“I was everything they wanted me to be. I was never more beautiful. Never more powerful.”
[1] How and why women (super) heroes are becoming more frequent and having active roles in film with reference to "Catwoman."
In the contemporary media woman are starting to have more active roles rather than passive roles, they are not being represented the way they use to such as being stereotyped as a motherly figure and the housewife usually known as the ‘Madonna’. After the war feminism had exploded across the country giving women equal rights to men although we may still live in a patriarchal society. During the war DC comics created super heroic character such as Superman, Batman, the Hulk etc but women superheroes were created shortly after the war. Catwoman which was created by DC and Marvell comics was one of the first characters who opposed the stereotype of women. She made her first appearance in the Batman series in 1966 and ‘was known as the femme fatale’
[2] due to her character being ambiguous. Warner brothers now known as Time Warner help produce and publish action films and TV programmes such as Wonder women and Catwomen which portrayed women to be ‘beautiful, active, sexy and dangerous.’
[3]Woman (super) heroes are becoming very common in the media today, films such as Kill Bill, Tomb Raider, Charlie’s Angels, Alien, Electra and Catwoman which are staring well known actresses to having active roles and role reversals with men in films. Propps theory mentions that men are meant to be the ‘hero who is on the quest’ to save the day whilst woman are the ‘princess who is the reward for the hero’,
[4] but in 21st century people viewed things very differently and as a result character roles were subverted and challenged in the media, women were shown to be ‘kicking ass.’
[5]Changes had started to occur during the WWII, many women had to work as most of the men had to go and fight in the war. From there on the women’s movement and feminism had started. “A woman could be a breadwinner, be skillful, and be proud of her skill”.
[6] 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.”
[7] This meant that the more women stuck together the better chance they had of bring treated equally to men because the rise of ‘girl power’
[8] 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 looks 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 the man. Although woman 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 were men and women can be considered as equal’.
[9] 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.’
[10] This could be known as a matriarchal society. ‘They were honourable, courageous, brave and represented rebellion against sexism.’
[11] But the fact that the woman of the Amazon was only a Greek myth suggests that women aren’t 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’
[12], 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.’
[13] This represents another stereotype of women which is positive and not negative. During the seventies it was very popular not because she was an object of 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,’
[14] and made these films unique.
Radical feminist believed that the way ‘women are portrayed in the media encourages the expectation of women’
[15] in reality. This is why women are challenging stereotypes so that they can show that they are just as inferior to men and shouldn’t be treated differently.
On the other hand Catwoman was a big failure in 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’
[16] 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’
[17] by its audiences. Although capital radio had said it was “very slick all around entertainment”
[18] and the Sunday mirror rating it four stars.
[19] Another film that failed to impress it audience and failed to hit the box office was Super girl 1984
[20], her character was a stereotypical hero, and it didn’t 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 audiences approval. It was not distributed by Warner Brothers like Superman 3 was it was distributed by TriStar Pictures, an institution that isn’t as high budgeted as Warner brother’s pictures. Although Super girl was distributed by Warner brothers Catwoman was and it had failed, this emphasizes that not all highly budgeted films can make it to the top.
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 emphasizes 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.
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 suggest that more equality was taking place in society and people weren't 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 2004 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 signify's she is important and she is the hero and the low angled shot represents the villains vulnerability, there is also a shot like this of a police better known as cop as it is an American film 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 this also suggests the audience which could be young 15+ male and female middle classed people. 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 if the scene is based on Todorov's theory, the equilibrium is of cop having conversation with a woman who is the villain, the disequilibrium is of woman shooting cop and the resolution is of Catwoman saving man and killing the villain.
In the film ‘Catwoman’ women are stereotyped as being the ‘Whore’, they are into there 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’
[21] ‘puts immense pressure on women to look like good, leading to high demands of plastic surgery and beauty products.’
[22] Patience Philips (Halle Berry) is the lead character and seems to be a ‘helpless career orientated woman’
[23] 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 of her apartment by Tom Lone (Benjamin Bratt), this put her in a passive role. Through out 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 emphasize her curves so that she looks sexy and appeals to men. 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 gold diggers.
