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True Grit, Mattie Ross and Feminism?

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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.
Title:
True Grit, Mattie Ross and Feminism?
Description:

Mattie Ross is the star of the award winning film True Grit. She is a remarkable character being cast as a strong, tough, independent, and determined young woman. While I think Mattie's character is (unfortunately) rare in major Hollywood films, many people have been quick to call her a feminist character... I have a slightly different take.
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Video Language:
English
Team:
Feminist Frequency
Duration:
06:31

English subtitles

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