oblivion - a few beginning thoughts

oblivion - mental blankness, amnesia, indifference, unawareness.

yesterday we watched oblivion. like the films name - as i watched a part of my mind went blank. i was left flattened and empty by the film.

it was a promising story line in some ways but was so badly scripted. it had good visuals but no depth in the characters and what bothered me most was how stereotypically the male and female roles were crafted in the film. the male technician goes out all day and does things, solves problems, has adventures and gets messy. the female stays in, perfectly coiffed and dressed, makes dinner and will not even be coaxed into one last adventure. she tempts the male with her sexuality into forgetting, moving him away from his memories and from his 'source'. the second female lead, or was she the first, just listless and adding nothing much to the drama of the film. neither can do anything without the male. and of course those endless days, each similar and routine in some way, the deeper purpose of which is forgotten and the only hope is to return to something completely unknown in the near future - a reward for services rendered in an almost slave-like way? a promise of eternal happiness? 

how many of us live just these lives? robotic and unfeeling. how many families are just 'clones' of every other? living for some promise of 'tomorrow'.

why are so many films made of horrible scavengy aliens wanting our planet? they are our shadow. we are the scavengers, the predators, the spoilers of paradise. the way we treat our own planet why would any race want it? is it not more likely that if we had the capacity to, we would go scavenge other planets and leave them as polluted and depleted as we are leaving ours.

but what disturbed me most was how insidiously anti-woman the film was. even among the rebels - the only ones who knew the 'truth' and remained aware - there were more men than women. and i completely missed the symbolism in the end. a man flying a white sperm like object into a large black triangle pointing downwards, a dark womb lined with 'eggs'. he needs to destroy it for the triangle holds that alien something that is evil and controlling. yikes, how much more misogynist can something be!

symbols do really seep in unknowing into our consciousness and shape our feelings, attitudes and behaviours. i have always found hindu stories and myths very misogynistic and blame them for the shadow patriarchy that exists in india, normalising horrible crimes against women. my daughter is writing her masters thesis around this and has been reading hindu myths. the creation myths are filled with incest and violence. they are shocking and i wonder if this is why men rape their five year old daughters, nieces and neighbours? yesterday she asked, 'do men hate women so much to have written such myths?' many talk about a goddess culture that preceded this patriarchal one with a pantheon of strong male gods and sidekick goddesses. later she asked 'was matriarchy so terrible and oppressive to men and is that why men hate us?' 

i think such questions are really interesting and glad she and others are focusing on them academically. i guess my speculative fiction writing is also an attempt at looking at such dynamics and trying to envision what an egalitarian world would look like. not a patriarchal world where with a few strong women characters, but a world with total equality. eager to see where my imagination and where my daughter's research will take us.