CoP: Essay to inform practical

An investigation into the use and representation of Sexism in Sin City

Originally, the goal of this essay was to look at sexism in comics throughout their existence, but unfortunately as sexism such an in-depth subject, especially in the world of comics, there is simply too much to evaluate. For this reason, the essay will concentrate on the sexual objectification of gender in the graphic novels and film of Sin City, created by comic book artist and writer Frank Miller.
 

Sin City is often perceived as a very sexist world, and it is difficult to argue otherwise. There are two kinds of men in Sin City, the heroic, protective, muscular heroes, and the perverted, corrupt, disgusting villains (consisting of paedophiles, cannibals, and disfigured men). The women, are all beautiful, often in clothes consisting of minimal underwear, leather undergarments and lingerie, or nothing at all. They all appear to be either strippers or prostitutes, only making money from their sexualised appearance to men. But if looked into in further detail, there are elements that display their independence and dominance through the sexuality. “Those very images that objectify these heroines can be seen as a source of power” (Mandrid, M. 2009. Pvi.)

  “She owns me, body and soul.” (Miller, F. 1993. P65) “If I have to die for you tonight I will.” (Miller, F. 1994. p83). These quotes show how the men see women as their superiors.  They spend their time and money on them (albeit they are stripping or through prostitution) and are slaves to their own desires, and therefore the women. Though it could be argued that to display all men as so sexually desperate is sexist also, and as an unfair reflection on men as it is to display all women as sexual objects. Empire reviewer Kim Newman also argues this point of the sexism against men further, “female characters tend to be exploiting male desire while living their own lives removed from others’ ideas about them. Arguably, the male characters are even more of an insult to the sex... near-unrecognisable faces bring to life an array of tarnished heroes, each tougher than Mike Hammer on steroids, and appalling villains who’d be too deformed and demented even for Gotham City’s Arkham Asylum.” (Newman, K. 2005). This is another good argument that balances the sexism in gender in Sin City. Men are tough, violent, muscular, and masculine, or crazy perverted psychopaths. Are all men like how they are portrayed in Sin City? No. Are all women like how women are portrayed in Sin City? No. But it is and exaggerated, make-believe world that livens the dark elements of the human psyche to draw audiences in. It could be understood as using Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory about the unconscious mind and repressed human animalistic instincts, that they could be released by indulging in media such as Sin City, or that the world of Sin City was built using this theory where characters are more freely able to act the way they deeply want to. “Frued isolated scopophilia as one of the component instincts of sexuality which exist as drives quite independently of the erotgenic zones. At this point he associated scopophilia with taking other people as objects, subjecting them to controlling and curios gaze.” (Mulvey, L. 1989. p16). Scopophilia is the theory of ‘pleasure in looking’ which couldn’t be more apparent in Sin City. Freud uses examples such as children’s curious and inquisitive nature to look and reveal what is forbidden for them to see, which stems later in life to perversion upon to opposite sex. Of course, the women are objectified in Sin City to be objects of sexual desire, though this does not make them weak it does reduce them to their bodies being their greatest assets. For example, the exotic dancer Nancy is often referred to as ‘an angel’ with crowds of men ogling at her. “An angel dancing among the clouds.” (Miller, F. 1996. p141)

“The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness... she holds the look, and plays to and signifies male desire.” (Muley, L. 1989. p19). This uses the theory of the gaze of the media that often objectify women, and the idea of scopophilia upon the female gender. In Sin City, this is evident, and irrefutable. Women fit in a certain regime of appearance for the world that idealizes them and exemplifies certain features. Though at first glance it is often the case that sexism against women grabs viewers attention, but is that because sexism against men is not discussed as much? When men are portrayed as victims of sexism it is not in a sexual way, it brings out the steroytypical roles that they are often seen as, violent, obsessive, muscular,  perverted, while the women are portrayed as beautiful, sexy, and experts in seduction. If offense is to be taken, it would seem most people would be more insulted by being labelled perverted and violent than attractive and sexually appealing. After all, don’t most people want to be appealing to the opposite sex? Is it not why we buy expensive fashionable clothes, cut our hair, stay clean and why women wear make up?

