It's not all good, though. But all in all, it gets feminist thumbs up from me.
V Gender Balance - Gender Representation:
I really wish there was an easy way to count screentime and lines... I really cannot sit and count everyone's seconds and words. :-(
All the crew was male, the cast was about 50/50, down to tertiary actors and extras. Impressive, actually.
X The Uphold Test
X The Rees Davies Test
X The White Test
V The Hagen Test
V The Koeze-Dottle Test
V The Peirce Test
V The Villarreal Test
X The Landau Test
V The Tauriel Test
V The Willis Test
traditional gender roles
No-one seems to be much concerned about their appearance.
Everyone has a job.
The man orders apple pie, the women don't seem to eat anything
The man is being patient and not pushing himself on to her.
One of the women works in fashion industry, the other in... what? architecture?
The main character is very independent, decisive, active and aggressive
V the MacGyver Test
X the Raleigh Becket Test
V Kuku test
V Gender Freedom:
V Gender Safety:
Gender safety, yes, safety in general, no. :-D
Now, I think one of the biggest problems here was that the cat people were considered evil just by default, and she received religious upbringing with all the demons and satan worship beliefs, and she was bullied when she was little by the townspeople... she was never taught to deal with her panther spirit. Now... I wonder how a movie would be if that was not the case. Let's see what the modern version is like.
X Social Justice and Equality:
C The Representation Test
X The Vito Russo test
X Kent test
X Aila test
X The Waithe Test
X The Ko Test
There’s a non-white, female-identifying person in the film who speaks English, but she is in only two scenes and these scenes are connected. But she seems to own the Sally Lunn's and the main characters go there and know her well. She is not sexualized in any way and she is treated well. We don't know anything about her life or relationships and she is the only non-white character in the whole movie. She isn't there to help anyone, to take the blame, she isn't magical (though I'd like to have some of that chicken gumbo... I bet that is magical. And sorry if I'm being racist here.), she isn't sacrificed or anything.
X The Villalobos Test
X The Deggans Test
X The Shukla Test
X The Latif Test
Age of primary and secondary actors?
Simone Simon 32
Kent Smith 35
Tom Conway 38
Jane Randolph 28
V Molly Haskell:
She doesn't sacrifice herself. She chooses to follow her own conviction and leaving Alice and Oliver to be. She dies at the end, though, but not killed because she's evil, wicked, bad, but in self defence.
The "good woman" isn't "innocent, dutiful, helpless, submissive, obedient, quiet and pretty". She is a friend, a good friend, and their love is based on a strong, equal friendship. She is his colleague.
It is Irena here who is the innocent, dutiful, helpless and pretty one.
But she doesn't have any friends. She's a lonely immigrant, fleeing from her native country, from the legend of the Cat People, the witches. She is one, though, and cannot hide her true nature. That makes her exceptional and unique. Different. She is a witch.
The only other female in the movie is the "other woman". She has been in love with the hero, but when he fell in love with Irena and married her, she was only supportive. There never was anything inappropriate going on between the two. Not even when he wanted to leave Irena to marry Alice. He chose Irena over Alice, because Irena was sick, insane, mad, in need of care, and that was the right thing to do. He could have annulled the marriage, but he chose to get Irena to a insane asylum.
...
...
let's ignore the fact what insane asylums were still in the 40s, and think that at that time that WAS doing the morally right thing and that he was a very good man. But, gosh, it's hard.
V Gender Bias Without Borders
So - the same old question... how could this be better?
More diversity and equality in the crew department. As always. Right now that feels impossible and totally utopistic. :-( Even the newest movies don't pass this!
The main character could be Native American. She could turn into a cougar. She could be totally fine with her nature.
The love interest could be anything but a white man. She could be a woman. He could be Native American. He could be Asian. It would be interesting if he was Indian.
One could do more about the culture clash.
Or she could be black woman. Or black man.
There should be more diversity in body shapes and sizes.
GLBT+
Now, another thing that I must say is that the zoo was awful. Having the cats walk around in tiny cages was nothing but animal cruelty.
V Bechdel test
V Mako Mori Test
V Sexy Lamp Test
V The Crystal Gems Test
X F-Rating
V Sphinx Test
Actually, I think it does pass this. I think Irena has the main role, even though Oliver and Alice are there, too. I think Irena decides very much what happens in the movie. I think she is very active. I don't think she's very stereotypical. (There are some problems here). I think her character is compelling, complex and multidimensional, even though I have seen "better". :-D If the story is essential? I don't know. But it got 93% at Rotten Tomatoes and 7.3 at IMDb.
