Lisbeth's profile

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162 Points

Saturday, November 25th, 2023 5:50 AM

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Misogynous reviews from one user

Hi. I was reading user reviews for the series Fifteen-Love and came across one I consider particularly offensive. The series deals with the sexual abuse of a teenage tennis player by her coach. In his review, the user posits that the series missed "the opportunity to do something actually brave — provide an example of a FALSE allegation of assault" and suggests quite openly that not "ALL women tell the truth about sexual assault and violence" (both sets of caps are his).

Curious to see whether this user had made similar comments in other reviews, I looked him up. I found that he's been an IMDb member for seven months (at least under the username unator) and that the five reviews he has posted in that time are negative, always based on his denigrating and contemptuous opinion of women.

In his review of the series Hijack, he writes of the protagonists:

Needless to say, they are both 'powerful' women. (Follow the formula — 'strong women' or no series!) And the audiences continue to swallow this rubbish.

His review of the series The Diplomat, in which a female career diplomat lands in a high-profile job, is similarly dismissive of women:

The role of the protagonist mirrors Wonder Woman. The smartest, toughest, you name it and this girl can do it! As a spoof it would be entertaining. As a serious take it is laughable.

The 2017 coming-of-age French film Ava has several nude scenes, portraying as it does the sexual awakening of a rebellious teenage girl. Here is unator's take on this:

The male nudity especially appears to have been included by the (female) writer and director to titillate. What is it with female writers and directors and their desire to exhibit full frontal nude males? If I took a guess I would have to say they are trying to emasculate under the guise of 'edgy'. It is simply a sad reflection on their own psychological hang-ups.

The user also pans Minx, in part for being "more of the 'women as victims of the evil patriarchy'," although he does admit this would be "bearable" if only the series were well done. Strangely, the large amount of male frontal nudity doesn't seem to bother him as much here. He dismisses it as "look[ing] like it has been included to draw attention away from how bad the series is." Could this have something to do with the fact that nearly half of the episodes were directed by men, who surely have no desire to "titillate" or, god forbid, "emasculate" anyone? Given that the female protagonist is a feminist, I’m also not surprised the user didn’t like this series.

So, here is my question: Is misogyny and woman-bashing something that IMDb moderators can be counted on to root out of user reviews?

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

Accepted Solution

Employee

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2.5K Messages

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26.2K Points

1 year ago

Hello Lisbeth,

If you have found that a Review is not meeting our User Reviews guidelines, you can submit a deletion request for us to take a look for you by clicking "Report This" at the bottom of the review

You can find help and instructions in our Help Articles.

5 Messages

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162 Points

Thank you, Fran. I'm glad to know there is a mechanism for this on IMDb.

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

740 Messages

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8.2K Points

1 year ago

I don't see "misogyny" or "women bashing" in these reviews.

I see a viewer's subjective assessment of some films and shows. Which is what reviews are.

5 Messages

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162 Points

I could go along with you if we were to consider only the last title — Minx —, which was actually this user’s first review back in April. But you can’t tell me that lumping all women writers and directors together as using "especially" male nudity to “titillate” and “emasculate” is a legitimate review of one particular movie (like Laure Calamy, Noée Abita, who plays a 13-year-old girl, has several nude scenes, which some might consider much more shocking). And I don’t see how sarcastically stating that, of course, “ALL women tell the truth about sexual assault and violence” is an acceptable criticism of a series that deals with the very real subject of sexual abuse of underage female athletes. The type of comment the user has made in all his reviews so far is insidious and eventually threatens the safety of women everywhere.

 

But, hey, let’s just agree to “subjectively” disagree.

(edited)

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

Champion

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3K Messages

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@NYVKE​ 

Let me guess. You are a man. How can you not see misogyny in lines like: "Needless to say, they are both 'powerful' women. (Follow the formula — 'strong women' or no series!) And the audiences continue to swallow this rubbish." What else would you consider that? It's laughably bad and also not even factual.