sucker punch and sexual politics
First of all, I did not go into Sucker Punch with very high hopes for this movie. I knew it would include sexualized female violence, sexualized violence against females, and most likely a plot that entirely hinged on girls in short black costumes beating the shit out of things. I was waiting for some problematic elements, in other words. And did I get them? Oh, I got them in spades. Instead of commenting on what's worthwhile in this movie: the soundtrack to some extent, the effects, and the pretty visuals, I'm going to focus on the bad and the ugly: the rest of the film.
The film's main character is a twenty year-old woman who is deliberately and blatantly portrayed as a frightened little girl. They chose a round-faced, wide-eyed, petite actress for her role, always give her pigtails and little school-girl dresses, and give her the nickname 'Babydoll.' This makes her clear sexualization in the film turn my stomach even more. Also, name me one film in which a twenty year-old man was treated like a twelve year-old child without the implication that he was developmentally challenged, and he was treated as a sex object to boot. Go ahead.
In fact, all the girls are given similar levels of infantilization, though none as strongly as Babydoll. The 'strongest' female of the group, the girl implied to be the leader, has the name Sweetpea. Other names include Amber and Racket. The point is that these are not people names. These are not names you associate with fellow human beings. These are names you associate with girl's dolls and strippers. The fetishization of female innocence and childhood in this film is blatant and stomach-turning.
Meanwhile, the main 'plot', if one could call it that, starts out thusly: Babydoll's stepfather murdered her sister after their mother's death, which is implied to be his fault, and implicated her as the killer by claiming her mentally unstable. He got her sent to a home for criminally insane girls and set it up with one of the orderlies to get her lobotomized. We see a brief montage of dreamlike scenes of her stay at the asylum, and right before the lobotomy, it suddenly phases to...a girl on stage in a dramatic production, dressed as Babydoll.
The girl takes off her wig and complains loudly about how weird it is to be acting the part of a mental patient in a show that is meant to titillate the audience, and we are suddenly submerged into another 'layer' of this movie's mindscape: in which Babydoll's adventure to escape the asylum become Babydoll's attempts to escape from a strip club/brothel before her virginity is taken by the high-roller. Now, this might have been a decent switch if they'd played on her lobotomy and mental sanctity as rape and sexual autonomy, but they framed the change in scenery with the statement the other girl, Sweet Pea, made: 'This isn't sexy.'
Which is true. An asylum isn't sexy. It's gritty, dehumanizing, painful, and filthy. It's full of hollow-eyed, starving girls who are routinely drugged and sedated out of their minds. Even worse, girls in an asylum are clothed in full-length, drab outfits. In other words, it would completely alienate the targeted male audience to treat the female characters as fully-realized human beings in a siituation that strips them of their humanity, because the targeted male audience does not care about their humanity. They merely care about their status as sex objects. Not, I shall add here, their sexuality: their sexuality does not matter outside of the male gaze. The girls never fully gain control of their own desires: indeed, are shown as having none. Their sexuality in the movie is used as a tool to 'control' the men around them, and it is never about what they want.
Which brings us to Babydoll's ability. What is it that gives her agency in this film? In the sexualized world of the brothel, it is laid out for us: the girls all dance, each dance is their own, and it is what they use to lure in clients. Babydoll is given a sequence in which music plays, the camera focuses on her expression: always frightened and overwhelmed, never in control, and we flash out of 'reality' and into a world crafted entirely by our heroine. Her dance is never shown, but is implied to be purely sexual. It's described as 'raw', 'gyrating', 'moaning'. In other words, her dance is implied to be a sex act in itself, and one that Babydoll has no real control over. The real control comes while she's dancing, where her mind sets her off onto adventures where her body is not sexualized and objectified for these men (the characters in the movie, she is not safe amongst the male audience). Babydoll uses her 'dance' to seduce the gaze of the male characters. As long as she is dancing, she says, they don't notice a thing.
