Feminine TV series: Where is the value and power of women
Hu Xiang
Recently, with the hits of dramas such as "Northern Ruins", "I'm Very Good Away from Home", and "I Really Love You", female reality TV dramas have once again aroused social debate after their popular screens in 2020.
This drama genre focuses on the daily life of urban white-collar women, shows a brand-new visual aesthetic style, and promotes the independent mental state of women, marking the development of female-themed TV dramas into a new stage.
However, the values revealed in these dramas have caused controversy. Some works have even formed an upside-down of high cost, strong lineup and low reputation, reflecting the profound changes in spiritual thoughts and artistic thoughts brought about by the changes in social and economic development behind them. It is worthy of attention.
model
Focus on urban white-collar workers and capture individual anxiety
Since "Ode to Joy" in 2015, female TV dramas have formed a relatively stable genre narrative mode, which can be summarized as follows:
From the perspective of the subject of performance, it mainly depicts the female white-collar workplace and emotional life in contemporary metropolises, and most of them are young women from other places. They tell about their bitter life in the metropolis. In reality, this group of people is also watching The main body, the anxiety of identity, the feelings of the homeland, and the affection of the family in the play can easily resonate with the audience;
From the perspective of character structure, there are basically three to five women as the protagonists. They include both rookies who are new to the workplace, but also elite executives who have experienced career hardships and successful careers. They are both traditional women who tolerate self-discipline and rebelliousness. For new women in the unruly era, this kind of character identity and personality is set up to better radiate the audience, so that the audience can try to seat themselves through the role matching, and strengthen the sense of substitution;
From the perspective of the plot structure, the friendship between women is the basis of the story and the foundation of emotions. Often through the "Taoyuan Formation" friendship, a kind of emotional alliance is formed to resist loneliness and risk in the metropolis. On this basis, the female workplace narrative, Emotional narrative, family narrative.
The growth experience of women basically follows the upgrade of the workplace, but also has emotional ups and downs, and finally completes personal growth with the support of women's friendship, and finds a sense of belonging between body and mind.
Generally speaking, female-themed TV series are becoming more and more mature in creative mode, paying more and more attention to capturing the anxiety and dilemma of individuals in the changing times, especially highlighting the pressure brought by family and workplace to women, such as "The North and the South" Zhong Si Meng faces the contradiction between taking care of the family and realizing literary ideals. In "I Really Love You", Chen Jiaorui tried to conceal her pregnancy in order to be promoted. Zhong Nan Li and Tian Yulan in "Little Willingness" face the pressure of the involution of their children's education.
Constantly innovating in art, especially paying more attention to deepening women’s psychology. For example, "I heard her say" uses a monologue to face the camera to express women’s deep desires, anxiety, and loneliness. The unexpected death of a female friend who pursues her friend Hu Jingjing runs through the whole show, and the nonlinear narrative and surreal narrative are refreshing.
However, in a large number of writings about urban women, female-themed TV dramas have also fallen into a narrow vision, spiritual suspension, and homogenization of stories.
problem
Narrowing, routine, and suspension
The narrowing of creative horizons has become a bottleneck in the development of drama series.
The current female-themed TV series mainly focus on young urban white-collar workers. The career settings of the characters are either self-employment, or mostly marketing, public relations, and financial industries. Ji Nanjia in "Very Good" is a self-employed business, the lock in "The Golden Years" is real estate sales, Nan Li and Tian Yulan in "Little Will" are both home furnishing industry sales, and Lin Rui in "Positive Youth" Zhang Xiaoyu is in the cosmetics sales industry, and Wang Manni in "Thirty Only" is the sales of luxury goods.
This kind of professional design allows characters to enter and exit bright and beautiful places, adding a sense of modernity, but it obscures the display of other different professions, especially the new professions with the characteristics of the times. It is almost hard to find.
