Oh I actually do know this one! I think it's a completely reductive, and shortsighted method. As far as film analysis goes, it's an absolute joke and is not to be taken seriously.
It's not meant for analysis, it's meant to show the inequality female characters get in movies and how they're often relegated to window dressing. It's such a very small thing yet it's surprising how many movies fail it; and just because a movie fails it doesn't mean the movie is bad.
I do still disagree that the film should be labeled as 'feminist', but I will concede that the film correlates with the general idea of women being treated no differently than men. But I don't think that there's any emphasis on this. Maybe the emphasis comes from the fact that it was released in the early 2000's? Maybe the fact that the lead is female had a great deal of significance back then? I'm not sure if that's a stable argument as I'm not exactly a film buff, but it's possible. But if we hold it to today's standards, there is absolutely no way in hell it meets my expectation of a feminist text.
The fact that it came out in the early 2000s and was an
action movie starring a woman certainly helped. It's common place for people to try and downplay it when a movie like Wonder Woman has critics being like "Finally a female led movie!" by pointing to like Alien(s) and Terminator 2 and thus completely missing the point. It's
better now but there's so often been the feeling that women
can't be action heroes in movies, they have to be side characters or part of a team while the guys do the big work. Kill Bill isn't patting itself on the back and having characters be like "Hah, you're a woman, you can't handle a sword, oh no I am dead" which would be pandering and in poor taste. Instead Beatrix is respected, feared, and as competent as everyone else with no special attention drawn to it.
That is a
good thing. It is a net positive because her gender isn't what defines her as a character. If Kill Bill were released today, more than ever people would be claiming it as a feminist film. Mad Max: Fury Road is so of course Kill Bill is too.
My argument as it is now (after learning that my memory of Kill Bill is in fact completely inaccurate, and that our arguments have not been entirely congruent) is more in line with how slapping the feminist Label on films with such general criteria is shallow and pointless. Despite this, I have not changed my own criteria on what a feminist movie should entail, and I would still cite several of the points I've already made to support this idea as it is.
Simply put, I have already conceded that by your definition, Kill Bill is a feminist film, but I do not agree with your criteria, as by that notion, a great deal of films could be considered 'feminist', something I also disagree with. In the same fashion, and allow me to reword this, I would not label movies that display homosexual individuals as no different than others as 'LGBT', despite the fact that this falls in line with the idea that sexuality is not to be stigmatized. Instead, in both cases, I would apply the label of 'feminist' or 'LGBT' to movies that offer an intelligent dialogue about the trends they are discussing, while referencing the aforementioned as 'movies that fall in line with X's ideals'.
Sure but that's not how feminist film theory works. A movie starring women isn't automatically feminist and a movie with an LGBT character isn't necessarily an LGBT film. Reality Bites isn't an LGBT film but Love, Simon is. Kill Bill has themes that have been part of feminist film since it was a concept. If that doesn't make it a feminist film then I don't know what does. A movie about feminism more directly deals with feminism and its impact on women, the world, or its characters often in allegorical ways. A feminist movie doesn't, but it does have themes of and about women at their core. Thelma and Louise don't go around discussing their role in society and how they're going to change that. Beatrix Kiddo isn't marginalized or looked down on because of her gender. Yet both of those movies are feminist movies that aren't about feminism.
-Movies like Kill Bill fall in line with feminist ideals, but offer no significant dialogue on feminist themes, therefore they are not Feminist texts.
Of course not. They're feminist movies.
I see where you're coming from, I really do. And to an extent, I agree. But I also think that this flagrant simplification of genre, which is how I've been viewing this from the start, is harmful and wholly reductive.
It's not really simplification of genre. Kill Bill's genre isn't 'feminist'. Its themes are and the struggle of its protagonist is. Its genre is 'action', or more specifically 'martial arts'.