Quotes like “She smelt like angles ought to smell. The perfect woman. The goddess.” And “She fires up two cigarettes and hands me one and I taste her lipstick on it and suddenly my hearts pounding so loud I can’t hear anything else.” (Miller, F. 1991. p13 + p155) show how then men feel love or even anxiety, where it seems apparent the women do not. They are strong characters who are not fooled and tricked by men but are confident powerful creatures who stride on the men’s lust for them, their obsession for sex, often using them for their own means. The women do not share the men’s desperation for their company. Women are angelic, beautiful, independent, alluring, confident and physically strong “We’ll fight the cops, the mob, and anyone else who tries to move in on us.” (Sin City, 2005). They don’t need men like the men crave the women. “Its tearing me up how much I love you.”(Miller, F. 1993. p10). Though the (heroic) men are displayed as protective, they are often unwanted guardians. “Us helpless little girls? us girls are safe as we can be.” – (Miller, F. 1994. p50). This applies to most female characters in Sin City who reside in Old Town (the part of Sin City where the prostitutes live, without pimps and rule this part of town) “The ladies are the law here” – (Miller, F. 1994, p36). This clearly shows their independence as they solely rule some streets.

“Many feel that the ultra thin models used in fashion present women with an unattainable, unhealthy body type. Conversely, others believe that the buxom heroines featured in comics are over sexualized, and present a negative image of women. The fact that many superheroines are actually strong, powerful characters can be neglected by the way they are drawn.” (Mandrid, M. 2009. P298). Though this piece of writing directs towards super heroines such as Wonder Woman, it also relates to Sin City. In looking so overly sexualised in the comic pages, the women loose much of their strength found in their personality, but then again, the fact that they are so appealing to men often gives them power over them. So is the ultimate deadly female character someone who is strong, confident, expertly trained to kill, intelligent and very appealing to men? This would be a character who could truly over power a man using his weakness against him. Such as Sin City’s Ava Lord or Miho. 

All these aspects for the women of Sin City apply to all but Nancy. Nancy loves the hero cop Hartigan who saved her from a paedophile when she was eleven years old. Though he is older, she makes it as obvious as saying “I love you” and “sleep with me” (Miller, F. 1996. P158 + p162). She also craves Hardigans protection “Let me stay close, nothing can happen to me when I’m with you.” (Miller, F. 1996. P155). This shows she is arguably the most sexist character in the comics, she is vulnerable and reliant on the male characters, and works as a stripper, and the only reason the customers (all male) keep their hands off her is because of voluntary bouncer Marv, who beats up those who do because he does not believe in violence against women “I don’t hurt girls.” (Miller. F. 1991. P148). This shows that not only she is incapable of taking care of herself (like other women in Sin City) she is also fuelled by her emotions, and still visually a very sexualised character.  Actress Jessica Alba who portrayed her in the film described her differently: “She just wears her heart on her sleeve, something I wish I could do more. That’s why it is kind of a fantasy to play a character that’s so sincere, so soft, and so vulnerable, despite the side of her that’s really strong and confident on stage.” (Alba, J. 2005. P239). If anything, this shows the actress actually looking up to the character and aspiring to be more like her, which seems like the very gender the character would insult actually provides more of a role model, being strong, confident, but truthful, honest and loving. That or she was simple attempting to give an explanation choosing the role, other than she was probably paid quite a bit of money for it. But Alba’s opinion is backed up by Laure Mulvey, when she writes “There are circumstances in which looking itself is a source of pleasure, just as, in the reverse formation, there is pleasure in being looked at.” (Mulvey, L. 1989. P16). This also addresses the idea that the character is not being degraded, but may indeed find enjoyment in being admired and gazed upon, giving her confidence and self esteem. 

  The Sin City movie is an extremely faithful adaption from the graphic novel, (arguably the most faithful of all comic book movies), the film displays a toned down sexism (though subtle) than the comics. For example the costumes on the girl were slightly less faithful. Brittney Murphy’s character Shellie in the comics wore knickers and a man’s shirt, and that was all, whereas in the film she wore a bra also. The same applied for Jessica Alba’s character Nancy, in the comic she does her ‘exotic dancing’ topless, (See Fig.1) where as in the film she was given a leather bra-like part to her costume to cover her up, (See Fig. 2.) Costume supervisor Nina Proctor explained Nancy as the hardest costume to design: “Nancy is the sweet girl in the stories and so there was a real fine line there of trying to make the costumes sexy without going too far, or not going far enough. And I think we came up with a very comfortable place.” (Proctor, N. Sin City 2005). She also talks about the challenges of Rosario Dawson’s character Gail’s costume: “Everyone has been so into the characters that we’ve really been able to go very close to the graphic novel, even with the women. They’ve been really excited about some of the things I’ve done. I mean, the character of Gail is literally belts and fishnets, and she was so excited about wearing it... There’s really no nudity there, though there’s still the hint of nudity...That was a fun character to design.” (Proctor, N. 2005. P113). This clearly shows that the crew still aimed for lesser sexism while still remaining as faithful as possible to the source material. The costume supervisor was female, and stated they were fun to design, and the fact that the actress’ were excited about wearing the costumes shows that these women are not degraded by the sexual nature of the appearance of them, but find fun and joy in dressing in these ludicrous outfits. That or they simply disguise that they thought it was worth the pay check. 
 

