GoldenJCJ

^ The moral of the story for young girls everywhere: When all is said and done, get out there and find yourself a man.

Although, I do give the movie credit for ending before Stockholm Syndrome Not-Steve asks his rapist out on a date.

fujishig

Yeah, it's better not to try to look too deeply into feminist theory with this movie:

All men are scum except for the guy who was taken out of time from WW1. Oh and a random bum.

The female leads are at odds with each other basically because of jealousy

The female leads both long for the affection of men as a central part of their character. For Cheetah it's this desire to be wanted/respected by the men around her (and I assume women too but the only interaction she has with women is with Diana and the character who hired her and forgot about her, everything else revolved around men). For Diana it's "the one thing she asked for" and something she was almost willing to give up the world for.

Despite being beautiful, powerful, etc., Diana's life is empty without a man. See how lonely she is on her date for one, looking up at the sky remembering Steve? See how she just needs to move on?

(I'm not sure if it's intentional but Steve himself would fail the reverse Bechdel test, the dude is nothing but an accessory on Diana for his entire time in the movie)

That's only surface level stuff but yeah, I don't see the feminism there. For my kids all that will matter is that she's a girl who kicks butt and I'm ok with that for now.

Brack

Where were these rape hot takes when Meet Joe Black was released? By this rationale, Claire Forlani’s character raped the guy who Death took over’s body.

fujishig

Wasn't that dude dead?

I do think there'd be more outrage if the genders were reversed (Superman banging the spirit of Lois inhabiting some other woman's body) but the most outrageous part about it in this movie is it's completely unnecessary.

Sorry, we did get... a wardrobe joke out of it.

Brack

Nope. Death took his body just before. Otherwise, the whole movie is following a dead guy around? Makes no sense.

Mike86

I was just about to type something similar about if the role was reversed and it happened with a female character in the Steve Trevor role with a male hero there would probably be an uproar.

Brack

I love the preemptive gender reversal argument about rape via body possession. At this rate, Quantum Leap needs to be erased from existence because he literally raped every body he inhabited, no?

Mike86

You can’t change the past, but in modern times it’s a bit of an odd plot device to use.

Brack

I just think it’s a huge stretch to call anything that happened to be rape. It’s an insult to actual rape victims.

Baron Of Hell

Nope, his jumping was a accident outside of his control. But he did have sex and those times would be rape.

DJariya

I totally agree. It’s a plot device that’s been used in the past and like you said especially on Quantum Leap. To call it rape to me is really a huge stretch. Especially when rape involves physical and emotional violence and humiliation.

Steve’s spirit took over random handsome guy and that dude did not exist for the xx days he took over. He became Steve.

Its a major reach to really nit pick and look at this plot device as being wrong or a crime.

Mike86

I don’t know if I would go as far as calling it rape either. It was definitely something though. A character had his body unwillingly taken over by a dead man due to a wish made by Diana. I think no matter how you cut it that’s at the least it’s a very odd storyline.

Baron Of Hell

Sure if you consider not given consent a okay to have sex. That is why drunk girls can't claim they were raped just because they were passed out. I'm sure you would be okay with someone taking over your body and having their lover F you up the ass. Just another day like no other day. la de da,

Brack

What does that matter? Was Steven in control of inhabiting this guy’s body?

Brack

Steve was the controller of the body. He gave consent. The other guy wasn’t the controller anymore, he was somewhere else. How you equate this to the same thing as a drunk girl who “can’t claim they were raped” sickens me.

DJariya

Again, random handsome dude did not exist when Steve inhabited his body.

When Sam jumped into the body of that San Francisco reporter in the Quantum Leap episode of Temptation Eyes and had sex Tamlyn Tomita, are you actually insinuating he also committed a crime as well when they made love?

This argument is getting ridiculous.

The intent was humorous. It’s a reach to even use that word to associate it with that. And yeah it’s an insult to people who were actually victims of the actual crime.

Mike86

I was honestly confused by the whole plot. Was it just Diana seeing that guy as Steve or did he look like Steve to everyone else? When Steve looks in the mirror he’s the other guy.

GoldenJCJ

No one is claiming that Steve raped the guy because he inhabited his body. People are suggesting that Diana raped the guy because his body was unwittingly used for sex. It’s been a while since I’ve seen Quantum Leap, I didn’t recall if Sam ever had sex during a leap. If he did, that would be equivalent.

I’m half-joking about the rape stuff but there are other questions like, did this guy ultimately get fired for not showing up to work for a week? Did he have a girlfriend who he may or may not have to explain a mysterious STD to?

DJariya

He did in the plot I just described.

dex14

We, the audience, see him as Pine because that is what Diana wished to see, but he actually looks like the guy. His appearance never actually changes.

Why So Blu?

No, he became "Steve" only to Diana. To everyone else, he was just a random guy. If not, the mirror reflection(s) would make zero sense. Again, shitty writing and shitty optics.

GoldenJCJ

I posted before I saw your post.

I suppose if I were to see that episode now I’d probably be more aware of the implications of that plot point. In 1992, 12 year old me didn’t notice. That was also 38 years ago. I’d like to think we’ve become more sensitive to those situations in TV/movies. It obviously wasn’t thought through when writing this movie and probably should have been.

Especially when, as I posted before, it’s a storyline that really didn’t need to be. Steve returning as Steve would have worked just as well and wouldn’t include the ickiness of inhabiting another person’s body.

I’m also fairly sure we’ve put more thought into this story in 7 pages than the writers did. Throughout the entire project.

Why So Blu?

Off topic, but the last time there was a film with rapey overtones was that shitty sci-fi flick "Passengers" with Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence. The space flight to colonize another world is 100 years or so and he gets woken up early and essentially gets bored being by himself. He sees hottie Jennifer Lawrence in her cryo-sleep and decides to wake her up because he's all alone and wants to bang.

Carry on.

Mike86

That’s what I thought. So the guy didn’t disappear like others are claiming.

Dr. DVD

I personally think that a passed out girl who doesn't give consent but some guy has sex with her anyway is rape. However, I do disagree with how if both the guy and girl get drunk and have a fling, not passed out mind you, just in a questionable state of mind, the guy is the one who faces possible charges.

Question: let's say that Superman really wanted to give Lois Lane some physical love but knew he couldn't do so without killing her. Lois finds a way to possess Wonder Woman and she surprises Superman. They bump uglies so Lois can finally know his love. Has Superman raped Wonder Woman despite the inhabitant of her body giving her permission? I would say that argument could definitely be made.