Mainstream Catfights... What happened?

[jaybee]

There's a video clip in the live action section titled "One From The archives..." (that I highly suggest everyone on FCF check out) that got me thinking... What happened to mainstream catfights? All throughout TV/MOVIE history from the black and white age up until around the late 90s female fights in movies/tv shows were highlights. From The Dalton's Women, and Destry Rides Again, all the way up to the classic Catfights of late night 80s tv shows like Dynasty and Dallas to the heyday of mid 90s Jerry Springer clothes ripping brawls the Catfights we're usually featured in the advertisement of the show/movie as part of the draw to watch. Then one day... POOF, gone! What happened? Why have female fights been relegated to just martial arts, lucha libre flip, kick and punch fest?
I'm really interested to hear you guy's and gals thoughts

[DKBfb1]

I think it's a reflection of a trend in society to make females appear more masculine while causing and/or adding to gender confusion etc. It's part of a much wider political strategy and I personally find it quite demoralising. That may be the point though.

Just my opinion of course and I'm sure there will be plenty who disagree. Fair enough.

[Bear]

There's a video clip in the live action section titled "One From The archives..." (that I highly suggest everyone on FCF check out) that got me thinking... What happened to mainstream catfights? All throughout TV/MOVIE history from the black and white age up until around the late 90s female fights in movies/tv shows were highlights. From The Dalton's Women, and Destry Rides Again, all the way up to the classic Catfights of late night 80s tv shows like Dynasty and Dallas to the heyday of mid 90s Jerry Springer clothes ripping brawls the Catfights we're usually featured in the advertisement of the show/movie as part of the draw to watch. Then one day... POOF, gone! What happened? Why have female fights been relegated to just martial arts, lucha libre flip, kick and punch fest?
I'm really interested to hear you guy's and gals thoughts

I've expressed my thoughts on this in the past and think that you and DKB pretty much nailed it. 

[Led2]

I think it's a reflection of a trend in society to make females appear more masculine while causing and/or adding to gender confusion etc. It's part of a much wider political strategy and I personally find it quite demoralising. That may be the point though.

Just my opinion of course and I'm sure there will be plenty who disagree. Fair enough.

I agree. The cinema catfights of yesteryear have well and truly been kicked into the long grass or so it seems and for whatever the reasons I too find demoralising. What I find astonishing is it's now seen as acceptable for women to pummel each other in a boxing ring or MMA cage (which I don't have a problem with by the way), yet a catfight in a movie remade similar to the ones in FRWL or Destry is not 

[Bear]

I understand why today's movies don't have old fashioned catfights, it's all part of the "make women equal to men" movement.  OK.  You can read lots of books (pro and con) on that subject.  What frustrates me is that you can't even view old movies on late night TV anymore.  I mean the time slot between Midnight and 3:00 am was when you could catch an old flick like "The Woman They Almost Lynched," or "Swamp Women", etc., etc.  Now we have hundreds of channels and no hope. 

Fortunately, Youtube has taken up a lot of the slack. 

[clark85]

you have never seen the bad girls club?

[NoShirtNoShoesNoMercy]

Unfortunately the "catfight" trope is practically dead not just because there's a new trend to make both genders seem capable, but catfights are seen by most feminists as demeaning for having no purpose beyond the "male gaze". It is what it is. It seems the only women who don't mind are traditional women, and women who are already into fighting or sex work.

There have been a few good catfights in recent media, but the trope is unfortunately a dying breed.

The Hunt has a good ending brawl, and so does the end brawl of Antebellum (Terrible movie though).

But yeah, not a lot of traditional catfights in recent memory

[lumberjack66]

I think it is a combination of 3 things:

1)  Catfights are no longer sexy enough to get our attention.  In the 80's and 90's, catfights were just about the sexiest thing you could possibly see on TV or in a movie.  Now porn is so pervasive it is practically everywhere.  And not just Playboy kind of Porn.  Everything under the sun is just a google search away.
2)  Women are running much of Hollywood.  Either directly or indirectly they have the power to kill a movie if it doesn't reflect the themes they insist on.  Either they think all women are like them who would never fight over anything or they feel women need to be elevated to positions of power in every film just like they should be in Hollywood.  I think they are a bit confused though.  They keep trying to make movies and shows that were intended for Guys appealing to women and they think by adding powerful female characters who can fight as well or better than the men that women will like the movies.  For example, the near death experience of the Star Wars Franchise under Kathleen Kennedy.  Or the Chick Power scene in Avengers Endgame.  It is about as dumb as adding gunfights to Romantic Comedies thinking that will bring in a bigger male audience.
3)  Men have been trained to be uncomfortable by anything that might turn us on.  Even something mildly tittlating as a catfight during our movie or TV show makes us nervous that we are going to be accussed of being sexists pigs... again.  And women are in the strange position of being in charge of making sure we aren't turned on by anything... which means if there is a Program that has a catfight and they hear about it... they are obligated by society to make sure it never finds our TV set.  Society demands it or they are not women.

As far as the future, I think this niche will slowly be relegated to history.  Something they laugh about when they watch soap operas from the 90's.  I don't see it springing back anytime soon anyway.

[CoffeeMug]

I think it's a side effect of the removal of sexual/erotic content from mainstream movies in general. There are women who are doing excellent action movie work, but it's all down in the 'direct to video' cheap stuff and it's not meant to be erotic (and it's great that that stuff is there, I watch it). But the movies that make all the money and get all the attention have had all the life drained out of them; it's hard to imagine something like the Tia-JL Curtis fight from True Lies showing up in any big studio movie at this point (to pick a random example from the Good Old Days).

[TheThgiftac]

I understand why today's movies don't have old fashioned catfights, it's all part of the "make women equal to men" movement.  OK.  You can read lots of books (pro and con) on that subject.  What frustrates me is that you can't even view old movies on late night TV anymore.  I mean the time slot between Midnight and 3:00 am was when you could catch an old flick like "The Woman They Almost Lynched," or "Swamp Women", etc., etc.  Now we have hundreds of channels and no hope. 

Fortunately, Youtube has taken up a lot of the slack.

Sorry for going off topic, but this is interesting.
Are there any more old catfights movies? I do not know much.

[LQQKING4CATFIGHTER]

  In the 70's thru early 90's before the internet, people would watch soft porn and B-movies to get off. I myself would rent videos at BlockBuster hoping for a good Catfight. Now with the internet there is no market for soft porn and B-movies as can now just go online to find real Catfight video at any time. Sadly the days of Prison and Cavegirl Catfights are over in hollywood, but not because of no interest, it's because of the internet. No one is going to pay and rent a movie that might have a Catfight when can now go online and find a real catfight for free. Catfight the movie came out in 2016 with a classic Asian Vs Blonde storyline so not 100% dead in Hollywood.
   Young fans of today will watch reality TV like the Bad Girls Club to see Catfights on TV.

[F4UCORSAIR]

 I won't comment because I will only sound redundant. I think the comments on this thread are all good ones. The problem is a multitude of things. I particularly liked lumberjack66 and Bear's comments, but many good observations were made by others. I do miss those days, but then again, I miss and long for a lot of old school things from "back in the day".  Probably just a sign that I just am getting older. ( older NOT old ok ? lets just get that straight LOL )

[Led2]

https://youtu.be/xwH8GFS2im0 Here's a clip that may be of interest in relation to this.

[jaybee]

https://youtu.be/xwH8GFS2im0 Here's a clip that may be of interest in relation to this.

Wow! You deserve some kind of award for a find like that  ! That was an awesome and insightful watch

[pingpong]

Great find!! Thumbs all the way up!