I'm sure it's already pretty obvious that I'm a huge fan of Jurassic Park. One of my favorite things about the original movie is that the heroine, Ellie Sattler (played by Laura Dern) is a super smart and tough paleobotanist who doesn't need saving when dinosaurs are on the loose. She's the one who uttered the famous line "dinosaurs eat man... woman inherits the earth." And when one of the men suggests that he should be the one to risk his life towards the end of the film she says "we'll discuss sexism in survival situations when I get back," then dashes off to save everyone.
So, if you've seen or heard anything about the new Jurassic World movie, you can probably guess that I'm one of the people who wasn't too thrilled with the treatment of the female lead this time around. You can google "Jurassic World sexist" -- there are so many articles on the subject that I don't really have to add to it. But suffice to say, I think that it was a huge step down from Ellie Sattler.
I did really enjoy Jurassic World, and I'm going to see it again, but it was hard to fully enjoy it when shadows of Ellie Sattler were dancing through my mind. I couldn't help but wonder, how do you go from a female lead who ridicules gender stereotypes in adventure movies to a female lead who is the embodiment of a gender stereotype in an adventure movie?
All that being said, after seeing the new movie I felt a surge of Ellie Sattler appreciation bubbling up inside of me and it had to come out in drawing form. This is currently available as an art print in my shop here, and it'll be available in brooch form next week!
