Film Studies - Essay

 “By orchestrating the ‘three looks’ of spectator, camera, and character, the cinematic apparatus naturalized a masculine gaze in the service of patriarchal ideology” (Maltby & Craven, Hollywood Cinema: An Introduction, 1995)

– To what extent is this true within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Laura Mulvey is a feminist film theorist, best known for her essay on Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Her theories are influenced by Freud and Lacan whilst also including psychoanalysis and feminism in her works. She is known for her theory of the sexual objectification of females within film and media, also known as the ‘Male Gaze’. Mulvey states that “the gender power asymmetry is a controlling force in cinema and constructed for the pleasure of the male viewer, which is deeply rooted in patriarchal ideologies and discourses.” (Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema , 1975) This implies that the male viewer is the target audience, therefore their needs are met first and that this problem stems from an old fashioned, male-driven society. this male driven society is still apparent in the media today. Mulvey’s theory on how women are portrayed in film and the media is just as prevalent today as it was in 1975 when her text was first published even though some people have disproved it.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is massive within its collection of films, spanning from Iron Man (Favreau, Iron Man, 2008) to the most recent, Spider Man: Far From Home (Watts, 2019), women have been shown as objects and desire through the three looks, Spectator, Camera and Character throughout, however some people argue that films like Captain Marvel (Boden & Fleck, Captain Marvel, 2019)that focused on women as the sole character of the film, showed women as subjects rather than objects. Yet as Janice Loreck, a TA in the school of media, film and Journalism stated in a post,

“Filmmakers often attempt to avoid presenting female characters as “mere” sexual objects by giving them complex back stories, strong motivations and an active role in the plot of their story. Yet the masculine gaze is still commonplace. Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises (Nolan, 2012) has significant personal motivations, yet she is still clearly there to be looked at.” (Loreck, 2016)

Some may argue that this is the case for Brie Larson who played Captain Marvel in Captain Marvel (Boden & Fleck, 2019), in the film she has been given the complex back story , the strong motivations, and the active role in the plot of their story as she is the main character, giving Captain Marvel what seems to be a subject role in the film, to avoid presenting her as a sexual object as Loreck suggests, but within the film the Camera doesn’t treat her as a sexual object it avoids the typical “Male Gaze” shots of the mid-shots, or the pan up of the body, this may be because one of the directors of the film was female and she controlled the camera in such a way as to not sexualise Captain Marvel by choice, making strides for Feminist Filmmaking as Captain Marvel (Boden & Fleck, 2019) was the first Marvel Cinematic Universe Film to Star a woman Superhero as the main Character. Yet even within the film there are no moments of the male gaze, in fact where there are moments of Male dominance it is quickly shut down by the films lead, which bring us back to the question at hand, “By orchestrating the ‘three looks’ of spectator, camera, and character, the cinematic apparatus naturalized a masculine gaze in the service of patriarchal ideology” (Maltby & Craven, 1995) – To what extent is this true within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It can be said that Captain Marvel (Boden & Fleck, 2019) is one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films that doesn’t orchestrate all three looks but the only look that is, comes from the spectator not the camera or character, disproving what Maltby and Craven said, and also going against Mulvey’s theory of the Male gaze. The only proof towards how true both Mulvey’s theory is and Maltby and Craven’s is the only act of sexual objectification of Captain marvel as a character which comes from the Male audience looking at the Female lead in the film and desiring her, as she is a young attractive female, not even dressed in scantily clad clothing but in a full body Suit, and the reason we know the desire of a male audience is received mainly as it is a super hero film, and after looking at the demographic of people who bought tickets for films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in General the majority of the ticket sales were male according to data found (Marvel Studios movie viewership in the U.S. 2018, by gender, 2018).As this film is a more recent entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe we don’t see the male gaze as much as we did with Iron Man 2 (Favreau, 2010) where we first meet Black widow (Scarlet Johansson) or with Guardians of the Galaxy (Gunn, 2014) with Gamora.

With Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy( Gunn, 2014) there was a change with her costume as the films came out and developed sequels, but the main focus is on how the ‘three looks’ were orchestrated and this is an example of a film that doesn’t prove it as much as Iron man 2 yet still proves it. The first time we see Gamora in a setting where she is looked at by the “three Looks” would be the first time the gang meet, just before they get arrested. in this scene, it opens with Starlord being shoved out of a shop, we see a mid-shot of Starlord then a shot reverse shot of him and Gamora talking, Gamora is leaned up against the wall wearing a low cut crop top and a leather jacket, her midriff and cleavage are exposed and she is stood in a way that her head is facing Starlord yet her body is facing the camera, you can see how Starlord is looking at her when he is talking, the scene goes into a fight, throughout we get closeups of Gamora’s legs, a Mid shot of her running away from the camera, even when lying down on the ground and the camera pans around them, Gamora is pined to the centre of the shot, so that the eyes of the audience are drawn to her, she then climbs on top of Starlord and we see a medium close up, with the sun behind her, and again Gamora centre screen drawing the audience and most likely Starlord’s attention to her, as again she is still dressed in minimal clothing. Then another moment in the same scene she is bent over Starlord and we get a closeup of her chest and face, all in 2 and a half minutes of the film, clearly shown in that time are multiple instances of the Male Gaze. Mulvey states in her paper that ‘’ 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’’ (Mulvey, 1975) now in the case of this film, Gamora is there as an important character, yet the way the camera shoots her and the way that she is dressed makes you see that she is there also for the pleasure of the audience and the male lead, as Melissa strong said in an article, 

‘’Today it is worth noting that the camera’s male gaze also is cisgender, heterosexual, and representative of conventional expectations of masculinity. Movies are a product of a patriarchal culture, so naturally they tend to reflect patriarchy.’’ (Strong, 2018)

So, the film’s objectification of the woman is reflective of the patriarchal society, yet we have noticed over time that sex sells, its only in recent years that, that has begun to change.

So, with Iron Man 2, a film which has arguably the most iconic scene of the objectification of women in all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we see the patriarchal society in play, with the camera, and character both using the male gaze to objectify, Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) to the point where Tony (Robert Downey JR) even says to his girlfriend Pepper, ‘’I want One’’ which shows the theory that Lecan came up with regarding Lack and this need for want, which is seen with use of the male gaze, the scene in particular is the scene where Tony first meets Natasha Romanoff – Him and Happy are fighting in the ring, when she comes in and asks for his signature, whilst doing a google search of her he asks her to train with happy, this is the moment where the camera looks at her with the eyes of a male, she is wearing an open white shirt and trousers that are tight around the bum, as she bends down to enter the ring she looks directly into the camera as we get a mid-shot up of her chest and face as she enters the ring, when tony googles her, all the images the camera sees and tony looks at are underwear modelling shots, all sexualising the character of black widow, later on in the film and seen more in the avengers films, she gains a leather suit that like Catwoman’s in Batman The Dark Knight Rises hugs the body and draws the male viewers eye in on certain areas of appeal.

The one thing in common with the Marvel Cinematic Films that show the Male gaze and the three looks of Spectator Camera and Character is the fact that they are all directed by Male directors, or are run by Kevin Feige ads a producer, with the exception of Captain Marvel which was co-directed by a woman. So it is safe to say that the original statement posed by Maltby and Craven suggesting that ‘’By orchestrating the ‘three looks’ of spectator, camera, and character, the cinematic apparatus naturalized a masculine gaze in the service of patriarchal ideology’’ when applied to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a complex one, as there are moments in the older films that are clear show of the male gaze, yet with the new films and the change in the view of women in films, with women led films becoming more popular diverting away from the objectification of women and towards the subjectification of them, provides us with an argument that makes us question whether the male gaze is still prevalent in today’s media.

Bibliography

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