The dark implication in this is that Babydoll, in the harsh world of the asylum, is using her body to distract these men in the only way she can: an actual physical sex act, and her dreams are the only escape she is given while she is being taken. This, I should add, is framed as her 'power', her ability, the tool that gives her agency. A woman's power is her ability to be used.
That said, Babydoll's journey is given the vague trappings of a hero's journey. She is given a mentor figure. Two, actually: one female, one male, and I'll have more on that later. Her quest is laid out to her first in the brothel: 'don't be afraid. you have all the weapons you need. fight.' The means to her escape is given to her in the landscape of her mind: 'you must gather five things: a map, fire, a knife, and a key.' The fifth thing is held a secret for her to find out later. This whole affair is almost exactly like a video game In that there are levels to beat and objects to gain, which is just clumsy script-writing.
That said, in each dream, she obtains a larger-than-life version of each of these items in a battle scene in which she and the girls are soldiers under the command of her male guide figure. The weapons he gives her are a katana and a gun, and the gun has tiny cute charms hanging from it.
Here is what is problematic about this set-up: in the brothel world, Babydoll is dancing provocatively, an act that is decidedly feminine and very sexualized and aimed to entrap men. This is shown as her path to empowerment. What it leads her to is a dream world in which she and the other girls take on male-coded trappings of mechs, guns, and swords. The implication being given is that strength and freedom are masculine in nature, her degredation and oppression are feminine in nature.
Along with that, the two guides she has been given are the psychiatrist from the mental institution which becomes a mistress and dance instructor in the brothel. It is she who gives her the first instruction: 'don't be afraid. you have all the weapons you need. fight.' She teaches her how to dance, clearly the 'feminine' application of power, and is the protective guide and guardian of the girls in the brothel. The male figure of the dream is an elderly man who has no real-world counterpart until the end of the movie, and he commands the girls in the dream, giving them orders and always one blunt, sometimes unhelpful piece of advice.
The female guide is constantly undermined and shown as being just as powerless as the girls. The male villain of this piece- the orderly at the asylum becoming the pimp in the brothel, orders her around, sexually harasses her, treats her like property, and holds a gun to her head while she watches her charges die. She has no power. The male guide is always shown as a strong, if distant, guiding figure. At the end, the only victory in the movie is won because of his actions. This continues the movie's theme of power and freedom= masculine, helplessness and submission = feminine, but also adds a darker note: female empowerment is possible only through male guidance.
And this movie could have been about female empowerment, even to a small degree. I initially thought there be some flimsy message about it in the movie, as it is about a girl stuck in a patriarchal institution encouraging her fellow female prisoners to rebel. Almost every single male character is a sleazy, repulsive caricature of the evil that men do, and the girls aren’t shown as backstabbing and catty, but rather are referred to once as a fraternity, a term that implies togetherness and family. (Too bad, like in everything else in this movie, they refer to the positive with the male term.) But, no. The plot routinely degrades and objectifies women while attempting to send the message that women can be powerful. It stumbles, because the message includes that women can be powerful…dressed in the trappings of the male gaze, made to be sexual objects for the male audience, and under the careful guidance of a wise, older male figure.
~
To put it bluntly, this is some really sexist bullshit. Completely separate from the richly problematic portrayal of gender, sex, and sexuality, the film has some pretty nasty racefail when it takes out the only two WOC in one fell swoop, shooting one for stealing a lighter for the escape plan, and the other for snitching on the other girls. Yes, the WOC was the weak point. Hurray. Also, the movie focuses entirely on the skinny blonde trio and leaves the others out of the narrative glow.
Along with that, the plot is shoddy. I wouldn't have minded a simple plot, but this plot is a horrid mess of confusing intentions, poor writing, and a complete lack of any point. The characters are barely two-dimensional. There is no real message in the movie except the one they tried to plaster on, which is...fight until Batman rescues you, I guess. The only thing even worth seeing are the fight sequences, which are beyond ridiculous and keep you from taking any of this shit seriously, but are very pretty, the visuals, which are once again very pretty, and some of the music. Cut out all of the brothel scenes, leave the dream sequences, and make this the world's longest music video, and it would be worth watching. Aside from that? This movie is a festering, putrid pile of shit.
