Context of Practice Seminar 3

Today's seminar was about The Gaze and the Media, which is the portrayal of people by and in the media in different industries. It was Laura Molvey who first criticized Hollywood for being sexist towards women in her 1975 book "Visual Pleasures and Narrative Cinema." Her points in this were that the gaze is powerful and male, who are the heroes and drive the plot. Women only exist as sexual object to look at,which implies the Freudian theory of Scopophia, (the pleasure of looking at others bodies as objects).

I believe this was true in Hollywood 1975, most heroes were male and heroic and women were portrayed as damsels in need of male protection, this however wasn't always the case but most of the time. But in today's cinema I think that sexism is much less apparent, or at least fairer.

For example, today if a film was released about female strippers it would get ridiculed, but Magic Mike proved a success, because they were male. I think that women are generally much more defensive about the representation and sexualisation of their gender than men are. I don't mean this is an offensive way, I simply feel that these topics are too deeply looked into often, due to sexism in the past.

However, when the topic of Scarlett Johansson in the Avengers rose, and the idea that it was sexist because she wore a tight outfit and had to stay to a strict diet and exercise regime for the part I felt this very unfair. Scarllett Johansson trained two months prior to filming, had a 'mostly' vegan diet eating seven small meals a day high in nutrients to give her energy for the workout sessions. These sessions were seven days a week and 90 minutes per session.

Chris Hemsworth (Thor) had to train for six months prior to filming to gain 20 pounds of muscle. He had to do 90 minutes a day, 5 days a week, lessened it to 20 minutes a session, to keep his bulk. He once got so big he no longer fitted in to his Thor costume, and had to lessen his routine. He also had to follow a intense diet of consuming 3,500 calories a day in 8 meals, and drink a gallon of water a day.

I also don't feel her outfit is 'sexist' as all the characters wear tight costumes and in all the solo movies (Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America) all leading males take off their shirts at least once and the leading female don't once, in any film. Scarlett Johannson appears in Iron Man 2 and gets undressed once, but is not in clear view as she is in the back of a car, while the camera is entirely focused on the men in shot and they are the center of attention.

In fairness comics have been sexist in the past, with women being a certain shape and impossible physique, but aren't the men also? It is equally unrealistic to show all men as muscular and handsome. Again I think sexism goes both ways, but specifically in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) I think they have done very well in not being sexist to women in anyway, shape or form.