We all know that sex sells. Scratch that -- that sexy female bodies sell movies.
The blog "Headless Women of Hollywood[1]" points out the disturbing trend of movie posters cropping out women's faces completely in favor of butt and boob shots. And it's not limited to crude comedies or erotic thrillers either -- this is a common trend in movie posters that transcends genre and era.
Created by stand-up comedian Marcia Belsky, the blog and accompanying Twitter aim to point out how "Hollywood still portrays women as sort of happy to be in the background and sexually available," Belsky told USA TODAY over the phone.[2]
Belsky started the blog inspired by a sociology college class and advertisements she saw all over the New York subway -- of sexualized images of "isolated women's legs, lips, or things like that" -- and wanted a place to vent her frustrations as well as call attention to the trend.
She focused primarily on movies from the past five years, but found it went all the way back to prestige flicks like The Graduate, as well as early James Bond movies.
"My argument in these posters is that by taking the head away, even in movies where the purpose is to objectify women, you know dumb comedies and stuff like that, I think it dehumanizes the sexual women even more because it completely takes away the idea that she can be a sexual being," Belsky said. "She's only a sexual object because she doesn't have a head, so the idea of her consent and even the idea of her own pleasure is completely taken away."
Belsky began the blog looking through archives of movie posters, but with the growing attention to "Headless Women of Hollywood," she has been getting dozens of submissions and suggestions. In her search through archives, she found that the headless women trend wasn't in every movie poster, "maybe 10 out of 100, ... but it's still a big number."
The "Headless Women of Hollywood" blog is another signifier of the Internet becoming more aware of Hollywood's sexualization female bodies, from the red carpet's push toward more substantial questions[10], to the outcry against superhero comics' sexist drawings[11] of women. Belsky is happy to be part of that trend, and hopes her blog will get people to notice these images, laugh about it and share.
"(When) people to see women's bodies ... cut up as sexual bait, I want them to think about it," Belsky said.
References
- ^ Headless Women of Hollywood (headlesswomenofhollywood.com)
- ^ Twitter (twitter.com)
- ^ @netflix (twitter.com)
- ^ @HlywoodHeadless (twitter.com)
- ^ pic.twitter.com/JWeMfD2neR (t.co)
- ^ April 23, 2016 (twitter.com)
- ^ https://t.co/mx91ZEBw71 (t.co)
- ^ pic.twitter.com/abLFFgh1bF (t.co)
- ^ April 26, 2016 (twitter.com)
- ^ substantial questions (www.themarysue.com)
- ^ sexist drawings (time.com)
