The Women of Sherlock Holmes get the Victorian Treatment

This, my friends, is the freshly released trailer for Guy Ritchie's adaptation of Sir Author Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes:



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I like Robert Downey, Jr. as Holmes, and his portrayal will certainly make the character more accessible than Holmes was in any of Doyle's stories. However, I am a bit perturbed to see most of the women acting as eye candy and humor fodder for the leading man. Not to say that Doyle himself was particularly progressive with his women, but at least they were more realistic than the females seem to be in this film. After all, the first Holmes case that Doyle published involved Irene Adler, one of the few able to foil the world class sleuth.

Now, I'm not saying that I expect ground-breaking feminist manifestos in so-called blockbusters, all I ask for is simple courtesy. For instance, Wolverine is both a good story and a great action flick, and no where along the way are bosoms bursting from dresses nor are meek maids flurrying off to preserve their innocence. In fact, Wolverine's love interest, Kayla Silverfox, aside from her strange name, is a well-rounded self-respecting character with complicated motivations and emotions.

In the past 50 years Hollywood has overcome racism, homophobia, and a number of social injustices. Isn't it time women had better treatment in films?