3/12/2019

INDONESIA : ''APP TO FILM''


JUST how sexist is that film? There's an app to find out.

Ever wish you could rant about about a film's blatant sexism to more than just your family and friends.

A new mobile application called Mango Meter, launched last week in Jakarta, Indonesia, allows users to do just that. Its founders describe it as the world's ''first feminist film review '' app.

Supported by the German non-profit Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundations's political feminism programme in Asia, the app is the brain-child of six women from the region, who hit upon the idea while discussing how popular culture influences perception.

''Film is such a powerful and influential medium, yet it is very problematic in its portrayal of women, and perpetuating sterotypes,'' Devi Asmarani, one of the six founders, told Thomson Reuters Foundation on Friday.

''So we decided to create a movie rating app like Rotten Tomatoes, but with a feminist lens so we can spark a bigger conversationabout sexism misogyny in the movies.''

The app which features films from Hollywood, India's Bollywood, China, Bangladesh and more, allows users to rate movies by answering questions on metrics such as representation, agency, sexuality, and intersectionality.

Based on the responses, each film on Mago Meter gets a rating of one to five magoes, depending on how sexist or feminist it is.

The only other feminist film rating system is Bechdel Test, popularized by American cartoonist Alison Bechdel's comic strip ''Dykes to Watch out For''.

Thw ebsite rates a film based on three simple criteria : It has to have at least two women, who talk to each other, about something besides a man.

''Our questions go a little deeper,'' said Asmarani, editor-in-chief  of an Indonesian feminist magazine.

''We look at whether the movie portrays a western notion of beauty, whether it addresses marginalised communities, whether it talks about class,'' she said.

The app comes at a time when women in Holywood, bosted by the #MeToo movement, are exerting their influence to break on-screen sterotypes, insisting on producing roles to have more control, and commanding the director's chair more.

Asia has been slower to change, with 100 100-few female directors and screenwriters, and with persistent sterotypical depictions of women that are 'quiet problematic,'' said Asmarani.

''The depiction of abusive behavior like stalking coercion as being acceptable has real consequences,'' she said. [Agencies]

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Grace A Comment!