The Gender Politics of X-Men: First Class

I think there’s definitely an element of 60s sexism, which is supposed to be not-a-good-thing, running through the movie, though unfortunately sometimes, when a film is edited you end up with a thread seeming that you’re not following all elements of all threads. There was much more of story about Moira being oppressed.

I think what was originally there is that Moira [MacTaggert, Professor X’s love interest] was a woman, so in the minority in the CIA, and in that sense was an outcast in her own way, just as all the mutants are. She was a victim of prejudice. That story line was supposed to reflect what was echoing and reverberating throughout the film, including with Raven [Mystique]. — Jane Goldman, co-writer of X-Men: First Class, on X-Men: First Class.

I’ll admit that I don’t know enough about X-Men canon to judge for myself whether Emma Frost is a strong enough character to make up for the so in-your-face as to be farcical odor of fan-service that her costume exudes, and the sheer amount of physics defying boobage that artists have created because of her over the years (case in point). But it’s nice to see someone acknowledging and thinking about presenting the historical place of women in a period film and the struggle of the female characters against it, especially in a genre movie where it would probably go largely un-missed if overlooked.

(via Bleeding Cool.)