Giulia GentileAug 3, 2023
Sheril Kirshenbaum

"Christopher Nolan's #Oppenheimer explores the work of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer & colleagues to create the atomic bomb.

Yet, the film fails to depict a key part of the story, using 2 female scientists as stand-ins for ALL of the women who contributed."

Hundreds of women were essential to the Manhattan Project, including Nobel Prize winning physicist Maria Goeppert Mayer. But they are largely absent in the #film.

https://www.businessinsider.com/women-manhattan-project-christopher-nolan-oppenheimer-completely-ignored-2023-7 #HistoryRemix #science #history

The women that Nolan's new film 'Oppenheimer' completely ignored

Women serving in key roles like explosion techs, librarians, and hematologists were essential to the Manhattan Project.

Insider
Aug 2, 2023 at 6:13pmWeb
Show threadQueen of AnxietyAug 2, 2023
@Sheril I mean, it’s a Nolan film. Of course it ignores most of the women. Women are only important to Nolan in how they motivate men. It’s my primary criticism of him and why I don’t care for his work.
Show threadSabaah Z Jauhar-RizviAug 3, 2023
@Sheril @queenofnewyork Thank you. Many people tell me I should like his films and I just feel weirded out by them. The lack of women probably plays a part.
Show threadQueen of AnxietyAug 3, 2023
@Sheril @AustenLied Been a bee in my bonnet for a while. He’s not quite as bad as Michael Bay’s eye-candy-only women, but it’s not much beyond that. There’s an element of systemic misogyny in it, as many other male directors (esp the auteur variety) aren’t much different, but I’m not going to bother with someone who treats around 1/2 the population as superfluous to interesting stories.
Show threadSabaah Z Jauhar-RizviAug 3, 2023
@queenofnewyork @Sheril Valid and makes sense why his films just don’t interest me. Like ever.
Show threadSudhirAug 2, 2023
@Sheril . So sad, not recognising telent of extremely talented women only because of gender! Imagine, how many decades were lost in progress of mankind, just because of traditional mindset!🤔☹️👎
Show threadjannikAug 2, 2023
@Sheril Yes there are only two women in the movie, but in my opinion "& colleagues to create the atomic bomb." is not a good summary of the film. It is about the inner conflict of a person and the fragmentation of political reality by the bomb.
Show threadbeingextortedAug 2, 2023
@Sheril Oh, I guess you didn't get the memo about not including women in any of the important stuff like history or accolades or anything similar.
Ask Rosalind Franklin. Or Nettie Steven's. Or Jocelyn Bell Burnell...and so on.
Show threadTheLastStrawAug 2, 2023
@Sheril I'm probably too stupid in modern terminology to understand this point. Wasn't the movie about physicist Robert J Oppenheimer? So understandably it would be about Oppenheimer and his contribution to the Manhattan project no?
Show threadDan HerbertAug 3, 2023
@Custmzir @Sheril I think the criticism is that this film purportedly claims to be authentic and mostly historically accurate. By reducing all women on the project to a few stand-ins, it's yet another historical drama that makes it seem like women weren't really present. Nolan's films tend to have a lot of cultural influence so it has a big impact on people's memory of the event.
Show threadJob DestroyerAug 2, 2023

@Sheril

see girls, you can commit unfathomable evil too

Show threadTim SticklandAug 2, 2023
@Sheril
Time for 'Hidden Figures II' ?
Show threadSLCW💥Aug 2, 2023
@Sheril Nolan's film was a biopic of Oppenheimer, not the many women who contributed to the project. To maintain a coherent storyline, there were some aspects of reality that simply could not be effectively incorporated into the plot. There are always choices directors have to make, especially when making a film about someone's life. Not everything or everyone is going to make the cut.
Show threadEarthlingAug 3, 2023
@Sheril

I am physicist (PhD, retired) and I have the most serious conflicts of conscience in acknowledging the scientific achievement of colleague Oppenheimer in constructing the most devastating patriarchal weapon of mass destruction. It is all the more difficult for me to applaud the participation of women. This is system immanent "female emancipation".
Perhaps better than nothing?
Show threadGeralt, Master of GwentAug 3, 2023
@Sheril Isn’t Oppenheimer about J. Robert Oppenheimer rather than the Manhattan Project, hence the name? So it would make sense that a biographical movie focuses on a singular person? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppenheimer_(film)
Oppenheimer (film) - Wikipedia

Show threadEllieAug 3, 2023
@Sheril Just imaging what this film would look like with only 2 guys as standins for all the men who contributed. 🤔
Show threadLegionAug 3, 2023
@Sheril Here is my not shocked face
Show threadmtjmAug 3, 2023

@Sheril I haven't heard about Maria Goeppert Mayer before, while my city (or her city) has a street named after her.

Schools here depict Maria Skłodowska-Curie as the only woman in science.

Show threadIn steerageAug 3, 2023
@Sheril
Show threadJeffrey P BurdickAug 5, 2023

@Sheril It might be difficult to follow source material about Oppenheimer and tell a story with more women in it. Women were isolated. Men took credit for their work. Their involvement wasn't well documented.

I believe Nolan made an effort to depict them. It might have been a difficult job.

Here's an article from LLNL about Lilli Hornig. In the article she talks about being isolated from her peers.

https://discover.lanl.gov/publications/national-security-science/2021-spring/womens-timeline-feature/