What Makes A Movie Feminist?

Every time modern films have a large female ensemble cast, there is likely to be someone who thinks that this characteristic of the movie alone makes it a feminist film.  The following support or hostility based off of this assumption might only influence more people to merely assume that having more than just a handful of lead actresses in a movie is all it takes to make a film feminist.  In reality, it takes a much more precise approach to a particular movie to make it fall into the feminist category, and there is nothing sexist against men or women by simply featuring a strong cast of people from the opposite gender.  This fact has rarely if ever slowed the waves of pre-release approval or loathing shown to films like Captain Marvel.

A movie like Birds of Prey or Terminator: Dark Fate is not feminist even though it is consistent with feminism by not portraying stereotypes of men and women as inherent characteristics or treating men and women as if they have differing metaphysical value.  First of all, having women comprise the lead cast members for the sake of telling a story and not for the sake of misandry does not mean a film specifically has feminist themes.  This is for the same reason that having a predominantly male cast does not mean a film has egalitarian/feminist themes.  Feminism is a philosophy, not a category of movies containing more than one or two primary characters who are a certain gender.

Second, not every movie that could at one point have been a breakthrough feminist film will be made specifically to promote gender egalitarianism at a time after egalitarian storytelling has become normalized.  Of course, certain aspects of a movie with a different philosophical or storytelling focus might still be made with egalitarian ideas in mind, and those aspects can be appreciated with gender egalitarianism is mind.  What does not follow is that having egalitarian characters or dialogue makes the film itself distinctly egalitarian any more than it follows from having blatant jokes in a movie that the genre is comedy.

Having even multiple horror scenes in a movie does not make it a horror film, and lines that directly touch upon feminism in a rational and  likewise do not define the general categories into which the story and themes fall.  Plenty of movies, video games, and books feature ideas or approaches to worldbuilding or dialogue that fall outside the scope of the primary genre or themes, strictly speaking.  This can be the case even when the works are favorable or outright welcoming to those elements that do not specifically represent the whole story.  For some reason, when it comes to particular ideas like feminism--genuine feminism that opposes all sexism against men and women alike and regards the genders as equals, allies, and friends--some people cannot recognize this fact.

So many of the current reactions to movies based simply on the gender of the casts would change if this truth was more widely understood.  In a rationalistic culture, ideological discomfort with movies over casting and character decisions would never be directed towards the gender of the performers!  It is so much easier for the already non-rationalistic public to intentionally or unintentionally side with the dimwits who seem to truly think that anything other than perfectly consistent egalitarianism describes the metaphysical nature of men and women.  The objections from misandrists that male leads are an attack on women and from misogynists that female leads are an attack on men are only latched onto by utter fools who lack rationalistic knowledge.