I’m of two minds on the ongoing “Is The Social Network sexist?” debate. Seeing as how it’s based on a true story, and misogyny is one of Movie Mark Zuckerberg’s traits (I cannot speak to Real Mark Zuckerberg, and henceforth “Zuckerberg” will refer to the cinematic version unless otherwise noted), I’m not going to argue that the movie should’ve been stuffed with awesome female characters. Much as I love to complain about the dearth of interesting female roles in mainstream American cinema, even I don’t believe that a story must necessarily include strong women or else be condemned as sexist. At the same time, there’s little to love about the way females are depicted when they do appear in the film, and it’s not always clear that it’s just the characters who are sexist. (Spoilers for The Social Network follow, although considering it’s based on a well-known true story I’m not sure how much I could really ruin…) Continue reading →