Ashe Woodward
Is killing and slaying in impractical footwear an added superpower?
In his book, Dangerous Curves: Action Heroines, Gender, Fetishism, and Popular Culture, Jeffrey A. Brown discusses several female heroes from the 1990s that were challenging the female hero narrative and representation such as Xena, Pamela Anderson’s character in VIP and of course, our beloved, Buffy. Brown is not alone in observing a dominatrix-like thread that connected all of these female characters that was woven through their stories but also their physical appearance. Brown says:
The dominatrix overtones of these living room action heroes may have been toned down a little bit from their big screen counterparts but they still exist. Clad in
leather and armor bustier, Xena may be the most easily identifiable as a
dominatrix-influenced fantasy, but the sight of an adolescent Buffy, dressed in club
wear and high heels as she kicks and stabs ghoulies to death is not that far off the mark either.
Brown goes on to say that the fact that television series are obviously longer, the audience gets to know the character beyond her sexy appearance. This makes them become relatable for female viewers over time. Meanwhile, the male audience is captivated, perhaps for reasons they don’t fully understand.
There are some restrictions to what a television character can wear compared to what is acceptable in a film with a more adult audience. This is a sort of campiness that softens the sexism, Brown puts it. But still the initial eye-candy is there for male-viewers as well - or, honestly, in the case of Xena and Gabrielle a lesbian or questioning audience as I’m sure we’re all aware…
The dominatrix representation is one that Brown digs into quite deeply but the summary is basically that a dominatrix represents both masculinity as far as punishment and femininity as far as teasing sexuality. Brown cites Thais E. Morgan who says the dominatrix uses “the signs of masculinity to mock masculinity.” So she may wield a sword, but it’s often shorter, more akin to a dagger. Or she may appropriate his armour to accentuate her bosom. Brown continues, “Like the dominatrix, the action heroine refuses the terms of the social contract of sexual difference. She does not just dress up as a male or simply enact masculinity. She dresses up as both male and female enacting both masculinity and femininity,” which I guess is also a great way to attract those multi-gendered audiences (Brown). Additionally, this is also a great way to intrigue a specifically teenaged audience who is often interested in gender play, gender bent characters and gender roles in general, according to Smith. Basically, there’s a tradition here of this combination of the dominatrix-like hero blurring the lines of gender roles by being aligned with the archetype of the punishing dominatrix female. This high heel thing, I found, goes much further and deeper than I had expected.
And as I continued to discover, there are just too many examples to name from comic books, film, and television, but some more that come to mind in this tradition are Catwoman, a kind of obvious one, but also Charlie’s Angels, Milla Jovovich in the Fifth Element and again in Resident Evil, which Brown mentions as well. I’m thinking of all the Marvel women, especially Scarlet Johanson’s Black Widow, Trinity from The Matrix to some extent, and of course Selene from Underworld.
There’s one more layer to add to this: if the dominatrix argument perhaps goes too far for you, let’s look at Buffy and even some of the other heroes as not fighters but detectives because, essentially, that is what they boil down to in their respective series dramas, no?
In Linda Mizejewski’s book, Hardboiled and High Heeled: The Woman Detective in Popular Culture, she claims that a woman detective is non-conformist character and so, as Mizejewski puts it, “she's a woman whose story does not lead to love and marriage…the easiest way to assure audiences she’s straight is to glamorize her, giver her a male cop partner, or put her into a bikini and high heels with plenty of silhouette profile shots.” Mizejewski goes on to note that Jodie Foster’s "Clarisse" works hard against this by “removing her from girlie or glamorous cliches.” It’s true. In the opening scene [of The Silence of the Lambs] she’s shown as sweaty, coming from an obstacle course at FBI headquarters––she’s in sweats with no makeup, hair pulled back but messy but then she gets on the elevator and the distinction between her and the other “beefy guys” is clear - she’s smaller, she ends up looking, as Misjewski puts it, “delicate, vulnerable and pretty despite the sweaty gym clothes.”
Why this matters, according to Misjewski, is that as far as detective films go, the buddy comedy and the potential sex appeal of a sexy, cis female cop are more secure for a box office success. Because, if she’s a lesbian or even queer coded, or just simply not for the cis male gaze, there's a risk of alienating a large swath of viewership. And who is going to risk millions of dollars of production costs to make a movie that isn’t going to appeal to the most viewers and also not offend potential longterm fans or DVD buyers?
An interesting honorable mention as Mezjewski finishes up this chapter, is the pregnant sheriff we get in 1996’s Fargo. This is nearing the spoof level (thanks Cohen brothers) of reminding us of her heteronormalcy instead of using the device of high heels. But it also reminds this writer of the fact that women are really only boiled down to a couple of archetypes: virgin, mother, whore.
Lastly, in looking for any signs of progress, change or comment on this depiction of women in regular occupations on film while also not making their pregnancy part of the character or part of their overt heteronormalcy, I found an interesting and rather deflating note in an article for The Financial Times. Wendy Ide writes that, at the time Fargo was made, “there was speculation that Fargo would set the tone for future depictions of pregnancy, that mothers-to-be would be allowed to be fully realised characters rather than bumps on legs. But, in fact, there have probably been more films featuring wood chipper body disposals in the past 25 years than there have been ones featuring characters who just happen to be pregnant.”
Maybe we should try it again, but this time, in heels.
Please leave a comment below or join us in the Spooky Salon for a longer chat on this and other topics from the podcast and blog.
Sources
Brown, Jefferey A. 2011. Dangerous Curves: Action Heroines, Gender, Fetishism, and Popular Culture. University of Mississippi Press.
Ide, Wendy. 2021. “Why Fargo is Still the Mother of All Pregnancy Movies.” The Financial Times.
Mizejewski, Linda. 2004. Hardboiled and High Heeled: The Woman Detective in Popular Culture. Routledge.
Schubart, Rikke. 2007. Super Bitches and Action Babes. The Female Hero in Popular Cinema, 1970-2006. McFarland and Company.
Smith, Frances. 2017. “Rethinking the Hollywood Teen Movie: Gender, Genre and Identity”. Edinburgh University.
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