Kingsman: The Secret Service

This past week, I went on a double date with some friends to go see the new movie Kingsman: The Secret Service. Considering my roommate’s boyfriend picked it, I was expecting a pretty typical action-y, “guy” movie. However, since the boys were less than enthused with my roommate and I’s suggestion of Fifty Shades of Grey, we settled on this film. Despite my expectations I was quite pleasantly surprised by a lot of progressive and forward-thinking elements in this film that countered stereotypes about gender and sexuality.

The basic plot of the film centers around a secret undercover, crime-fighting group committed to stopping evil doers all over the world. This group, that recently lost one of its 10 highly trained members now must have each remaining member select a new candidate to fill this spot. One kingsman selects Eggsy as his candidate: a impoverished, tough, but good hearted kid from the wrong side of the tracks. He is selected because his father too was a kingsman and gave up his life to save the rest of his friends by throwing himself on a grenade during a mission. Eggsy, along with 9 other candidates compete for the coveted spot on the team of secret spies, while also trying to battle an international villain named Valentine: insane, risky, nail-biting action ensues.

While many elements of this film are traditional and reinforce gender stereotypes, surprisingly many of the female characters are extremely important to the plot and are totally hardcore. The first character who really stood out to me was Gazelle; she is Valentine’s sidekick and a total badass. While some people may criticize the film for Gazelle and Valentine’s relationship as reinforcing female inferiority, there isn’t a single moment that Gazelle is on screen and doesn’t exude power and intimidation, a powerful portrayal of a female character. What’s more, Gazelle is a double amputee whose prosthetic legs have been reinforced with razor sharp blades that she uses to fight. I was extremely pleased to see such a powerful role in a blockbuster film for a disabled female character.

Another important point in the film: while the secret spy group is named Kingsman, there are two girls who compete for the final spot out of the ten candidates. In fact, (spoiler alert) Eggsy doesn’t win the final spot. Roxanne (Roxy), his friend from the very first day of training wins. Another thing that is important about Roxy’s relationship with Eggsy is that there is never any romantic undertone to their relationship that we always seem to see in these types of movies. Eggsy always views her as formidable competition for a spot as a Kingsman, and when she does finally beat him for the final spot, he never doubts her ability.

While I could probably go on about a lot of empowering elements in this film that counter gender stereotypes and ideas about sexuality

, Roxy and Gazelle were probably the characters that struck me the most as a step in the right direction for female characters in these types of films. Additionally, their relationship with male characters in the film say a lot about changing attitudes towards sexuality and women’s role in relationships as far as media portrayals are concerned. Overall, while some feminists are still critical of the film, I thought it had a lot of shining moments for a blockbuster action movie.