Are the female roles in the modern day genre of superhero films a victory for women or are they still objects of desire? With particular reference to the film X-Men 3?
The superhero genre is credited for having a long history of providing great memorable films such as Superman, Fantastic 4 and the Spiderman sequels. However, they have a direct link and association with Hollywood a film industry that has been accused of "symbolically annihilated”[2] females on screen. For generations, women have been giving negative representation of being weak, dumb, narrow minded and only interested in housework just to name a few.
It is not just in Hollywood that they have been discriminated it is apparent in aspects of different industries, in sports there is the tag that they cannot play as well as men and in the corporate world there is the myth (that Barthes created)[3] that women cannot compete intellectually with men and are only there to play token employees to show the company is not sexist.
The respective feminist movements (1920s and 1970s) have played an inaugural part in creating positive representation for females and expanding the limited roles that they played in movies such as the femme fatale (where the woman would be sinister, driven and even in some cases potentially deadly) or the hero’s love interest when their only existence was generally for a purpose to be saved by the leading male protagonist. They have seen both sides of the story and this essay will be undermining the answer to the question that has been set which is to justify fully whether female roles in Hollywood in the modern era, as opposed to generations before have changed for the better or are they subjected to being objectified.
X-Men: The Last Stand is a 2006 superhero film and the third in the X-Men series[4]. It is directed by Brett Ratner, who took over when Bryan Singer dropped out to direct Superman Returns. The movie revolves around a "mutant cure" that causes serious repercussions among mutants and humans.
X Men 3 is based on the fighting between 2 sets of mutant teams, with the evil team fighting to take over the world and wage war on the human race, this has significant relations to the holocaust which reflects the zeitgeist of the time. In the holocaust the Jews were seen as “the other” and underneath the Germans in the same way as the evil mutants feel have been treated by the human society. The battle for equality amongst mutants also can be linked to the feminine struggle as they were fighting for the same purpose of fairness.
The use of non diegetic sound as up tempo high speed music is used to a contrapuntal effect to reflect the fast paced action and narrative of the movie, this iconography symbolises that this is an action movie and as a result due to statistics from the past (that only 29% of females are somewhat partially involved in action adventurers) [5]more spotlight is inevitably put on the roles the females play in this film. Its genre falls into the category of superhero and even in the name of the genre gender inequalities are displayed, by calling it superhero it immediately connotes that the main character is going to be a man in the same way that audiences will think it’s a female protagonist if the genre was called super heroine.
X men 3: The Last Stand supposedly gives the opportunity for women to shine on screen like they have never done before, as studies showed that “films almost always focused on male heroes they typically made the decisions which led the story and were more confident assertive and dominant” [6]Up until now films that are categorized as superhero have represented “woman as frightened and in need of protection and direction”. [7]This is reflected in some of the actions of the female characters in X Men as they are repeatedly set up as the ones that need saving from the enemies clutches and not their male counterparts. However what is encouraging for women in the film X Men from the quote is that Professor Xavier the head of the mutants team believes that storm ( a female) can take over his position In the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century’s feminism emerged. Feminism was the response from angry females who were unhappy with a life of inequality. They believed that women had a right to have political as well as social equality with men. It had various movements and Feminist theory and theorists emerged as a result from these times including Laura Mulvey and Gay Tuchman.
The First wave of feminism as many people call it refers to a period of time when feminist activity was at its highest, the second wave of feminism occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. The difference between the two sets of waves was the first-wave feminism focused mainly on overturning laws to function equality like in work while second-wave feminism addressed the more unofficial inequalities like house roles etc. A television study “concluded that women’s movement had largely been ignored by television and film (McNeil 1975) [8]and that that women should be subservient to men, even the more well known actresses like Marylyn Monroe at some point in the narrative had to play roles that displayed the dominance of males at the time.
The attitude towards feminism by males especially in the 1970s portrayed the roles on screen women were playing in Hollywood as the number of different roles and personalities that females could have started to expand even if they were still negative which is the case in X-Men 3 where there are both evil and good characters displaying different characteristics that portray the role of both Madonna (Storm or Rogue) and the Whore (Mystique).
For instance in Fatal Attraction when the leading character was female but she was still represented as a woman who had misused the power she had been given after having an affair with the main male character. However considering that until the creation of feminism women were treated almost as passive agents in a male world.
Nowadays there are many more roles for females to play such as the femme fatale, although the femme fatale is give negative representation she is involved further in the plot and contributes much more to the narrative then other roles do. It is the same with the “final girl” (carol clover 1987) [9]role which was developed when the slasher film came to light. Some of the more positive newer roles that have been created through time are roles that come with more power and responsibility such as the male heroes’ boss or the villain’s sidekick, this rise in important roles for women to play in superhero films suggests that slowly but steadily females in the superhero genre are becoming more significant.
