What no female giants???

"In fact, I'm sure many of those who watched this film barely gave the matter any thought."

As it should have been as there was no ulterior motive. Your incessant need to make this a slight against the female gender is both depreciating and sort of sick. Why do you insist on the creation of conspiracy theories when there are no grounds for them here?

"But because patriarchal societies treat men as the default gender, the decision to render an entire race of mammalian beings one gender only is glided over as unproblematic."

No, you don't get the point here. These are GIANTS. They are MYTHOLOGICAL creatures. Giants are predominantly male in mythology because they're large brutish creatures of immense strength. Read that description? Now what comes to mind when you hear large and brutish? That's the reason the cultures that made them part of their mythos made the giants predominantly male. There may or may not have been females, I'm not entirely certain, but the point is that, while humanoid, they are NOT human or mammalian. They are magical creatures. Take your science elsewhere.

"If the filmmakers had decided to make the giants self-replicating amazons, (a rather interesting idea, come to think of it) chances are you would have noticed."

Interesting that you mention amazons, a rather cruel society, composed entirely of females. But that's running on a tangent, regardless. Do you want large, ugly, deformed and brutish female giants? Go and read the Harry Potter series. J. K. Rowling created exactly what you're looking for. Her rendition of giants was, I believe, excellent. But that's all they are, her rendition.

"But because patriarchal societies treat men as the default gender, the decision to render an entire race of mammalian beings one gender only is glided over as unproblematic."

Yes, well, you're simply assuming they're one gender and not genderless. They resemble human males, and anyone who tries to say otherwise is obviously blind, but that's all. It's a resemblance. Mermaids typically resemble women with the bottom half of a fish, don't they? But that's all. It's just a resemblance.

For all we know, they're not even females. They might as well be genderless. Another way to think about it is that all the male "mermaids" look like females as well, right down to the breasts. The only difference being a penis. But does it matter? No one asks how they reproduce. Why? Because they're *beep* mermaids. They're pure myth. A.K.A. not real.

If anyone is interested how they keep their species going, they're purely interested in the mythology behind it. That's where writers and story tellers come in. They create amusing stories and tales of how THEY believe it works. But no one has the "right" version. They're all "right". Going back to HP, J.K. Rowling had mermen as well. That was her rendition. In no way is it the "final and only" rendition, but it was nonetheless an amusing one.

"Not needing women to reproduce -- why that's been the stuff of male fantasy fiction for decades."

LOL. I find this extremely hilarious. You really don't understand the very gender you're demonizing, do you? While asexual reproduction may be the hope and dream for a homosexual couple, the same does not apply for the rest of the male population.

"This is a discussion board and you're in no position to tell anyone to drop it."

When you're ready to discuss and not insist, imply or otherwise force, I'll be ready to be in this "no position" you speak of. But, as of the moment, all you've been seeking is confrontation, not discussion.

When you've read up on your mythology you can try and argue your case but, as it stands, you're grasping at straws.