final draft of essay
I was everything they wanted me to be. I was never more beautiful. Never more powerful.” How and why are female (super) heroes becoming more ubiquitous in film and having more active roles with particular reference to "Catwoman (2004) Pitof.”
In the contemporary media woman are starting to have more active roles rather than passive roles; they are not being represented the way they used to (such as being stereotyped as a motherly figure and the housewife, usually known as the ‘Madonna’.) After the Second World War feminism began to make inroads in the west giving women equal rights to men, although it can be argued that we may still live in a patriarchal society. During the war DC Comics created super heroic characters such as Superman, Batman, and the Hulk etc, but women superheroes were not created until shortly after the war. Famke Janssen states that ‘we’ve always been ready for female superheroes. Because women want to be them and men want to do them.’ Catwoman, which was created by DC and Marvell Comics, was one of the first characters who opposed the traditional stereotype of women. She made her first appearance in the Batman series in 1966 and ‘was known as the femme fatale’ due to her character being rather ambiguous. Warner Brothers, now known as Time Warner are involved in the production and distribution of action films and TV programmes such as Wonder woman (1976) William M. Marston and Catwomen (2004) Pitof which portrayed women to be ‘beautiful, active, sexy and dangerous.’
Woman (super) heroes are becoming much more common in the media today; films such as Kill Bill (2003) Quentin Tarantino , Tomb Raider (2001) Simon West, Charlie’s Angels (2000) McG, Elektra (2005) Rob Bowman and Catwoman feature staring well known actresses having active roles and effecting role reversals with men in the narrative. Propp’s theory states that men are meant to be the ‘hero who is on the quest’ to save the day, whilst women take on the role of the ‘princess who is the reward for the hero’. However in the 21st century, audiences have different expectations and as a result, female roles have been subverted: women are represented to be ‘kicking ass.’
Changes in society had started to occur during WWII: many women had to work as most of the men had to go and fight. From there on the women’s movement and feminism was reborn. “A woman could be a breadwinner, be skillful, and be proud of her skill”. The civil rights movement had become so big “it only took a few of us to get together and ignite a spark and spread like a nuclear chain reaction.” This meant that the more women stuck together the better chance they had of being treated equally to men because the rise of ‘girl power’ as said by David Gauntlett. Before the war women were oppressed, they were expected to do things such as ‘domestic labour’ and being a ‘motherly person’ that looked after her children at home but during the war they were given the opportunity to work in factories and take up the expected role of men. Although women have more roles in the media today feminist would say ‘we still have a long way to go in terms of politics, philosophy, and economics before we live in a society where men and women can be considered as equal’.
Wonder woman, which was also a character created for DC and Marvell comics had appeared on television during the 1970’s near to the time when the women’s movement had taken place. Wonder woman’s character was based on the women of the Amazon. ‘Amazon’s were a society of female warriors.’ This could be known as a matriarchal society. ‘They were honourable, courageous, brave and represented rebellion against sexism.’ But the fact that the woman of the Amazon was only a Greek myth suggests that women are not seen to be as important as men in our society to this day, although women are starting to have more equal rights.
Her character represented America and its allies through the way she was dressed. She wore red, blue, and white, which are used on the Union jack and the American flag, ‘she basically wore the American Flag’, which connoted and represented patriotic forces of World War 2. Her outfit was also very skimpy but never seen as being sexual. The weapons she carried were her tiara, which she used as a Frisbee and her lasso, which made people tell the truth. Marston was the creator of wonder woman, he said that he decided to give wonder woman a weapon that made people tell the truth as he believes ‘women were more honest and reliable than men and could work faster and more accurately.’ This represents another stereotype of women, which is positive and not negative. During the seventies it was very popular not because she was an subject to the ‘male gaze’ but because of what she was representing and therefore gaining a larger audience.
Contemporary films like Tomb raider were successful due to the fact that before it was even a film it had been a game. People who played the game which were mostly men had control over Lara Croft, to a certain extent they felt like they were in control of her in the film leading to it being very successful as it was liked by the majority of it audience. Other films such as Kill Bill, Alien and Linda Hamilton in the Terminator movies had done well due to the characters playing conventional masculine roles which are expected to be played by men but are played by women. This was known as ‘masculinity,’ and made these films unique.
