The Gender Imbalance In Superhero Film

2884 Words6 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Women's role in american society

Chandler Woo
The Gender Imbalance in Superhero Film
When William M. Marston, creator of fictional heroine Wonder Woman, asked a girl which female superhero she aspired to be, the girl retorted, “Aw, that’s girls stuff! Who wants to be a girl?” And that is the point; just as the young comic enthusiast suggested, our world has become a dominantly patriarchal society, ranking men over women in the social hierarchy. While some might argue that there is more gender equality in our world now than in any other moment in American history, we still find nonetheless in our culture these continually degrading attitudes towards women. Women today are still only represented as icons of male sexual desire and are only viewed as valuable insofar as they …show more content…

British feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey published her scholarly article Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema in 1975, using psychoanalysis to investigate how film has influenced the social perception of women through erotic and sexual images. From a technical, cinematic perspective, female actresses are casted to satisfy the gaze of the audience and of the casted male actors, thus conceptualizing the presence of the male gaze. As Mulvey asserts, “In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its phantasy on to the female form which is styled accordingly” (Mulvey 4). The effect of male gaze has resulted in subjective camera angles that objectify female characters through a male’s perspective. For example, men are presented as a figure in a landscape where spectators can identify and follow the development of their individual stories; on the other hand, women are presented through erotic close-ups of their legs or faces, disturbing the flow of the narrative and becoming perceived as an icon of sexual desire rather than a main character. In Amy Shackelford’s article in Everyday Feminism, “Female Characters in Superhero Films: The Grim Reality,” Shackelford takes a radical feminist approach regarding how the male gaze has impacted the superhero genre film industry. Noting that “’Women’s stories’ are really men’s stories in superhero films” (Shackelford 1), Shackelford argues that all superhero movies revolve around men, and women actually have no character development of their

Show More
Related

  • Essay On Klute By Laura Mullvey

    1316 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Mulvey states that, “Traditionally, the woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium, with a shifting tension between the looks on either side of the screen.” (Mulvey 40). A woman’s role in the narrative is bound to her sexuality or the way she

    Read More

  • Two Ways A Woman Can Get Hurt By Jean Kiilbourne

    791 Words  | 2 Pages

    Men are looked at as brave, selfless people and are perceived as heroes all throughout society. Johnson addresses this point saying, “The idea of heroism, for example, has been appropriated almost entirely by patriarchal manhood. From movies and television to literature to the nightly news, our ideas of who and what is heroic focus almost entirely on men and what they do” (548). Since men have power in this world, they have generated a society that pleases them. Superhero movies are a huge money maker in today’s world. But, the most popular superheroes are exclusively men such as Batman, Superman, Captain America, The Flash and The Hulk. This media only feeds into the ideology that men are the heroes in the world and they are the ones making sacrifices for others. They see a world that appeals to them and do not see a reason to mess with the system. Kilbourne writes, “When power is unequal, when one group is oppressed and discriminated against as a group, when there is a context of systematic and historical oppression, stereotypes and prejudice have different weight and meaning” (499). Men now see patriarchy as natural and how life should be. They can look back at previous generations and see that they succeeded with patriarchy and feel they should do the same. Men see absolutely no reason as to why they should relinquish their position of

    Read More

  • The Role of Women in Screwball Comedy Films

    4993 Words  | 10 Pages

    Led by Laura Mulvey, feminist film critics have discussed the difficulty presented to female spectators by the controlling male gaze and narrative generally found in mainstream film, creating for female spectators a position that forces them into limited choices: "bisexual" identification with active male characters; identification with the passive, often victimized, female characters; or on occasion, identification with a "masculinized" active female character, who is generally punished for her unhealthy behavior. Before discussing recent improvements, it is important to note that a group of Classic Hollywood films regularly offered female spectators positive, female characters who were active in controlling narrative, gazing and desiring: the screwball comedy.

    Read More

  • Superman 1 Misogynist

    599 Words  | 2 Pages

    Modern day superheroes still reflect the misogynistic and chauvinist society in which they were first created and this will be argued with reference to two of the films studied.

