children in media these kind of films being to be rather tedious. I am not saying that all films should be politically correct nor am I arguing that film should be overly moralistic. I guess what I find annoying is that films which are considered 'must-see' often depict women in a stereotypical role and play out masculinity as dominant. Anything remotely feminine is considered a 'chick flick' which has no possible capability of ever being any good.

Which brings me back to Neha's tale of ties and women: in film and in life, do we have to be of a 'masculine' gender in order to be important and respected? Even film directors: how many have been women and been successful? The wikipedia article lists a few films but the few I recognise and have seen have never been considered classics. Plus the issues they seem to address have never been as popular as the themes discussed in more prominent films. Having a brief look at the AFI's 100 films thing (including the 10th Anniversary changes) I don't even think I noticed a single female director.

I know that what it means to be female is socially constructed, and as such those ideas are fluid; I dislike chick flicks because they depict frivolous ideas which I find tedious. But then I also find Godzilla (the remake) tedious because it was just dull. Somehow I just feel that it is such a shame that in order for a film to be successful, it has to conform to particular female stereotypes and emphasise the dominance of masculinity.