Brad Brevet of the wonderful website Rope of Silicone posted a brief article today entitled “There’s Something Dirty About ‘Sucker Punch.’” In it, he describes going through about 50 movie stills (two of which he includes) and feeling vaguely disturbed; his impression, on viewing photos of our team of girls in various costumes, is that “screenings of Sucker Punch will be filled with dirty old men, sitting in the back row pulling a Paul Reubens.” He expresses dismay that the women, though all over the age of 18, are typically (at least in the stills he has viewed) half-naked; in one of the images he includes in his article, Emily Browning is clad in a pale pink camisole, in another, Vanessa Hudgeons sports a brown corset and fishnets.
It seems to be the mix of innocence with the harder elements of the film that have troubled Brevit. When describing the stills, he says “The image of an innocent Emily Browning in her pink tank top above. Appearing as a porcelain doll, trapped behind bars on her bed. The image of Vanessa Hudgens below in a bustier and fishnet stockings with her big doe eyes and pouty appearance.” Flipping through the gallery, I have to agree – there is certainly a lot of exposed flesh, doe eyes, and pigtails. Snyder seems to be working with two very distinct pallets and tones: soft pinks, browns, and ivory for the “real” world, and black, metal, gunsmoke and fire for the girls’ collective “other world.” The two scenes do contrast pretty sharply, and highlight the youth of the girls; their corsetry and leather is shocking after the lingerie-type looks they sport.
Is it objectifying to have these incredibly attractive, nubile young women in outfits that vary from fishnets as pants to belted corsets and altered school girl uniforms? Probably. But I don’t have a problem with it, for three reasons. And I don’t think, as Brevet does, that the juxtaposition of the super-adult and the childish looks will appeal first and foremost to dirty old men. In more blunt language: I do not think that Snyder has struck a pedophiliac chord.
First, the trailer does not make it a secret that these girls are hard core. Babydoll (Emily Browning) wields not only a handgun in her starring poster, but a katana; Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish) is shown punching the living daylights out of a hideous ogre, while and Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) poses, fists raised, in front of a roaring explosion. These are not passive girls; they are hard, bitter, badass women fighting a horrible situation with a hail of gunfire and hand-to-hand combat. Hot ladies doing badass things in minimal clothing have been a central image in media since Wonder Woman (and probably before) – strong women wear strong looks. That’s ok with me.
Second, this movie is about a fantasy, but it’s not a fantasy that belongs to the audience. It’s about the dream that comes from complete despair, and it belongs completely to the girls. As Rocket (Jena Malone) says in a broken, defeated voice (that still has a vein of steel), “We’re already dead.” These girls have literally no hope except for what they can dredge up for themselves, and they live in a world of horrible prison uniforms and bars on the window. Whether or not that parallel universe is real or not, it is their escape from everything else. Let me tell you, if I had to wear those awful pinky orange uniforms like Babydoll does, I’d picture myself in badass flight goggles and tight black pants, too.
Snyder is also clearly playing with two ideas of what femininity looks like. As I said above, these girls are tough; they play rough, fire guns, punch and kick bad guys, and wear leather than allows for ease of movement when kicking said bad guys in the face. They also wear satin and (it looks like) hang out in dance studios. They are both super tough and badass, and hyper-feminine (occasionally at the same time, as illustrated by Babydoll's school girl uniform and pigtails). Without having seen the film, I'm obviously making assumptions, but it seems to me that Snyder has assembled a cast of iron-willed women intent on carving a better world for themselves with their bare hands.
And if they happen to look awesome while doing so, that's just another plus.
(All stills taken from Rope of Silicone.)
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