The Male Gaze A large percent of media texts especially in the film industry are imagined and created through the male eye. The patriarchal society has shaped the film form to objectify women and to train the both the male and female audience to accept this as the norm. Is a perfect opportunity to explore the male gaze and how eroticism has been coded into the language of the dominant patriarchal order.

The film is a close reproduction of the comic where Rodriguez has tried to contain as much of the comic genre in the film with its noir lighting and splashes of vivid colour mixed in with clips of animation and comic strips. Even more strongly than in film the comic genre accentuates gender roles to such an extreme that the men are portrayed as ‘excessively macho’ and the women as ‘sidekicks, sex kittens or helpless appendages’. This is very important this means that Rodriguez has taken this male-centered subculture of comics to mass culture . The original Nancy from the Sin City comic by Frank Miller

The women in Sin City are defined by their sexuality. Pictured as strikingly beautiful and half naked their strength and power is channelled through their sexuality and physicality. They have been stereotypically idealised to be loathed and lusted after as objects of male fantasies where they admire the female spectacle but in no way respect it. This is clear in the film where they are repeatedly called ‘whores’ and slapped around.

With roles such as the glamorous, angelic love interest that turns out to be a common prostitute, the stripper with a heart of gold and the beaten waitress with an abusive string of boyfriends, each clearly jeopardised or victimised by brutal crime and injustice there lies the misogynistic cliché that these weak women need rescuing by men from other men… and from themselves. This makes the male audience feel more powerful as they imagine themselves in the position of these male saviours. Take for instance Shellie the waitress who is beaten by Jacky Boy and has no choice but to rely on Dwight to protect her through violence while she cowers and panics in nothing but underwear and an mans shirt with blood dripping from her lip.

Although in this film the women are completely sexualised for male gratification it doesn’t mean that they are completely passive submissive characters. They fight for themselves, they are cunning and capable. Such as Gail, leader of her sisterhood of prostitutes. She is armed, independent and protects herself. On the other hand she is repeatedly told by Dwight that she is ‘a Valkyrie’ (a mythic Norse woman warrior or angel of Death), this implies that although she is a strong woman that can fend for herself she is still defined by a man.

When Jessica Alba’s character Nancy is introduced to the audience in the film she is dancing at a sleazy saloon wearing not much more then a pair of chaps and cowboy boots. The camera pans around and focuses on Alba’s body as she gyrates, pleasing both the on-screen patrons and the audience watching the screen. – A perfect example of the male gaze!

Looking at reviews online, almost all point out how the women are represented, here is a small selection: This comment is particularly interesting as it shows people are aware of Mulveys theory of the male gaze and Sigmund Freud’s theory of scopophilia.

The film adaption of Sin City much like the original comic is… ‘ written by men about men for men’. Dana Leventhal – Brightlightsfilm.com