Let me diverge from exercise on this one and mention something which is familiar and upsetting to say the least. I love movies, and have been described by people as, "The most Jaded movie critic I've ever met". Well what can I say? I'm not head over heels for dumb and dumber, and once you've appreciated There Will Be Blood its hard to go back. However their is a caveat to my favorite film lists. I want everyone reading this to be sitting down before you read the next sentence. My favorite film of all time is A Knights Tale, yes the one with Heath Ledger. Go ahead curse my name but I find A Knights Tale to have everything I'm looking for in a film. Particularly the injection of modern feminism in the form of the female characters. 

Now without trying to sound ignorant or haughty I also consider myself a Feminist and find the lack of respect for women in film painful. According to the latest Women's Media Center report, "“Female characters were typically younger than male counterparts, white, and more likely to have an undefined employment status". In 2008 and 2009 only 32.8 percent of speaking characters in movies were women. We discussed something similar in my literature class today, going through what society expects out of women. One of the first stereotypes mentioned was that society expects women to be quiet, subdued and unambitious. What in gods name inspires this kind of inbred education for people. Now I am not a product of some super liberal California institution, I just have a Mother, Sister, Aunts, Cousins, and friends that I choose to see as humans. We are equal, yet society and especially the media portray women in a fashion which denotes helplessness. Maybe I'm wrong in my analysis and am open for criticism but I will never waver in my belief that ALL members of society are human and deserve the same human rights, and are to be treated as human.

Pheww
I find myself really nervous writing things like that for fear I'll be misunderstood or poorly support my argument.

Back to the movie though. The characters of Jocelyn and Kate defy the expectations of their time period by not submitting to male desires just because they are female. For Jocelyn as a woman of nobility everyone expects her to find some equally rich and powerful lord to marry and produce many sons, nothing else. However she spurns the advances of all suitors, even our male protagonist. She even makes demands of him to put off the thing he loves to prove his love for her is greater than his hobbies. The character of Kate faces much discrimination as one of the very few (I'd assume) female blacksmiths in France. However she proves herself time and again better at her craft than any other blacksmith, male or not. While ultimately this is a movie and the reality of Medieval Europe is much bleaker in gender discrimination; this fanciful movie finds a fun and provocative way to play with gender stereotypes in a genre like period pieces which often pick the harshest of gender roles. Hence one of the reasons I consider this to be one of my top five movies, EVER.
I'll finish with a quote attributed to Joss Whedon though the source is dubious at best but I still love it. When asked why his work featured such strong female characters he replied, "Because I consider women to be human beings". YOLO

P.S. some sources for Womens Media Center: http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2012/02/16/426519/television-is-less-sexist-than-moviesbut-not-by-much/?mobile=nc
http://wmc.3cdn.net/a6b2dc282c824e903a_arm6b0hk8.pdf