Radical feminist believed that the way ‘women are portrayed in the media encourages the expectation of women’ in reality. This is why women are challenging stereotypes so that they can show that they are just as inferior to men and should not be treated differently.
On the other hand Catwoman was a big failure at the box office and ‘had lost its producers more money that it had earned because it had not used intertextuality to its advantage. The film was heavily criticized by both film critics and fans of the comic book character’ as it had nothing to do with the original comic book story and didn’t even mention Gotham city or Batman where her character had appeared originally and made her famous. It was rated ‘3 out of 10’ by its audiences. Although capital radio had said it was “very slick all around entertainment” and the Sunday mirror rating it four stars.
‘Another film that failed to impress its audience and failed to hit the box office was Super
girl (1984)’, her character was a stereotypical hero, and it did not really do well because it did not have anything unique or different about it. It did not have any scenes which would attract the male gaze and as a result it lost its audience’s approval. It was not distributed by Warner Brothers like Superman 3, it was distributed by TriStar Pictures, an institution that is not as high budget as Warner Brother’s pictures. Although Catwoman was not distributed by TriStar Pictures, but had been distributed by Warner Brothers, emphasises that not all highly budget films can make it to the top as it had still managed to fail in the box office.
One film that was not a failure but did not take up the importance of a woman was Fantastic four. Out of the four superheroes only one is a female, although she has shown that she is independent and can look after herself her love interest is seen saving her. This emphasises that women can be shown in the media but is only there to make females who watch the film feel equal but in reality are not always equally.
Although women were getting treated equally, people who were of a different race were not completely treated equally to white people and therefore suffered from racism. The majority of woman who have played Catwoman are white. These women were Julie Newmar, Lee Merriwether, Adrianne Barbeua who played the voice of Catwoman in the Batman cartoon, Michelle Pfiffer, although other ethnicities have been taken into account as the first black Catwoman was played by Eartha Kitt in 1967, this suggests that more equality was taking place in society and people were not easily being racially discriminated against. Halle Berry was the second black woman to play Catwoman. The reason they had made Catwoman black was because they wanted to appeal to wider audience of other ethnicities rather than just trying to get Halle Berry fans, comic books readers and film critics to watch the film.
In Catwoman there are high and low angled shots of characters in the film. The high angled shot is of Catwoman and then it cuts to a low angled shot of the villain of the film. The high angled shot signifies she is important and she is the hero and the low angled shot represents the villain’s vulnerability. There is also a shot like this of a police lying on the floor, and Catwoman goes to rescue him. Low key lighting is used as the scene is set at night, the setting is in a building storage place with big windows where you can see the city and there is a lot of space to move around especially as the fight is taking place there. Non diegetic sound of rock music is used when a fight begins in the scene this suggests the genre of the film which is action, these types of film are usually linked to Warner Brother films.
The heroes and villains in films are usually male but in this case both of them are female this reverse of roles in a film suggests that today women are not typically stereotyped like they use to be. The stereotype is being challenged. Men are shown to be the damsel in distress in this film as Catwoman has to rescue them. The structure of the scene is based on Todorov's theory, the equilibrium is of the cop having a conversation with a woman who is the villain, the disequilibrium is of the woman shooting the cop and the resolution is of Catwoman saving the man and killing the villain. Thomas Sobchack says that ‘ in this foundational mode a protagonist with special skills confronts, human, natural or supernatural powers which have brought disorder to the world of the narrative and overcomes them to achieve a specific goal, usually the resolution of order’.
The audience can be determined by the institution of the film, Warner Brothers produce many action films which are aimed at young 15+ male and female middle classed people. Catwoman aims to please both male and female audience due to the characters roles; this was meant to make the film a hit but failed to do so.
