and ain't I a woman: Angelic Feminism?

"I love the idea of women being women and men being men. [Charlie's Angels] is a way to put forward to girls that you can do anything, achieve anything, be anyone." Cameron Diaz, star of the film Charlie's Angels.

Charlie's Angels was the surprise hit of the Christmas season, grossing over US$40 million in its first US weekend. Unlike most action films, over 50% of ticket sales were to women, most of whom were young.

The plot device follows the 1970s TV show that it is based on — three women working for a detective agency owned by a mysterious millionaire, who issues assignments through a voicebox. Their immediate contact, Bosley, is an incompetent doofus whom the "angels" have to spend most of their time rescuing.

The "angels" themselves are awesome martial arts experts, with a nifty grasp on technology and pretty impressive foreign language skills.

A key selling point of the film for young women is the "realism" of the central characters. Gone are the macho, single-minded loners of most action flicks. These fighters act like best friends at a slumber party, hugging, giggling and offering each other dating advice while on assignment.

Cameron Diaz's character attempts to make a date on her mobile phone during the final fight sequence. Lucy Liu's character worries that her boyfriend will dump her when he figures out she is not a professional bikini waxer.

And they manage all of this in clothes so impractical it makes you gasp. The "angels" had 50 changes of clothing each over the two-hour film. They might be good crime fighters, but of course they are also "fabulously beautiful" as the intro voice-over says, twice.

The women are clearly supportive of each other — after all, they tell each other how hot they look all the time.

The redefinition of the action hero is behind much of the film's appeal to younger women. Don't worry, the film cries out, you can be strong and be feminine too. You can kick ass and still be sexy. These women are just like you and me — after kick-boxing lessons. And they are doing exactly want they want.

Or are they? Is this what women want? To work for a dictatorial boss, under the direction of an incompetent manager? Acting dumb to preserve a relationship?

Wearing clothes cut so low you couldn't run in them without your breasts falling out? Judging your value as a human being on how hot you look?

The world of Charlie's Angels is not feminist. If anything it subscribes to the theories of post-feminism: women aren't oppressed, they just think they are. All liberation takes, apparently, is an attitude shift, confidence and a new outfit.

Here is the problem with this theory: without real changes to women's lives, such confidence is impossible to generalise.

How can women value themselves for their strength, when everyone around them judges them on their appearance? How can they believe themselves intelligent, when the men promoted over them are not?

The reason that the much-hyped cameo by the original "angels" didn't appear in the film is because actor Farrah Fawcett refused to appear unless the boss, Charlie, was voiced by a woman. This was rejected by the producers (including new age "feminist" Drew Barrymore).

In the end the "angels" reflect the same insecurities that most women feel. This might make them easy for women to identify with, but it hardly makes them models of liberation to follow.

BY ALISON DELLIT

From GLW issue 434