Blade Runner 2049 received a fair amount of praise from the critics, but it should be noted that some spoke out about what they saw as the rather lackluster role of female characters in its narrative. In main, this was because its narrative was centered around its male characters and their needs, while its female characters existed to serve the stories of their male counterparts.
For example, consider the contrast between Rick Deckard and Rachael. The first shows up in Blade Runner 2049 as a character of considerable importance, as shown by the fact that he was capable of making meaningful choices even when he had been captured by the villain. In contrast, Rachael made two appearances of sorts. First, she was revealed as having died from childbirth at some point in time between the two movies, which is one of the most cliched ways to kill a female character in either movies or other forms of media. Second, the villain creates a clone of her for the purpose of tempting Deckard so that he will reveal his secrets, which is a pretty classic example of objectification. Combined with the character of Joi as well as the frequent use of imagery that seems to be targeted at heterosexual males throughout the movie, it is no wonder that some people responded poorly to this part of Blade Runner 2049.
How Did Dennis Villaneuve Respond to the Criticism?
Recently, the director of Blade Runner 2049 Dennis Villaneuve commented on the criticism of the movie’s use of its female characters. Essentially, he said that Blade Runner 2049 is supposed to be an examination of modern problems through the creation of a dystopian future. Since modern society still has numerous issues in regards to how it treats women, the future society seen in the movie has them as well.
Is This a Good Defense?
The problem with this particular defense is that female characters are still capable of having stories of their own even in dystopian societies that treat women in a horrible manner. As a result, the problem is not that Blade Runner 2049 has its female characters receiving horrible treatment from the society around them, which is an in-setting problem. Instead, the problem is that it has no interest in how its female characters respond to said treatment, which is an out-of-setting problem. Even worse, Blade Runner 2049 makes a deliberate decision to use its female characters to service the stories of its male counterparts, thus making something problematic that much more so.
Blade Runner 2049‘s problem is particularly noticeable because there is now more and more media that is willing to look at things from the perspective of their female counterparts. Furthermore, there is even more media that is willing to provide those same characters with a meaningful measure of agency, which is one of the most important factors that distinguish props from full-fledged characters. After all, agency is a character’s ability to make choices that will have a meaningful impact on the story, which unfortunately, tends to be rather lacking in the female characters who populate Blade Runner 2049.
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