Saving the World with Abs and Sex Appeal

After this week’s discussion of how cinema and the human form have become intertwined, my thoughts shifted to one of my favorite genres of film. Comic book films hold a lot within their story lines; power struggles, action, good vs.evil, and heroism. However recently with the success of the Marvel franchise, I'm seeing an even bigger shift from the story and its content over to the sex appeal of the main characters.

Female leads are increasingly becoming perpetuated through sexual appeals, almost diminishing their importance as a character, and lending more to their importance as objective prize to their male counterparts.  Even in such story lines that the female is deemed “the hero,” she is only able to thwart evil villains through her distracting good looks which causes them to undermine her actual abilities.  And, more often than not, these female heroes are portrayed in such ways as to use these influences to their advantages—persuading audiences that assets are clearly valued over ability.

Take a look at Black Widow from “The Avengers”, her skills and capabilities pale in comparison to her male counterparts due partly to her tight catsuit and tight camera shots on her body. Yet when characters like Thor and Captain America's forms are played up its to pay homage to their strength and overall godlike presence as superheroes. "Here, curiosity and the wish to look intermingle with a fascination with likeness and recognition: the human face, the human body, the relationship between the human form and its surroundings, the visible presence of the person in the world,"(Mulvey,3).

 We're pulled into these films not only to see fantasy worlds and action scenes, we're attracted to these characters that offer more to the viewers eye than witty one liners. Content is fading and appearance is becoming more prevalent than ever. Comic book movies have taken superhuman qualities into the looks department rather than the focus being on their unique qualities. In order to save the world you better be a looker or else no one will take you seriously.