New and original material is being written for Sin City 2: a Dame to kill for that will tell a story for the first time based on a female protagonist (Nancy) and her attempts to avenge her loves death. This would be a brilliant twist to the story as it would turn the most sexist character and make her the violent courageous hero, similar to Marv’s story in Sin City: The Hard Goodbye, setting a new balance to the sexism in the comics, by altering it and gaining new stories for a modern audience. Although this would not make it completely non sexist film, it is clear that even for a comic a sexist as Sin City the movies and practitioners are reducing the sexism for modern times. But even if she was the lead, it would still prove right Lisa Rundle’s opinion in Girls who Bite Back “As long as the alpha female is ‘still female’ (counts heterosexual-appeal among her most powerful weapons), she safely remains an object of entertainment for the traditional male viewer. The fantasy: dream fuck, not castration nightmare.” (Rundle, L. 1989. P307). This would then revert to the question of is a female more sexist, or more powerful for being attractive to men?
 

But what the real question should be, is should a film even be changed from such loved source material? Since the original film was so accurate to the comics and was hugely successful, should women who take offense to it simply not watch it? It would be like heterosexual men going to see Magic Mike and complaining about the amount of undressed, muscular, and good looking stripping men in the film. Total film explained this as: “Getting sniffy about sexism in Sin City would be like complaining about spaceships in Star Wars” (Total Film. 2005). This is a pretty accurate. Sexism is a part of Sin City, it is undeniably there, and the only argument to be made is whether is equal on each gender or not. Unfortunately sexism is a matter of opinion and not fact, and therefore there will never be an accurate measure for it, people may find offence in different things, and Sin City is one which will create much controversy. For example, on Metacritic, in a total of 40 critics reviews, the film got 74 out of 100, ranging from the lowest being 0 to the highest of 100. (Metacritc. 2005). This shows the subject of Sin City is really a love or hate one. 

Comparing the work of Frank Millers Sin City to the work of comics like Aline Kominsky-Crumb’s The young bunch, Love that bunch is something that is difficult to come to a conclusion of.

Artists Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Phoebe Gloeckner write autobiographical comics centred on sexual abuse. Kominsky-Crumb has a “style of hyperexaggerated impressionism” (Chute, H. 2010. P28) (See Fig. 3). While Gloecker, a trained medical illustrator, uses a provocative style of realism, (See Fig. 4) meaning style is not an issue when drawing genitaila, masturbation, fellation, and other graphic images that appear in both artists work. These feminists use comics to show their own experiences often consisting of underage sex, rape, and other elements of harsh realities that exist in the world. A disturbing element of Kominsky-Crumb’s work is that it controversially uses humour. She has openly stated that she is “never sure which side of the line of comedy/tragedy I’m treading while I’m working on a story” (Kominsky Crumb, A. 2010. p43). This seems a bald move to use humour in a story that is so personal and horrific. 

  Though their work has been labelled pornographic, this “accusation is complicated by the very idea that they are re-presenting their own experiences of abuse.” (Chute, H. 2005. P28). But does the fact that it is a personal story justify such material in comics? It claims to be pro-feminism but is pornographic, which is a rare combination. It also displays these women as weak, and being sexually dominated and abused by men. Nothing quite like this appears in popular titles like Marvel and DC comics, begging the question, where is the line drawn for graphic illustration to become acceptable in comics and graphic novels? Do these artists get an exception because of the abuse they have suffered? If an artist, such as Frank Miller, who has not experienced this but attempts to tell the same story the same way is their work unacceptable and offensive?

  It seems in comics and graphic novels horrendous violence such as beheading, murder, dismemberment is something that is expected to appear in most modern comics, but to see graphic acts of a sexual nature, such as oral sex and genitalia seems totally absurd and unacceptable, though it is more common in everyday lives than bloody murder. Strangely, parents are more comfortable with their children seeing extreme violence in comics, video games, and films than sex.

