Deep Thoughts about The Fifth Element

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Podcast

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It mu5t be found…it being a realistic portrayal of women

For this episode of Deep Thoughts, Emily dives into the valiant, vulnerable, and very very sexist portrayal of “perfection” in the 1997 Luc Besson film The Fifth Element. Milla Jovovich’s Leeloo is the poster child for the trope of Born Sexy Yesterday, wherein a childlike but fully adult woman who is both profoundly wise and unutterably naive needs the protection and guidance of an ordinary man. But the weird gender values don’t stop with Leeloo. Tracie and Emily also talk about the hyper-masculinity of Bruce Willis’s Korben Dallas and the “unmanning” of virtually every other male character.

Also: How exactly did Plavalaguna plan to get the stones out? REALLY?

Grab your Multi-pass and your headphones and take a listen with us.

Mentioned in this episode:
https://youtu.be/0thpEyEwi80?si=hV0MKtjaSnNrOduI

Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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1. Deep Analysis of the Fifth Element (00:00:00)

2. The Fifth Element Film Analysis (00:11:15)

3. Gender and Sexuality in Film (00:21:48)

4. Lelou in the Fifth Element (00:37:56)

5. Gender and Tropes in Sci-Fi Film (00:51:39)

6. Analysis of Fifth Element Characters (00:59:55)