#18 Poster Deconstruction

Following on from a previous post, I had been looking at poster collections containing sexual objectification. To further this research, I have continued to collected posters that could be problematic for similar reasons.

Hall Pass (2011).

Note. Amazon. (n.d.).

Starting with Hall Pass, the blu-ray cover fits nicely into the sexy legs category. Taking a shot that only contains a section of a woman's body, removing the face and, therefore, the women's identity. This reduces the female form to an object wholly separated from the person. I have noted that both Nina Menkes and Naomi McDougall Jones mention how men's bodies are seldom visually segmented in this way. If you see a portion of a man separate from himself, it will likely be his face. The indication is that this is the most important part of his form. His head is his mind, his humanity. This is different from the female form as we regularly see female bodies shot in sections rather than one whole. With this image, the woman is being coded as an object and we are viewing her the same as Wilson and Sudekis in the cover design. She is an object to be looked at, while Wilson and Sudekis are the subjects of action. In this case, the action is looking, while the figure is the object of this action as she is being looked at.

The issues discussed above can also be found in the following collection of posters. In the images below, the women are reduced to an aspect of their body, with no inclusion of their face.

(Left to Right) Dirty Grandpa (2016). Hot Tub Time Machine (2010).

Note. showreelmemories. (n.d.). Note. Movie Poster Shop. (n.d.).

Beauty and the Geek (2005). Youth (2015).

Note. Pustake Bhalerao, Y. (March 22, 2018). Note. Amazon. (n.d.).

This constant objectification normalises this treatment of women and reduces them to a level below men. The implication of this for an audience is that a woman is less and than a man.

Blue Velvet (1986).

Note. Amazon. (n.d.).

Sturken and Cartright (2009) discussed that women are regularly positioned with indirect, downcast looks or coded as passive. This can be witnessed within the Blue Velvet poster. She is looking away while Jefferey holds her. Her neck is exposed, revealing as much skin as possible, and the lighting use enhances Jefferey's muscles showing his strength beside her weakness. As discussed previously, he is the subject conducting the action of holding her while she is the object being held. She is looking away from both the audience and Jefferey so we can identify that voyeurism and the male gaze are present within the image.

Good Luck Chuck (2007).

Note. JoBlo. (n.d.).

In the Good Luck Chuck poster, we see Cook standing tall in a simple stance while Alba is hyper-feminine beside him. As I have not seen this film this could be a true representation of her character; however her shoulders are drawn in and slumped, meaning in this scenario, she is passive and unthreatening to the audience.

Fantastic 4 (2005).

Note. Star Stills. (n.d.).

In the Fantastic Four poster, Invisible Women has been positioned in a way that is different from her fellow male superheroes. They are ready for action while she is still turned towards us so we can view her figure.

Machete (2010).

Note. IMDB. (n.d.).

Similarly, in the machete poster, all the male characters stand tall with the weapons in front of their bodies. However, both female characters have been positioned completely side on, not because they are about to take action but so we can view their figures. In addition, the woman at the back, who I assume is a villain of sorts in the story, is wearing very little on the top half of her body. This seems impractical for an action role, and the costume is likely to have been selected so we can get a nice view of her chest and abdomen.

From looking through these images and reading works by McDougal Jones and Menkes, it has grown apparent that the best way to show these issues may be to show women and men are treated differently. We don't see collections of covers of headless men or men from the waist down, nor are they positioned just for viewing rather than action.

Bibliography

Berger, J. (1972) Ways of Seeing. Penguin Books.

McDougall Jones, N. (February 4, 2020). Returning Our Heads: Inside the Fight to Dismantle the (White) Gods of Hollywood. Bitch Media. https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/the-wrong-kind-of-women-male-gaze-excerpt

McDougall Jones, N. (2020). The Wrong Kind of Women. Beacon Press.

Menkes, N. (2020). Brainwashed. Brainwashed Movie. https://www.brainwashedmovie.com/

Mulvey, L. (2017). From a faculty seminar with Laura Mulvey: reflections on visual pleasure. New Review of Film and Television Studies, 15(4), 385-387. https://doi.org/10.1080/17400309.2017.1377923

Mulvey, L. (1975) Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Screen, 16(3), 6-18.

Sturken, M., Cartright, L. (2009) Practises of Looking: an Introduction to Visual Culture. (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.