This screen shot is taken from Transformers 2, and is the introductory shot of Megan Fox. The film is directed by Michael Bay, who as a 'privileged' male in society, is the dominant gender in the production of visual media. As Rosalind Coward states in her book Reading Images: 'there can be little doubt that entertainment as we know it is crucially predicated on a masculine investigation of women, and a circulation of women's images for men.' This film's audience is primarily male, as indicated by the action based content of the Transformers films, and also by the not so subtle objectification of Megan Fox throughout the film.
From this screen shot, it is confirmed that Rosalind Coward's statement that 'The camera in contemporary media has been put to use as an extension of the male gaze at women on the streets'. The positioning of Megan Fox in the centre of the camera therefore places here at the centre of the gaze, allowing the male viewer to stare at the female as if he were present in the scene, but without a sense of guilt or perversion. This shot acts as a perfect example of voyeurism, which is defined as a 'way of taking sexual pleasure by looking at rather than being close to a particular object of desire, like a peeping tom.'
Throughout the movie, Megan Fox is positioned as a kind of fantasy figure for the male to gaze at. Everything about Megan Fox both in this scene and the entire film has been sexualised: her semi pornographic posing; the clothing she wears; her body, which is meant to represent the ideal female figure. This film enables the viewer to treat her as a sexual object, whilst keeping her at a distance, '...where the meanings are fixed and reassuring; perhaps only in the images could true controlling securely be reached?' What Coward is suggesting here is that the gaze has been designed for the male to be left in control of. In reality, the viewer understands that Megan Fox, and the levels of her attractiveness, are unattainable. If a male were to stare at Fox in this way on an actual street, or to try and become close to her, they would be rejected; Not only because Megan Fox is attached, but because she would be out of their league. Michael Bay is allowing men to safely watch her, perhaps lust after her, but without the fear of rejection that would come from approaching an attractive woman in reality.
The 'ideal female' that is being represented here signals the very closed minded view of attractiveness that is reflected in all aspects of the media. Megan Fox is slender, white, with long hair and large breasts. Her face is almost cartoon like in its attractiveness: the emphasised cheek bones; the Angelina Jolie pout. Women are bombarded by images like this, and perceive this as something to aspire to.
As Coward suggests: 'It is radically incorrect to liken women's relation with media images to the happy state of Narcissus.' Women who view these images are supposed to see them as a reflection of themselves, as something they can relate to. In the same way Narcissus fell in love with his reflection, we are supposed to enjoy looking at heightened definitions of femininity and identify and desire them. Instead, as Coward correctly states: 'Women's relation to their own self image is much more likely to be dominated by discontent'. Women do not desire the images in a way that would suggest they desire the woman, they desire the assets, and the looks that these women possess or we perceive them to possess, which in turn gives them the power to attract a male. When we cannot achieve the same looks that we view in the media, it creates an anxiety, and problems with our self esteem. This gives the male dominated media more power, as they harness this discontent into a marketing strategy to sell products to women, who hope that they can buy their way to this unrealistic ideal.
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