I should start by saying two things:
One, I have not read the comic (and probably won’t), so I am arguing from a bit of a disadvantage here. But this post points out a lot of things that are supposedly unsupported by the events of the movie, when my recollection of the movie would support them just fine.
And two, I agree that rape scenes can be an overused (or poorly-used) device in films and comics and stories looking to generate tension/revenge motivation etc.
With that out of the way, on to the meat:
BB author Laura Hudson:
as a reader or viewer, you do not actually need to watch their abuse in order to understand that it happened
While it is certainly true that a monologue delivered effectively can be quite dramatic, film and comics are visual arts, and the cardinal rule there is “show don’t tell”. We frequently say “Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered, yadda yadda, we all know the story” and move on, and that is often fine; but there will in fact be times when the smart dramatic choice, is once again to show us the horror of a small boy watching his parents gunned down in front of him, because the viewer/reader needs to feel that visceral horror firsthand.
Comic co-creator Mark Sexton:
the use of institutionalised rape by Immortan Joe is not only **central** to the **story**
BB author Laura Hudson:
Nor is their abuse "**central**" to **who they are**
Hudson is “quoting”, yet misrepresenting, what Sexton said. He appears to be specifically talking about plot/drama, not character.
(NOTE: I did not read the io9 Whitbrook piece, I am relying on Hudson’s synopsis here.):
BB Author Laura Hudson, summarizing io9’s Whitbrook:
In this iteration of the story, not only do the brides not save themselves—Furiosa saves them instead—but it undermines the friendship between the women
I will only address the “Furiosa saves them” bit here, and will get to the “friendship” bit in a minute.
In the movie, it is quite clear that Furiosa is the motivating force here - in fact, if not for name/franchise recognition, you could drop Max from this movie entirely, because Furiosa runs the show. It is she who smuggles the brides out. It is she who brokers the deal to get passage through the mountains. It is she who fights, then negotiates an alliance with Max that allows their escape. It is she who teaches Max how to drive the rig. And it is she who returns victorious to the Citadel, presumably to succeed Joe and hopefully begin to institute a more just society.
The TL; DR of this is that from a dramatic POV, Furiosa is in every sense the protagonist of the movie; Max is at best co-lead, and the other characters have even less agency than him. Furiosa IS the savior.
io9’s Whitbrook:
Not only do the brides not stand up for each other in the instances of
abused displayed in the comic—they frequently blame each other for their
respective sufferings)—the relationship between the Brides and Furiosa
becomes entirely predicated on each side hating each other for being
women.
The movie presented a LOT of subtle evidence that the women in some sense saw each other as “rivals”, as much as “friends”. This is not particularly surprising in a patriarchal hierarchical hereditary kingdom such as Joe has set up - playing the wives against each other is a time-honored polygamist’s way to keep them at each others’ throats rather than your own, and these women had been chosen by Joe on basis of beauty, not pre-existing or likely camaraderie with one another.
At one point, the short-dark-haired wife (sorry, not sure of her name) says to Max, “Of all the wives you had to damage, that was Joe’s favorite” (referring to Splendid, the visibly pregnant one), her voice dripping with condescension, letting viewers know that this wasn’t the first time there had been some tension amongst the brides over who was currently “favorite”.
At another point, Furiosa asks the brides to reload the weapons, and one cannot; so another snatches the gun and bullets from her, visibly frustrated at the first’s sheltered incompetence, and loads it quickly herself.
Later, one of the wives tries to break ranks with the rest, and go BACK to Joe.
Bottom line: tension and conflict between the wives is perfectly-explicable to me on the basis of character personality/history differences, plus the situation they found themselves in. It does not indicate any essential sexist view of any of the characters themselves.
io9’s Whitbrook again:
The Brides are untrustworthy of Furiosa not just as a protector
assigned to them by Joe, but as a woman (at several times Furiosa’s gender is called into question by the Brides, and even at one point they go as far as to use gendered insults at one point, mocking Furiosa for her lack of balls).
In Road Warrior, Lord Humungus set up a society which was very homoerotic (Wez, and the “Gayboy Bezerkers” and “Smegma Warriors” under his command).
Joe, in contrast, has set up what amounts to a bit of a fertility cult - he is a “god” controlling and dispensing such “feminine” (symbolic) blessings such as water, and greenery, and fecundity (the overweight women producing “Mother’s Milk”, and babies). Mass hetero reproduction (at least for Joe and his cronies) is the order of the day.
Accordingly, it appears to be a bit of a homophobic society - the brides, more than once, call “faggot!” as an insult towards their pursuers, and one of them dismisses the idea that Max will rape them, because he is probably gay (I can’t remember the actual idiom she uses, but the implication and intended insult to Max is clear).
Point is, if Lord Humungus’ society was more “Greek”, Joe’s was obviously not accepting of homosexuality or non-traditional gender roles at all - and the brides, having been brought up there, would be expected to reflect that.
Sorry this got so TL; DR, and as I said, I have not read the comic, but the post seemed to have missed so many character beats in the movie that it seemed to be describing completely different cultural and character dynamics than the ones I saw.
