The books seem aimed at the 12+ market. A LOT of girls at that point are being pointed toward Judy Blume, or Sweet Valley High, or The Babysitter’s Club. I think the reason girls may not be as attuned to LOTR is that they have not been raised to enjoy the kind of rich, slow storytelling Tolkein presents.
I read LOTR when I was nine. It’s not a bragging point - I was snowed in at my mom’s (then-) boyfriend’s house, and there was quite literally nothing else in the house to read except for textbooks, and no television. I’m really glad it happened, since I started a long and happy relationship with fantasy (and, through association, sci-fi) that weekend. BUT…up until that point, I’d been your usual Judy Blume/Beverly Cleary kind of girl.
Perhaps as a result of the movies, we’ll see an upsurge in fantasy/sci-fi chicks. Wouldn’t that be lovely? Unfortunately, I have enough experience with others of my gender to predict that a lot of them are only going to gawk at Legolas, and that if they attempted the books they’d be overwhelmed before Frodo ever left the Shire.
Not true under my (subjective) experience. My wife loved the trilogy. Also the 3 teenaged girls we sat next to who audibly sighed each time Legolas came on the screen (it was a riot) seemed to enjoy the movie too.
Only my bladder took issues with the movie- a bit too long without a “pause” feature if you know what I mean.
Not true under my (subjective) experience. My wife loved the trilogy. Also the 3 teenaged girls we sat next to who audibly sighed each time Legolas came on the screen (it was a riot) seemed to enjoy the movie too.
Only my bladder took issues with the movie- a bit too long without a “pause” feature if you know what I mean.
Poppycock. I’m sick to death of marketers assuming that because of my girly bits, I must prefer Julia Roberts/Nora Ephron movies. It’s damn insulting. Any author who states in her review, “This a man’s movie” or “this is a chick flick” is lazy and looking for an easy way out of writing a real review.
You’re not kidding. LOTR is pretty much wall-to-wall eye candy for those who like yummy men.
My seven year old son isn’t a fan. I’m not sure if that will change when he gets older, but I know that every time I put FOTR or TTT in the DVD he says, “are you watching that again?”. He does like Brian Froud and Jim Henson stuff so I hope he will like the books and movies when he gets older.
Me being a mother I tend to tear up at the battles. The bit in Helm’s Deep with the young boy putting on armour and leaving his mum - waaaaaaaaaaaah. The flower throwing scene in ROTK - major waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
Mostly I watch and rewatch for the hobbits. Droooooooool.
The fact of the matter is, ignoring the Bombadils, the story focuses on 9 MALE characters (not counting Sauron, Theoden, Denethor, Faramir, Eomer, Treebard, Saruman, Wormtongue, Elrond, or Gollum), and then introduces a few pretty minor female characters.
No sooner would I expect many men to want to go see “Calendar Girls”, “The Banger Sisters” or “The First Wive’s Club” than I would expect many grown women to really be dying to see this.
The sighing 13-year olds are a good example. If you’re going to see a 3:20 movie to sigh at one of the 15 characters, that’s probably a pretty disappointing movie for you.
My wife just doesn’t get it. She saw the first one with me and she complained it was just extended action sequences and thin characters. While I enjoyed the plot, she was purposely trying to overlook it because she’s not quite silly enough to be wrapped up in a saga about a magic ring saving some fictional world. I’m that silly. But she isn’t.
burundi - the original NYT story wasn’t written by a lazy reviewer. It was written by someone who actually had the demographic figures about who was going to see the movie and it was overwhlemingly males, 18-35, IIRC.
50 million women can see the movie, but it’s still going to be considered a “guy movie” if 150 million men see it.
Whoever selected the commercials that were inserted between the previews at my local cinema seemed to think that there would be a lot of young female viewers in the audience for ROTK. All were heavy on the beefcake factor – in fact, rather obnoxiously so.
I first read the books in 8th grade english - the teacher was a woman, she’d loved them and wanted to teach them. The girls seemed to like it as much as the boys.
As far as the movies, I loved them. But I know and like the books. My sister, who hadn’t read the books, is not into fantasy, watches chick flicks and art movies, etc. really liked FOTR, loved TTT, but was nonplussed by ROTK (she thought there were plotting problems, poor character development, and that it seemed to be written for fangirls and boys where the other two were more generally accessible (and I partially agree with her)). Still, women are bored by battle scenes is a silly thing to say.
Eek. I consider those for 7-10 year old reading levels. I was certainly reading them in elementary school, not junior high school (except for Sweet Valley High, I’ll agree there).
But count me in as a female who considers the books to be very masculine, and very uninteresting. For the reasons Trunk listed. I tried reading the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and I didn’t like the Hobbits, or Aragorn, or Gandolf, and gave up. This caused my mother dismay, because she was fond of the books.
