Commodity In The Film 'The Wolf Of Wall Street'

Commodity or Woman?
Zohra Nouri
A commodity is defined as a product or service that is in demand, in relation to a product that the public wants, is mass-produced and subsequently purchased. This definition does not raise an eyebrow until we further analyze that the definition broadly includes women, this being a result of the pervasiveness of popular cultures portrayal of sexually explicit women, especially in mainstream films. One may question not only the definition, but the fundamental role this commodification of women plays in reiterating gender stereotypes and inequality. These exploitive sexual hedonistic behaviours are evident in the 2013 Martin Scorsese film, The Wolf of Wall Street, stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort, a New York stockbroker who runs a firm that continuously participate in money laundering, security fraud

and criminal and immoral acts. The films controversial scenes of moral ambiguity, sexual content, drug abuse, vulgarity and nudity correlates to the immense degradation of women. The Wolf of Wall Street validates the commodification of women by portraying predominant views of gender, including the division of labour, the male gaze and the underrepresentation of women within the film.
For centuries it has been instilled in the minds of many that women belong in the house and men belong in the workforce, however as years have progressed women have made historical strides to break these stereotypes, and fend for themselves. The Wolf of Wall Street does justice in shining the lime light on the sexist division of labour. Female employees are only noticeable because they are either strippers, escorts or prostitutes. Although, this story of Belfort mainly took place in the 1990’s, it does not do any justice for the female image in the workforce. It reinforces the stereotype that women are good for three things: household chores, their bodies and reproducing, where as men are the key to survival providing money for food and shelter. Belfort uses his wealth for more than these basic necessities, he uses it for the satisfaction of his personal outrageous pleasures.
Indistinguishable Barbie-doll figures, strippers, prostitutes and hookers serve the soul purpose “as props for the male protagonists in the film, as they carry on with their corrupt antics,” as Herbst stated. Scorsese includes shot after shot of barely clothed or naked women, as the protagonists do as they please with them. The Wolf of Wall Street, surely portrays some animalistic behaviour as the title suggests, and substantiates what is known as male gaze. As film theorist Laura Mulvey wrote in her 1975 essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” she explains that Hollywood persuades the audience to see a film that is based on the perspective of a male, causing the on-screen women to serve as simple objects of desire or accessory. Hollywood creates “magic” through a manipulation of visual pleasure coding the erotic “into the language of the dominant patriarchal order.” A clear example of this, is depicted in the scene where Belfort’s second wife and the female lead is introduced, the camera pans to her and his world seems to be frozen, everyone in the background is a blur, she appears in a skin tight dress, she is yearned by all the men and envied by all the women. However, she is portrayed as an object and little else throughout the entire film.
The Bechdel Test, is a test that is administered to evaluate female representation within a film, it must successfully fulfill three requirements.

The Wolf of Wall Street, as one may assume, failed miserably. The first requirement is if the film has at least two women with names, which it does Naomi Lapagina (Jordan’s second wife) and Aunt Emma (Naomi’s Aunt). Secondly, do the women talk to each other at least once, some of the women within the movie are seen to have friendships or familial bonds however they are not seen conversing. Their plot lines all involved, sex, motherhood or being cheated on, which is the third requirement: when the women speak, do they talk about something other than men. The Bechdel Test demonstrates how the women in this film are merely objects of lust, have two dimensional personalities and are only present to please these men. It is disheartening that in a generation of feminism, women can still be degraded to roles, in films of one of this era’s iconic directors, that commemorate stereotypes of females as being helpless, provocative and their inability to exist outside of their male

counterparts.
The glorification of commodifying women to a point where they are seen to be an object of use and abuse is apparent in The Wolf of Wall Street. In society today this brutal portrayal of what wealth and power can truly succumb to is over exaggerated but obscenely true. Advertisements, films and social media are constantly portraying women in a demeaning manner, always the damsel in distress desperate for the power and dominance of a man. As a society it is fundamental that we strive to progressively take steps forward in breaking these stereotypes -not backward.

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References
Herbst, Moira . "The Wolf of Wall Street’s male gaze | Al Jazeera America." The Wolf of Wall Street’s male gaze | Al Jazeera America. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 July 2014.
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Mulvey, L.. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Screen 16.3 (1975): 6-18. Print.