Sexism, Alive and Well on the Internet

I frequent the site IMDb.com, which stands for Internet Movie Database. I love movies and it can be a great website to get information on upcoming films and whatnot, as well as movie showtimes in my area.

One feature that they have on the site is the Daily Poll. This is a feature where regular users suggest poll questions and each day they select a different one and people vote. Pretty simple. The questions are usually fun and harmless, like today was what was your favorite decade for Marlon Brando films.

Then there’s a comment section where you can either comment on the current poll or give suggestions for future poll questions. I always like to check that out because there are some fun ideas on there. That’s when I ran into this topic:

“Suggestion: Most interesting to see female version of a classic man film”*

It’s worded a bit strangely but the idea is what classic “man film” would be the most interesting to see re-envisioned starring women? I personally thought this was a very interesting question indeed so I clicked on the topic. Bad idea. Anyone who thinks sexism is a thing of the past just need take a gander here (though I don’t know if you can see the link without having an imdb account).

The person that came up with the suggestion gave several examples of “man films” and asked which people would be most interested in seeing re-envisioned, such as Deliverance, 12 Angry Men, Reservoir Dogs, The Dirty Dozen, etc… These were just some of the responses some users gave at the mere suggestion of the travesty of these “man films” being re-envisioned with women in the starring roles:

“I’d suggest Castaway, but we all know what would happen. The woman would get into an arguement with Wilson and they wouldn’t speak to each other for years”

…Because we all know how woman like to argue! Hahaha!

“I want to see the “squeal like a pig” scene from an all-female Deliverance!”

…You know, because a woman being raped by another woman would be nothing short of awesome! Lesbians for the win guys!

“Reservoir Bitches.”

…Get it?

It’s comments like these that make me just feel so depressed and…well just exhausted really. I know there is nothing I can say to these commenters to make them understand what they’re saying is sexist and wrong. I’d be told to loosen up, or probably much worse. It’s just so ridiculous when you hear things from people about how sexism really isn’t an issue anymore but then I just go to a normal movie website and have it shoved in my face like this. I mean really?

*All quotes are taken directly from the website as written by the other users/commenters.