In the film Catwoman, women are stereotyped as being the ‘Whore’, they are into their looks just so they can impress men especially as they are working in cosmetic company owned by a man. The fact that the media portrays women to be slim and beautiful ‘eye candy’ ‘puts immense pressure on women to look good, leading to high demands of plastic surgery and beauty products.’
Patience Philips (Halle Berry) is the lead character and seems to be a ‘helpless career orientated woman’ who doesn’t care about her appearance and is shown to be very nerdy and geeky person. She follows the ‘damsel in distress’ stereotype at the beginning of the film as she needs saving from falling off her apartment by Tom Lone (Benjamin Bratt), this puts her in a passive role. Throughout the film we see Patience turn into a more independent and dominant character which ends up saving Tom Lone giving her an active role and making her the heroine (hero) of the film. To reflect her change she dressed in skin tight costumes that emphasise her curves so that she looks sexy and appeals to men. ‘The heroine’s beauty makeover becomes part of her seductive armoury as a female avenger.’ The villain in the film is Laurel Hedare (Sharon Stone); she challenges stereotypes as she kills her husband in order to take over his cosmetic company so she can keep all the profits of money for herself. This suggests that women today are seen as being more independent rather than dependant on the man. This also reflects the zeitgeist of the society we live in today.
Similarly in Kill Bill most characters are females although in the film the women are fighting against Uma Thurman the protagonist who is out to get revenge by killing Bill, but the only way she could do this is to kill the people who work for Bill which are mainly women who are protecting him. This could suggest that women can be more powerful but the man is still in control and implies the dominance of a male. In Charlie’s Angels it is also the same as all three girls take orders from Charlie so they can protect him.
The one thing that nearly all the films have in common is that they star women as being protagonist, and all the women are objectified to a certain extent. They would all be dressed in tight fitted clothes that show off their curvaceous bodies. They are represented this way in order to meet the expectations of the ‘male gaze’. Laura Mulvey’s theory states that women are ‘the desire for the pleasurable gaze of the spectator’ .
Catwoman’s costume is not a conventional superhero suit but it is still is an extreme costume that represents her power amongst average people. Her costume is really revealing even though she is covered from head to toe, because her costume is so promiscuous she uses that to her advantage to manipulate a man to get what she want. She is dressed in a seductive way providing voyeuristic pleasure for the male spectator. The colour of her clothes are black and the connotation of black are evil dark and mysterious which basically somes up her character as she is a jewel thief when she first becomes Catwoman and then prowls the street at night, this is why she is known as the ‘Feline Fatale’. The weapon she uses is a lasso /whip, this is meant to be seen as her tail as she is a cat but can be viewed as a phallic and fetish object. According to Sigmund Freud’s theory when women are seen as giving different pleasures to men it could cause the man to have anxiety and unless a phallic or a fetish object is put in the scene with a women the man would feel fear of himself being castrated. This also leads to misogyny as men would get jealous of the female hero. The whip is also related to sadism as it can be used for offering pain in a sexual way that is why it can been seen as a fetish object. Other texts also use objects to emphasize the power of the female such as Wonder Woman with her lasso, Electra (2005) Rob Bowman with her swords, and Lara Croft with her guns. Film get sold because ‘sex sells’.
Some super heroic women are also known as the “"ULTIMATE SUPERVIXENS" as they are being regarded as quarrelsome, shrewish, malicious and sly. Some famous super vixen’s are Catwoman, Lara Croft, Xenia, The Bond Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charlie's Angels, Wonder Woman, Princess Leila Organza, Ripley, Storm, The Bionic Woman, Barb Wire, Red Sonja, Barcarolle , Breathless Mahoney, The Women of Austin Powers, Mrs. Peel, Elektra, Mystique and the Bride. They are characterised like this especially when they are the protagonist of the film. This is done to engage its audience and make them enjoy the film that they are watching.
Films that have men as the super hero tend to always be successful because the male is the protagonist, this means that males who go to watch films such as Spiderman (2002) Sam Riami, Batman Returns (1992) Tim Burton, and Superman (2006) Bryan Singer aspire to be like the male superhero especially because they get the girl in the end and gets ‘erotic pleasure’ from her as a reward. People who watch these sorts of films would be watching the film from a ‘mans world’, which is seeing things from a man’s point of view.
