50 Shades of Breasts

This past Sunday evening I went to view the film 50 Shades of Grey with some friends and classmates from this seminar since our previous attempts to view the film as a class never worked out.  While there are many thought provoking topics that could be discussed about this film, I decided to focus on film in general and how societal standards of what is “obscene” affected the production of this film. How does society pick and choose what content and images of certain parts of individuals’ bodies is appropriate in film? And what do those decisions say about how we sexualize bodies and society’s opinions on sexuality in general.

            First of all, I understand that this film is closely based on an erotic novel, but I did feel like I ultimately spent 2+ hours watching soft-core porn with a very developed back-story. So with that in mind there was A LOT of sex and A LOT of nudity. However, it was really interesting to me what was “allowed” to be shown of the characters bodies. Essentially, only breasts, and butts were permitted with some random flashes of pubic hair. It was really surprising to me that what is normally a hyper-sexualized part of a woman’s body (her breasts) was repeatedly shown and often the focal point of most of the sexual scenes in this film. It kind of got me thinking about the consequences of these choices. Essentially, this kind of media defines breasts’ primary function as sexual. As such breasts are considered obscene, sexual organs that are only permitted to be seen in public via R-rated films based on erotic novels; but god forbid their public exposure to feed an infant, which is their primary function by the way.

            Additionally, the fact that women are allowed to be “more” nude (by society’s standards) on screen than men implies something about how society allows women to be perceived. Considering the novel 50 Shades of Grey is based on a heterosexual couple, and numerous critics have claimed that this is a “woman’s novel” first and foremost, we can assume that the majority of moviegoers were heterosexual women. Therefore wouldn’t it cater to the film’s target audience to have more male than female nudity in the film? Despite what I think would have been an obvious answer, the FCC standards imply that female nudity is more acceptable than male nudity. Ultimately, I believe that this means society is more comfortable with the idea of sexualizing women than men in film and other aspects of life.

Toddlers in Tiaras

Earlier this week, in my other Women Studies course, Mothers and Daughters, we watched a short clip of a documentary on beauty pageants. In this clip, young girls from infants to ten year olds were paraded around by their mothers in garish makeup and overpriced, sparkly dresses. Overall the whole situation struck me as very bizarre and unsettling. There is no reason in this world to justify putting bright red lipstick on your two-year old or for a toddler to get a spray tan. It made me wonder about how our society, sometimes even mothers themselves impress certain gender expectations on to their children.

            One mother of a sweet 7-year-old girl was interviewed about the cost of these pageants. She said sometimes the pageant dresses cost upwards of $6,000. Yes. That’s three zeroes at the end. That is double the value of the car I’m currently driving around! It just seems silly to shell out so much money for a dress that will only be worn once for an hour or so. More shocking than the cost of these pageants is the appearance mothers try to give their children. Young girls, sometimes infants are made to look like women by the use of spray tans, heavy eye makeup, dresses with tulle that give even a pre-pubescent girl an “hourglass” silhouette. Honestly the blatant sexualization of these girls seems downright criminal and makes my stomach turn.

            Besides the general distaste of the whole situation, pageants must have a profound impact on a girl’s personality and sense of self-worth. There was one line in the documentary that emphasized this point, saying something along the lines of pageants, “teaching girls the source of their value as a woman.” Girls learn that a woman’s value in our society is strongly based on their appearance whether they’re entered in pageants or not just by the pervasive nature of the media in most peoples’ daily lives. However, pageants have always translated this value in a direct and unapologetic way, and I don’t believe it’s a really healthy activity to involve your child in especially when they aren’t event old enough to vocalize their opinion.

            Overall, this pageant documentary helped reveal yet another institutional practice that puts children through the “gendering” process starting at a very young age. Especially in this region of the south, beauty pageants are common and very popular among young mothers and girls. This process seems really damaging to these children because they sexualize the girls almost from infancy as well as openly base their value off of their physical appearance. This can have a profound affect on a girl’s self-esteem and body image later in life.

Don Jon

For my gender journal this week, the movie Don Jon caught my attention. After completing the reading for this week from Hardcore Romance, this film popped back into my head after watching it once months ago. Specifically, the article mentioning the idea of “sentimentality” and the “pornification” of culture being similar seemed to be an idea that was reflected in this film. While at first glance this film appears to be yet another romantic comedy, it is actually a surprisingly critical look at how society digests ideas about romance and sex through use of the media. What could be a more perfect topic for this week’s gender journal?

            What is interesting about Don Jon is that the two main characters (who are each other’s love interests) each have equally warped expectations for sex and romance. Jon, the male lead is addicted to porn. In fact, in the trailer he says his porn is one of the most important things he cares about in his life. Throughout the film this leads him to have unrealistic expectations when it comes to sex and generally leaves him disappointed and unfulfilled when it comes to sex and intimacy. His character represents the disconnect between porn and the reality of sex.

