This piece contains spoilers for Sucker Punch. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, go watch it before diving in. Once the first images hit, or when the first synopsis hit, or maybe even when Zack Snyder dreamed up the concept for Sucker Punch ten years ago – a time bomb was set to explode twice, and it finally did this weekend. The first explosion was the basis for the existence of the movie, and it continued exploding many, many times during the runtime. The second was the question of feminism. Now that the movie is out, it has also exploded. The reactions from before the film was released varied, and they still do. Some see it as feminism merged with geek culture (which assumes geek culture isn’t sexless to begin with). Some see it as an affront to the advancement of women parading in thigh high boots. One who gives a strong argument for the latter is Angie Han of /film, who writes the hell out of an editorial called “On Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch: Why Ass-Kicking and Empowerment Aren’t Always the Same Thing.” You should absolutely go read it before reading this, although I’ll do my best to condense her arguments (in a fair way) in order to respectfully counter them.

The first images of Rooney Mara in the David Fincher-directed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo adaptation were released to the world on Wednesday. In the form of a cover for W magazine and one other still inside the actual article, the images sparked a brush fire of opinions, cynicism, and what some are calling misogynistic backlash all across the Interwebs. In his article on the images for Badass Digest, Devin Faraci referred to the actress as “Ruined Mara” and said she looks “sickly and awful and her haircut is just… yikes.” He also made a particularly pointed crack at the character’s eyebrows. But let’s sit back for a moment and look at that word. “Character.” What exactly are Mara and Fincher going for with Lisbeth Salander? Is she supposed to be iconic, something of a role model for young girls who watch the Americanized version of Stieg Larsson’s original novel? If so, then maybe Faraci’s claims and the claims by some writers and bloggers on Twitter that the girl is “disgusting”, “gross” or “needs a sandwich” might have some weight behind them. As they are presented, though, they’re just quick jabs that make sexist labels easy to apply.

I’ll make no bones about the film being clearly targeted to women (and a specific market of women at that).

For ten our of ten films, Pixar leading characters have all been male. They’ll be male for the next two. And then, their first female protag will be a princess. NPR cries foul, so we’re opening up the debate floor.