“Ex Machina” is a feminist fable or misogynistic nightmare?

[Selene]

As I have made clear, I am a big Maureen Dowd fan because she writes so well.

This film looks worthwhile seeing as it raises fascinating ethical questions.

WASHINGTON — ARE women necessary?

Not with Ava around.

Right out of the box she hits your assumptive network.

Ava is the appealing heroine, or apocalyptic villainess, of “Ex Machina,” a stylish sci-fi thriller set in the near future, written and directed by Alex Garland, a 44-year-old Brit who wrote the 2002 zombie hit “28 Days Later.”

Ava begins to be fleshed out and:

Critics are divided over whether “Ex Machina” is a feminist fable or misogynistic nightmare. Like Quentin Tarantino with violence, Garland has it both ways: He offers a mocking meditation on the male obsession with man-pleasing female sex robots while showing off an array of man-pleasing female sex robots.

Maureen notes that:

Ava, played with a delicate edge by the Swedish actress and dancer Alicia Vikander, is far more than a “basic pleasure model,” as some female replicants in “Blade Runner” are known. She has wiles that are a lot more potent than the weaponized breasts of Austin Powers’s fembots.

A question is raised by this film:

I ask if the movie will enhance the fear of some women that guys are more into the porn stars on their phones than the girls on their arms.

“The thing we desire and think we can’t have we can now shape exactly to the specification of how we want it,” he says. “There’s something incredibly scary about how unstoppable it feels.”

If anyone sees this, I would be interested in their evaluation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/26/opinion/sunday/maureen-dowd-beware-our-mind-children.html

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[Kyle Jacob Biodrowski]

Are women necessary?

Interesting question, but it's missing something. If someone is going to ask that question, they will want to add "to what" at the end of it. Are women necessary - to what? Or for what? Now that is a question far easier to answer. Then again, I guess "Are women necessary" is far more grabbing than my alternative.

I ask if the movie will enhance the fear of some women that guys are more into the porn stars on their phones than the girls on their arms.

Are women afraid that they will be replaced by sex robots? It seems that women will need to up their relationship value lest they be beaten out of the market by a toaster.

Also, the word "misogynist" is the new "racist". It hardly means anything anymore and is simply used for intimidation purposes.

The movie seems interesting. At first glance, it reminds me of Ghost in the Shell, but only in the sense that it too has robots.

[Selene]

"Ed. Note: This post contains some spoilers about the film."

Ed has a thread on the movie here on OL also.

 

There are many sorts of heroes. There is the Randian hero, shaping the world through his or her strength of creative vision and aggressive follow-through (Nathan fits this mold).

 

And then there is ...

 

 

...the hero described by the late comparative religion scholar Joseph Campbell, whose “monomyth” theory attempts to structure all stories, including religious parables, into a single formula.

 

The author brings in Von Mises Human Action model which posits:

 

 

    An individual has a sense of discomfort or unease with her current situation,

    That individual imagines a vision of a better state, and

    The individual comes to believe her action can realize that improved condition.

 

Each step must be taken in order to drive a person to take actions in ways to improve her life.

 

This is contrasted with Joseph Campbell, whose  “'monomyth' theory attempts to structure all stories, including religious parables, into a single formula."

 

 

Ex Machina is not only a thriller, but also a lesson in the pervasiveness of economics in everything we do. If economics is the science of human action and only individuals can choose to act, then economics is all around us.

 

When you recognize that, you will marvel at how utterly improbable the wealth of the world around us actually is, as well as understand how easy it is to disrupt the entire system through reducing, restricting, or abolishing the individual’s prerogative to be the actor and hero of her own life.

 

Interesting article in FEE ...

 

http://fee.org/anythingpeaceful/detail/ex-machina-and-human-action?utm_source=Foundation+for+Economic+Education+Current+Contacts&utm_campaign=644568d124-FEE_Daily_5_19_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_77ef1bd48e-644568d124-13801008

 

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