Morethanhuman:

Coming from the "just get over it" (or better put, "just ignore it") and the "all-too-common its just popular culture" crowd, I appreciate your thoughtful, intelligent analysis of the movie and similar movies. But you haven't provided any of my ilk with any reason to burn gray matter on this. So explain to me why it's worth my time to analyze this movie, beyond purely an academic discussion of what this movie means, something that doesn't interest me. Frankly, I'm far more interested in people's reaction to the movie, which is a real phenomenon, that the events of the movie themselves.

I'm not naive enough to think that popular culture as represented in media has no influence on society, but its influence is most felt by those who allow themselves to be influenced by it. Perhaps the message my cohort is trying to send is that worrying about popular culture too much is self-limiting.

Besides, for every example of any particular portrayal of men or women in one movie, I could cite you half a dozen antithetical works. Popular culture is not a monolithic force -- never has been, never will be. And if you don't like what it is, just wait -- it will be different in a year or two.