'Sexism,' they whined
When I began perusing assorted bloggings, Internet wisdom, etc. on this movie I was expecting to see complaints about the ludicrous and useless wraparound story of the robbery-porn crew (and definitely read quite a few) but found these critiques were accompanied by an equal volume of people protesting the presence of certain disagreeable male characters--the moral quality of whom I'd have thought too self-evident to bother pointing out. The epithet most often and automatically invoked to decry the characters was a specific device for women's hygiene, ironically.
Now I know an easy evaluation is that the web supports an over-the-weight-limit load of fulminating commentators, female and otherwise, who get off on the sort of pointless grandstanding that can only be derived from slamming fictional persons, enough said. But it got me wondering: is V.H.S. prominently lacking in feminist fiber? Even by the standards of horror, the most notoriously sexist of all popular movie genres? Is there really a case for that?
At the end of the movie the macho dunces turn belatedly chivalrous, and there's also part of the Tuesday the 17th sketch where the meathead fratboy stereotype is approached by a sexually assertive maiden (with ulterior motive to be sure) but fails to react in the prescribed fashion. Ti West's entry plays like something out of The L Word and the Joe Swanberg-directed vignette, though undoubtedly fraught with feminine frailty, doesn't exactly portray the male authority figure in a glowing light. IMO the first recorded mini-story was too sickly comic to try to glean any message from it, but it wouldn't be a patriarchal one at any rate.
Compare to another "reality horror" staple, the Paranormal Activity industry, which purveys obviously sexist themes--to wit, that all post-adolescent ladyfolk act a little crazy (hormones, ya know) and anyway once they get fully possessed by poltergeists you won't notice till it's too late, so look out for any wandering toddlers they might swoop in to pick off. Naturally later in the series this motif was shifted into hilarious overdrive by introducing a real live coven.
If somebody who's put a bit of thought into it can precisely explain how V-H-S is essentially misogynistic I'd be curious to hear that. So far the criticisms look to me like reflexive, brainless sneering, or the rote reactions of people trying to get a grip on the obvious.