At the same time, due to the lack of in-depth work at the grassroots level and the lack of personal labor display, the contact between the characters and the society is narrowed, and a large amount of space is left to make way for the female emotional narrative, resulting in the homogeneity and patterning of the plot structure and the characters, and the screen There are more and more uniform female professionals, elegant modern office environment, high-end and comfortable housing conditions, but we can’t see more of the living conditions of other different classes, especially ordinary women—many people think " It is not unreasonable that "Northern Ruins" is the TV series version of "Little Times".
In contemporary realistic feminine theme creations, genuine ordinary girls and poor girls are missing.
It's only a poor woman who appeared-He Hongshan in "The Golden Years" is still a scheming woman with a black belly, which is really a pity.
The routine and levitation of the creative mode.
With the emergence of more and more female subjects, familiar formulas have also increased.
For example, "scumbag" is essential.
Especially represented by Xu Huanshan and "Sea King" Liang Zhengxian in "Thirty Only", outstanding women with scumbags become standard.
Including the selfish "Phoenix Man" Zhang Anren in "The Golden Years", the ungrateful Li Xiang in "Being in the North", Wu Dongjiang who betrayed the octopus in "Positive Youth", and the derailment in "The First Half of My Life" Chen Junsheng and so on.
It is true that this kind of scumbag setting has been the "standard configuration" of female narrative since ancient times, but if it becomes a fixed pattern that will not change for thousands of years, when the audience is guessing whether the male protagonist is the next "Xu Huanshan" , This type of creation has fallen into the quagmire of routine, and it also deliberately highlights the female tragicism.
In addition, the growth path of women is becoming more and more routine.
Feminist TV dramas should show more that women rely on their own strength to achieve dignity, rather than relying on male power.
Like Luo Yuzhu in "Chicken Feather Flying to the Sky", there are fewer women who work hard bit by bit, but there are more and more magical bridges that lie flat.
For example, the locks in "Golden Years" were of ordinary origin. They were hired because they looked like the daughter of the boss, Ye Jinyan, and they were reused because they met the rich second generation by accident and made their sales performance outstanding. Get married.
The three jobs of Chen Keyi in "Beijing Women's Illustrated Book" were all found by male friends, and Wang Manni in "Thirty Only" can get into and out of the upper class by relying on "Sea King", and relying on Boss Wei to return to Shanghai. Starting a career...This reflects the contradiction in the attitude of the current female TV dramas towards men.
On the one hand, it is necessary to belittle men, and there is a stereotype of scumbags; on the other hand, they use men to help women succeed as the "golden finger" at critical moments and fall into self-contradiction.
reason
The spirit of the times and lack of reality
When we explore the current issues of female theme creation, we will find that there are three main reasons behind them: the lack of zeitgeist, the loss of idealism, and the violation of the creative principles of realism.
Looking back at the creation of female themes in the past seventy years, during the "seventeen-year literature" period, under the call of "women can hold half the sky", female-themed films appeared one after another that could truly equalize with male characters, and even conceal the brilliance of male characters. For example, Li Shuangshuang, who is passionate and principled in "Li Shuangshuang", Kong Shuzhen, who is dare to talk and is beautiful and generous in "Young People in Our Village", and the five outstanding and eye-catching "Golden Flowers" in "Five Golden Flowers" flower".
At the beginning of reform and opening up, a number of excellent female-themed film and television works emerged, such as the TV series "Foreign Sisters", which represented a group of women working in Guangdong from the mainland to the forefront of reform and opening up, singing the era of "time is money, efficiency is life" melody.
The "Trilogy of Women's Fate" represented by the TV series "Fence·Woman and Dog" expresses the awakening of rural women's consciousness, which is all the rage.
As well as the fourth and fifth generation directors, such as "Human·Ghost·Love", "Wild Mountain", "Qiuju's Lawsuit", "No One Can Be Less", etc., through the resolute resistance of female individuals to the patriarchal discipline, the expression of women The cry for equality and dignity.
These classic female-themed film and television works are all closely connected with the times, with a strong sense of the times and reality, as well as ideological and idealism that transcend reality.