    Read More

  • Miss Representation Summary

    1350 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mainstream movies are about men’s lives, and the few movies about women’s lives, at their core, still also revolve around men (Newsom, 2011). These female leads often have male love interests, looking to get married or get pregnant. Strong independent female leads are still exist for the male view, as they are hypersexualized, or the “fighting fuck toy,” (Newsom, 2011). This depiction has created a culture where women are insecure and waiting for a knight on a horse to come rescue and provide for her as well as the acceptance of women

    Read More

  • Hero Film Analysis

    1998 Words  | 4 Pages

    What components make a movie successful in cinema? Filmmakers have crafted a formula to successfully deliver the hero narrative. This formula consists of the hero’s journey and archetypes. Hero films typically follow a ten-step sequence to properly set up and execute the hero’s journey. These movies range from stories of transformations, searches, or a journey back home. Archetypes are used to employ character profile as well as add variety and depth to these stories. Ridley Scott directed Alien, in which Ellen Ripley embarks on a journey where she must survive an alien who is out on a murderous rampage and return back to Earth. Alien adds originality to its storyline by choosing a female lead instead of a male, but the film still incorporates the same heroic attributes that make a story successful. In this “going home journey” film, Scott is able to incorporate the hero’s journey and the official hero archetype towards the heroine Ellen Ripley.

    Read More

  • Film Bodies: Genre, Gender and Excess

    2633 Words  | 6 Pages

    Film scholar and gender theorist Linda Williams begins her article “Film Bodies: Genre, Gender and Excess,” with an anecdote about a dispute between herself and her son, regarding what is considered “gross,” (727) in films. It is this anecdote that invites her readers to understand the motivations and implications of films that fall under the category of “body” genre, namely, horror films, melodramas, (henceforth referred to as “weepies”) and pornography. Williams explains that, in regards to excess, the constant attempts at “determining where to draw the line,” (727) has inspired her and other theorists alike to question the inspirations, motivations, and implications of these “body genre” films. After her own research and consideration, Williams explains that she believes there is “value in thinking about the form, function, and system of seemingly gratuitous excesses in these three genres,” (728) and she will attempt to prove that these films are excessive on purpose, in order to inspire a collective physical effect on the audience that cannot be experienced when watching other genres.

    Read More

  • Male Gaze

    1788 Words  | 4 Pages

    The idea of male gaze in cinema is best addressed by Laura Mulvey in her article “Visual Pleasures and the Narrative Cinema”. One idea she looks at is the notion that women are related to the image, and men assume the role as bearer of the look. She quotes “In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness.” The traditional exhibition role is what Sarah Polley must overcome in order to express female and national identity in a position of strength. In order to do this she must alter some the traditional constructions associated with the gaze in cinema to bring in order to critique the gaze that is male.

    Read More

  • Superhero Women In Comic Literature

    2308 Words  | 5 Pages

    It is no secret that women have been objectified in comic book culture. With the skimpy outfits, characteristics such as large breast size, and, un-proportional waist-to-hip ratio. However many would argue that this is a problem worse than a simple exaggeration. “In emphasizing the super heroine’s role as a potential, and exaggeratedly desirable, partner for the male characters in the narrative (and, indirectly, for the reader), the super heroine in question is reduced to an object to be possessed, rather than a subject with her own autonomous agency and efficacy. As a result, the super heroine – super-powered or not – is rendered relatively powerless and hence relatively unthreatening (Cook 2014:1).”

