It's like a huge cliche for me now.
She's an outcast, not girly, has no girl friends, her name is "Charlie", she is an expert mechanic who knows what spanner someone should be using on a particular part of a car she hasn't worked on. Then she won't even move past the friend zone with a guy, almost as though being a guys "girlfriend" is sort of a weakness.
I've noticed this since they've been casting more and more female leads. They're never written like actual women. I ain't gonna lie, this Charlie character was a pretty hot male fantasy. Cute girl, into classic cars, total gear head, loves awesome 80s music, has a lame job that puts in her adorable outfits, has just enough issues to make her sexy without being a problem. I think it works for this movie, being a transformers movie. This movie certainly wouldn't have worked if she was a girly girl, but they probably could have pulled off the ugly duckling outcast who gets the transformation in the end. Eh, pick your cliche I guess.
shareIn how many movies has this happened? Any more examples?
Movies where actresses like Jennifer Lawrence, Mia Wasikowska, Scarlett Johansson, Vera Farmiga, Cate Blanchett or Meryl Streep are the lead (for example) do not present them as tom boys.
Seems so. The problem is that women by large do not have the same heart, or take the same risks that men do. And that's a problem when you're casting for a lead. So how do you take the same qualities men have while still pandering to the female demographic? Make the lead a girl with all of the characteristics of a boy.
shareIn this movie, and many others that follow the "Tom Boy" formula, the male character (in this case, Memo) embodies all the female traits, or at least the traits widely recognized as feminine.
It's all due to Leftist gender politics, of course. The strange thing is, that rather than celebrate traditionally feminine traits, and build female characters around them, traits seen as masculine are given more value and reassigned to the leading female characters. Femininity is seen as weak and inferior, so they put it onto the male characters who they wish to marginalize.
That being said, I have known a few female mechanics and none of them have presented themselves physically like Charlie. A closer approximation is this: http://blogs.presstelegram.com/outinthe562/files/import/57564-judithhalberstam.jpg
Hollywood likes to present women who act like men but look like models. There are a lot of real life women out there who act like men, but they tend to look like them, too.
I love strong female leads, like in Aliens, but it has become a cliche.
I liked in Aliens how her maternal side shone through with her affection towards the orphan child.