A Few Notes on the Women of Mad Max: Fury Road

Okay, so you can’t round the corner without running into commentary on feminism in the new Mad Max movie.  Nothing I’m saying hasn’t been said before – I know.  However, as a geeky feminist, I love talking about this movie.  Maybe it’s pointless to join a conversation if you don’t have anything new to add, but I’d just like to be part of it.

We’ll start with plot.  Having a real female presence in an action film can be rare, which is partly why pure action isn’t a genre I often connect with.  I tire of seeing women mainly there to be rescued, fridged, or used as eye candy.  That said, impressive heroines can come out of action movies, too (like Fox in Wanted,) but they often a) fit the narrow “hyper-sexualized badass” mold of Strong Women, and b) are the only major female in the film.  Certainly, Fury Road could have gone down this path.  We have the wives, the sexy damsels the bad guy wants to recapture, and Furiosa, the striking warrior driving a tricked-out death machine.  In this film, though, neither of these threads follows stereotypical conventions.  Most importantly, Furiosa is the wives’ primary champion.  While Max obviously joins the proceedings, at its heart, this movie is about women helping women.  Right from the start, it frames the film differently, as does the distinction that Furiosa is helping the wives, not saving them.  Though they don’t have her experience, the wives take an active part in their own rescue.  They often defer to Furiosa, and they spend some time hiding, but they also contribute in varied, tangible ways to the escape.

I’ve talked before about the importance of seeing a wide range of women in media, the idea that “strong woman” has more than one meaning, and this film delivers nicely on that.  Some wives find their inner badass, fighting or executing daredevil moves in and around the rig.  Others offer their skills of observation, insight, or nurturing.  None is just one thing, despite the emblematic names given to them by their husband/abductor/rapist Immortan Joe.  He calls them names like Capable, Toast the Knowing, and Cheedo the Fragile, but each shows more dimension than their titles suggest.  And while the plot sexualizes them – escaping sex slavery at the hands of a warlord – the film really doesn’t.  Even the initial shot of them washing themselves off in the desert in their underwear defies the male-gaze perspective.  They’re framed, not as objects, but survivors, and their story is about abused women reclaiming agency over their lives and bodies.  Furiosa herself, the gun-toting gearhead, doesn’t align with her usual expectation, either.  Her androgynous looks are functional over fashionable, and the film gets past her fighting prowess to explore her troubled past.  I also love that her prosthetic arm is just a detail – it’s ever-present, but it’s not a plot point, and there’s no speechifying about the abilities of disabled women.  And even aside from our six major female characters, there’s a slew of other brave, adept women who aid Furiosa, Max, and the wives. 

This film is bursting at the seams with a variety of female characters, strong female relationships, and amazing female-led action sequences.  That being said, I find it kind of disheartening to read editorials about it being the game-changer that will prove to Hollywood that audiences will go to movies about women, because despite Fury Road’s spectacular merits, Hollywood has shown countless times that it can’t retain this lesson.  People say the same thing whenever a Kill Bill, The Hunger Games, or Bridesmaids comes along, and each is supposedly the one that will make all the difference… until the next one arrives, and everyone loses their minds about the box office all over again.  What’s it going to take before the message finally sticks?