In 1974, Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven had published an epic science fiction novel, "The Mote in God's Eye".

It takes place in their future-history; Man has achieved the stars, Earth kills itself in a final battle, the planet Sparta forms its empire... which eventually collapses.

A thousand years in our future, they're trying to rebuild civilization, and there's a secession war, similar to the Independence war of Firefly/Serenty.

In the midst of this, an alien spacecraft enters a provincial planet, is intercepted by HMS MacArthur through incredible daring and heroics, rescued from impact with the star, and the crew is found to be dead... and very alien.
An expedition of two ships is sent, the HMS MacArthur, and HMS Lenin, commanded by an admiral who ordered a human world sterilized to prevent its re-rebellion.
The aliens appear to be benign, and civilized longer than we have been in existence. In reality, they are quite lethal (God bless the joeys... and may He grant Midshipmen Staley, Whitbread and Potter eternal rest.)

Here's the kicker, not only is this rebuilding civilization of humanity somewhat aristocratic and monarchical, it's also (whisper it) sexist.
Yes, a thousand years from now they're protective of their females, treating them how we treated ours oh... say in the 1940s. The protagonists love interest is neither weak nor shallow (but very, very softheaded... but so are many of the male characters, including Dr. Horvath and Father Hardy...)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mote_i...
The book was criticized, by some, for being sexist.

Now... In 1937, J. R. R. Tolkien came out with "The Hobbit". Been a long time since I read it, but... no, or almost no, female characters. This is a story that supposedly takes place a long, long, long time ago, in a very, very different world. There's absolutely no reason whatsoever that it echo the (I really wish I had a strikeout html tag so I could insert "sick" and have it stricken out so people would know what I *wanted* to say, but didn't) culture of the modern, western world.

Yet, Peter (a word that is synonymous with DICK) Jackson and his bedmate felt compelled to "improve" upon the original story by inserting a character who did not exist in the book, and further make it a politically correct character by giving it a vagina and a traditionally-male role to play.
And already those who objected to the insertion of this character, even simple "purists" who don't care about forcing modern, western mores into the film, were dismissed as sexist and misogynistic.


I was angered and amused at the (at least implied) romance between Elwyn and Aragorn inserted into Lord of the Rings to slake the thirst of the perverts in the audience. Oh, it's not perverted, because Liv Tyler is attractive in a Julia Roberts kinda way? Well... elves are a separate *species* from humans. Why not have Aragorn have an affair with his mare... or Legolas? I mean, if you're going to pervert the story to fit modern issues.
It was aggravating enough, and I have to wonder why the old bastard put it in the story, to have Theodin's niece play the role she played.

I missed the 1st Hobbit movie, which I'd anticipated for months. By the time I could see it, it was out of theaters. Now they've made it so I don't *want* to see the 2nd picture.


I hate it when people try to "improve" on an author's work (imagine trying to "improve" on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel...), but hate it more when they do so in order to bring it more in line with modern day thinking. My opinion of modern day thinking notwithstanding; I remember the attempts of the Nazi regime to rewrite history in art and fiction to reflect well on Aryan themes and heroes, much as the ancient Romans did.

In this specific instance, done to make it match today's western society's view of the roles (or lack thereof) of the sexes.
I can only imagine if they created a movie taking place in the 15th century Moslem world, how they'd deal with female's portrayal in *that* society. No doubt by the end of the picture she'd have screwed the protagonist and beat the antagonist's head in with a Sequoia.

When I saw "The Mummy", I fell in love with Rachel Weiss's character (and developed a bit of a heart palpitation for Ms Weiss, as well). People here have read where I've called various characters, "my kind of hero". She was my kind of hero.

But, what did they have to do to her in the 2nd movie? Turn her into a two-fisted knife-fighter. (making her beloved father a bit of a pervert himself, watching his body-painted mistress battle his mostly naked daughter...)

It's the PC view of women that aggravates me in these examples, but there has been a progression for the past century, almost, of quietly pushing leftist ideology this way, until even alleged "conservatives" agree with much of it.