The film's main character is a twenty year-old woman who is deliberately and blatantly portrayed as a frightened little girl. They chose a round-faced, wide-eyed, petite actress for her role, always give her pigtails and little school-girl dresses, and give her the nickname 'Babydoll.' This makes her clear sexualization in the film turn my stomach even more. Also, name me one film in which a twenty year-old man was treated like a twelve year-old child without the implication that he was developmentally challenged, and he was treated as a sex object to boot. Go ahead.
In fact, all the girls are given similar levels of infantilization, though none as strongly as Babydoll. The 'strongest' female of the group, the girl implied to be the leader, has the name Sweetpea. Other names include Amber and Racket. The point is that these are not people names. These are not names you associate with fellow human beings. These are names you associate with girl's dolls and strippers. The fetishization of female innocence and childhood in this film is blatant and stomach-turning.
Meanwhile, the main 'plot', if one could call it that, starts out thusly: Babydoll's stepfather murdered her sister after their mother's death, which is implied to be his fault, and implicated her as the killer by claiming her mentally unstable. He got her sent to a home for criminally insane girls and set it up with one of the orderlies to get her lobotomized. We see a brief montage of dreamlike scenes of her stay at the asylum, and right before the lobotomy, it suddenly phases to...a girl on stage in a dramatic production, dressed as Babydoll.
The girl takes off her wig and complains loudly about how weird it is to be acting the part of a mental patient in a show that is meant to titillate the audience, and we are suddenly submerged into another 'layer' of this movie's mindscape: in which Babydoll's adventure to escape the asylum become Babydoll's attempts to escape from a strip club/brothel before her virginity is taken by the high-roller. Now, this might have been a decent switch if they'd played on her lobotomy and mental sanctity as rape and sexual autonomy, but they framed the change in scenery with the statement the other girl, Sweet Pea, made: 'This isn't sexy.'
Which is true. An asylum isn't sexy. It's gritty, dehumanizing, painful, and filthy. It's full of hollow-eyed, starving girls who are routinely drugged and sedated out of their minds. Even worse, girls in an asylum are clothed in full-length, drab outfits. In other words, it would completely alienate the targeted male audience to treat the female characters as fully-realized human beings in a siituation that strips them of their humanity, because the targeted male audience does not care about their humanity. They merely care about their status as sex objects. Not, I shall add here, their sexuality: their sexuality does not matter outside of the male gaze. The girls never fully gain control of their own desires: indeed, are shown as having none. Their sexuality in the movie is used as a tool to 'control' the men around them, and it is never about what they want.
Which brings us to Babydoll's ability. What is it that gives her agency in this film? In the sexualized world of the brothel, it is laid out for us: the girls all dance, each dance is their own, and it is what they use to lure in clients. Babydoll is given a sequence in which music plays, the camera focuses on her expression: always frightened and overwhelmed, never in control, and we flash out of 'reality' and into a world crafted entirely by our heroine. Her dance is never shown, but is implied to be purely sexual. It's described as 'raw', 'gyrating', 'moaning'. In other words, her dance is implied to be a sex act in itself, and one that Babydoll has no real control over. The real control comes while she's dancing, where her mind sets her off onto adventures where her body is not sexualized and objectified for these men (the characters in the movie, she is not safe amongst the male audience). Babydoll uses her 'dance' to seduce the gaze of the male characters. As long as she is dancing, she says, they don't notice a thing.
The dark implication in this is that Babydoll, in the harsh world of the asylum, is using her body to distract these men in the only way she can: an actual physical sex act, and her dreams are the only escape she is given while she is being taken. This, I should add, is framed as her 'power', her ability, the tool that gives her agency. A woman's power is her ability to be used.
