LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Dr Tanya Roth, a feminist academician panned ‘Oppenheimer’ for its take on the representation of females. Roth recently took to Twitter to slam the film based on the life of the Father of Atomic Bomb -- J Robert Oppenheimer. She opined that for the first twenty minutes of the Christopher Nolan directorial film, there is not a dialogue spoken by a female. Within a minute of the dialogue, Roth claims there is a “sex scene.”
Roth called out the scene on her Twitter on July 22, 2023, “Fun fact: no women speak until 20 minutes into #Oppenheimer and then within a minute there’s a sex scene.” Since then, a verbal war started in the comments section where netizens took sides to either slam her or support her for her remarks.
Who is Tanya Roth?
Tanya Roth is an academician with a PhD in US/women’s history, as per her LinkedIn profile. Her area of interest is the women in the US military during the Cold War. Roth has also written a book on this specific genre titled ‘Her Cold War: Women in the U.S. Military, 1945-1980’, which has been published by UNC Press in 2021.
As per her profile, she has “ten years of experience in independent school environment with 1:1 laptop integration.” She is also a history teacher at independent K12. She has completed her PhD from Washington University in St Louis and is currently attached to Mary Institute and St Louis Country Day School. She is from St Peters, Missouri.
'Very womanist of you to notice'
In the comments section, where only the people Roth follows or mentions can comment, a social media user said, "So, not the Bechdel test? Is that what you're saying, Tanya? Very womanist of you to notice, isn't it? Lol." Roth praised Emily Blunt's performance in the movie and replied, "Not. At. All. BUT Emily Blunt is excellent in the final 40-60 minutes of the movie, and frankly, that final hour of the movie is the only part that’s any good." Another user opined that it was a good enough reason to watch 'Barbie' first and tweeted, "Another reason to see Barbie first."
One user criticized Roth's point by saying sarcastically, "The movie is about Oppenheimer, not women. Fun fact, there are no physicists in the first 20 minutes of Barbie." Another slammed her and said, "Anyone who says “fun fact:” is never actually saying anything fun and is always annoying. It’s a historical movie. Should they have changed history to make it more inclusive for your feelings? That’s the epitome of what’s wrong right now. Do you know what that word means?"
One user wrote, "Movies appeal to different people..it can't be all things to everyone. Disney has tried this and failed. Barbie know its audience..so does this film. There can be crossovers, but honestly, not every film has to check every box."
Another netizen tried to reason, "It takes place during the 1940’s for Christ sake. Like Bill Maher said - “You can’t judge George Washington for not having gay friends because in his time you wouldn’t have had them either.”" "Fun fact. #Oppenheimer is based on a true story in which very few women had any involvement," quipped in another.
