Don’t Pay to see Terminator: Dark Fate
I made the mistake of watching Terminator: Dark Fate and among the glaring inconsistencies with continuity, I am fixated on one small piece of dialogue. In the plane scene towards the end where Grace, the augmented diabetic super soldier sent back from the future, is telling Dani, the woman Grace was sent to protect, that she, “was not the mother of some man who saves the future, you are the future.” Which is great because there is no reason a woman cannot be the leader of a revolution. I like to think we have progressed enough where a woman being a leader of anything is universally accepted.
What bothers me is based on that statement, in the first Terminator, Kyle Reese was sent back from the future to not only protect Sarah Connor, the mother of John Connor and leader of the future resistance against the machines, but to perpetuate the male patriarchy. This is where I overthink things because I was being defensive; but hopefully not too irrational.
I thought Kyle Reese wasn’t sent back in time to prolong an ancient tradition that oppressed women. They sent him back in time because unbeknownst to him; he was John Connor’s father. Because without even knowing Sarah Connor, he loved her and would die for her. I mean, 1984’s Terminator is one of the greatest love stories of my lifetime.
My issue is it seems like people naturally think the prerequisite for being “pro” one thing is to be anti-something else. Another trend that has plagued the history of mankind for centuries. And with movies and pop culture focusing on making sure women are being empowered, I would argue that it should not be at the expense of the other gender. Meaning we shouldn’t have to tell women they don’t need men to empower themselves. They should just be busy empowering. Like the woman in the movie The Help tells the young girl she is smart, kind, and important. She didn’t say men were the reason she couldn’t be those things. She didn’t say for her to be good others have to be bad. Or blame the male generations from before so women can have a bias against the male generations of the future. She also did not dive into the horrible hardships brought on by racism during the 60s. She just focused on what was most important by building up and reinforcing a young girl’s self-perception.
Maybe it would be too obvious or wouldn’t sell tickets, but I would like to see men and women in movies or real life supporting each other. For example, Sarah Connor was an empowered woman. She raised her son to be a leader. I’ll admit women’s suffrage probably wasn’t a priority when the fate of humanity is on the verge of extinction because of self-aware genocidal robots, but my point is the catalyst for winning the war started with the strength of one woman. A woman who most likely knew to win an unwinnable war, you must first terminate all gender biases. It wouldn’t matter if Sarah gave birth to a boy, girl or transgender because she would still make sure she prepared her son or daughter or both for the inevitable future. And Sarah’s offspring wouldn’t have sent their Father back in time for the sake of the patriarchy, or because a woman is always the one in need of rescuing, it’s because they wouldn’t be able to exist otherwise. They were a team and family, at the very least, was what tipped the balance because it united them for a greater purpose.