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 and 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 that star women as being protagonist is that the women are all objectified to a certain extent. They would all be dressed in tight fitted clothes that shows off there curvaceous bodies. They are represented this way in order to meet the expectations of the ‘male gaze’. Laura Mulvey theory mentions that women are ‘the desire for the pleasurable gaze of the spectator’
[24] .
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 revealing she uses that to her advantage to manipulate a man to get what she want. She is dressed in a seductive way letting the viewer get pleasure. The colour of her clothes are black and the connotation a 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’
[25]. 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 if a phallic or a fetish object is put it the scene with a women as the man would feel castrated and make the women seem like they have power. 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 text also use objects to emphasize the power of the female such as wonder woman with her lasso, Electra 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"
[26] as they being regarded as quarrelsome, shrewish, malicious and sly. Some famous supervixen’s are
Catwoman, Lara Croft, Xena, The Bond Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charlie's Angels, Wonder Woman, Princess Leia Organa, Ripley, Storm, The Bionic Woman, Barb Wire, Red Sonja, Barbarella , Breathless Mahoney, The Women of Austin Powers, Mrs. Peel, Elektra, Mystique and the Bride. They are characterized like this especially when they are the protagonist of the film.
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, Batman, and superman aspire to be like the male superhero especially because they get the girl in the end and the gets ‘erotic pleasure’
[27] from her as a reward. People who watch these sorts of films would be watching the film from a ‘mans world’
[28] 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 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 to. Richard Dyer argues that men in action films ‘puts his body on show’, ‘to-be- looked-at-ness’.
[29] A good example of this is Spiderman, were Peter Parker is standing in front of a mirror topless, and his Spiderman suit also emphasizes 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 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 emphasizes 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.
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[1] Catwoman 2004 quote by Laurel Hedare
[2] Documentary ‘The many faces of Catwoman’2004
[3] E Ann Kaplan , Woman and film noir, 1998 pg 164-182
[4] Bennett Jacquie, Media studies AS & A2, 2005 pg 92.
[5]Tasker, Yvonne (2004): Action and Adventure cinema. USA. Routledge pg201
[6] Delamont, Sara (2001): changing women, unchanged men? Pg 85
[7] Nelmes Jill (1996): An introduction to film studies 3rd edition. Pg248
[8]Bennett, Jacquie (2005): Media studies AS & A2 Pg 109
[9] Nelmes Jill (1996): An introduction to film studies 3rd edition pg 249.
[10] Wikipedia site on Amazons = definition on Amazon women.
[11] http://www.whoosh.org/issue12/ruffel3.html =BRAVE WOMEN WARRIORS OF GREEK MYTH:
[12] Documentary “beauty brawn and bulletproof bracelets: A Wonder Woman Retrospective.” 2004
[13] http://www.wonderwoman-online.com/marston.html[14] Tasker, Yvonne (1993): Spectacular Bodies: Gender Genre and the Action cinema. London. Routledge pg 3
[15] Nelmes Jill (1996): An introduction to film studies 3rd edition. London. Routledge pg 248.
[16] wikipedia site on Catwoman[17] imdb ratings on Catwoman.
[18] Quote from Capital Radio.
[19] Quote from the Sunday Mirror.
[20]Wikipedia. Supergirl
[21] Tasker, Yvonne (2004): Action and Adventure cinema pg 201
[22] Bennett, Jacquie (2005): Media studies AS & A2 pg 147
[23] http://www.comicsetc.com/art.php?cont=Female%20Cmic%20Book%20Superheroes[24] Mulvey Laura(1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ volume 16 no3 pg6-18
[25] Quote by Eartha Kitt in the documentary ‘The many faces of Catwoman’2004
[26] http://www.superherohype.com/news.php?id=2887[27] MacDonald Myra (1995) ‘Representing Women’ pg 46
[28] Carter, Cynthia and Branston, Gill, Allan, Stuart (1998): News, Gender and power pg 8
[29] Tasker, Yvonne (2004): Action and Adventure cinema pg 203
