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Mattie Ross is the star of the award winning film True Grit made by the Coen Brothers.

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This is a remake of the 1969 film starring John Wayne which is in itself

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an adaptation of the 1968 Charles Portis novel.

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The 14 year old lead character is played by Hailee Steinfeld

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who much to my surprise was only 13 when filming the movie.

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This is a significant and welcome change from the original casting

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where actor Kim Darby was 21 when playing Mattie Ross.

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it's always nice seeing young actors playing lead roles in serious films

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especially young women, because they are offered so few of these.

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Without giving too much away, this is a classic western narrative about the search

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for revenge, self-reliance, and independence in a harsh and unforgiving land.

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The movie follows Mattie on her quest for revenge against the man who killed her father.

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To help her on in this venture, she hires notorious US Marshall Rooster Cogburn, known for his ruthless grit.

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The Marshall initially dismisses and ridicules Mattie because of her age and gender

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however, she convinces him of her confidence and they set out on the trail to find the killer

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For those of you who haven't seen True Grit, there's going to be a few spoilers ahead.

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What's so captivating about Mattie's character is how witty and smart she is

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and how daring, self-reliant and independent she is.

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She's full of confidence in herself and her abilities in a hostile, male-dominated world.

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These are traits rarely ascribed to female characters, let alone female teenage characters

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One of my favorite scenes comes early on when Mattie sucessfully negotiates with

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an unscrupulous horse trader.

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And I want $300 for Papa's saddle horse that was stolen from your stable.

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You have to take that up with the man who stole the horse.

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Tom Cheney stole the horse while he was in your care. You are responsible.

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hahaha... Yeah, I admire your saying, but you'll find I'm not liable for such claims.

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You are the custodian. If you were a bank and it were robbed you could not simply tell the depositer to go hang.

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I do not entertain hypothetical, the world as it is is vexing enough.

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Secondly, your evaluation of the horse is high by about 200 dollars.

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How old are you?

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If anything, my price is low. Judy is a fine racing mare.

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I've seen her jump a 8 whirl fence with a heavy rider. I'm 14.

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Mattie really is a breathe of fresh air

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As Rebecca Keegan points out in her LA Times article

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“Given that female adolescents are frequently depicted on-screen as vapid, angst-ridden, pregnant or merely decorative.

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Mattie Ross is a remarkable role. She never shakes out her braids in a makeover montage, swoons

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over a cute stable boy or frets about the daunting task at hand.”

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I wholeheartedly agree, however, I've been a little dismayed by some mainstream media articles

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and some blog posts that are quick to label Mattie a "feminist character."

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Personally, I think it's a little bit of a leap

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While it is certainly true that Mattie possesses a number of admirable traits

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rarely seen in female movie rolls,

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I'm just not convinced she's a feminist character.

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Here are the two main reasons why:

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All characters need a good story arc where they're one way when the story starts

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and they learn a lesson or change or grow or regress or something.

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The point is that the character has transformed from the place that they were

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at the beginning of the story to some place different by the end.

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For all intents and purposes, Mattie is basically the same person

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from the first scene to the closing credits.

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When she first steps off the train, she may be a little bit naive

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but she is still fairly confident, self-assured, independent and emotionally cold.

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During her experiences traveling with Rooster and LaBoeuf she retains all

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of those traits and seems fairly unaffected by the danger, brutality and death all around her.

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As an adult, she seems to have changed very little, if at all

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and that leads directly into point number 2.

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At no point in the film do we see a real range of emotion, such as sorrow,

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despair, or grief for the loss of her father

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Mattie's entire reason for being, as far as we're shown in the movie

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is to seek the death of his murderer, an outlaw named Tom Cheney.

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She is unwavering in her conviction that justice can only come through

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the hanging of Tom Cheney in the town square

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In fact, the whole film frames the murder of Tom Cheney as justice

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whether he meets it by the state, by the US Marshalls, or by Mattie herself

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It's never questioned that maybe "an eye for eye" is not such a good idea

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We don't see Mattie questioning capital punishment ie. the death penalty,

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or really considering any other potential forms of justice.

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Even after she kills Cheney, she still shows no emotion

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In fact, no one in the movie seems to be effected by brutality, death or the suffering of others.

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As we know, all people, regardless of gender

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are capable of the entire range of human behaviors

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But since we live in a male-dominated, male-centered society

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traits stereotypically identified as masculine

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are more valued and consequently, more celebrated by Hollywood.

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While traits stereotypically identified as feminine,

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are undervalued and often denigrated.

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This may be one of the reasons why people are quick to adopt Mattie as a feminist character,

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and other female pop culture characters who are considered strong and tough.

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The feminism I subscribe to and work for involves more than

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women and our fictional representations simply acting like men

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or unquestionably replicating archetypal male values

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such as being being emotionally inexpressive, the need for domination and competition

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and using violence as a form of conflict resolution.

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In my feminist vision, part of what makes a character feminist is watching her struggle

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with prioritizing values such as cooperation, emathy, compassion

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and non violent conflict resolution in a world largely hostile to those values.

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I think feminist characters should, like feminists in real life

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push beyond societal norms, challange gender roles

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and the institutions that actively work to maintain them.

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And let me be clear here, this is not to say that I don't want characters who are flawed, because I do,

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I want characters who are subtle, who make mistakes and who don't always do everything right.

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but I want those characters to fit into overarching themes where they're not stuck

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in stereotypical roles such as the damsel in distress, the girlfriend, or the love interest.

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And on the other hand, I don't want them to just recast tough male roles for women to play,

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which we've been seeing a lot of lately.

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In True Grit, Mattie is certainly subverting expected gender roles

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by being witty and smart and competent and independent

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yet she is not challagenging the set of partiarchal, archetypical

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male values ever-present in most mass media narratives,

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she is actually adopting them.