Women who go to watch films with male superheroes tend go for voyeuristic pleasure and also view things in a ‘female gaze’. They would watch the men like the men would watch the women, especially when the hero is good looking and is dressed in tight fitted clothes that his muscle definition can be seen, these men are seen or called macho. From this perspective not only do the women get objectified but the men do too. Richard Dyer argues that men in action films ‘puts his body on show’, ‘to-be- looked-at-ness’. A good example of this is Spiderman, were Peter Parker is standing in front of a mirror topless, and his Spiderman suit also emphasises his muscles.
Spiderman can also be compared to Catwoman as Peter is at first a geeky but then becomes the hero just as Catwoman does, this can also be interpreting the change on our contemporary society, and the male can also be gazed upon.
In conclusion, women (super) heroes are becoming more frequent because we live in a post-modern and feminist society in which both sexes are treated equally. People are not conforming to stereotypes in society as much as they use too, seeing see things differently leading to the media drastically changing. Catwoman shows how women are usually stereotyped but challenges it too; her representation changes through the film also showing the big changes that society has gone through in order to be fair to both sexes. Films such as X-Men (2000) Bryan Singer prove this as it has both male and female superheroes which also staring Halle Berry in which they are fighting together not with each other. It emphasises the equality between men and women in society today resulting to the film being very popular as it does not portray one sex being weaker than the other but the fact that the title of the film is X-MEN can be argued against that the male dominance still exist, unlike catwoman which makes woman look very inferior to men as both the hero and villain are female.
Milla J Joe a member of the audiences criticises the film by saying “I really like females in major action roles. In fact, I love it when a female is in a big action role. And I was really looking forward to liking Catwoman. And while I did like Catwoman, I liked it for all of the wrong reasons, and it is safe to say that Catwoman is one of my guilty pleasures.” This clearly illustrates that woman placed in films to have active roles are there just to be objectified even though it is demonstrating the equality between men and women in today’s society.
3174 words
In the contemporary media woman are starting to have more active roles rather than passive roles; they are not being represented the way they used to (such as being stereotyped as a motherly figure and the housewife, usually known as the ‘Madonna’.) After the Second World War feminism began to make inroads in the west giving women equal rights to men, although it can be argued that we may still live in a patriarchal society. During the war DC Comics created super heroic characters such as Superman, Batman, and the Hulk etc, but women superheroes were not created until shortly after the war. Famke Janssen states that ‘we’ve always been ready for female superheroes. Because women want to be them and men want to do them.’ Catwoman, which was created by DC and Marvell Comics, was one of the first characters who opposed the traditional stereotype of women. She made her first appearance in the Batman series in 1966 and ‘was known as the femme fatale’ due to her character being rather ambiguous. Warner Brothers, now known as Time Warner are involved in the production and distribution of action films and TV programmes such as Wonder woman (1976) William M. Marston and Catwomen (2004) Pitof which portrayed women to be ‘beautiful, active, sexy and dangerous.’
Woman (super) heroes are becoming much more common in the media today; films such as Kill Bill (2003) Quentin Tarantino , Tomb Raider (2001) Simon West, Charlie’s Angels (2000) McG, Elektra (2005) Rob Bowman and Catwoman feature staring well known actresses having active roles and effecting role reversals with men in the narrative. Propp’s theory states that men are meant to be the ‘hero who is on the quest’ to save the day, whilst women take on the role of the ‘princess who is the reward for the hero’. However in the 21st century, audiences have different expectations and as a result, female roles have been subverted: women are represented to be ‘kicking ass.’
