the feminist fan:

recovering heroines and heroes in
film, fantasy, and foreign places

emari dimagiba lavine

"Quickly – Get Thee a Roman Tunic!"
It’s that time of year again, when the TV schedule is littered with so many awards shows that the only difference between them are the frenzy of fashion statements. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t even care about the Oscars this year, except that I’m hoping to catch a glimpse of Russell Crowe accepting an award for best actor in the movie, Gladiator. Ever since I saw that movie for the first time, I’ve been all about Russell Crowe, on a level that was safely repressed from the time I packed away my prepubescent Duran Duran memorabilia in the 80s.

Back then when my well-meaning, over protective parents prohibited me from attending concerts, I was relegated to being a well-informed fan. It was all I could do to save every article, every picture, every mere mention of Duran Duran in those teeny bop magazines, and the occasional mainstream entertainment magazines. With the advent of MTV, I became video-obsessed to the degree that I recorded as many televised appearances, interviews, and performances as I could access during a regular school week. There was something liberating about relinquishing yourself as the unapologetic die-hard fan, drowning yourself in the images and fantasies of your favorite superstar. Every generation knows what hundreds of screaming, crying, adoring female fans look and sound like.

Fast forward about 18 years. Enter Russell Crowe as Maximus: a well-respected, successful army general who wants only to return home to his family and farm, then loses everything to a corrupt emperor, becomes a slave, then a gladiator and resurrects as a hero of Rome. All the while, Maximus never loses sight of being reunited with his family, even in death.

Maybe it was the roman tunics, or his character’s brooding nature, or maybe it was his devotion to family, or the way he handled swords that cranked up my adrenaline and made me start fantasizing about how I could get my husband into a gladiator costume. Until I fully indulged myself in such momentary delights, I realized that I had also been harboring an unsatiated craving for hero worship. At 28, I was instantly flooded with the same giddy schoolgirl excitement that I had about Duran Duran. But, now that I am slightly older with a graduate degree and a husband, I fancy myself a connoisseur of more refined entertainers that arouse my feminist sensibilities, including hot actors who portray characters with integrity.

For the last few months, I’ve been getting my Russell Crowe fix on the net. I’ve become intimately acquainted with an impressive fan web site known as maximumcrowe.com, where daily updates are provided by loyal fans from all over the world. I never thought I’d see myself as the kind of person who would want to follow the news, photo ops, gossip and interviews, like Pooh follows a trail of honey.

Ultimately I discovered ready-made escapism, easy to access when you’re a multi-tasking modern woman managing a busy career, making a home, maintaining friends, exercising some fashion sense, and staying on top of current events. What’s not to enjoy about downloading a little picture of Russell for your desktop wallpaper? Besides being able to oogle at his sexy, rugged good looks and follow the praise of his acting career, I am comforted (and completely aroused) by the fact that Russell Crowe pretty much sounds like a regular guy, a guy I’d want to know better if circumstances were different.

about this column

There is no shame in being a fan and appreciating the life and work of someone else – be it a superstar, or a real person in our sphere of influence. As feminists, we have been trained to observe our world with a critical eye, often forgetting to embrace the many sources of inspiration and fun that can become part of our ordinary lives. While we continue to pursue grownup ideals in our everyday life, it’s important to beto the unexpected faces and places that stir the creative energy and goofiness that we had as teenagers. This column will feature commentary by a feminist fan and the complexity of our search for heroines and heroes that arouse us on multiple levels.

© Emari Dimagiba Lavine, 2001
All Rights Reserved

 site map   |  volume 1 number 2, June 2001