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I don't understand what you are talking about. The thread title is all messed up.
Is it just like a search tag so that people can easily find female driven movies?
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MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > [deleted]
I went to IMDb to check this F-rating thing. I went to the page of Frozen, as the article indicates, but I don't see it anywhere... where is it?
Please hurry with the response cause I'm on IMDb right now, giving them traffic. I just wanna see it and log off. ;)
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Thanks. So, they don't show it on the web page of the movie, you have to search for it. I get it now. 👍
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Yeah, no point to speculate now what's it gonna be like. We'll have to wait and see. I personally think it would look stupid if one movie has the rating 7.5 and another one has F-7.5 (for example)
If IMDb does that, this will confuse a lot of people.
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Seems that I completely misunderstood this "F rating" concept.
I figured, we already have a Bechdel test, so this must be something entirely different because it was created by a different person (Holly Tarquini).
How many "female oriented ratings" do we need? Now we have two, this one and Bechdel. I wish they would drop these ideas because they are just bringing confusion into rating system.
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I found it at the bottom of keywords page, and it says:
"F-rated. 0 out of 2 people found it relevant"
So I logged on IMDb and added another irrelevant vote. Now it should say "0 out of 3 people found it relevant" hehe I did what I could :)
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Something odd is happening with F-rated keyword for Frozen.
After I added "not relevant" vote and made it "0 out of 3", someone quickly added 7 "relevant" votes and brought it to "7 out of 10".
Then the score remained like this. Now I checked it again and it says "7 out of 11" which means that someone added "not relevant" vote again.
Quick appearance of 7 pro votes and then zero activity, makes me thing that IMDb is messing with this rating.
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Now it's "7 out of 13" btw. I'll keep an eye on it to see what happens.
Yeah, as someone said, this is like a social experiment. They really want to make it relevant. I don't mind it as long as they are not shoving it down our throats at every turn. If they want to have it on IMDb and in movie festivals only, fine. But I'm afraid it won't end with that.
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I think it might be useful for kids movies, like picking a movie for your daughter. But even there, I see a big downside which is assuming that all girls are the same or that they all like "girly" movies. It seems like it has a possible use but I don't like the binary pigeonholing of girls toys and boys toys. I guess it's a useful search key if you want to pick movies that way, but I would never use it.
I am a woman but you will not find a cutesy pink tool set in my house. I find that kind of thing annoying and patronizing. I use normal tools. Don't pinkwash products that aren't any different from the male counterparts (except usually the price is higher)
To clarify: I am a woman, I am a feminist, but in general I'm not in favor of categorizing things as "for men" and "for women". Especially something like art, and I do consider movies to be art.
Yeah it could work for kids movies, I guess. Makes it easier for parents to pick a movie for their daughters.
But this was first implemented in movie festivals, wasn't it? Not many little girls attend those. It IS kinda patronizing for adult audience. And it is already backfiring, some people started calling it "feminist-rating". This can't be good.
Yeah it is problematic in multiple ways. Assuming that women only choose movies based on such a narrow criteria. And then it would turn off many men who are so afraid of doing anything that might appear effeminate or who automatically reject something if they think it is feminist. That word has become such a trigger for like ... avalanches of hate.
The rating is polarizing, although I can understand why they would come up with it. It's just not something I would ever use.
Jesus, I just noticed that even CNN is calling this "feminist movies".
The title on CNN reads:
"It just got easier to find feminist films on IMDb"
I don't see male teenagers being happy with this. Suppose they want to watch an action movie that happens to be directed by a woman (Bigelow, for instance). Could peer pressure make them skip the movie? Probably not but I figure they will find this very annoying.
Bechdel test was better than this, at least you knew what to expect.
Yes that is a big mistake. Female protagonist does not equal feminist. Even people actually wanting to see a feminist movie will be disappointed by the rating giving them a bum steer.
shareI just checked on IMDb and yep, Near Dark is rated as a feminist movie. American Psycho as well. hehe
shareWow. If someone was looking for feminist films and somehow watched American Psycho based on that rating, without doing any further research, they would have an unpleasant experience for sure.
shareHahaha true... they messed up big time.
shareAlthough, Bechdel test also had its silly moments. For instance, to pass a Bechdel test, a movie has to have a female conversation that isn't about men.
Well, there is one such scene in Battle Royale, a group of girls talk to each other about things other than boys. But in the end of the scene (spoilers). I won't say what happens, only that it wasn't pretty. And yet, it did pass a Bechdel test. I find this amusing as well cause it sure wasn't "female-friendly".
