Spy Kids
Recently, I noticed many things about the original Spy Kids movie, and the Spy Kids series in general. With MissRepresentation on my mind, I have been paying closer attention to the portrayal of women in the media. So, I began contemplating this while watching Spy Kids two days ago. This movie series was pretty prominent in my childhood, and I am sure it has influenced my perception of the world in one way or another.
The first thing I noticed was that the 2 main female characters are both dominant in their character relations, and take charge of situations. The mother is shown having a great amount of control over her husband, and she is able to convince him to make many decisions. She is also the one who figured out how to escape the first time, while her husband didn't know what to do. I feel their relationship is equal overall, which contrasts many other movies of this time.
Carmen, the daughter of the family, is very intelligent and creative. She is pretty stubborn and rude towards her brother, Junie, but that is common in sibling interactions. She takes charge throughout the beginning of the movie, and allows them to safely escape the thumb-thumbs in the beginning. She eventually becomes much nicer and supportive towards Junie, and has a complex character development. Much more than the usually little girl in a movie.
Having these strong women in these lead roles helps little girls see that women can be powerful and independent- that they do not need men to assist them with every aspect of life. This time period in movies usually featured over dramatic and self-absorbed women, which definitely exist. But, they are very 2 dimensional and lack character development throughout the TV shows or movies. When the female characters in media are only these stereotypes, it is hard for girls to envision themselves any other way. I think Spy Kids does a good job of combatting these stereotypes by creating complex female characters.
On the contrary, there are only two strong female characters in this movie- 3 women in total if you include a slightly dumb and clingy woman on the evil side. She lacked any real character, and could only be identified as a liar and a traitor. This limited amount of female characters does have an impact on people's view of women in non-domestic positions, because the cast is so heavily male. I do feel the strong female characters make up for this considering it was released in 2001, but it would still be nice if the casting was a bit more evened out.
In conclusion, I believe Spy Kids did a good job of challenging stereotypes by giving the female characters complex development and crucial roles. It isn't perfect considering the overall lack of female characters, but did a good job when we take into account the time this was released.
I love the Spy Kids movies! Growing up, I always desired to be a spy like Carmen and Junie. I was thinking the same thing as you with the movie's connection to MissRepresentation. I definitely agree that the movie did a great job with defying the stereotypes about women. I liked how they switched the roles in terms of gender and put the women in charge. I think this sparked the start of introducing strong, powerful female women in the media. Carmen wasn't reduced to being portrayed as dumb. Rather she was shown as being smart and a leader, which the media would associate as a characteristic of men. Although, I do wish too that they evened out the casting and character roles because majority of the characters were men.
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