Woman

An ambitious documentary that confidently tries the impossible, i.e., to provide a comprehensive report on the situation of women on this planet. That is, to capture the lives of almost four billion human beings of various cultures, social classes, ages, and positions. Not even a thirteen-part series that would map out individual problems summarized in the film in 2-3 sentences would be much more successful. Yes, the film does feature impressive shots of women from different nations and races in their traditional costumes, moving moments of a woman disfigured by an acid attack, or the testimony of a girl forced to undergo female genital mutilation. But all of these are topics that need to be placed in context, and that context is logically missing. In many countries, the public debate seems as if the male sex chromosome were a genetic defect and that matriarchy should prevail in society. In the past hundred years, the development of technology, economy, and society has moved toward female emancipation, and it is instead men who are losing ground. This includes even traditional conservative societies where, by nature, men are considered the providers for families, and yet traditional means of livelihood are disappearing, along with the chances of starting a family. In the end, the documentary certainly doesn't offend, but it can't and won't achieve what it pretends to. Overall impression: 60%. (31/12/2020)

More of a pamphlet than a documentary, but I don't have that much of a problem with it. The one I do have is that women's achievements and struggles for equality are only weighed here purely as part of a system that is inherently based on segregation and oppression (the same problem that current mainstream LGBT+ movements have, i.e. seeking recognition within an unjust system rather than trying to change it). Feminism in this form thus comes to fruition again at the expense of another aspect of society. And then, in time, it is again overtaken by another phase. With this in mind, Woman is then a rather interesting insight into various women's issues across cultures, but as a step in the struggle for equality, it is merely representative of the trend of marketing slogans in a time of late capitalism built on the commodification of ideas. (21/09/2021)