Anti-feminist issues in V for Vendetta

Rating: 3/10 (8 April 2006)

My take on the movie is that it would have been excellent film with a good activist message -- that is if it wasn't so very anti-feminist.
In the first scene a female defiantly goes out after curfew in a society run by dictatorship. Strong move you may say; however, you would be wrong. The action (that she is taking in order to go out on some date with her boss, by the way) proves she is a stupid female because she has gone and gotten herself into a situation where she will be raped. Good thing there is a strong idealistic man around to save her. Puke.
Later she makes a strong move by defending the man who saved her with mace (but is then very, very easily knocked out by the other male attacker afterward - because, hey, she IS just a girl). First, defending him comes across as something she probably just thought she had to do to return the favor, and not something she would have done otherwise, because she wasn't strong enough. Then she basically says she doesn't know why she did it and regrets doing it, taking any initial strength in the action away.
We learn about her parents, both activists, both strong -- or are they? Her mother wanted to run away from the country because she didn't agree with it, but it is her father that insisted they stay and fight in order to make things right. Typical.
After 'her hero', hereafter referred to as the activist, saves her yet again while she is unconscious, she remains ungrateful for his help and decides that she will undermine his attempts at achieving his goals (damn her corrupting female influence) and defy him (while wearing a school-girl outfit and pigtails). She almost gets raped again in doing so, is saved by him for a third time (thank god for the leading man), and then runs away straight to another mans arms for safety (because clearly she can't do it on her own).
After that second man is imprisoned/killed/who knows, she is taken in and tortured. She defiantly refuses to give any information about the activist (and considering her actions earlier in attempts to get him caught, this defiance has everything to do with her being angry at the fact that they black bagged another person she is close to and nothing to do with having strong convictions). She finds a letter written by the only strong female character in the movie -- a lipstick lesbian with three gorgeous girlfriends that has the guys two seats over making suggestive comments. God forbid they show the average lesbian couple and destroy their dream that every girl that likes girls is gorgeous, that might make the male viewers mad! Good thing she found the letter to give her the strength to defy the guards one last time then her only choice is death, because you know it wasn't in her to begin with.
By now, however, the movie might be getting better on the whole feminist thing. It wasn't a man that gave her the strength to be defiant, it was that letter, written by a woman! WRONG AGAIN. The activist has stepped in, it was him doing her torturing and him who planted this letter (though the letter was at least real) because he has taken it upon himself to give this girl a sense of purpose and take away her fear. She didn't have to ask for it, he's a man, so clearly he knew what she needed. And does she get mad? No, she gets upset for a while, but returns to dance, fall in love and kiss this mad, grateful for his interference. She even says thank you.
Now we are moving toward the end of the film. He has fallen in love, and that love (for a woman) is enough to remove him from his pure path toward complete vengeance. Maybe we can consider that good in this case, since it means that he has a heart, but apply the same underlying logic and we get a world full of men unwilling to make concessions for love since it is always seen as a weakening of his resolve toward his original plans, caused by the corrupting female influence: never because she has a point, and always because he loves her/wants to sleep with her.
He dies for his cause, her corrupting influence not having been strong enough to keep him with her, but only for him to pass along the decision about whether or not to give the world a symbolic action. Don't worry guys, she is obedient and fulfills his wishes.
Any of these things taken on their own is not such a big deal, and in context they sometimes make sense. However, since the aspects have permeated every aspect of the film, I found it a little too much to take. It's not the specific decisions made by the characters that matter here, but the mentality behind the writers choosing those moves that is the problem. Most of you will shrug and think to yourself, I still found it entertaining, I still liked it, and that's what matters. Some might even label me for my opinions. But even if that's true, I thank you for giving me the time to read this through.