Guardians of the -isms

(week 9)

Due to my immensely hectic schedule I haven’t been able to get out much. So, to the chagrin of my mountains of homework I took my family to see a movie which my kids had been begging me to see, “Guardians of the Galaxy”. This movie is perhaps the most popular blockbuster film in recent memory and there’s a reason; incredible graphics mixed with funny dialogue and high-impact action. But the film had another, not-so-pleasant feature to it. Beneath the dialogue were all four -isms in full effect.

Racism

As Holywood always seems to do, they’ve cast jacked-up black men to play the role of the prisoners. At no point throughout this movie did they have a black person cast in a role of true intelligence. This perpetuates stereotypes and showcases how black men are typically viewed in film-- as criminals.

Sexism

Although the film did have women in position-of-power roles, there were still issues of sexism. A woman on her knees cleaning as she slaves for her male master. The lead female antagonist played the role of assistant to the main villain.

Ableism
There were two jokes made which may have rubbed me a bit wrong. There was a point where one of the main protagonists, Rocket asks one of his allies, Quill, to retrieve an amputee man’s fake leg. When the task is accomplished Quill gives Rocket the leg and says something like, “I didn’t think you’d really do it! What did he look like hopping around?” Rocket pulls a similar stunt directed at a one-eyed man later in the film.