That said, Babydoll's journey is given the vague trappings of a hero's journey. She is given a mentor figure. Two, actually: one female, one male, and I'll have more on that later. Her quest is laid out to her first in the brothel: 'don't be afraid. you have all the weapons you need. fight.' The means to her escape is given to her in the landscape of her mind: 'you must gather five things: a map, fire, a knife, and a key.' The fifth thing is held a secret for her to find out later. This whole affair is almost exactly like a video game In that there are levels to beat and objects to gain, which is just clumsy script-writing.
That said, in each dream, she obtains a larger-than-life version of each of these items in a battle scene in which she and the girls are soldiers under the command of her male guide figure. The weapons he gives her are a katana and a gun, and the gun has tiny cute charms hanging from it.
Here is what is problematic about this set-up: in the brothel world, Babydoll is dancing provocatively, an act that is decidedly feminine and very sexualized and aimed to entrap men. This is shown as her path to empowerment. What it leads her to is a dream world in which she and the other girls take on male-coded trappings of mechs, guns, and swords. The implication being given is that strength and freedom are masculine in nature, her degredation and oppression are feminine in nature.
Along with that, the two guides she has been given are the psychiatrist from the mental institution which becomes a mistress and dance instructor in the brothel. It is she who gives her the first instruction: 'don't be afraid. you have all the weapons you need. fight.' She teaches her how to dance, clearly the 'feminine' application of power, and is the protective guide and guardian of the girls in the brothel. The male figure of the dream is an elderly man who has no real-world counterpart until the end of the movie, and he commands the girls in the dream, giving them orders and always one blunt, sometimes unhelpful piece of advice.
The female guide is constantly undermined and shown as being just as powerless as the girls. The male villain of this piece- the orderly at the asylum becoming the pimp in the brothel, orders her around, sexually harasses her, treats her like property, and holds a gun to her head while she watches her charges die. She has no power. The male guide is always shown as a strong, if distant, guiding figure. At the end, the only victory in the movie is won because of his actions. This continues the movie's theme of power and freedom= masculine, helplessness and submission = feminine, but also adds a darker note: female empowerment is possible only through male guidance.
And this movie could have been about female empowerment, even to a small degree. I initially thought there be some flimsy message about it in the movie, as it is about a girl stuck in a patriarchal institution encouraging her fellow female prisoners to rebel. Almost every single male character is a sleazy, repulsive caricature of the evil that men do, and the girls aren’t shown as backstabbing and catty, but rather are referred to once as a fraternity, a term that implies togetherness and family. (Too bad, like in everything else in this movie, they refer to the positive with the male term.) But, no. The plot routinely degrades and objectifies women while attempting to send the message that women can be powerful. It stumbles, because the message includes that women can be powerful…dressed in the trappings of the male gaze, made to be sexual objects for the male audience, and under the careful guidance of a wise, older male figure.
~
To put it bluntly, this is some really sexist bullshit. Completely separate from the richly problematic portrayal of gender, sex, and sexuality, the film has some pretty nasty racefail when it takes out the only two WOC in one fell swoop, shooting one for stealing a lighter for the escape plan, and the other for snitching on the other girls. Yes, the WOC was the weak point. Hurray. Also, the movie focuses entirely on the skinny blonde trio and leaves the others out of the narrative glow.
Along with that, the plot is shoddy. I wouldn't have minded a simple plot, but this plot is a horrid mess of confusing intentions, poor writing, and a complete lack of any point. The characters are barely two-dimensional. There is no real message in the movie except the one they tried to plaster on, which is...fight until Batman rescues you, I guess. The only thing even worth seeing are the fight sequences, which are beyond ridiculous and keep you from taking any of this shit seriously, but are very pretty, the visuals, which are once again very pretty, and some of the music. Cut out all of the brothel scenes, leave the dream sequences, and make this the world's longest music video, and it would be worth watching. Aside from that? This movie is a festering, putrid pile of shit.