Related Marvel Cinematic Universe Films
 Avengers 2012 |
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 Iron Man 2 2010 |
 Thor: The Dark World 2013 |
 Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) |
 Thor 2011 |
 The Incredible HULK 2008 |
 Captain America: Winter Soldier 2014 |
 Iron Man 2008 |
 Avengers: Age of Ultron 2015 |
 Captain America: Civil War 2016 |
 Iron Man 3 2013 |
Ways of Seeing: Black Widow in Avengers film series
In this section, we shall begin with textual analysis excerpted from movies that highlighted some particular features of Black Widow’s representations appeared on screen via the cinematic eye, the variations of depictions between her and other Avenger superheroes, in particular Captain America in Captain America: Winter Soldier, through comparative in-depth visual analysis of one particular fighting scene. Based on the examples in films suggested, the aim of this essay is to argue John Berger’s argument of “Men act and women appear” deemed relevant not only to the form of text in still pictures, as in paintings or photographs, but across medium to motion pictures as genre, where gendered ways of seeing remains present and yet presented in a multi-dimensional ways of which spectators could decipher through cinematic techniques as vantage point.
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Cinema as eye: Woman as Object of phallocentric gaze
(From the Avengers 2012)
From Left to Right: Black Widow’s hairstyles in Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Captain America: Winter Soldier, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War. All images © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
(Photo courtesy: http://manvspink.com/blog/is-black-widows-hairstyle-sexist/ )
(Extracted from the BW's fight document)
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Detail comparison between Black Widow and Captain America
Individual character film analysis:
(Extracted from the CA's fight document)
WAYS OF SEEING
As the only female core member of the Avengers team, compared to her male counterparts, how does Black Widow being depicted differently in the movies?
The claim which woman as the object of phallocentric gaze perhaps is nothing new. As mentioned in Laura Mulvey’s Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, under the subheading ‘Woman as Image, Man as Bearer of the look’, “The determining male gaze projects its phantasy on to 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.” (Mulvey, 837)
Black Widow is no exception. Right from her styling, her appearance, the character is assumed to be gazed or surveyed by the spectators. In practice, among all Avenger series motion pictures which Black Widow starred, never did once Black Widow repeat her hairstyle.
On the contrary to other male characters, her looks change constantly throughout series. Audience, even male spectators could notice this specific arrangement and raise this issue by writing the article Is Black Widow's Hairstyle Sexist? Changing hairstyle in different movies might sound trivial but is certainly not when it is one kind of manifestation of gender-based expectations imposed on cinematic female characters, where females are subjected to the phallocentric gaze and hence needs to alter her looks frequently as to fulfill the visual pleasure of the audience. The phenomenon of objectification of Black Widow is more blatant when the gaze is not limited to her constantly-changing hairstyle, but also strong emphasis on her body figure.
In Avengers, there is a scene where Black Widow is leaving her captive place while talking on phone with a SHIELD agent. Other than picking up the phone, she picks up her heels and the camera tilts up as she moves along. The camera intentionally leaves the pair of heels as objects a still shot which may be considered as fulfilling the desire of fetishism among audience, as well as a sign simultaneously embedded with feminine meaning. The camera movement of tilt upwards which only focuses on Black Widow’s legs might also be considered as satisfying the voyeurism of the spectators.
(From Captain America: the Winter Soldier 2014)
Even in Captain America: Winter Soldier, when Black Widow is hitting her enemy with weapon, the camera is deliberately placed right behind her lower bottom level where her body figure constitutes the center of the frame. While she is leaving the room, the camera still filming her for more than 3 seconds from the same angle, as if enjoying her body movement and figure.
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Cinematic Depictions: Gendered Representations through comparison
Expanding our focus from Black Widow alone, to further our discussion, an excerpt clip from Captain America: The Winter Soldier will be analyzed visually through comparison approach in illustrating the difference of gender representations in movies, analyzed in comparing how Black Widow and Captain America's depictions varied in motion pictures and what do these distinctions reflect. In this extracted clip, both Black Widow (BW) and Captain America (CA) fought against Bucky Barnes (B). However, if spectators pay close enough attention, one could spot the difference of portrayals of the two, ranging from characters actions, uses of props or background, to filming techniques through visual analysis. The comparison would be based on 4 main categories: I) Camera shots and movements, II) use of props, III) fighting style and actions and the IV) general features and mood.
Expanding Concerning the camera shots and movements, one outstanding feature is different use of close up shots. For Black Widow, more close up shots are dedicated to contour her fear, her emotion especially during hiding and escaping whereas for Captain America, more close up shots are about fighting actions or motions, for instance, close up the use of shield against punch.
Viewing from Black Widow, as a single role or when compared to other male characters, John Berger’s argument that “Men act and Women Appear’ is pertinent in this case, despite the text genre is now turned to films, where a differed range of visual analysis methods including cinematic techniques can be taken into consideration in reinterpretation of this claim.
References:
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Avengers: Age of Ultron. Directed by Joss Whedon. U.S: Marvel Studio, 2015. DVD.
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Berger, John, Sven Blomberg, Chris Fox, Michael Dibb, and Richard Hollis. Ways of Seeing. Britain: Penguin Books, 1972.
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Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo. U.S: Walt Disney Pictures, 2014. DVD.
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Iron Man 2. Directed by Jon Favreau. U.S: Marvel Studio, 2010. DVD.
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"Is Black Widow's Hairstyle Sexist." Manvspink Blog. November 25, 2015. Accessed April 18, 2016. http://manvspink.com/blog/is-black-widows-hairstyle-sexist/.
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Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. Eds. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen. New York: Oxford UP, 1999: 833-44.
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The Avengers. Directed by Joss Whedon. U.S: Walt Disney Pictures, 2012. DVD.
Use of props is another possible dimension for analysis. Despite both characters fight with B at street, the use of cars at site varies. Whereas BW often uses car as a protection place, hides behind the car, CA uses car as a fighting site or as assistance to launch attacks. Rendering the fighting style and actions, within clip, BW mainly uses tactics of weapons, attention diversion and sudden attack from the back in contrast to CA who uses shield as his main weapon and have head-on battle with B. The visual techniques in general fashioned a different mood for BW and CA, with the accumulating “victimized” mood, in a relatively more emotional scene for the former and the brave, masculine heroic mood, the motion-oriented one for the latter and yet the aforementioned are only some examples in fostering such mood, other traces can also be found in the editing as well as background music.
Besides, more diversify camera movements are deployed in CA’s fight, including tilting up when running as to amplify the speed and action of CA as well as the use of rotating camera angles and bird view angles.