objectification

In the original Alien vs. Predator, Alexa Woods (Sanaa Lathan) outlasts her male co-stars and ends up as the heroine of the film. In Alien vs. Predator Requiem (AVP-R), Chelah Horsdal was written as a heroine, but she was not nearly the heroine Lathan was. This is the result of different writers. Two groups of writers created two different stories. The writers of Alien vs. Predator created a dynamic and fierce heroine. The original Alien vs. Predator was feminist friendly. The writers of AVP-R created one woman who was a heroine and another who was "eye candy", i.e. physically objectified.

The physically objectified character, Jesse (Kristen Hager), was introduced at the beginning of the film as the disgruntled girlfriend of the large and in charge violent boyfriend. After all, every woman wants a man who is in control, right? Jesse was powerless next to her boyfriend. Her boyfriend was violent, and even though she said she would "fire him", at no point did she verbally disagree with his brutality to his face. After watching her male friend get beat up by her boyfriend, her boyfriend commanded her to follow him back into her house ... and lo and behold, she did exactly what he told her to do. Big surprise. Her passive acceptance translates to audiences that women accept men who are violent, in control, abusive, and if they know what's good for them, should not show their discontent to their boyfriends' faces. She eventually broke up with him, but her boyfriend stalked her and beat up her new male interest.

Take a good look at that photo right above this sentence. Chris Brown and T-Pain are physically and sexually objectifying this young black woman, and thus, reduce her to eye candy and perpetuating stereotypes about black women. To prove everything is mutual, the video director even had this woman smiling like that is the sort of thing a woman wants. Step right up black ladies! You're going to be featured in a video where everyone is going to look at your ass. If you're black, then it's almost certain we'll stereotype you for having a big ol' butt!

The problem does not stop there. Over the course of pop music history black women have consistently been objectified. If there are women in a hip-hop video, and the lead singers are men, one can almost be certain that a display of the female anatomy will be just what the doctor ordered.

Even before hip-hop emerged, black women's bodies have been objectified. In The rebirth of the booty: America's obsession with my big black ass., student writer Amber Williams discusses mainstream America's obsession with big black ass:

Black women have been objectified as sex objects ever since their voluptuous bodies were seen as a welcome change to the bony figures of European women to whom the male settlers were accustomed. When African women arrived in America via a "free cruise" through the middle passage with their large posteriors, it was assumed that they were sex-craving, savage beasts. The view of black women as sexual predators is still seen today in both the entertainment industry and society at large.

Limited lead female characters is an understatement with regard to this movie. The only part of the movie where there were a lot of females was during the scene where women were stuffing small packages of heroine. Traditionally the women have to be naked since there is the possibility they might steal some, but seriously, black nude females? Goodness knows we never see enough black women poorly represented in the media.

The female characters of this film were rendered powerless. The one incident where Eve (Lymari Nadal) spoke up against a man, she was immediately slapped in the face. She cowered with fear and was not able to defend herself. Mama Lucas (Ruby Dee), the mother of Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), never asked her son how he had enough money to afford to buy her a house clear out of the blue. She was portrayed as being completely naive throughout the film. Towards the end of the movie she confronted her son about his gangster activities. After he lied to her she slapped him in the face for it. She said that she did not like to be lied to. The wife and mother of this film were both written as mentally and physically powerless in the face of male goals. What was the message of the movie? If a woman was in the way of what a man wants, then who is she to stand in a his way?

One of the most prominent themes of this movie was the use of female sexual powerlessness as a means to strike fear in the audience. There are two lengthy scenes where sexual powerlessness occurs. I will discuss one. The protagonist Riggs (Lyriq Bent) is faced with a moral dilemma. He either saves his fellow detectives or saves a prostitute. Jigsaw convinces the prostitute that if she kills Riggs then she will not have to go to jail for her crimes. When Riggs first sees her, her head is covered with a pig's head. Her entire body is in bondage. A 15 second screen shot from her high heels all the way up to the pig's head shows her breasts and thighs. Even in a horror movie, a woman in bondage and being tortured must look sexy. No where in the film are the men required to be physically and sexually objectified.

In Saw IV, both women and men are in bondage. Both women and men suffer from a huge power differential between themselves and the torturer. The difference between the males and female is not the magnitude of the torture, but rather, how the tortured respond to pain and powerlessness. All of the men in the film attempt to fight their way out of being tortured. The female character begs for help. The way that men react to powerlessness and the way women respond is entirely different. The writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan characterize men in the film to fight for their rights even though they are "in the wrong" until the bitter end. There is an endearing quality to a person who fights for their lives until the very end ... even if they are the antagonists. The prostitute was not written to have a fighter's spirit. She was characterized as being self-defeating and desperate.

The primary female characters were Alice (Milla Jovovich), Claire Redfield (Ali Larter), Betty (Ashanti), and K-Mart (Spencer Locke). The first image one sees at the beginning of the film is Alice half naked on the bottom of a shower stall. This is an example of physical and sexual objectification. There is a pattern of horror, suspense, and action movies where at some point in the film a woman or several women are sexually vulnerable and / or physically objectified. It is as if these film makers are saying, "We can have a woman with a lead role as long as she looks sexy doing it. We need to make sure we see some skin somewhere."