I also don’t like Dune, or 60s and 70s “hard” sci-fi, or anything by Stephen King, for the same reasons. I just find those works mildly offensive at worst, and dull at best. I believe this to be a matter of writing style of the author, rather than the themes or machismo per se, because I love Ed McBain and Robert Parker, and other “guyish” things, and I love science fiction of the space opera or military variety.
I dislike fantasy in general, so I don’t believe it’s totally a gender issue (though I do think fantasy is inherantly misogynist, but that’s an entirely different thread). All that being rambled, I loved the movies. My assessment is exactly the same as amarinth’s sister (am I your sister???): Thought TTT was the best, RotK was the weakest. I didn’t go to see Legolas, but I sure did sigh every time he was on the screen. And I’m gay!
I’m a girl and I loved the movies. More than my husband, and he’s quite the fan. I own all available EE DVDs.
I totally agree that I found the battle scenes too long, repetitious, and boring. How many orcs can you see beheaded before it’s no longer interesting?
But I loved the story, the characters, the scenery, the whole other worliness of it, and yes Aragorn makes me swoon (::faints:
My wife loves military science fiction, which made her hate the battle scenes in RotK because they were so bad, stupid, badly thought out, tacticless, and idiotic as battles.
I hate battle scenes because movie battle scenes per se are bad, stupid, badly thought out, tacticless, and idiotic.
Tolkien’s female characters are even thinner and less meaningful as people than his male characters, and that’s saying an awful lot. It shouldn’t be too surprising that male readers will find more to identify with. The movies beefed up the female roles a trifle but realistically there was little that PJ could do.
I’ll let you know when we get there! rewatches TTT EE for the 20th time
Seriously, I can see how the series is ‘guy stuff’ simply because of a lack of female characters. So much a part of the experience is sitting there, and placing yourself in the characters’ role. For me, it’s watching the armies break on each other, and thinking 'shit, that’s awesome! I wish I were on that front line. I’d seriously fuck up some orcs. Like so!'mock swordfights in theatre…or pulls out real sword in the comfort of his own home and slashes the air until called down by his darling wife
There’s just not a comparable experience for most ladies.
-stonebow, who is lucky to have married a lady that loves fantasy, likes Tolkien’s books, and loves Jackson’s movies
I’m a 50 year old female. I read LOTR first when in Jr. High, & have reread many, many times. I was so afraid the movies would be awful I almost didn’t go see FOTR in theatres. Now, I love the films too, recognizing their achievement in adapting the books I love. LOTR is a wonderful story with wonderful characters, meaning, depth. Not just hack and slash, monsters, etc.
What in the world does being male or female have to do with it?
Regarding the article referred to in the original post: How can I get paid for writing up such inane theses for major publications?
I read LOTR books ages ago and loved the movies. My 76 yr old mother and 80 yr old dad loved the movie. My mom was excited for about a month before the release, actually she got excited when I got LOTR:TTT extended version cause that meant that LOTR:RoTK was not far behind.
My theory about people who spout off that stuff are “just for boys” are trying to go back to the past where there was a decided line drawn by society about what boys do and what girls do and you did admit to crossing that line in polite company.
Also this reviewer who makes the claim that LOTR is for boys is compensating for a small uhm, a little – you know…
“Are Women Just Bored of the Rings” in the “Arts and Leisure” section of the New York Times on December 21st, 2003.
There were three articles complaining about it in one of the “letters to the editor” section in this weekend’s paper.
Look, no one is saying a woman can’t like the movie, but if the population of the US is 50/50 m/f and the splits on the movie are 70/30 m/f (and I don’t know what they are, maybe 60/40, maybe 54/46) then it is clearly appealing to men than women. It’s not hard to understand.
here’s the first 50 words from the article (reprinted without permission, any more and you have to pay because its a back-issue) **I CLOCKED my first yawn at 50 minutes, lulled by too many pale-blue mountains, computerized tricks and a plot so intricate all I knew for sure was that Gandalf had called for help. And did I care if help arrived? I did not. The final entry in the ''Lord of… **
Well, I’m a girl, and the battle scenes were my favorite part. “HOLY SHIT! LOOK AT THAT! WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT! OH MY GOD!!!” I cried at the beauty of the riders sweeping in at dawn and kicking ass but didn’t even sniff at the death of that one guy…LOL, you know, the one guy who died… (I’m sorry I can never remember the names…)
Yup, all the main characters have penises. Doesn’t mean I can’t identify with them, cheer for them and weep for them. Lord of the Rings is, at bottom, a story about loyalty, courage, and friendship. These aren’t attributes that only men can appreciate. Likewise, if men reject a movie or book simply because it has female leads, they’re going to cheat themselves out of a lot of great stories.
I’m an advocate for strong female characters, and I actively seek them out in books and movies. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy a movie with an all-male cast. I’d be a pretty shallow person if I couldn’t look beyond my own gender to appreciate good story-telling.