Throughout time the roles have developed but not really changed in terms of female representation, it seems an injustice but in reality the first feature you have to have to play a main female role is be good looking. Taking Men in Black 2 into account (a superhero movie with Sci fi aspects) you have a female villain now even though this is not the first female villain to appear she seems to have it all regarding presentation of herself. She is powerful, seductive, smart and generally good looking, if the directors wanted to take a big step towards gender equality in Hollywood they would have hired someone who is not as naturally blessed with good looks and thus would not appeal to the audience. This can be linked to what Laura mulvey (1975) visual pleasures & narrative cinema said when she stated that females are subjected the male gaze and are only put in certain roles to be objects of desire[10]
If you look at the contrast in role requirements between male and female characters within the average superhero narrative they are usually very different. Take the early superman for instance nearly every women’s role in the film was either to be saved by superman or to provide some sort of information, they were never directly involved in the action themselves. In contrast the male characters role requirements included being the hero, villain, helper dispatcher and the passer of key information, this list has been repeated in loads of superhero movies such as Fantastic 4 the Spiderman trilogy and Batman which continues to this day.
Marie D'Ancanto (Rogue) who played the main female protagonist in the first of the 3 X- Men movies is also given a positive representation in X- Men 3 using her witt to get her out of trouble while also displaying her physical force when fighting against her opponents. Although both Storm and Rogue acting abilities produced better female representation it is undeniable that their good looks got them there in the first place and they were still symbolised as “[11]objects of desire” hence the tight clothing.
More over in the modern generation and especially in X- men 3 gender roles are a lot more equal with females getting their fair share of the action characters like Storm, Mystique, Rogue are always involved in the plot and in the inevitable fighting between the two mutant teams however it’s clear that the women on the evil mutant side are no way near as matched as their so-called powers also seem rather feeble compared to the Men on their team “Storm could just summon a hurricane and blow the woman away like troublesome flies”[12]
A stereotype has been described as a short cut to meaning [13] or a widely circulated idea about particular groups outside one’s own experiences”[14]. They are possible characters in the media who are considered as “types” rather than complex people, they are based on assumptions made by people who have been influenced by what they have seen or heard about through others (usually the government).
Usually stereotypes are developed through the media creating a moral panic” [15] emphasizing the negatively placed on these prejudgements of people, places or cultures. The concept of stereotypes is probably the main reason females have been thought of as inferior to men in the past, as a result inevitably binary oppositions”[16] have been created by men highlighting their patriarchal view of their supremacy over women. Commonly accepted oppositions include that men are strong, dominant and smart while women are weak, feeble and incapable of looking after themselves. Examples of this include texts such as James bond as in every James bond film he is portrayed as independent and focused on the job in hand but his female counterpart is always in a position where she is in need of saving. This is also apparent in Texas change saw massacre when the final girl needed the help of a male character to escape the crazed killer, this stereotype is presented in the movie industry in all types of film genre such as love, thriller or gangster.
Men have also been accused of stereotypical actions that represent the whole of their gender, they are seen as voyeurs by many feminists who strongly feel that the majority of the male population only go to watch movies with a female lead character to participate in a fetishistic gaze”,[17] this is when the man objectifies the women in a sexual manner focusing on a certain part of the body to give him visual pleasure. The term scopophilia is associated with the entire male race when looking and judging beautiful women by feminists, scopophilia is when you have pleasure in looking and being sexually aroused. If this is the case then the suggestion that women’s new respectable roles as the main character can only be seen as a minor victory for feminists because instead of males appreciating the females protagonist elegancy, brains and class they are only focusing on her body assets and therefore dehumanising them by not treating women as their equal but as a fine aspect of their fantasy life. This can be related to my film of study X Men 3 where some of the women are persistently overlooked for higher positions in the hierarchy of power because neither the good or bad mutants have a woman as their leader meaning the significant positions of power and authority go to the males.
As much as both female audiences and the female stars themselves would like to see male directors alter their gender identities (for instance their actions on screen being more linked to masculinity than femininity) that would highlight a change from the traditional objectification that they have been familiarized with by a male audience, it seems that realistically that won’t be happening for a long time as directors see good looking female stars such Catherin Zeta Jones and Jessica Albers sex appeal as a guaranteed audience puller. When considering that Hollywood is a business and a business’s objectives are to make profit and survive it justifies directors why they would not want to modify a winning formula hence the reason female roles when playing the protagonist of a superhero or action movie have hardly been changed over the years . If the female stars have to sacrifice their ideologies on equality and female exposure in order to make the movie then they will do that because it is their profession and its how they make a living.
Stereotypes do play a big part in director’s ideas of satisfying the audience because when thinking of stereotypes it relates to gender identities which most directors do not want to tamper with through fears of losing their audience. For instance they would not think that a predominantly male audience’s expectations would be fulfilled after watching someone like Halle Berry (who is a massive figure of the male gaze ) acting manly, not wearing prerogative clothing or being sexually seductive as a way of getting what she wants. This wouldn’t put heterosexual males in cinema seats thus loosing the company money; however it has been proven that if someone takes a gamble and changes the gender identity of the subject such as Quinton Tarintino did with Uma Thurman in Kill Bill it can be a success both with male and females.
Tarintino portrays Uma as a vengeful, blood thirsty killer who murders her enemies in the most brutal and disturbing circumstances, with these being her characteristics she doesn’t conform to the stereotype of the average female hero and goes against the hegemonic values of society that women shouldn’t act like that. Although she displays characteristics more accustomed to a male anti hero there are aspects of her femininity like her humility and compassion to her colleagues suggesting that it is almost impossible to give a realistic portrayal of a women without their key emotions and features.
