more intuitively feel that "female friendship" has been stereotyped and "stigmatized" by ? In
short videos, the word "girlfriend" is always followed by some common arrangements - such as "comparison", "seckill", "boyfriend" and other keywords, which often appear in beauty, clothing, fitness and other fields . These video bloggers tell you in exaggerated words: Clicking on this video is to "steal" your girlfriend's beauty password, in order to quietly become good-looking, in order to "defeat" her girlfriend... In some mass-produced media In this environment, female friendship revolves around comparison and competition, and it seems that there should be some kind of secret war between them.
And in film and television works, although in recent years, in order to cater to the trend of "feminism", the plot of girlfriends has become rare, but the literary and artistic works that are really willing to spend their time exploring and shaping a sincere friendship between women are still rare.
Six years ago, Anai 's novel " Ode to Joy " originally tried to make a good start.
The first part of "Ode to Joy", the protagonists gradually resolve their conflicts and gain friendship My own life, as well as the budding and development process of friendship - this has brought a breakthrough to the stereotyped narrative of female group portraits.
But what was caught off guard was that, after six years, the characters and the friendship of the five girls on the 22nd floor of the same play titled in the same play were far less than they were in the past.
As a reporter who participated in the writing of the WeChat public account, the first scene I laughed at " Ode to Joy 3" was: He Minhong ( Zhang Huiwen ), a new media author who just joined the job, stared wide-eyed and straightened his neck Argue with your boss: I want to convey ideas and values, don't get traffic!
He Minhong (played by Zhang Huiwen), who has just entered the workplace, talks about value with his boss. It is not the first time that the stereotypes created in
domestic workplace dramas have appeared. In fact, keeping content ≠ sacrificing traffic, pursuing reading volume ≠ making up. It seems that the details of different industries in the workplace are not worth knowing for the screenwriter. The opening scene of
was originally intended to outline the "idealistic" characteristics of the character of He Minhong, which itself does not bring praise or criticism. moral kidnapping and other sexual gray zones, all make people unable to return to the sky.
Maybe the screenwriter wants to match the Qiu Yingying played by Yang Zi in "Ode to Joy 1", but he is also snarky and outspoken, "use your own way to be good to others" and "have nothing to trouble others when you are idle". ', which are two completely different things. The innocence of
's logic brought about the distortion of the characters. "Ode to Joy 3" lost most of its audience base from the beginning. In the blunt dialogue full of topical points and outdated prejudices and other elements, the story disappeared and the emotion thin.
Another IP of "female friendship" was ruined.
Friendship should have an "ambiguous period"
The most prosperous "magic capital" Shanghai, the same community, the same floor, lived with five girls.
This is the initial setting of the characters in Ah Nai's novel "Ode to Joy". Different individuals with very different ages, occupations, backgrounds, and personalities are gathered in the urban space, and conflicts and contradictions, understanding and growth, friendship and love all happen one by one.
However, the first element of "Ode to Joy" is the most substituting element, which are these characters with distinctive and unique personalities, which more or less reflect the current "beings".
Such as the extremely self-disciplined, highly sensitive female executive Andy . Because of the strong sense of boundary and absolute desire to control the environment in which she lives, she installed it at the door of her house on the first day she moved in.While paying attention to everyone coming and going, he also provided convenient assistance within the normal social range for several other tenants.
Andy
In "Ode to Joy 3", "home" is still an important element to promote the familiarity between tenants, but the method of use is relatively simple and rude: the apartment shared by three girls always opens the door anytime, anywhere, loudly Conversation lavishly, seemingly without the concept of privacy. Of course, this is more convenient for the advancement of the plot. It seems that any neighbor can come in and say two lines at any time, doing oral science, and commenting on other people's lifestyles by the way. The space setting of
, which forcibly promotes the familiarity of characters, borrows the shell of a melodrama, but it is not very clever and unreal.
The American psychologist Janet Hayden proposed in her book "Women's Psychology": "Women's emotions are not only delicate and deep, but also more empathic, susceptible, more compassionate, and therefore more sensitive than men's. A lot of pro-social emotions."
is precisely because of the delicate and roundabout thoughts of women, the friendship between girls is often not too "straightforward". It is rare to be called a brother with a glass of wine and a meal, and it is difficult to release a glass of wine like "brothers", but it may be full of all kinds of subtle and delicate observation, temptation and careful thinking.
During this period, prejudice and misunderstanding may occur. In the first part of "Ode to Joy", when several neighbors first met, the rich second-generation Qu Xiaoxiao hardly liked the neighbors in the shared house next to her - the vain "fishing girl" Fan Shengmei , "Bong" The good girl Guan Juer and the carefree love brain Qiu Yingying... Of course, the arrogant and domineering Qu Xiaoxiao is not much better in the eyes of others.
Several people maintained a clear sense of boundaries when they first met
closed the door, and behind their mutual murmurs and speculations, there were their different life experiences, origins, and growth environments. and possibility of approaching.
Maybe just like love, friendship also has a certain "ambiguous period" to buffer the understanding and mutual support of those who are cautiously tentatively and gradually getting better.
