The Fanboy Trailer and Zack and Miri [Rant]

The trailer is fucking awesome. Even if every single clip of footage didn't leak hilarity all over the theater, the "featuring/starring" titles at the end of the trailer would have been reason enough for me to see the damn thing. Controversy be damned, I'm seein' it.

It rankles a bit, though, from the point of view of someone in the industry and someone's who a geek and someone who's a girl. Who are our protagonists? A bunch of majorly over or under weight, socially awkward, marginally clever, questionably charming and generally unattractive men.

And Kristin Bell.

The other women we see are Carrie Fischer, who... it's Princess Leia, right? She will be eternally made of hot regardless of any mitigating factors. And then there's the random hot blond chick who lets her top get mind-tricked off. Go Jedi Go.

Then we have the film proper, Zack and Miri Make a Porno. First off, everyone crying 'this is Jersey Girl Smith, not Clerks Smith'- who the hell do you think made Clerks? What do you think the theme of the film is? What is the theme explored in every single goddamn Kevin Smith movie? It's love. Romantic, brotherly, familial; between that of an everyman and what they idolize or fantasize of; between a man and his donkey. It's all about love. This movie fits that and is more than filthy enough between those sappy bits about real human emotion to counterbalance. It's all good.

Now, who are our protagonists? A motley collection of total, utter, desperate losers. They were losers in high school, they're losers now. And they all fit their roles spectacularly, except, of course, for the female protagonist, who just happens to be skinny, blond, and terribly attractive. Banks plays the role not just admirably, but with so much charm and ease it's just disgusting. She's wonderful. Even when her character makes some Stupid Girl decisions, it doesn't detract from her sheer, hilarious awesome. But... seriously? Seriously?

So now, there are literally zero standards that men need to be held to. The world of acting, for men, with this influx of Geek Productions into the mainstream media, is a true meritocracy. And for women, it becomes more and more unreasonably standardized, with size 6 (that would generally be a 26 inch waist) being considered plus and the general expectation being for actresses to be a size 2 or smaller. Regardless of the nature of the role. Yeah, that's fair.

And it's across all mediums. So few women seem to be in positions to contribute to or control the creative processes of genre films, television, comics and video games that the dismissal and or fetishization of female characters seems to be crossing that line from typical to alienating. Of course, it's probably only alienating to me, because I'm a girl who wants to participate. And as I learned in fourth grade, it's never fair or easy, trying to be in the boys' club.