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Comment by socalgal2 | Hacker News Reader

What is the sexist part? That two men have a fight to marry a female airplane engineer/mechanic? That a woman runs a restaurant and is holding out for some man?

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Framing a woman as a prize that is to be competed for does do some heavy objectification in the movie. So, yeah, that.

That's a superficial reading.

Said women repeatedly calls out that behavior. The pointlessness and harm caused by macho culture is a theme throughout the movie.

If that would be the only view of said woman, I'd wholeheartedly agree to this point. The movie (and generally life) is so much more and more complex, with good and bad sides which all belong on the screen to be watched and criticized.

The movie is pretty clear in its intent to show this as a bad thing. To the point of stating it out loud several times. The climactic fight ends with both men losing and nearly killing each other.

If you think it's objectifying and sexist, that's a you problem.

For me, how the main character constantly is sexist towards the engineer who rebuilt the plane because she's a girl is a problem. As an adult, you can see the social commentary, but when you are a kid watching the movie, it appears that women can't be engineers.

That'd only happen if the kids watching had no exposure to women being engineers though.

Even as a child in 1960 I watched women fix aircraft, lifting out engines and stripping them.

that part of the movie is explicitly about teaching an old man (the pig) that a woman CAN do engineering as good as any man

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