Changes in society had started to occur during WWII: many women had to work as most of the men had to go and fight. From there on the women’s movement and feminism was reborn. “A woman could be a breadwinner, be skillful, and be proud of her skill”. The civil rights movement had become so big “it only took a few of us to get together and ignite a spark and spread like a nuclear chain reaction.” This meant that the more women stuck together the better chance they had of being treated equally to men because the rise of ‘girl power’ as said by David Gauntlett. Before the war women were oppressed, they were expected to do things such as ‘domestic labour’ and being a ‘motherly person’ that looked after her children at home but during the war they were given the opportunity to work in factories and take up the expected role of men. Although women have more roles in the media today feminist would say ‘we still have a long way to go in terms of politics, philosophy, and economics before we live in a society where men and women can be considered as equal’.
Wonder woman, which was also a character created for DC and Marvell comics had appeared on television during the 1970’s near to the time when the women’s movement had taken place. Wonder woman’s character was based on the women of the Amazon. ‘Amazon’s were a society of female warriors.’ This could be known as a matriarchal society. ‘They were honourable, courageous, brave and represented rebellion against sexism.’ But the fact that the woman of the Amazon was only a Greek myth suggests that women are not seen to be as important as men in our society to this day, although women are starting to have more equal rights.
Her character represented America and its allies through the way she was dressed. She wore red, blue, and white, which are used on the Union jack and the American flag, ‘she basically wore the American Flag’, which connoted and represented patriotic forces of World War 2. Her outfit was also very skimpy but never seen as being sexual. The weapons she carried were her tiara, which she used as a Frisbee and her lasso, which made people tell the truth. Marston was the creator of wonder woman, he said that he decided to give wonder woman a weapon that made people tell the truth as he believes ‘women were more honest and reliable than men and could work faster and more accurately.’ This represents another stereotype of women, which is positive and not negative. During the seventies it was very popular not because she was an subject to the ‘male gaze’ but because of what she was representing and therefore gaining a larger audience.
Contemporary films like Tomb raider were successful due to the fact that before it was even a film it had been a game. People who played the game which were mostly men had control over Lara Croft, to a certain extent they felt like they were in control of her in the film leading to it being very successful as it was liked by the majority of it audience. Other films such as Kill Bill, Alien and Linda Hamilton in the Terminator movies had done well due to the characters playing conventional masculine roles which are expected to be played by men but are played by women. This was known as ‘masculinity,’ and made these films unique.
Radical feminist believed that the way ‘women are portrayed in the media encourages the expectation of women’ in reality. This is why women are challenging stereotypes so that they can show that they are just as inferior to men and should not be treated differently.
On the other hand Catwoman was a big failure at the box office and ‘had lost its producers more money that it had earned because it had not used intertextuality to its advantage. The film was heavily criticized by both film critics and fans of the comic book character’ as it had nothing to do with the original comic book story and didn’t even mention Gotham city or Batman where her character had appeared originally and made her famous. It was rated ‘3 out of 10’ by its audiences. Although capital radio had said it was “very slick all around entertainment” and the Sunday mirror rating it four stars.
‘Another film that failed to impress its audience and failed to hit the box office was Super
girl (1984)’, her character was a stereotypical hero, and it did not really do well because it did not have anything unique or different about it. It did not have any scenes which would attract the male gaze and as a result it lost its audience’s approval. It was not distributed by Warner Brothers like Superman 3, it was distributed by TriStar Pictures, an institution that is not as high budget as Warner Brother’s pictures. Although Catwoman was not distributed by TriStar Pictures, but had been distributed by Warner Brothers, emphasises that not all highly budget films can make it to the top as it had still managed to fail in the box office.
One film that was not a failure but did not take up the importance of a woman was Fantastic four. Out of the four superheroes only one is a female, although she has shown that she is independent and can look after herself her love interest is seen saving her. This emphasises that women can be shown in the media but is only there to make females who watch the film feel equal but in reality are not always equally.
Although women were getting treated equally, people who were of a different race were not completely treated equally to white people and therefore suffered from racism. The majority of woman who have played Catwoman are white. These women were Julie Newmar, Lee Merriwether, Adrianne Barbeua who played the voice of Catwoman in the Batman cartoon, Michelle Pfiffer, although other ethnicities have been taken into account as the first black Catwoman was played by Eartha Kitt in 1967, this suggests that more equality was taking place in society and people were not easily being racially discriminated against. Halle Berry was the second black woman to play Catwoman. The reason they had made Catwoman black was because they wanted to appeal to wider audience of other ethnicities rather than just trying to get Halle Berry fans, comic books readers and film critics to watch the film.