But "Ode to Joy 3" omits this "ambiguous period". The first episode is about sisterhood, and the second episode is about saving lives. I just realized that in less than half a day, I can casually drop by and engage in sexual harassment. It is too rigid to want to reflect the intention of "Girls help girls". In
"Ode to Joy 3", the overly deliberate mutual aid plot
Young people who have rented a house in a first-tier city will inevitably have this experience: many people have been renting together for a year, and some have never even seen the face of their roommate. Separated by a wall, the busyness, social fear, and defensive instincts of urban youth are undoubtedly evident. The friendship mode in
"Ode to Joy" was originally designed to restore a social form of "distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors". This kind of mutual help and life-like friendship, from the initial simple geographical proximity, to the mutual relationship. Appreciation and support, hard work and warmth, there must be a process in between. After the first two parts of
ended, the feeling between the "five beauties" has become very natural, and with the help and encouragement of each other, each character has achieved different degrees of breakthroughs in his own life:
"Dear me" "Female" Guan Juer decided to take the first step to bravely pursue love; "Fu Gemo" Fan Shengmei began to try to break away from the shackles of the family; Qu Xiaoxiao grew up from the difficulty of starting a business, and even if the family went bankrupt, she had the confidence to be self-reliant and self-reliant .
With the help of everyone, Fan Shengmei shared her long-depressed heart
From "Sex and the City" to " Bankrupt Sisters ", similar female friendships of mutual help and mutual assistance have always touched us. Both relying on each other and being independent, this kind of communication from the heart is especially valuable in the modern city where people are increasingly alienated.
What's more valuable is that between women of different classes and personalities, their exploration and reflection on their own situation have separated from the private realm and rose to a broader level.
's hot search plots
twin sisters YanYi Yan Yue once teased in the talk show that the only two heroine drama they have seen that does not intrigue, hurt each other, or rob men is the horror movie "The Shining". After
hilarious, people can not help but reflect on the narrow imagination of female friendship in mainstream literary and artistic creation.
Japanese sociology scholar Chizuru Ueno believes that in a traditional society dominated by male desires, friendship between women is not tenable in principle, because all women acquiesce to men as belonging to each other, and are potential for each other. competitor.
It's not far away, in recent years, most of the female friendships on domestic screens have not been able to circumvent certain "stereotypes". The award-winning film " July and An Sheng ", good sisters turned against each other because of the same man; "My First Half of Life" adapted from Yi Shu's original work, even if ignoring the latter "Love", the first half of Tang Jing vs Luo Zijun's friendship is also more like a sex-turned version of a big man's support and love for a little woman; and " Golden Years " adapted from another work by Yi Shu, the progress and growth of the two heroines are essentially Still rely on men. In 1988, Maggie Cheung , Zhong Chuhong 's film version "Golden Years" was directly "a man who fell in love with his best friend".
"July and Ansheng" stills
In fact, Yi Shu described female friendship like this in the original book: "That kind of rare friend, I succeed, she is not jealous. I am sluggish, she does not despise, life is enough to have a confidant."
The sisterhood in " Thirty Only " and "Ode to Joy" have a similar class collision, mutual help and mutual assistance, but in general, the mutual assistance between the three women is still "helping each other deal with men's problems." The problem".
It's not easy to build a narrative that breaks through traditional discourse, or the majority of male directors don't have the awareness to break through it. In 2021, Feng Xiaogang directed the story of "Far From the Same Side", in which several women were able to build a solid emotional foundation. First, they were betrayed by men at the same time, and then, one of the women who turned into a sex-turned "Boss" has hundreds of millions of dollars. Net worth can provide other female characters with spiritual and material support. In
's "Different", female bullies always serve as life mentors to other girls
In recent years, more and more film and television works have paid attention to women's images, and even raised their profile, except for the most direct and rude reason - the female group On the other hand, high-frequency concepts such as “feminism” and “women’s topics” in the social context have their own traffic, allowing women’s narratives that are not attached to men to have more room to play.
However, this can also easily become a problem. The first few episodes of
"Ode to Joy 3" seem to revolve around the common dilemma of women's lives, but the effect has produced an obvious and blunt "sense of topic".
Five neighbors just met for less than an hour when they "just" encountered sexual harassment together in a restaurant. The IQ of the harasser is touching. He chose a spacious public place to "start", and put his mobile phone on the ground to take pictures of the bottom of his skirt. To deal with such an idiot, we still need the goddess Yang Caiyu, who is also a neighbor on the 22nd floor.
"Ode to Joy 3" begins with the heroine fighting and sexually harassing
Next, hotel employees are sexually harassed, and behind the seemingly strong and independent women there must be a native family that jumps around... The words "women's predicament" seem to be Become the outline and leader of the entire drama, one episode of high imitation social news that can be searched, and then insert deliberate summaries and emotional dialogues. Most of the sublimation of value comes from the characters sitting in the living room discussing "the difficulty of obtaining evidence of sexual harassment" with a serious face, and the sense of Taoism is overwhelming.