Even Johnathan Ross’s new comic illustrated by Ian Churchill, Revenge features nude women who use sex as a weapon to fool the male protagonist, overly sexualized in appearance and even has a history as a porn star. This work is drawn in more detail and more realistically than Miller’s, and with the use of point-of-view shots of the sex scene (See Fig. 6) it allows audiences to engage in a more personal level with the imagery. Yet this work is still nowhere near as graphically shocking as Kominsky-Crumb’s and Gloeckner’s work. So it seems this kind of sexist content is acceptable in the world of fine art and if illustrated by feminists, but if the same thing is illustrated by comic book artists they seem to be frowned upon by the very feminists who penalise their work and yet mimic the same themes, but include rape and abuse. The difference here is that the feminists do not make their women attractive, but draw more obscene things, and back it in the name of feminism, where as the comic artist draw beautiful nude women, and allow them to be intelligent, powerful, and independent. 
 

To conclude, there is sexism in Sin City, it is an extremely sexist piece of art, but as fine art escapes in doing this and worse, such as Agnolo Branzino's 1545 piece Venus, Cupid, Fully of Time (where a mother and son are kissing naked while the son touches the mothers breast [See Fig 5].) It seems strange that Millers work is frowned upon but this is deemed acceptable in society. Though Sin City contains nudity, at least it is of people of age, as does Revenge, unlike Branziono, Kominsky Crumb, and Gloeckner’s work. The Sin City film has an 18 rating, which perhaps the comic should have. An 18 rating shows people that it includes content perhaps unsuitable of kids, so people can understand there will be violence and nudity in the film. The comics have no indication of this, other than the title of the comic. To introduce another Comic Code Authority would be ludicrous, since it damaged so many characters in the 1950’s, but perhaps an rating system like video games and film would benefit people from understating what they are about to read, or even an under sub-title like Jonathan Ross’ Revenge, that reads ‘For mature readers.’ (Ross, J. 2014). By all accounts, it is fair to conclude Sin City is a sexist comic and film, but not unequally to gender. If feminists want equality, Sin City seems to offer preciously that, only using sexism to a fair extent, and contains far less offensive material than much fine art on display in galleries, which also has no rating system.

 Figure 1. Miller, F. 1996.

 

Figure 2. Proctor, N. Sin City, 2005.

Figure 3. Kominsky Crumb, A. 1990. P4

 

Figure 4. Gloeckner, P.  2000.  P73  

        

Figure 5. Branzino, A. 1545.

 

Fig 6. Churchill, I. 

Bibliography

Miller, F. (1991) Sin City: The Hard Goodbye, Oregon, Dark Horse Comics.

Miller, F. (1993) Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, Oregon, Dark Horse Comics.

Miller, F. (1994) Sin City: The Big Fat Kill, Oregon, Dark Horse Comics.

Miller, F. (1996) Sin City: That Yellow Bastard, Oregon, Dark Horse Comics.

Sin City: 2 Disc Collectors Edition – Disc 1, Trench coats and fishnets: the costumes of Sin City. (2005), Directed by Robert Rodriguez, and Frank Miller, [Film] Troublemaker Studios and Miramax/Dimension Home Entertainment.

Proctor, N. (2005) The Making of Sin City, United States of America, Troublemaker Publishing.

Alba, J. (2005) The Making of Sin City, united States of America, Troublemaker Publishing.

 Chute, H. (2010) Graphic Women. Life narrative & contemporary comics New York. Columbia University Press.

Kominsky Crumb, A. (2010) Graphic Women. Life narrative & contemporary comics New York. Columbia University Press.

Mandrid, M. (2009) The Supergirls, United State of America, E.A.P.

Rundle, L. (2004) Girls Who Bite Back, Toronto, Sumach Press.

Ross, J. (2014) Revenge, Berkley, Image comics.

Mulvey, L. (1989) Visual and other pleasures, Hampshire and New York, Palgrave.

K, Newman. (2005) Empire [Online], Available at http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=9989 (Accessed on 18^th March 2014) - Kim Newman, 2005,

Sin City. (2005) Metacritic [Online], Available at http://www.metacritic.com/movie/sin-city (Accessed on 18th March 2014)

Total film. (2005) Total Film [Online] Available at http://www.totalfilm.com/reviews/cinema/sin-city (Accessed on 18th March 2014)

Branzino, A. (1545) Venus, Cupid, Fully of Time.

Gloeckner, P. (2000) Minnie’s 3^rd Love, or Nightmare on Polk Street. In: A Childs Life and Other Stories, Frog books/North Atlantic books.

Kominsky Crumb, A. (1990) The Young Bunch In: Love that Bunch. Fantagraphics Books