Ted Talks : Christopher Bell - Bring on the Female Superheroes.
UP English :: Sci-Eco L3 :: L3 2016/2017 :: Group B
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Ted Talks : Christopher Bell - Bring on the Female Superheroes.
by Sterling Archer Wed Oct 26, 2016 7:21 pm
Hi everyone,
I chose a Ted talks who inspired me. I’m a huge comics/series/film fan, so I looked for this kind of videos. I found a podcast from Christopher Bell, who talk about « Bring on the female superheroes! ».
This podcast is a society criticism about the gender and the non-presence of female characters on toys. First, he talks about his daughter who is a Star Wars fan and an athlete. She is open-minded and his father (the speaker-Christopher Bell) let her do what she wants, choose her toys and her superheroes. He called her a nerd, like he is! She isn’t stereotyped. She doesn’t love the princess and pink colour, which is the stereotypes that we find in the different stores.
He brings the subject thanks to his daughter’s case, his reflection is about: “Why is it that when my daughter dresses up, whether it's Groot or The Incredible Hulk, whether it's Obi-Wan Kenobi or Darth Maul, why is every character she dresses up as a boy? And where are all the female superheroes?” His question really is, “where is all the female superhero stuff? Where are the costumes? Where are the toys?”.
He first talks about the media, where 6 big companies controlled 90% of the series/movies/music/books in America. It’s impressive. Among these 6 companies, there is Disney who purchased Lucas Films so Star Wars. In stores, you will find stuff with Luke, Han, Chewie,… and no one with Leia…
His different arguments are striking. He talks about The Guardians of the Galaxy who possess 5 members (in the movies) who are Rocket Racoon, Star Lord, Gamora, Groot and Drax the Destroyer. He says that he wants to buy a toy who represents the whole squad, but every time Gamora is missing. It’s the only woman in the squad and she doesn’t have her place on the goodies. Even Gamora’ figurines are rough to find. I don’t think that’s right to set aside characters, especially when they are important.
Another example, Black Widow. You all know who she is, performed by the beautiful Scarlett Johansson. Well, there is not a single piece of the character in stores... The thing who impressed me in this argue, it’s that a toy was sell (maybe it’s still in boutique) with Captain America who rides a motorcycle. This moto is in a movie with Black Widow and in the film, it’s Natacha who rides it! She was replaced by a male figure! That’s aberrant! Women are ignored.
At the end, he takes the example of Mike. Mike is a little American who lives in Florida and who is 11 years old. His favourite show is My Little Pony. It’s a show you “teach” you enjoy life, to feel good and do good. But, at school, Mike was beat and mock. Mike tries to kill himself. This story affected me. We have to stop classifying gender with shows, toys or stereotype emitted by society. We should be able to choose who we want to be. I remember when I was a child, I used to watch Totally Spies.
In my opinion, I think that now Marvel and DC tries to make efforts to introduce female characters. Moreover, in comics woman are involved! In MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), they want to realize a Black Widow movie and there will be a Captain Marvel film. DC will introduce Wonder Woman in 2017 (June the 23). It’s not huge but it’s a beginning. There are so many projects who are coming in this kind of production that the probability to see women on the big screen is important.
There are also series who introduced woman heroes and superheroes like Jessica Jones, Agent Carter or Supergirl. Jessica Jones season 2 will be realized exclusively by women!
In Star Wars VII, Rey (Daisy Ridley) was the main character (and she will be the main character in SW VIII) and in Rogue One it will also be a woman (Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso). Some Americans (and maybe Europeans) boycott Star Wars because the main character was a woman, that’s so pathetic! I hope that mentalities will evolve, in the right path.
This Ted Talks made me think. I put the link if you’re curious and you want to listen to all the podcast.
https://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_bell_bring_on_the_female_superheroes?language=en
Bye.
I chose a Ted talks who inspired me. I’m a huge comics/series/film fan, so I looked for this kind of videos. I found a podcast from Christopher Bell, who talk about « Bring on the female superheroes! ».
This podcast is a society criticism about the gender and the non-presence of female characters on toys. First, he talks about his daughter who is a Star Wars fan and an athlete. She is open-minded and his father (the speaker-Christopher Bell) let her do what she wants, choose her toys and her superheroes. He called her a nerd, like he is! She isn’t stereotyped. She doesn’t love the princess and pink colour, which is the stereotypes that we find in the different stores.
He brings the subject thanks to his daughter’s case, his reflection is about: “Why is it that when my daughter dresses up, whether it's Groot or The Incredible Hulk, whether it's Obi-Wan Kenobi or Darth Maul, why is every character she dresses up as a boy? And where are all the female superheroes?” His question really is, “where is all the female superhero stuff? Where are the costumes? Where are the toys?”.
He first talks about the media, where 6 big companies controlled 90% of the series/movies/music/books in America. It’s impressive. Among these 6 companies, there is Disney who purchased Lucas Films so Star Wars. In stores, you will find stuff with Luke, Han, Chewie,… and no one with Leia…
His different arguments are striking. He talks about The Guardians of the Galaxy who possess 5 members (in the movies) who are Rocket Racoon, Star Lord, Gamora, Groot and Drax the Destroyer. He says that he wants to buy a toy who represents the whole squad, but every time Gamora is missing. It’s the only woman in the squad and she doesn’t have her place on the goodies. Even Gamora’ figurines are rough to find. I don’t think that’s right to set aside characters, especially when they are important.
Another example, Black Widow. You all know who she is, performed by the beautiful Scarlett Johansson. Well, there is not a single piece of the character in stores... The thing who impressed me in this argue, it’s that a toy was sell (maybe it’s still in boutique) with Captain America who rides a motorcycle. This moto is in a movie with Black Widow and in the film, it’s Natacha who rides it! She was replaced by a male figure! That’s aberrant! Women are ignored.
At the end, he takes the example of Mike. Mike is a little American who lives in Florida and who is 11 years old. His favourite show is My Little Pony. It’s a show you “teach” you enjoy life, to feel good and do good. But, at school, Mike was beat and mock. Mike tries to kill himself. This story affected me. We have to stop classifying gender with shows, toys or stereotype emitted by society. We should be able to choose who we want to be. I remember when I was a child, I used to watch Totally Spies.
In my opinion, I think that now Marvel and DC tries to make efforts to introduce female characters. Moreover, in comics woman are involved! In MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), they want to realize a Black Widow movie and there will be a Captain Marvel film. DC will introduce Wonder Woman in 2017 (June the 23). It’s not huge but it’s a beginning. There are so many projects who are coming in this kind of production that the probability to see women on the big screen is important.
There are also series who introduced woman heroes and superheroes like Jessica Jones, Agent Carter or Supergirl. Jessica Jones season 2 will be realized exclusively by women!
In Star Wars VII, Rey (Daisy Ridley) was the main character (and she will be the main character in SW VIII) and in Rogue One it will also be a woman (Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso). Some Americans (and maybe Europeans) boycott Star Wars because the main character was a woman, that’s so pathetic! I hope that mentalities will evolve, in the right path.
This Ted Talks made me think. I put the link if you’re curious and you want to listen to all the podcast.
https://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_bell_bring_on_the_female_superheroes?language=en
Bye.
Sterling Archer- Posts : 39
Points : 2822
Reputation : 0
Join date : 2016-09-22
UP English :: Sci-Eco L3 :: L3 2016/2017 :: Group B
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