Representation of women in the media is something I think about a lot, and it seems like for the last few weeks all anyone has been able to talk about is the movie Mad Max: Fury Road.
I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'm about to go and do that this evening.
To further that, I don't know too much about what actually happens in the film other than that its cast features an abundance of women who absolutely kick butt.
I also know it was directed by a man, and that the movie has men's rights activists all over the world in an absolute uproar.
Apparently Mad Max: Fury Road is feminist propaganda, and men should feel ashamed and threatened by it in equal measure.
Some activists have taken to the internet to tell other men they shouldn't go see this movie for fear there will be more movies like it, while simultaneously arguing women are already overrepresented.
For me this is completely mind-boggling.
Not only is their argument fundamentally flawed, but also in whose mind is it frightening that women should have one action movie in which they are respectfully represented?
I think a lot about how and why I identify with media, and find I am personally drawn to a wide range of television shows, movies, books, music and whatnot.
Mostly, I would prefer to consume media that not only prominently features women but is also made by women.
But sometimes, particularly in the mainstream, that can be pretty hard to come by and so I satiate my entertainment needs by consuming media that prominently features men.
This is not hard to find and could even be described as completely inescapable.
What I take from this is that I find myself capable of identifying with representations of men in media, even if these representations don't exactly resonate with my own experiences and beliefs.
Obviously, this is related to the male experience being touted as the universal experience, and that is a whole other problem in itself.
But what has been inching its way into my consciousness is a reluctance on the behalf of men to relate to anything or anyone who doesn't look and act like them.
What I'm talking about is the confused and affronted response of some men when it is even so much as suggested that women take on leading roles that would normally be filled by men.
For example, the television show Dr Who has always had a man in the role of the Doctor.
Recently, as there was set to be a change of Doctor, it was suggested by fans that perhaps it might be an idea to have the doctor played by a woman, or more specifically a woman of colour.
I don't watch the show myself but I think that would be great, and if I did watch the show it certainly wouldn't turn me off it.
A lot of male fans, however, were so offended by the very suggestion the Doctor be played by anyone but a white man that they threatened to abandon the show altogether.
When questioned about why this idea was so upsetting most of these fans didn't have a real response in store, they were just dazed and distraught.
I think what it really boils down to is an inability for men to identify with anyone who doesn't represent them. I'm not saying it's their fault.
The media is saturated with representations of white men and anything else is a completely foreign concept, but it's pretty disheartening when I know so many women are prepared to engage with representations that might be alienating to them, while men seem aggressively unwilling to do so.
I once took a class on 18th-century literature and more than half of the texts on the course were written by women.
One afternoon I heard a male student complain that it was about time we read something by a man because he was just so tired of reading from the perspective of women and it was just so hard for him to relate.
I very much doubt he has ever thought about what it's like to have had only texts written from your perspective in your entire university career.
Millie Lovelock is a Dunedin student.
