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#no other saw movies death ratio skews all that hard towards women they usually have a pretty even mix of men and women dying
luxrayz64 · 2 months
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angry about saw 3d again im going to rant abt the public execution trap
so like, the public execution trap is innately sexist as all hell and tina is a caricature of a woman. the basic premise is this:
brad and ryan, two college students, are sitting opposite to each other with a spinning saw blade between them. their girlfriend tina, another college student who has been cheating on them both and manipulating them to 'do crimes' for her, is hung up on the ceiling above them, dropping down towards the blade. brad and ryan can either leave the sawblade where it is, killing tina when she drops on to it, or they can fight and kill the other, saving tina in the process.
for starters, tina is the kind of character that like. if I asked a 4chan user to describe the behaviour of women to me, they'd probably describe tina one to one. she's a conniving vixen, basking in the attention these two men are giving her and playing them both. when the game starts, she tries to play them, cheering for whoever is winning and claiming she's 'always loved him', until the other gains the upper hand at which point she switches teams, indicating her two faced, selfish nature. this is an opening trap - we are not granted any more time with these three characters. we know that she is a manipulative bitch, and that's all.
chad and bryan aren't particularly different in this regard. they're just as flat as tina is. they're both stupid frat bros easily egged on by the closest woman giving them attention. I'm going to be honest I don't remember which is which but until tina switches sides when white boy 1 overpowers white boy 2, they're both eager to save her and kill the other. white boy 1 catches onto this though, and he and white boy 2 agree that the other is not their enemy. they allow tina to drop onto blade, one of them exclaiming 'tina, I think we're breaking up with you!' right before she is gruesomely murdered in front of them.
from the character's perspective, this is justified. she was, after all, playing them both. without a doubt it is a horrible position to be in, but in the context of their relationship troubles, both white boys are innocent, more or less. neither of them knew that tina was dating the other. she was hurting them both, and didn't really care about either of them, switching teams to try and save herself without a care as to which one made it.
but it's always important to remember that someone created these characters and this situation.
tinas character is a sexist trope, a whore who plays with men for her own gratification. she's a succubus, leading innocent men down the path of evil, and this is how she is played. she is costumed so her cleavage is on display, she's been manipulating these boys into committing crimes for her (this is not elaborated on), and letting her die is framed as the correct choice. her death is a punchline, one of the frat bros dropping a one liner right before she is murdered.
she is the one who did the most wrongdoing, cheating on her partners and pushing them to crime on her behalf, but notably, it's not her test! she has absolutely no power in the situation. instead, the two men are being tested - will they continue fighting each other to save her in spite of the pain she's caused them, or will they acknowledge that they are both her victims and work together at her expense? her life is in their hands.
someone wrote a woman who is manipulating two young men, in which the two men agreeing to let her die is the correct and cathartic option. her death isn't something to be mourned, it's to be celebrated.
and look. if it were just this scene, maybe it would be fine. it would still be gross for the reasons outlined, but it wouldn't make me side eye the entire creative team behind this movie as much. but it isn't just this game.
there are 6 individual games (public execution, horsepower trap + the 4 from bobby's larger game) played in this movie. 5/6 feature a female hostage who is entirely powerless and must be saved by a man. none of them survive. this is totally ignoring the treatment of jill tuck, one of this movie's protagonists who gets not one, but two different deaths in this movie in which she is horribly murdered by another man, and both are framed as something to be excited about.
you're allowed to kill women off. you're allowed to write about toxic evil women who convince men to do bad things. but come on dude. when not a single one of the women in your movie are written with more than one personality trait, aren't allowed to be anything more than a damsel, you need to start looking inward. what the fuck did they put in the water in 2010 that made everyone working on this movie hate women this much
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