Los Angeles Times :: Unruly Girls, Unrepentant Mothers

Unruly Girls, Unrepentant Mothers

by Kathleen Rowe Karlyn

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With 2010 films, it's Mother's Day
By Randee Dawn

'..."Mothers are often trivialized or sentimentalized in films," says Kathleen Rowe Karlyn, director of cinema studies at the University of Oregon and author of the upcoming "Unruly Girls, Unrepentant Mothers." "We don't tell the stories of mothers very often; we're much more interested in subjects that are interesting to men."

Karlyn points to Oscar winners "American Beauty" and "Titanic" as examples of avoiding real characterizations of mothers: "There are two mothers in 'Beauty,'" she says. "One is a shrew and one is lobotomized. In 'Titanic,' Rose would rather go down with the ship and Leo DiCaprio than get on the lifeboat with her mom!"

There are any number of reasons why moms routinely get short shrift as characters, ranging from ageism to subtle misogyny to simple economics — as in the industry belief that too much focus on female characters may turn off big-spending male audiences and drive down box-office revenue ... '

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