In Catwoman there are high and low angled shots of characters in the film. The high angled shot is of Catwoman and then it cuts to a low angled shot of the villain of the film. The high angled shot signifies she is important and she is the hero and the low angled shot represents the villain’s vulnerability. There is also a shot like this of a police lying on the floor, and Catwoman goes to rescue him. Low key lighting is used as the scene is set at night, the setting is in a building storage place with big windows where you can see the city and there is a lot of space to move around especially as the fight is taking place there. Non diegetic sound of rock music is used when a fight begins in the scene this suggests the genre of the film which is action, these types of film are usually linked to Warner Brother films.
The heroes and villains in films are usually male but in this case both of them are female this reverse of roles in a film suggests that today women are not typically stereotyped like they use to be. The stereotype is being challenged. Men are shown to be the damsel in distress in this film as Catwoman has to rescue them. The structure of the scene is based on Todorov's theory, the equilibrium is of the cop having a conversation with a woman who is the villain, the disequilibrium is of the woman shooting the cop and the resolution is of Catwoman saving the man and killing the villain. Thomas Sobchack says that ‘ in this foundational mode a protagonist with special skills confronts, human, natural or supernatural powers which have brought disorder to the world of the narrative and overcomes them to achieve a specific goal, usually the resolution of order’.
The audience can be determined by the institution of the film, Warner Brothers produce many action films which are aimed at young 15+ male and female middle classed people. Catwoman aims to please both male and female audience due to the characters roles; this was meant to make the film a hit but failed to do so.
In the film Catwoman, women are stereotyped as being the ‘Whore’, they are into their looks just so they can impress men especially as they are working in cosmetic company owned by a man. The fact that the media portrays women to be slim and beautiful ‘eye candy’ ‘puts immense pressure on women to look good, leading to high demands of plastic surgery and beauty products.’
Patience Philips (Halle Berry) is the lead character and seems to be a ‘helpless career orientated woman’ who doesn’t care about her appearance and is shown to be very nerdy and geeky person. She follows the ‘damsel in distress’ stereotype at the beginning of the film as she needs saving from falling off her apartment by Tom Lone (Benjamin Bratt), this puts her in a passive role. Throughout the film we see Patience turn into a more independent and dominant character which ends up saving Tom Lone giving her an active role and making her the heroine (hero) of the film. To reflect her change she dressed in skin tight costumes that emphasise her curves so that she looks sexy and appeals to men. ‘The heroine’s beauty makeover becomes part of her seductive armoury as a female avenger.’ The villain in the film is Laurel Hedare (Sharon Stone); she challenges stereotypes as she kills her husband in order to take over his cosmetic company so she can keep all the profits of money for herself. This suggests that women today are seen as being more independent rather than dependant on the man. This also reflects the zeitgeist of the society we live in today.
Similarly in Kill Bill most characters are females although in the film the women are fighting against Uma Thurman the protagonist who is out to get revenge by killing Bill, but the only way she could do this is to kill the people who work for Bill which are mainly women who are protecting him. This could suggest that women can be more powerful but the man is still in control and implies the dominance of a male. In Charlie’s Angels it is also the same as all three girls take orders from Charlie so they can protect him.
The one thing that nearly all the films have in common is that they star women as being protagonist, and all the women are objectified to a certain extent. They would all be dressed in tight fitted clothes that show off their curvaceous bodies. They are represented this way in order to meet the expectations of the ‘male gaze’. Laura Mulvey’s theory states that women are ‘the desire for the pleasurable gaze of the spectator’ .