X The Feldman Score (2)
V Mako Mori Test
V Sexy Lamp Test
V The Crystal Gems Test
X F-Rating
V Sphinx Test
Actually, I think it does pass this. I think Irena has the main role, even though Oliver and Alice are there, too. I think Irena decides very much what happens in the movie. I think she is very active. I don't think she's very stereotypical. (There are some problems here). I think her character is compelling, complex and multidimensional, even though I have seen "better". :-D If the story is essential? I don't know. But it got 93% at Rotten Tomatoes and 7.3 at IMDb.
X The Feldman Score (2)
V Gender Balance - Gender Representation:
I really wish there was an easy way to count screentime and lines... I really cannot sit and count everyone's seconds and words. :-(
All the crew was male, the cast was about 50/50, down to tertiary actors and extras. Impressive, actually.
X The Uphold Test
X The Rees Davies Test
X The White Test
V The Hagen Test
V The Koeze-Dottle Test
V The Peirce Test
V The Villarreal Test
X The Landau Test
V The Tauriel Test
V The Willis Test
traditional gender roles
No-one seems to be much concerned about their appearance.
Everyone has a job.
The man orders apple pie, the women don't seem to eat anything
The man is being patient and not pushing himself on to her.
One of the women works in fashion industry, the other in... what? architecture?
The main character is very independent, decisive, active and aggressive
V the MacGyver Test
X the Raleigh Becket Test
V Kuku test
V Gender Freedom:
V Gender Safety:
Gender safety, yes, safety in general, no. :-D
Now, I think one of the biggest problems here was that the cat people were considered evil just by default, and she received religious upbringing with all the demons and satan worship beliefs, and she was bullied when she was little by the townspeople... she was never taught to deal with her panther spirit. Now... I wonder how a movie would be if that was not the case. Let's see what the modern version is like.
X Social Justice and Equality:
C The Representation Test
X The Vito Russo test
X Kent test
X Aila test
X The Waithe Test
X The Ko Test
There’s a non-white, female-identifying person in the film who speaks English, but she is in only two scenes and these scenes are connected. But she seems to own the Sally Lunn's and the main characters go there and know her well. She is not sexualized in any way and she is treated well. We don't know anything about her life or relationships and she is the only non-white character in the whole movie. She isn't there to help anyone, to take the blame, she isn't magical (though I'd like to have some of that chicken gumbo... I bet that is magical. And sorry if I'm being racist here.), she isn't sacrificed or anything.
X The Villalobos Test
X The Deggans Test
X The Shukla Test
X The Latif Test
Age of primary and secondary actors?
Simone Simon 32
Kent Smith 35
Tom Conway 38
Jane Randolph 28
V Molly Haskell:
She doesn't sacrifice herself. She chooses to follow her own conviction and leaving Alice and Oliver to be. She dies at the end, though, but not killed because she's evil, wicked, bad, but in self defence.
The "good woman" isn't "innocent, dutiful, helpless, submissive, obedient, quiet and pretty". She is a friend, a good friend, and their love is based on a strong, equal friendship. She is his colleague.
It is Irena here who is the innocent, dutiful, helpless and pretty one.
But she doesn't have any friends. She's a lonely immigrant, fleeing from her native country, from the legend of the Cat People, the witches. She is one, though, and cannot hide her true nature. That makes her exceptional and unique. Different. She is a witch.
The only other female in the movie is the "other woman". She has been in love with the hero, but when he fell in love with Irena and married her, she was only supportive. There never was anything inappropriate going on between the two. Not even when he wanted to leave Irena to marry Alice. He chose Irena over Alice, because Irena was sick, insane, mad, in need of care, and that was the right thing to do. He could have annulled the marriage, but he chose to get Irena to a insane asylum.
...
...
let's ignore the fact what insane asylums were still in the 40s, and think that at that time that WAS doing the morally right thing and that he was a very good man. But, gosh, it's hard.
V Gender Bias Without Borders
So - the same old question... how could this be better?
More diversity and equality in the crew department. As always. Right now that feels impossible and totally utopistic. :-( Even the newest movies don't pass this!
The main character could be Native American. She could turn into a cougar. She could be totally fine with her nature.
The love interest could be anything but a white man. She could be a woman. He could be Native American. He could be Asian. It would be interesting if he was Indian.
One could do more about the culture clash.
Or she could be black woman. Or black man.
There should be more diversity in body shapes and sizes.
GLBT+
Now, another thing that I must say is that the zoo was awful. Having the cats walk around in tiny cages was nothing but animal cruelty.
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