Halina Reijn is being attacked quite hard in the Volkskrant. Her critically acclaimed film Babygirl is being pilloried. “The fantasy she sells us is a harmful cliché!”
De Volkskrant goes big with one op-ed by historian Lotte Houwink ten Cate about the new film Halina Reijn. She is not at all impressed by Babygirl with lead actress Nicole Kidman. “Women are not ‘baby girls’,” reads the headline of the complaint, which is currently one of the most read articles is on the newspaper site.
Crawling for daddy
In the film, Nicole plays a tech millionaire who risks everything for a transgressive workplace affair. Her husband wants an equal relationship, also in bed, but: “Girlboss Romy does want to grovel for a dominant daddy,” historian Lotte summarizes.
With her young intern, Nicole’s character finally dares to be submissive. She thinks it’s so cliché. “We hardly look at men who allow themselves to be sexually dominated by women. But some women’s desire for humiliation is eagerly depicted.”
Harmful cliché
Many films have already been made about it, says Lotte. “In fact, the fantasy that Babygirl sells us – the successful and emancipated woman in the outside world wants to submit to a strong man in private – is a harmful cliché that runs like a common thread through Western cultural history.”
It also bothers her that Nicole’s character is hardly held accountable for that relationship with her intern. “If it had been a male boss, we would have shouted bloody murder.”
Embrace
All in all, she doesn’t like it at all. “Babygirl plays with conventions but doesn’t break with them. Romy needs a man to tell her who she is, she has surprisingly little power.”
“Women are not baby girls. Like men, they are people whose choices have political consequences.”