Particularly disappointing was the racial stereotyping of Betty. As soon as L.J. (Mike Epps) is hurt by one of the infected, nurse Betty comes to the rescue. 99.9% of the healing was a lot of flirting between the two characters. After the flirting was over with, Betty takes her exit, but not without a 3 second camera shot of her butt as she waved it side to side for the camera. I wonder if the director said to Ashanti, "Move your ass from side to side like that ... oh no, like that ... yeah, that looks sexier." Of all the female characters, Betty was the most objectified character. This is a typical "Sapphire" black female stereotype that goes back to the slavery era in the U.S.:

Sapphire, the wise-cracking, balls-crushing, emasculating woman, is usually shown with her hands on her hips and her head thrown back as she lets everyone know she is in charge. [source]

When Genevieve played by Noémie Lenoir took off her wig, Detective James Carter played by Chris Tucker straight up called her a "man". It was as if the whole Brittani Spears bald head scandal some how crept it's way into this movie. The gender stereotype exposed in this film, was that in order for a woman to be a real woman, she cannot be bald. After all, if a woman is bald, there is something seriously wrong with her. Everyone knows that if a woman is bald her entire gender is questionable (insert satire).

Noémie Lenoirrole's role in Rush Hour 3 was that of a martyr. From the time she was born until she became an adult her purpose in life was to serve a male dominated secret society. She was brainwashed into believing that her life is less valuable than exposing the names of certain high status men. Like in the movie 300, as in many other movies with fictional historical reenactments, there will typically be a woman (or women) who's sole purpose is to be sacrificed in order to preserve a patriarchal power structure.

There are several female characters in the hit series "Death Note". The most prevalent character was Misa Amane "Misa Misa". Misa's character was shy, physically weak, submissive, and written to be emotionally and physically dominated by the main character, Yagami Light. There was not a single episode in which Misa was not "willingly" at the mercy of Light. Misa was frequently animated in sexually submissive poses that were intended to be readily enjoyed as eye-candy for every male character of Death Note that was sexually interested in her. At no point in the series did Misa refuse any male that sexually harassed her. In fact, she was portrayed to not only be sexually submissive, but was also substantially less intelligent than her male counterparts.

The second most prevalent female character was the Shinigami Rem. Rem's whole purpose in the show was to protect Misa. The relationship between Rem and Misa was that of solidarity. Their solidarity lasted until the middle of the storyline. Like Misa's role, Rem was more than willing to be a martyr. Rem died to protect Misa because she was tricked by Light. Rem's good intentions to protect Misa were ill founded, because Misa committed suicide after the death of Light.

The rest of the significant female characters had limited roles in which they either died or almost died at the hands of Yagami Light or another death note owner.

Feminist Fix

How could this anime be feminist friendly and still maintain it’s pop appeal?

1. The writers could have written Misa's role as woman who was not constantly being physically objectified, intellectually incompetent, and emotionally submissive. Instead of writing her as the "weaker" character, Misa could have been a heroine.

"Hey there Delilah" is a love song about a real woman. According to USA Today, the lead singer of Plain White T's Tom Higgenson met Delilah DiCrescenzo in 2004. He thought it would be "smooth" to write a song for her since she was the most beautiful "girl" he had ever seen. Higgenson said, " 'Because I wasn't with Delilah, I had to imagine, If I was with this girl, what would I want to tell her?' ".

He assumed that his musical talents could put her into a love spell:

Hey there Delilah
I've got so much left to say
If every simple song I wrote to you
Would take your breath away
I'd write it all
Even more in love with me you'd fall
We'd have it all

He also assumed that this woman needed someone to take care of her financially:

Hey there Delilah
I know times are getting hard
But just believe me girl
Someday I'll pay the bills with this guitar
We'll have it good
We'll have the life we knew we would
My word is good

He even goes as far as writing that his infatuation with her is her fault:

Delilah I can promise you
That by the time we get through
The world will never ever be the same
And you're to blame

Jay Z begins the song with a little intro jingle. In it, he brags about how his music company is making a lot of money, and how Rihanna is part of his "stacked chips" for a rainy day. In other words, just when people might have thought Jay Z slowed down on introducing new talent, he comes back on top of his game.

Stacked chips for the rainy day
Jay, Rain Man is back with little Ms. Sunshine
Rihanna where you at?

Sad to say, Jay Z could not even let Rihanna flaunt this song all on her own. He introduces "little Ms. Sunshine" as if she needs his popularity to give her a "boost" of juice if you will. In this regard, Jay Z steals the spotlight of the song and renders Rihanna powerless at the intro. Think about it. The first thing a listener hears is not Rihanna, but Jay Z.

For the rest of the music video, Rihanna subjects herself to utter objectification. It is the sexual fantasy all men are wanting . . . a "good girl gone bad" -- that's the name of her entire album, by the way. The snapshot above is one of the most sexually submissive posses she performs in the video. There are many parts of the video in which she dances around the umbrella as if the umbrella was some phallic sculpture to be worshiped. While she dances around the umbrella in between her legs, she taunts and chants to the video watcher by saying "Baby come into me" repetitively.

When the sun shines, we’ll shine together
Told you I'll be here forever
Said I'll always be a friend
Took an oath I'ma stick it out till the end
Now that it's raining more than ever
Know that we'll still have each other
You can stand under my umbrella