Why Willie Scot is a Feminist...

I was reading over an interview with Kate Capshaw about her role in The Temple of Doom (an older interview). In it, she expressed a dislike of her character, Willie, saying that all she did was run around screaming and whining. Kate, being a classic feminist, really though the character was useless, the anti-feminist.

But as I read the article and watched the movie, I thought to myself, why is Willie useless? Why do we—or you, as feminists—look down on her? Sure, she has an annoying habit of squealing in a high pitch and complaining about, well, everything. But did she ever let Indy down? When she had to stick her hand in the whole full of really freaky bugs, did she back down? No! I certainly would have… I’d have cut my losses and booked it outta there. But not Willie.

Here is a character that may not be what classic feminists call “strong,” but she is an independent woman who knows how to get what she wants. She is young and beautiful and living in 1930s Shanghai alone, by herself in her own little house. What woman in the 1930s had the guts to do that? VERY few. She up and left whatever life she had in the States and became a successful singer in a totally foreign country. How many of us women, even today, would do that? How many of us “strong” woman COULD do that? And she never gave up and ran, like so many of would do. She always came through in the end, and, perhaps surprisingly, never lost her head, even as her beloved Indiana was getting ready to rip her still-beating heart from her chest. How is that not the epitome of a strong, independent woman?

So, because Willie complains and whines and enjoys a generally clean and high standard of living, that makes her weak, anti-feminist? Is feminism really about how annoying a woman is and not about how independent and strong she is? Isn’t the whole point of feminism to move beyond thinking women are lesser because of superficial attributes such as being annoying or having a whiny voice? Isn’t it ironic that to describe why she doesn’t like her character, feminist Kate Capshaw uses the same pejorative and stereotypical language that feminism seeks to stamp out?