As the commercial economy swept across in the 1990s, consumerism rose, idealism fell, and women were inevitably commercialized.
On the one hand, women have once again become the objects of "gazing"; on the other hand, with the rise of women’s economic status, women have become the main force in consumption, and they have also become the absolute main force in the audience of TV dramas, especially TV dramas. Female subjects have more Much business potential.
"Zhen Huan", "Ruyi's Biography", "Miyue Biography", "Shangyang Fu" and other major heroine TV dramas once became popular themes.
In particular, the emergence of "Ode to Joy" is a precedent for a new era of urban female-themed commercial dramas. Through the youth stories of five girls, a feminist narrative model has been constructed. The classic narrative with original creativity is based on authenticity and grounding. The characters and plot have been successful, and the pace of creation of female TV dramas has been accelerated.
However, with the popularity of female subjects, especially the intervention and dominance of commercial capital, many works seem to be feminist on the surface, and they want to explore the value and power of women, but in fact they are commercial supremacy.
"Feminism" is just a guise for capital to pursue profit. Its true spiritual core, ideological connotation, and ideal feelings have been emptied, leading to hollowing out of the spirit, impetuous creation, and modularization of content. Many works seem to have passed. Precise calculations, formulaic mass production creations-too catering to the audience's preferences, both the character model and the plot model are becoming more and more homogeneous, and there is an urgent need to strengthen innovation from spiritual ideas to content.
Way out
Values, authenticity and ideal background
Li Yu, a writer in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, said: "Anyone who writes a literary handed down must first have the heart to pass on to the world." The so-called heart to hand down to the world, the most important thing is valuable thought.
Is it true that female TV dramas can only be commercialized streamlined operations?
Shouldn't it be through the reality of women to explore how women in this era can better survive and realize themselves?
Without answering this question, it is impossible to create a good female TV drama.
In the current creation of female themes, first of all, the unique spirit, strength and value of women should shine brightly in the tide of the times, and create great art with great spirit.
First of all, it must be sustainable in terms of values.
Female TV dramas must convey the value and power of women.
The current dilemmas faced by women are obvious to all, but our TV drama creation cannot stop at presenting these dilemmas, but also show how women deal with these dilemmas.
On the one hand, expressing women's endogenous values and driving force to overcome difficulties, this is the moment to show the power of ideological value.
For example, how do women overcome their inherent fears and become powerful, and how do they face the choice of money and benefits?
Eugenie Grandet will not be stingy like her father, but choose to use money to help people in a bad mood pay off their debts and win dignity, which reflects her view of money and values.
On the other hand, showing women’s struggle with the outside world, such as how to be strong and independent in a discriminatory patriarchal society, how to help women groups fight for their own interests, these are the unique values and strengths of women.
Secondly, we should uphold the truth.
The subject of female realism is, after all, the subject of reality, and the subject of reality should represent the typical characters in a typical environment and portray the true times of the times.
First of all, we need to broaden our horizons, dare to break the routine, and choose more female groups that have rarely been paid attention to in the selection of characters, such as female groups in the technology industry, such as female groups engaged in manual labor.
In the plot setting, the emphasis on describing the process of women overcoming difficulties will be better than describing the lying and comfortable posture.
In terms of environment construction, when it is in line with the character's professional and economic level, it is not necessary to sacrifice realism for deliberately creating visual beauty, but to increase the granularity of reality.
Finally, we should also bring some idealistic feelings.
Women are inherently romantic. At present, the content of most female-themed TV dramas seems to restore life to the original ecology. The intrigue in the workplace and the struggle between family mother-in-law and daughter-in-law are too trivial. Flying close to the ground will inevitably lose poetry and easily fall into misery.
At this time, it is even more necessary to add ideal spirit and romantic techniques to express the difficulties in life with an optimistic and positive perspective, which is not only derived from life, but also higher than life, so that the values of truth, goodness and beauty can be conveyed in flesh and blood.