Gender Roles

In Stephen Farber’s “That’s No Lady--That’s Our Nightmare” (March 18), we have the classic case of the fox protecting the henhouse.

Farber describes the new batch of female characters as “raging egomaniacs and ruthless control freaks . . . angry, domineering, destructive . . . rather frightening figures.” Sounds an awful lot like characters that, when portrayed by male actors, are applauded for showing the darker side of humanity.

Farber’s article is filled with classic reverse sexism. For example, “In the Bedroom” has Tom Wilkinson being “the emotional heart of the film, whereas [Sissy] Spacek delineates a far colder and less appealing figure.” And in “The Deep End,” Tilda Swinton’s character “seems compulsively driven rather than warmly maternal.” Heaven forbid that a woman play a cold, calculating mother instead of the good ol’ traditional mom.

And I love the enlightened description of good bad girls: “tasty femmes fatales immortalized by film noir,” who “were seductive, magnetic and often quite brilliant.” In other words, deadly but still sexy as hell. Gee, that’s refreshing. He’s bothered by the new batch who are “unfeeling, unimaginative, unattractive gorgons. . . . “

We don’t need to be protected from unsympathetic female characters; we should be celebrating the fact that women’s roles are becoming as varied as men’s.

MARIE BAIN

North Hollywood