Captain America: The first Avenger trailer
The first image is taken from 1:38 seconds of the Captain America: The First Avenger - Trailer from You Tube. In this still the audience finds Captain America looking very muscular and powerful which is presented through low camera angles and shadows to emphasis his muscles and show how powerful he really is. Peggy Carter (female love interest) is also shown in this clip, she is represented as primarily someone who is now attracted to this man due to the fact he has developed muscles and a positive appearance. Captain America acts as a subject to the male gaze for Peggy and she reinforces this by paying attention to him once he has muscles and is a stereotypical "man". Peggy reaches out to touch his chest which could be seen as a sexual and intimate gesture, from this the audience grasps the fact that Peggy is only interested because of his masculinity which shows that she is not interested in personality or other aspects of a person but only appearance, this is very stereotypical suggesting that women are only interested in the "alpha male" and the only thing they desire is protection. However the audience realises that this is untrue because women are interested in the metrosexual males etc. Before (shown in picture 2) his transformation he is shown to be a very frail, small unworthy boy which is indicated by high camera angles portraying vulnerability and low status, no one payed attention to him until he was strong and powerful which shows the audience as a general message that females will only be interested if their man is powerful. As soon as the change happens the non-diegetic sound changes from a softer violin playing to a tense loud music which portrays him as powerful Captain America seems to achieve many goals once he is powerful and masculine, one being attracting women which suggests to the audience that in order to "get the girl" you must be masculine otherwise no one will be into you. By the change in music is suggests that power comes from female attention, being strong and brave. It has been suggested that when the scene of transformation was filmed it was not in the script for his chest to be touched and apparently the actress was acting on impulse, does this show us that women are actually attracted to a large muscle mass.
In 2016's Batman vs Superman
"Poor Lois. Like the many damsels in distress who have populated superhero movies before her, the character can’t catch a break. She has to be saved by Superman four different times over the course of the film: once during the flashback to Man of Steel, once when she’s captured by a terrorist group while doing her job, once when she’s thrown off a building by Lex Luthor and once when she tries to help Superman by retrieving a weapon and winds up gets trapped in a collapsing building. Heck, even when Lois tries to help, she gets into trouble."
The first image is taken from 1:38 seconds of the Captain America: The First Avenger - Trailer from You Tube. In this still the audience finds Captain America looking very muscular and powerful which is presented through low camera angles and shadows to emphasis his muscles and show how powerful he really is. Peggy Carter (female love interest) is also shown in this clip, she is represented as primarily someone who is now attracted to this man due to the fact he has developed muscles and a positive appearance. Captain America acts as a subject to the male gaze for Peggy and she reinforces this by paying attention to him once he has muscles and is a stereotypical "man". Peggy reaches out to touch his chest which could be seen as a sexual and intimate gesture, from this the audience grasps the fact that Peggy is only interested because of his masculinity which shows that she is not interested in personality or other aspects of a person but only appearance, this is very stereotypical suggesting that women are only interested in the "alpha male" and the only thing they desire is protection. However the audience realises that this is untrue because women are interested in the metrosexual males etc. Before (shown in picture 2) his transformation he is shown to be a very frail, small unworthy boy which is indicated by high camera angles portraying vulnerability and low status, no one payed attention to him until he was strong and powerful which shows the audience as a general message that females will only be interested if their man is powerful. As soon as the change happens the non-diegetic sound changes from a softer violin playing to a tense loud music which portrays him as powerful Captain America seems to achieve many goals once he is powerful and masculine, one being attracting women which suggests to the audience that in order to "get the girl" you must be masculine otherwise no one will be into you. By the change in music is suggests that power comes from female attention, being strong and brave. It has been suggested that when the scene of transformation was filmed it was not in the script for his chest to be touched and apparently the actress was acting on impulse, does this show us that women are actually attracted to a large muscle mass.
In 2016's Batman vs Superman
"Poor Lois. Like the many damsels in distress who have populated superhero movies before her, the character can’t catch a break. She has to be saved by Superman four different times over the course of the film: once during the flashback to Man of Steel, once when she’s captured by a terrorist group while doing her job, once when she’s thrown off a building by Lex Luthor and once when she tries to help Superman by retrieving a weapon and winds up gets trapped in a collapsing building. Heck, even when Lois tries to help, she gets into trouble."