Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A How would we write a misogynistic character without offending people?

I thought one of the best discussions in film on a topic like this occurred in Jurassic Park, the "Sexism in Survival Situations" scene. In this scene, John Hammond and Ellie Saddler (forgive spel...

posted 5y ago by hszmv‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T11:08:37Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42971
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar hszmv‭ · 2019-12-08T11:08:37Z (almost 5 years ago)
I thought one of the best discussions in film on a topic like this occurred in Jurassic Park, the "Sexism in Survival Situations" scene. In this scene, John Hammond and Ellie Saddler (forgive spelling mistakes) are discussing where the circuit breakers in the park are located and how to turn them back on (and the fact that Samuel L. Jackson is taking his sweet time in actually doing the job). Complicating Matters is the guy in the leather jacket who talks about chaos all the time is injured and one of them needs to stay in the bunker and take care of him.

Hammond begins the moment with him awkwardly trying to explain that he should go into the building with the circuit breaker (that is certainly dangerous) and Saddler should tend to Mr. Chaos (I just recalled the character is Ian Malcolm, but Mr. Chaos is funnier at this point). Now, there are good reasons for this. Hammond owns the property and probably has some passing familiarity with this and Saddler is a biologist (paleo-botany specifically, but it's justified that she can care for wounded as well as Hammond can turn on a power plant.). However, Hammond is also a gentleman of sorts and bungles his offer to go in her stand as a sort of chivalry (who ever goes to turn on the power is likely to get eaten by a dinosaur) and thus he kinda grunts about him being a man and her being a woman (not out of malice mind you). However, it's clear to Saddler that both are equally qualified to do both tasks, Hammond is a Grandfather who has been hobbling around in a movie with a cane, where as Saddler is likely south of 35 at worst and is pretty fit. They can both do the job, but she's much more capable of getting to the job than Hammond.

Here it's clear that if Hammond is a misogynist (and that's a big if... He's clearly operating on "Women and Children (Mr. Chaos)" first mentality, not "Big Strong Man Kill Dinosaur" logic. We're wondering if Samuel L. Jackson is alive at this point after all. If the original Badass Mother- can't do it, it's probably gonna be a luck based mission) then it's clearly not with malice towards Saddler taking the role and isn't bitter about it at all. And Ellie isn't offended by the attempt either... she's more amused and realizes that part of the awkwardness is that Hammond knows what he is asking is stupid, but he's from a time where it was what would be done (a better age where the quintessential British Gentleman would fend off the dinosaurs for a lady. Happened all the time back in Hammond's younger years). She chooses to deliver the scene titling quip, saying they can have the discussion on the topic, after she's back from the dangerous task.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-03-04T16:15:08Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 9