Newcomer: Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa, whose popularity has some speculating she will be the focus of a Fury Road prequel.

Generally speaking, pop culture critique is the preserve of people who have something to complain about. Women pointing out unrealistic or sexist female characters; ethnic minorities pointing out that almost everyone on TV or in movies is white, and those that aren't are frequently stereotyped, and so on. While white men between the ages of 18 and 65 make up the bulk of most famous movie, TV and film reviewers, their work is often premised on a separation between products' social implications and its 'artistic merits,' a divide they have the luxury of constructing because they also control the industry that makes the products. It's a form of privilege: straight white dudes get to kick back and appreciate the view when they go to the movies because the films are made by them, for them, and starring them.

It would be simply a waste of time for them to complain about their portrayal, because it's fine! The industry listens to their wallet dollars and churns out male fantasy pics at a cracking pace, allowing them to score sexy chicks, drive fast cars, shoot bad guys and occupy the moral high ground in a big-budget fantasy wonderland. Any self-respecting white guy should be able to admit that's a pretty sweet deal, and whingeing specifically about men's film roles is some deeply irrational crybaby shit.

So of course, the Men's Rights movement is all over it.

For those lucky few of you who aren't across the Men's Rights movement, it's basically the panicked mewling of guys who are scared that feminists might be winning. Oh no, Kev! Brad! Get down here, some women's libbers are telling me it's not okay to honk random chicks' boobs in public any more! Social Justice Warriors want upstanding blokes jailed for the so-called crime of beating and terrorising their wives! This is an outrage!


They also don't like that films are slowly changing to reflect a more egalitarian culture, and this week their target is George Miller's reboot of the Mad Max franchise. You'd think a film about blokes hooning around in the desert blowing each other up would be right up their alley, but such are the sensitive feelings of the Men's Rights losers that they're up in arms over various parts of the film they reckon are "feminist propaganda." Of course their outrage immediately sold the film to me, and I'm looking forward to seeing it in the cinema as soon as I'm finished flushing traditional marriage down the toilet and inflicting devastating blows on innocent male passers-by while singing Helen Reddy's I Am Woman at a deafening volume.

Specifically, they're upset that Miller has done exactly what feminists have been asking directors to do for years: put women in movies as real characters, not just silent wanktoys who further male narratives by getting abducted or refusing to have sex. Mad Max features Charlize Theron prominently, and according to the moaners over in Men's Rights land she "barks orders" at Max. Hoo boy, unreel the fire hose boys, this is a bloody disaster. A woman? Telling a man what to do? Why don't you just throw civilisation into the sea, you mad harpies? Don't you know women aren't as smart as men, and can't be trusted to operate complex machinery like guns or cars?

It's by turns fascinating, nauseating and hilarious to watch the most overprivileged group of humans in history chuck toddler tantys because girls are now getting a go on their toys. Like #gamergate, the mouthbreathers angry about Mad Max are classic revanchists -- men who feel they've suffered a loss at the hands of social progression, in this case a loss of the ability to go to a movie, order some popcorn and watch women be ignored or treated like shit for two hours.

The funniest part is that this consternation is a contradiction of the classic antifeminist response to pop culture analysis: 'it's just a movie, can't you calm down and watch it?' By downplaying the role of lowbrow or popular media, they used to be able to dismiss criticism of its representational qualities as frivolous. But now that the tables have turned and they feel like they've got something to get in a flap over, suddenly movies are crucial cultural artefacts that must be examined for traces of incorrect ideology! Jeez, it's almost like the maintenance of privilege and the status quo was the important thing all along and they'll do whatever it takes to further that program.

Mad Max is by accounts a pretty good movie, but now when I go there'll be an extra layer of enjoyment in knowing that I'm also causing the Men's Rights movement pain from the comfort of my cinema seat. I hope Mad Max is so successful that the action movie genre starts to follow its lead, and produce the sort of mind-numbing, needlessly violent entertainment that can be enjoyed by men and women alike! Now that's real equality.