Mad Max: Fury Road enrages Men's Rights Activists who claim they are being duped by action sequences into watching 'feminist propaganda'
Critics of an outspoken MRA have called his comments "hilarious"
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Your support makes all the difference.Men’s Rights Activists have called for a boycott of Mad Max: Fury Road, describing it as “feminist propaganda” and bemoaning liberal Hollywood’s attempt to undermine traditional masculinity.
The film, which stars Charlize Theron as bald-headed warrior Furiosa alongside Tom Hardy’s Mad Max, has been criticised because Theron appears to have more lines and screentime than Hardy.
Aaron Clarey, a blogger on Return of Kings website which focuses on men’s issues, wrote that he was initially excited at the “explosions, fire tornadoes [and] symphonic score of Fury Road,” because it “looked like a straight-up guy flick.”
“Charlize Theron kept showing up a lot in the trailers, while Tom Hardy (Mad Max) seemed to have cameo appearances. Theron sure talked a lot during the trailers while I don’t think I’ve heard one line from Hardy. And finally, Theron’s character barked orders to Mad Max. Nobody barks orders to Mad Max,” an obviously distressed Clarey wrote.
He claims that he and other men are being “duped by explosions, fire tornadoes and desert raiders into seeing what is guaranteed to be nothing more than feminist propaganda, while at the same time being insulted and tricked into viewing a piece of American culture ruined and rewritten right in front of their very eyes.”
Quite how American this particular piece of "American culture" is is unclear considering the film is an Australian franchise, made and directed by Australians, and whose lead actors are British (Hardy) and South African (Theron).
But Clarey’s blog has been roundly agreed with by some commentators who are calling on other men to boycott the film.
However, feminists of both genders have subsequently dismissed the MRAs' complaints as “hilarious” and it appears to be encouraging some people who might not have been otherwise interested to go see the film.
The film, which premiered at Cannes this week, has received mostly positive reviews.
The Independent’s critic described it as “a very unusual re-boot” in which “Theron matches [Hardy] for sheer kickass malice and resourcefulness.”
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