Feisty Hit-Girl is a positive role model -- and a rare kick in the ass
The (extremely) young heroine of a new action flick is an example to us all, writes Julia Molony
Sunday March 14 2010
Not since Sarah Michelle Gellar kicked ass as Buffy the Vampire Slayer has popular culture seen such a feisty, self-determining, empowered example of female adolescence as Hit-Girl, the protagonist of much touted new action flick, Kick-Ass. But there's a rub. The film, though not yet released, is already mired in controversy. Hit-Girl is a foul-mouthed, bloodthirsty assassin, who asks for a knife for her birthday, and is perfectly at ease plugging villains. Oh, and she's 11 years old.
Cue, naturally, a chorus of opprobrium. And much hand-wringing over the social impact of glorifying, not just violence, but violence committed, and relished in, by children.
Kick-Ass is based on a comic by Scottish writer Mark Millar. It's about as true to life and authentic as Batman & Robin. Once we see this for what it is, fantasy and metaphor, it becomes clear that just like Buffy, Kick-Ass is wildly unlikely to encourage any well adjusted teenager into brutality or murder. Like any film in its genre, the violence is elaborate, stagey and theatrical. It's not about masochism, but about a fantasy of dominance.
And as such, Hit Girl has the potential to be a powerful, positive role model. Yes, the 11-year-old protagonist uses foul language, with the trailer featuring the memorable line "OK, you c**ts, let's see what you can do now!" Which may seem unpalatable, to say the least. When scenes from the film were shown in San Diego last July at an annual comic-book convention, Millar said: "The weird thing about this film is that you come out of it wanting to be an 11-year-old girl because she's so cool. You think, 'I'd love to kill all those guys'."
The character represents the indulgence of two powerful adolescent urges. First, taboo breaking. (That's there in the prolific use of shocking profanities). And second, independence. That she is small and slight and sweet only serves to drive home the point even harder. Nobody can stop, chasten or restrain her. And if they try, she'll kick their ass.
As a study of childish influence, she's a seductive fictional creation. As a role model, she's got morality on her side, only using her special training to deliver vigilante style vengeance to criminals. Hit-Girl doesn't have superpowers. She doesn't rely on magic. Her blood-letting crusade is a product of her own rigorous training, instigated and encouraged by her father, a cop, played by Nicolas Cage in the film.
She possesses the two fantasy powers of adolescents the world over, male and female -- influence and agency. Not for her the meagre consolation of prom dates and trainer bras -- the traditional trade-offs for the chafing state of teen dependence and passivity. This is a young girl with duties. She has responsibilities; she acquits herself of them with aplomb. And with that comes respect and, crucially, control. She is capable. She is undaunted. She is never a victim.
The film has been issued with a 15 certificate. As such, it's expressly not aimed at the crucial demographic which, we seem to believe, are so vulnerable to corruption. Compared to the more palatable popular culture smorgasbord which is busily shaping young adolescent female minds, The Hills say, the popular MTV show which presents life as a series of commercial opportunities, or the cultural ubiquity of Wags. She is a rare symbol of a young woman whose goal is a noble one, and which she means to achieve by skill and smarts alone.
Though this is childhood re-imagined and repackaged to appeal to an adult audience, the viewpoint is one of nostalgia and sympathy, rather than the creepier versions that serve sexually precocious teenagehood for the removed consumption of an older audience (to whit, everything from Britney Spears breakthrough teen queen hit to the Twilight films).
The film's creator, Jane Goldman, with a foul-mouthed tween character who dispatches baddies with the kind of nonchalant ease of a girl picking daisies, is willfully and deliberately courting controversy.
When asked by one US interviewer about the suitability of an 11-year-old using the word "c***", Goldman said, in tabloid-baiting style, "I think that's the least of our worries".
But the wife of Jonathan Ross is no stranger to taking a little heat. Behind the scene of her husband's more visible public image, Mrs Jonathan Ross has her own blossoming career. The public might know her as the woman with the brightly coloured hair who Ross regularly refers to on his chat show, but rather than just being a foil to him, she is a former TV presenter who cracked Hollywood as a screenwriter. And Kick-Ass, a spiky, edgy story about a female teen who fearlessly takes on forces of evil, is set to be the vehicle which will see her overtake her husband, and place her at the very apex of popular culture.
Originally published in
