Aaron Davis
Peter Lehman
TA: Amanda Kehrberg
FMS 100
10 December 2010
Batman Returns In my essay I will be talking about the representation of women and the female body for the film Batman Returns. I will be analyzing the films lead female character, Selina Kyle/Catwoman played by Michelle Pfeiffer, by giving specific examples from the film that categorizes her in this topic. The three main concepts that I will be focusing on in my essay are as followed: the good girl/bad girl dichotomy, beauty and the fragmentation of the female body, and saving and punishing women. “I am afraid we haven’t properly housebroken Miss Kyle.” At the Start of the movie, right away you get a sense of how women, in this case Selina, are treated in this movie. She is a prime example when it comes to the good girl/bad girl dichotomy concept. At the beginning, Selina is showcased as a very shy, timid woman who works long hours for her needy boss. Then when we get a glimpse in her apartment, you realize that Selina hasn’t grown up at all. Her whole apartment is painted pink along with a number of cats, stuffed toys, and doll houses. All of which is unusual for a grown woman like her to have in her apartment. However, when Selina transforms into Catwoman, she poetically destroys everything that she was on the inside and out with the help of black spray paint and a skin tight black leather cat suit. Becoming this new sexual, seductive, powerful woman who seeks to punish and hurt any man that comes in her way. There is a big change of character when Selina becomes Catwoman. She is not the shy, timid girl we once saw on screen; she becomes this power house of sexuality and seductiveness. This leads me to my next point, representation of the female body. At the start of the movie, Selina is very unattractive. She wears pale colored frumpy clothes, big glasses, and wears no makeup. However, when she becomes Catwoman, we see this new woman emerging from the shadows. Tim Burton knew what he was doing when thinking of an innovative way to reimage Catwoman’s costume. He incorporated the erotic display of the female body by using a dominatrix theme of a black skin tight leather costume that included a whip. That alone speaks volumes to the amount of sexual imagery Burton was trying to convey with his audiences. However, Catwoman’s costume is not the only thing that showcases the representation of the female body. There is a specific scene in the movie, where Catwoman is having a conversation with Batman’s other nemesis The Penguin. As The Penguin walks into his room, he finds Catwoman lying on his bed in what I like to call the “Playboy pose,” and uses very sexual dialogue when speaking to him.
My final concept that I perceived from this film is the saving and punishing women. Although Batman Returns incorporates more killing than saving. In the film, Selina dies or should have died on more than more than one occasion. Yet, somehow she miraculously survives in events that should have killed her. She states that she is just like a cat and has 9 lives. These chains of killing events are set in motion by Selina’s boss, Max Schreck. Schreck pushes Selina out of the highest floor of Schreck’s office and somehow just when we think she is dead, numerous stray cats come and save her. Followed by Schreck’s attempt, both Batman and The Penguin fail at trying to kill her as well. However, in the end Max Schreck is the one who takes Catwoman down, by shooting her 5 times with a pistol. (608)