Overall I think that while women’s roles have changed over time their features haven’t therefore making a victory for female representation a victory but a rather limited one for women and feminists in particular.
In the past by looking at the stats it suggest that females were badly treated in terms of presence on the TV screen, there weren’t many on screen and the ones that did appear where seen as token characters and given representations that degraded the female population. As miles reported in 1975[18] in adventure films only 15% of females had leads in films” which subjected them to cameo or insignificant roles which at the time didn’t show much progress. While there have been numerical improvements in the number of female hero’s they still don’t share the same respect or admiration by the male public as their male counterparts and because of that male characters are still seen as more intelligent assertive and prevalent.
If Cortes says that there is “symbolic and institutionalised sexism”[19] in advertising then this must be the case in Hollywood with the consistent representation of women as sexually promiscuous and continuously used seduction techniques on the males hero on his quest. As females on screen are conducting themselves this way within the narrative to suit male audiences this creates the ideology that sex sells and as long as that belief is in place it is hard to see women’s roles in superhero movies changing for the better in terms of female representation and therefore they are still and probably will always remain objects of desire.[20]
[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376994/quotes
[2] Tuchman, Gay (1978)
[3] Barthes, Roland (1984)
[4] Xmen3: The Last Stand (2006)
[5] Davis (1990) Gauntlet, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: Representations of Gender in the Past, (page 43)
[6] Gauntlet, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: Representation of Gender in the Past (page 46)
[7] Gauntlet, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: Representation of Gender in the Past (page 46)
[8] http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/ProfessorX.html
[9]http://www.horschamp.qc.ca/new_offscreen/final_girl.html
[10] Propp Vladimir (1928), Bennett, Jacquie (2005) :Media Studies AS & A2 ( page 92)
[11] Mulvey, Laura (1975): Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema
[12] http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/film/reviews/x-men3.html
[13] Lacey, Nick (2004): Introduction to film (pg 263)
[14] Bennett, Jacquie (2005): Media Studies AS & A2 (page 114)
[15] Cohen, Stanley (1972)
[16] Strauss, Levi (1949): The Elementary Structure
[17] Scott Galloway, Lucy (2007) A beginners guide to Laura Mulvey
[18] Mulvey, Laura (1975): Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema
[19] Gauntlet, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: Representation of Gender in the Past (page 43)
[20]Cortese, Anthony: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising (1999)
Bibliography
Works cited
Books
Anthony, Cortese. Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007.
Gauntlett, David. Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2008
Kaplan, E. Ann. Women and Film: Both Sides of the Camera. New York: Routledge, 1990
Lacey, Nick. Introduction to Film. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005
Mulvey, Laura. Visual and Other Pleasures (Language, Discourse, Society). New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
Sardar, Ziauddin. Introducing Media Studies, 3rd Edition (Introducing). Thriplow, Cambridge, UK: Totem Books, 2006.
Scott Galloway, Lucy (2007) A beginners guide to Laura Mulvey
Tasher, Yvonne (2004): Action and Adventure cinema
Moving image texts
Tarantino, Q. (Director). (2004). Kill Bill, Volume 2 [Motion Picture]. US: Miramax Home Entertainment.
P. (Director). (2004). Catwoman (Full Screen Edition) [Motion Picture]. America : Warner Home Video.
Story, T. (Director). (2005). Fantastic Four (Widescreen Edition) [Motion Picture]. USA: 20th Century Fox.
Batman Begins (Widescreen Edition). Dir. Christopher Nolan. Perf. christain bale. Blu-Ray. Warner Home Video, 2006.
Spider-Man - The High Definition Trilogy (Spider-Man / Spider-Man 2 / Spider-Man 2.1 / Spider-Man 3) [Blu-ray]. Dir. Sam Raimi. Perf. Tobey Maguire. Blu-Ray. Sony Pictures, 2007.
Lara Croft - Tomb Raider / Lara Croft - Tomb Raider, The Cradle of Life. Dir. Simon West. Perf. anglelina jolie. DVD. Paramount, 2001.
Internet
The Final Girl: A Few Thoughts on Feminism and Horror. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2009, from http://www.horschamp.qc.ca/new
independant study jordan. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2009, from http://jordan-murray.blogspot.com.
Gurinder Chadha. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2009, from http://farm.imdb.com/name/nm0149446/
X-Men film review . (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2009, from http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/film/reviews/x-men.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376994/quotes
http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/ProfessorX.html
http://www.horschamp.qc.ca/new_offscreen/final_girl.html
Works consulted
Books
Bennett, Jacquie (2005) :Media Studies AS & A2
Strauss, Levi (1949): The Elementary Structure
Moving image texts
Donner, R. (Director). (1978). Superman - The Movie (Four-Disc Special Edition) [Motion Picture]. America: Warner Home Video
Internet/ Newspaper
http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/latest/2008/10/07/clint-eastwood-angelina-jolie-is-too-sexy-115875-20780457/
Word count- 3,062
