I honestly have no idea. This is really strange for me, because usually I have a fairly good idea of why I react in particular ways to texts-- I analyse them as my job after all (PhD student in English). The fact that she goes back to Mark-- a guy who is TOTALLY condescending towards her-- isn't particularly feminist. In that second movie they had absolutely NO onscreen chemistry, and as such, it really REALLY looks like just going back to a guy for the sake of, well, not being single. He also plays the typical "knight in shining armour" role, rescuing her from jail etc. I think the point I should be making with this, is just because a female character resonates strongly with us as women, it doesn't necessarily mean that a feminist statement is being made.

I was commenting on what has directly been reported about the film, however: I did NOT say “I heard this film must be about assassins, therefore it must be about abortion”—I looked at what has been said about the actual content of the film. Either the woman did refuse to kill another woman because she was pregnant, or she didn't. If she did, then that, in my opinion, DOES put a higher value on the life of the fetus than on the life of the woman, OR it says that a woman's life is more valuable when she's pregnant. And, yes, that is the same ideology that underpins the anti-abortion movement, though as Heather pointed out, I wasn't claiming that the film was making an explicit comment about abortion rights. Also as Heather said, it is important that we take all of our perspectives seriously, and to that end, I would like to hear about a closer analysis of the scene from you, in which you could perhaps make your point further.

Often, I think people avoid looking too closely at texts because they are afraid of being charged with “reading too much into it” or because they think the idea that things like sexism and racism are not very pervasive. Unfortunately, when you live in a culture that is based on the hegemony of a particular race and/or a particular gender, those things WILL be pervasive, but they will rarely be very obvious, because we just accept it as the norm.

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And, back to original topic, I can't believe that I didn't mention the girls from Bend it Like Beckham-- awesome, awesome portrayal of young women making it in a male-dominated sport (not to mention in the context of a culture that expects women to get married ASAP).