Does the conversation have to be about romantic or sexual interest in men, or does that mean any conversation about a another character that happens to be male?
I mean like, in the Walking Dead, when Rosita and Sasha discuss ways to kill Negan, would that not qualify? They aren't discussing him as a potential romantic partner.
I am not sure if this would pass the test or not. I'm not that familiar with rules.
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Is the rating based on the gender of the director, is that all it is?
I thought it meant the plot was female driven or had a female protagonist?
Female director does not always mean the movie is about a woman or aimed at the female market.
Penny Marshall just directed a biography of Dennis Rodman. Would that movie get the F, but Theodore Melfi who wrote AND directed "Hidden Figures" would not get the F?
If that is the case, it just seems pointless.
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Thanks, that makes a little more sense. So Hidden Figures might get an F even though the writer/director/producer was male.
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From wikipedia: "If our films have a female director, a female lead who is not simply there to support the male lead, or are specifically about women then they will receive an F-Rated stamp of approval." That's for the Bath Film Festiva, that the rating was first implemented at. My guess is, that's the definition IMDB would use as well.
When 50% of the world's population is female, but female driven films, for the most part, are still viewed as niche, there clearly is a problem.
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How is that F-rating making you watch something you don't want to see? It's simply an informative feature, if this happens to be something you're seeking out. And also it might serve to promote a female perspective in film. There's nothing wrong with that.
As to what women watch and don't watch, we're people, and usualy our femaleness, and the presence or lack there off of women in media, has nothing to do with our decisions. Same should apply to men as well.
And the fact that you think that Ghostbusters' only issue was the female cast, shows that there is a problem. Though I do agree that it was a missguided marketing quimick to sell it on the female cast. Women should be allowed to make and star in bad movies. And that's not because they're women, but because they're people. And tell me, how many second chances would M. Night Shyamalan get, if he were female?
Yeah, gender shouldn't come into play, when you're telling stories about people. But when those stories are overwelmingly one sided or people get their panties in a twist because "ew, girls", maybe there's something wrong there. This is not to say that the other side of the debate doesn't have it's own faults as well.
Anyway, I don't want to have an argument, just putting my two cents in.
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I have no problem arguing my viewpoint, as it's evident from the above post. But when those points fall on deaf ears, then there isn't much point to it.
Good day sir!
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"When 50% of the world's population is female, but female driven films, for the most part, are still viewed as niche, there clearly is a problem."
Excellent point, and I agree.
I don't know if the F rating is the answer or not, and have no strong feelings one way or the other.
At first I thought the OP was saying IMDb was initiating an A through F grading for films and shows, ha!
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"It's only a problem because females do not want to see female driven movies like male driven movies."
And you know that … how? For many decades there was no choice.
"If women are 50% of the population, then why don't female driven movies do as well as mens?"
See above.
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Not hyperbole at all, and it is perfectly factual. There can't even be any debate about this.
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I think it is important to highlight the work of female directors, writers, producers etc. but making their work synonymous with feminism is nonsense. That would be like labelling all female philosophers feminist philosophers. That simply isn't the case.
The people behind the scenes definitely matter. There are plenty of well-known directors who's name alone can sell a film.
Simply put I think this is a good initiative, just not executed in the right way.
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Male-driven films/shows have predominated since the inception of films and shows, for obvious reasons, which has also been sexist and unnecessary. They have been the default for many decades now.
I don't particularly care about an F rating system, one way or the other. Either I'm attracted to a film and want to see it, or I don't.
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Any time you push and try to put people into parts or any role on the crew based on gender you are going to have backlash. I am a woman, and I wouldn't want to be given a job simply because I'm a woman. That seems insulting. And if one thinks there are not enough women directors, then pick up a camera and make a film. Lord knows anyone can do it these days and release it to any number of streaming services that are looking for cheap new content.
Related, but mostly off topic: I'm not really good at arguing about political topics, but I like the idea some actresses such as Helen Mirren and I believe Sandra Bullock have had, which is to audition for roles in films that are written for a man, but that wouldn't change the film if they were played by a woman. Secondary parts, character parts. They've done this to stay visible and working now that they're older and not necessarily getting leads. What I mean is, they haven't said, "REEEEE Give me this part because I'm a woman," they've said, "It should not matter whether a man or a woman plays this part." That makes sense to me.