            On the other hand, the female lead, Barbara represents the misrepresentation of “sentimentality” that Hardcore Romance talks about. Also in the trailer, it mentions that she is obsessed with the kind of rom coms most people pegged Don Jon to be similar to. In this sense, the film equates Barbara’s “romance addiction” to Jon’s porn addiction. These movies create false expectations for romance and eventually lead to her disappointment with her relationship with Jon.   

            Joseph-Gordon Levitt, who stars in, wrote and produced the film to comment on the influence of mass media and pornography on people’s expectations for sex and romance. He mentioned in an interview that his mother was an active feminist in the ‘60s and ‘70s and that she always pointed out to him the objectification of women often occurring on screen. In a way those opinions come through in the film as well as a different look at how romance can also seem disappointing when compared to the movies and other culturally produced stories. Sentimentality and pornification can be equally damaging in some ways.

Kingsman: The Secret Service

This past week, I went on a double date with some friends to go see the new movie Kingsman: The Secret Service. Considering my roommate’s boyfriend picked it, I was expecting a pretty typical action-y, “guy” movie. However, since the boys were less than enthused with my roommate and I’s suggestion of Fifty Shades of Grey, we settled on this film. Despite my expectations I was quite pleasantly surprised by a lot of progressive and forward-thinking elements in this film that countered stereotypes about gender and sexuality.

The basic plot of the film centers around a secret undercover, crime-fighting group committed to stopping evil doers all over the world. This group, that recently lost one of its 10 highly trained members now must have each remaining member select a new candidate to fill this spot. One kingsman selects Eggsy as his candidate: a impoverished, tough, but good hearted kid from the wrong side of the tracks. He is selected because his father too was a kingsman and gave up his life to save the rest of his friends by throwing himself on a grenade during a mission. Eggsy, along with 9 other candidates compete for the coveted spot on the team of secret spies, while also trying to battle an international villain named Valentine: insane, risky, nail-biting action ensues.

While many elements of this film are traditional and reinforce gender stereotypes, surprisingly many of the female characters are extremely important to the plot and are totally hardcore. The first character who really stood out to me was Gazelle; she is Valentine’s sidekick and a total badass. While some people may criticize the film for Gazelle and Valentine’s relationship as reinforcing female inferiority, there isn’t a single moment that Gazelle is on screen and doesn’t exude power and intimidation, a powerful portrayal of a female character. What’s more, Gazelle is a double amputee whose prosthetic legs have been reinforced with razor sharp blades that she uses to fight. I was extremely pleased to see such a powerful role in a blockbuster film for a disabled female character.

Another important point in the film: while the secret spy group is named Kingsman, there are two girls who compete for the final spot out of the ten candidates. In fact, (spoiler alert) Eggsy doesn’t win the final spot. Roxanne (Roxy), his friend from the very first day of training wins. Another thing that is important about Roxy’s relationship with Eggsy is that there is never any romantic undertone to their relationship that we always seem to see in these types of movies. Eggsy always views her as formidable competition for a spot as a Kingsman, and when she does finally beat him for the final spot, he never doubts her ability.

While I could probably go on about a lot of empowering elements in this film that counter gender stereotypes and ideas about sexuality

, Roxy and Gazelle were probably the characters that struck me the most as a step in the right direction for female characters in these types of films. Additionally, their relationship with male characters in the film say a lot about changing attitudes towards sexuality and women’s role in relationships as far as media portrayals are concerned. Overall, while some feminists are still critical of the film, I thought it had a lot of shining moments for a blockbuster action movie.

Lovehoney Advertisments

For this week’s gender journal I decided to analyze some advertisements for sex toys. After watching the “Enjoying your vibe” video from the Good For Her website, I remembered coming across an advertisement for a UK company called Lovehoney that ran in to problems when trying to air their own television commercial. I was surprised when I viewed both their daytime and late-night advertisements that they ran in to so many censorship problems. What I viewed as extremely tame and subtle advertisements took months of re-editing and censoring before it was deemed suitable for British telivison.

When observing the differences between the day and late-night advertisements, the differences are extreme. It's hard to believe that despite "The Kiss" being the UK's first daytime ad for sex toys, Lovehoney isn't even permitted to openly name the product they're advertising! These tight restrictions were somewhat loosened in the late-night ad, in which they use the phrase "sex toy" exactly once. While this advertisement is groundbreaking in the sense of being for a company that sells sex toys, it’s mind-blowing that this fairly conservative commercial is subjected to harsher censorship than Hardy’s commercials that feature nude women seductively eating cheese burgers (who knew that was possible?).

When I say conservative, I mean that aside from the subject matter, the commercial reinforces many traditional values. For example, each couple in both the day and late-night ad are modestly dressed and are part of heterosexual relationships. In fact, in the daytime clip they flash the couple’s wedding bands in almost every-other frame (I’m not exaggerating). Anyone who would stumble across this commercial would encounter more sexually explicit material in a PG-rated movie. Ultimately these advertisements reflect western society’s warped view of sexuality when objectifying and hyper-sexualizing women in advertisements causes less of an uproar than an ad featuring monogamous couples exploring their sexuality.

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