    Read More

  • Role Of Sexism In Avengers

    1960 Words  | 4 Pages

    Erik Kain discusses the blatant sexism involved with superhero franchise merchandise. He points out how sexism within the superhero franchise extends outside of their home medium. For example, one of the toys from Marvel’s the Avengers: Age of Ultron movie replaced the only female member of the Avengers with Captain America. The scene from the movie, upon which this toy is based, depicts the heroine, Black Widow, being launched from the quinjet (the Avengers primary mode of transportation) on a motorcycle. The irony of this is that Black Widow rescued Captain America by returning his shield to him in time to fight off the titular villain (Kain). In addition, no Black Widow action figures were created which tied into the movie at all. There was absolutely no reason to exclude Black Widow from production, except maybe gender bias and the stereotype that boys

    Read More

  • Waiting For Superman Film Analysis

    806 Words  | 2 Pages

    The film, Waiting for Superman directed by Davis Guggenheim, investigates the public school system in the United States. Guggenheim uncovers the many ways in which education in America has declined. Rather than relying largely on statistics and expert opinions. Waiting for “Superman” tells the story of five children who enter a lottery to win a coveted place in a charter school. Four of them seek to escape the public schools; one was asked to leave a Catholic school because her mother couldn’t afford the tuition. Four of the children are black or Hispanic and live in gritty neighborhoods, while the one white child lives in a leafy suburb. By following them, Guggenheim is able to portray each students own individual struggles and triumphs within problem of the plagued academic settings where there are no easy solutions to the myriad issues that affect them. Guggenheim,

    Read More

  • The Perpetuation and Preservation of Male Supremacy in Mainstream Media

    865 Words  | 2 Pages

    A number of popular television shows and films filling mainstream media today have taken a spin to promote women to main character roles of power and command. The traits of these female characters, however, become illusionary as plots thicken to reveal their status to be subordinate to leading male character roles; of which are typically controlling or manipulative over gender stereotypic female traits within the script. While media is being blindly applauded for their newfound glorification of women in power, there remains an underlying message of male supremacy in more than many broadcasted portrayals. Today’s mainstream television media delivers a notion that only a man can pave way for the merit of a woman.

    Read More

  • Feminism and the Movie Industry

    1785 Words  | 4 Pages

    Feminism is a movement that supports women equality within society. In relation to film, feminism is what pushes the equal representation of females in mainstream films. Laura Mulvey is a feminist theorist that is famous for touching on this particular issue of how men and women are represented in movies. Through her studies, she discovered that many films were portraying men and women very differently from reality. She came up with a theory that best described why there is such as huge misrepresentation of the social status quos of male and female characters. She believed that mainstream film is used to maintain the status quo and prevent the realization of gender equality. This is why films are continuously following the old tradition that males are dominant and females are submissive. This is the ideology that is always present when we watch a movie. This is evident in the films from the past but also currently. It is as if the film industry is still catering to the male viewers of each generation in the same way. Laura Mulvey points out that women are constantly being seen as sexual objects, whether it is the outfits they wear or do not wear or the way they behave, or secondary characters with no symbolic cause. She states that, “in traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote it-be-looked-at-ness.”(Mulvey pg. 715). Thus, women are nevertheless displayed as nothing more than passive objects for the viewing pleasure of the audience. Mulvey also points out through her research that in every mainstream movie, there is ...

    Read More

  • Essay On Superhero Movies

    1197 Words  | 3 Pages

    Among the highest-grossing movies of all time are numerous landmark films, such as Titanic, Avatar, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Taking their place alongside these cultural touchstones are mammoth blockbusters of a new breed: action-packed superhero epics. Each year, the number of superhero movies due for release seems to grow exponentially. One glance at a list of upcoming movies for this year reveals that the box office is absolutely saturated with superhero films. Some highly-anticipated installments feature heroes already well-acquainted with the big screen, such as Captain America and the X-Men, while others are introducing relatively unfamiliar characters to contemporary movie-going audiences, as in the cases of Doctor Strange and

    Read More

  • The Representation of Women in Action Films

    1897 Words  | 4 Pages

    Women have made progress in the film industry in terms of the type of role they play in action films, although they are still portrayed as sex objects. The beginning of “a new type of female character” (Hirschman, 1993, pg. 1). 41-47) in the world of action films began in 1976 with Sigourney Weaver, who played the leading role in the blockbuster film ‘Aliens’ as Lt. Ellen Ripley. She was the captain of her own spaceship, plus she was the one who gave out all the orders. Until then, men had always been the ones giving the orders; to see a woman in that type of role was outlandish.

    Read More

More about The Gender Imbalance In Superhero Film

Open Document