To many, this summer has been a win for women in comedy. Melissa McCarthy upended the conventional spy thriller in the film Spy by portraying a mousey basement CIA agent who's thrust into the limelight when her suave boss (Jude Law) gets offed. Yes, she has a crush on Jude Law, but -- spoiler alert -- she eschews all male attention at the end, riding off into the sunset with her female colleague instead. Similarly, Amy Schumer's Trainwreck inverts rom-com conventions by making the woman the childish one who must grow up when faced with the prospect of a losing a perfectly nice, stable guy. Yet, Trainwreck suffered some criticism for --spoiler alert-- ultimately pairing Amy Schumer with Bill Hader at the end, as if saying women do need a guy to be happy.
A universally recognized feminist film of the summer, however, is Magic Mike XXL. Critics unanimously applaud the film's focus on female desire. The essentially plotless film involves a road trip that Channing Tatum and co take from Tampa to South Carolina for the annual stripper convention. Along the way they make a lot of pit stops, breaking into dance routines whose sole purposes are to make women smile. In a stop at Jada Pinkett Smith's PlayGirl-esque mansion, we see Michael Strahan dancing for a crowd of diversely shaped women. Later, when the crew finally arrives at their destination, Elizabeth Banks lifts Tatum's shirt up just to make sure the six--nay--eight pack is still intact. The group of girls I saw this with all gave the movie two thumbs up.
Magic Mike XXL's relentless focus on pleasing women made me realize that the feminist cultural hits of the summer have not been the ones starring and written by women, but, surprisingly, have been the brainchild(ren?) of men. In addition to Magic Mike XXL, the blockbuster, Mad Max: Fury Road has been lauded for its strong female lead, the badass Furiosa ( a shaved-headed Charlize Theron) who usurps a miserly ruler to give the people water in a post-apocalyptic dry world. Along the way, she picks up a band of older women with creased faces seldom shown in Hollywood, who help her battle the baddies.
On the small screen, Key & Peele are tearing up Comedy Central with women-friendly sketches. Aimed at a male audience, these sketches remind guys that women are people too, and thus should be treated less horribly. In a TED Talks spoof, Key & Peele present a lecture on menstruation to a roomful of dudes. Key says "Every time they pee it's like the Shining in the toilet," he helpfully reminds the men. In their pirate chantey, the men sing "The lass was passed consent and we threw her bed and wrested her head and left/because that's what gentlemen do."
If men creating feminist pop culture is a new trend, I'm not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, It's great that men are in touch enough to show positive attitudes towards women. On the other, maybe it shows that men are more free to comment on feminism than women, who are still constrained by more traditional storytelling. In any case, all I know for now is that I'm looking forward to Magic Mike III.