Catwoman’s costume is not a conventional superhero suit but it is still is an extreme costume that represents her power amongst average people. Her costume is really revealing even though she is covered from head to toe, because her costume is so promiscuous she uses that to her advantage to manipulate a man to get what she want. She is dressed in a seductive way providing voyeuristic pleasure for the male spectator. The colour of her clothes are black and the connotation of black are evil dark and mysterious which basically somes up her character as she is a jewel thief when she first becomes Catwoman and then prowls the street at night, this is why she is known as the ‘Feline Fatale’. The weapon she uses is a lasso /whip, this is meant to be seen as her tail as she is a cat but can be viewed as a phallic and fetish object. According to Sigmund Freud’s theory when women are seen as giving different pleasures to men it could cause the man to have anxiety and unless a phallic or a fetish object is put in the scene with a women the man would feel fear of himself being castrated. This also leads to misogyny as men would get jealous of the female hero. The whip is also related to sadism as it can be used for offering pain in a sexual way that is why it can been seen as a fetish object. Other texts also use objects to emphasize the power of the female such as Wonder Woman with her lasso, Electra (2005) Rob Bowman with her swords, and Lara Croft with her guns. Film get sold because ‘sex sells’.
Some super heroic women are also known as the “"ULTIMATE SUPERVIXENS" as they are being regarded as quarrelsome, shrewish, malicious and sly. Some famous super vixen’s are Catwoman, Lara Croft, Xenia, The Bond Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charlie's Angels, Wonder Woman, Princess Leila Organza, Ripley, Storm, The Bionic Woman, Barb Wire, Red Sonja, Barcarolle , Breathless Mahoney, The Women of Austin Powers, Mrs. Peel, Elektra, Mystique and the Bride. They are characterised like this especially when they are the protagonist of the film. This is done to engage its audience and make them enjoy the film that they are watching.
Films that have men as the super hero tend to always be successful because the male is the protagonist, this means that males who go to watch films such as Spiderman (2002) Sam Riami, Batman Returns (1992) Tim Burton, and Superman (2006) Bryan Singer aspire to be like the male superhero especially because they get the girl in the end and gets ‘erotic pleasure’ from her as a reward. People who watch these sorts of films would be watching the film from a ‘mans world’, which is seeing things from a man’s point of view.
Women who go to watch films with male superheroes tend go for voyeuristic pleasure and also view things in a ‘female gaze’. They would watch the men like the men would watch the women, especially when the hero is good looking and is dressed in tight fitted clothes that his muscle definition can be seen, these men are seen or called macho. From this perspective not only do the women get objectified but the men do too. Richard Dyer argues that men in action films ‘puts his body on show’, ‘to-be- looked-at-ness’. A good example of this is Spiderman, were Peter Parker is standing in front of a mirror topless, and his Spiderman suit also emphasises his muscles.
Spiderman can also be compared to Catwoman as Peter is at first a geeky but then becomes the hero just as Catwoman does, this can also be interpreting the change on our contemporary society, and the male can also be gazed upon.
In conclusion, women (super) heroes are becoming more frequent because we live in a post-modern and feminist society in which both sexes are treated equally. People are not conforming to stereotypes in society as much as they use too, seeing see things differently leading to the media drastically changing. Catwoman shows how women are usually stereotyped but challenges it too; her representation changes through the film also showing the big changes that society has gone through in order to be fair to both sexes. Films such as X-Men (2000) Bryan Singer prove this as it has both male and female superheroes which also staring Halle Berry in which they are fighting together not with each other. It emphasises the equality between men and women in society today resulting to the film being very popular as it does not portray one sex being weaker than the other but the fact that the title of the film is X-MEN can be argued against that the male dominance still exist, unlike catwoman which makes woman look very inferior to men as both the hero and villain are female.
Milla J Joe a member of the audiences criticises the film by saying “I really like females in major action roles. In fact, I love it when a female is in a big action role. And I was really looking forward to liking Catwoman. And while I did like Catwoman, I liked it for all of the wrong reasons, and it is safe to say that Catwoman is one of my guilty pleasures.” This clearly illustrates that woman placed in films to have active roles are there just to be objectified even though it is demonstrating the equality between men and women in today’s society.
3174 words
posted by ~*Anika*~ at 9:36 AM
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