Of course, it's not without its bright spots. For example, Fang Zhiheng, played by Yang Caiyu, has been incognito for many years and mysteriously returned to the workplace, just to avenge the harassment by the leaders.
In the opinion of some viewers, she may "make a big deal out of it". But it is precisely this tossing that reflects the difficulty of accusations of sexual harassment in the current society, so that victims have to take some dramatic and extreme measures.As much as possible, give yourself a dignity.
In fact, even just telling the woman's story well may be better than talking about a pot of porridge.
"Women's Common Dilemma" is still necessary in shaping female narratives today. At least, it can extract female friendship from the stereotypes of small groups, boring and broken, and place it in the context of public reality, completely abandoning the " " plots such as robbing men.
"Thirty Only" tells about the age confusion and family anxiety faced by a group of women living in Shanghai.
has become a well-known female friendship model in recent years. Italian writer Ferrante's " Naples tetralogy " is one of them.
The two heroines were not close "girlfriends" from the beginning, but mutual snoopers full of competition, suspicion and coveting. The real friendship occurs after they begin to realize the nature of each other's "community". They are both slum girls in a difficult environment. During the difficult and long years, they continue to receive support and reflection from each other to achieve dynamic growth and development. self-awakening. Another literary work by
that presents a similar topic is the 2011 novel "Purple" by Alice Walker , a well-known black female writer in the United States. The protagonist Xili, with the company and encouragement of her best friend, went from numbness to awakening and finally to a new life. . On the long and tortuous road of women's liberation, "sisterhood" played a crucial role.
is like the movie "Help" that year, which is also about women uniting to fight against unequal status. At the same time, in the spiritual companionship and encouragement of each other, they help each other find a healthy and independent self, and convey "1+1>" 2" of "Female Power".
"Help" stills
Absence of "life"
To some extent, TV shows are like news, and "women" is a very useful label and theme. Hotspots, topics, and stories linked to "feminism" are generally safe—not only in line with the equal needs of the mainstream of society, but also with the emotional needs of female consumers.
But "Ode to Joy 3" provides a negative tutorial: it relies too much on the rendering of "women's topics" and loses the sense of life and the real credibility of the characters.
Even if it doesn't talk about meaning or value, watching the life itself depicted in a drama, this drama is not up to the mark.
casually flipped through the posts on social platforms, and the complaints about the details of "Ode to Joy 3" were overwhelming.
For example, Ye Zhenzhen (played by Jiang Shuying ), a "quasi-scientist" and an associate researcher, when looking up information on a computer, the desktop is spotless, without any books, pen and paper, and no basic daily necessities such as water cups and mobile phones. , as if sitting in a closed public examination room to answer questions. Real scientific research practitioners will feel "off the ground" when they see it.
"Ode to Joy 3" depicts researchers in a deliberate and unprofessional manner.
The same scene as the model house is everywhere else in the show. The protagonists sit on the bright and clean floor and discuss hot and current affairs. All dogmas and truths overflow the screen, but the figurative "life" lacks real sense.
Another example is He Minhong, who always talks about poetry and songs, but it really doesn't make people feel her humanistic quality. Excessive flaunting of literary talent is annoying, and it also reflects the screenwriter's outdated prejudice against arts and sciences.
He Minhong, who "drops his book bag" all the time
All in all, the characters are awkward and rigid, like they are piled up by labels, and have nothing to do with real people.
There are not only dramas of the same type that can portray the fullness of female group portraits without losing the quality of life. For example, last year's ", I'm good in another country, ", and for example, " Twenty Do Not Confused 2" broadcasted at the same time as "Ode to Joy 3".
is a sequel to "Twenty Do Not Confused" two years ago. In "Twenty Do Not Confused 2", four girls fromAfter graduating from school and stepping into the society, they face new problems and challenges in their own lives.
"Twenty Do Not Confused 2" stills
Liang Shuang, an internet celebrity who first entered the live broadcast and brought goods, was struggling to deal with the multi-party forces of the market, traffic and brands; Jiang Xiaoguo, a white-collar worker in a foreign company, stayed in Shenzhen in order to buy a house, in a meat-eating jungle. Work alone in the workplace; Luo Yan, who is looking for free time, will also encounter fake cakes and shoes given by stingy leaders, and colleagues who are selfish and calculating.
Even Duan Jiabao , a wealthy second-generation who seems to be carefree, chose to start his own business and take risks alone. After encountering a financial crisis, he chose to sell his property instead of accepting help from his parents. The audience saw the growth of a "Miss", a 25-year-old girl who may face choices and self-hardening in the process of entering society from school.
is also a wealthy female character, Qu Xiaoxiao in the first part of "Ode to Joy", although she is squeamish and domineering, she has her own understanding of life and is not controlled by others, not only me, so it is not annoying.
There is no perfect life, and no one is born to be a "big heroine". A real "independent woman" does not have to be bright and beautiful, but can also bite the bullet and deal with the chicken feathers of life.
From this perspective, avoiding abuse and excessive interpretation of "female elements" may be a prerequisite for a good drama.
author | Lu Chi
editor | Monet
typesetting | Qianwen
