Posted by We can’t have the conversation of the Male vs Female Gaze without talking about the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s newest edition, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. The female gaze is where creators focus on character depth, emotions, and interactions, rather than focus on action and sexuality.
Jennifer Walters and The Female Gaze
Jennifer Walters a.k.a. She-Hulk has gone through several writers in the comics and has suffered through several appearance changes. Most comic book illustrations depict her as tall and thin with some light muscle definition. The better depictions show her as more of a bodybuilder and far more supportive of her actual powers. Overall, Jennifer Walters is one of the very few women in comics that hasn’t suffered from overwhelming sexism. Any hint of it that was left of her comic book counterpart was done away with due to the amazing women that brought her to the MCU.
Having a female write the She-Hulk character and another direct, the Disney+ Series Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney At Law can be seen through the Female Gaze. This combination was the best possible outcome for Jennifer’s character (played by Tatiana Maslany). From the minute the show started, it was evident that this show was a female-run show. The series is directed by Kat Coiro and Anu Valia with Jessica Gao as head writer.
Instances of the Female Gaze in She-Hulk: Attorney At Law
Let’s start with the scenes that show instances of the female gaze. The first is in episode one, “A Normal Amount of Rage”. It happens after she is exposed to Bruce’s blood. Jennifer wanders into a bar and a drunk group of girls come into the bathroom and immediately start taking care of Jen. They gathered to care for a distressed Jen. That was the moment I knew the entire team of writers and directors were women. That is an experience that many females who have gone to a club or bar has had. There is nothing like drunk girl solidarity.
The second moment happens in the same episode right after when she leaves the bathroom and walks into the parking lot. Immediately men started calling to her. In a rage from being cat called she transforms from Jen to She-Hulk. Now the first thing that indicates that a woman wrote this scene is that a man would have taken it further. In media, we’ve seen plenty of moments where a woman is in a parking lot at night, and it always raises the stakes. It gets physical, it gets violent but this scene is different. The writers only needed to set the stage because so many women have been in that exact situation and we understand the danger and fear without the escalation.
The meditation scene where Jen just lets loose on Bruce and explains all the things she goes through every day could have only been written by women. Jen lays out for him all of the trauma and fear that women go through every day. Women are constantly belittled and talked over and literally fear for our lives nearly every time we walk out the door. Women informed the writing of that entire scene but being women in the film industry probably made writing it a little more cathartic.
The other rather poignant scene that could easily be overlooked is in episode three, “The People vs Emil Blonsky”. It’s the scene where Jen is being interviewed by a local news station. She is asked to address her public given title of “She-Hulk”. The most notable segment of this scene is just before it cuts to the next scene. The news anchor states that next Jen will talk about her diet and exercise routine. Now, this is something that actresses get asked about all the time on red carpets and in press interviews that the male actors just don’t seem to have to answer.
Women’s Reality and the Internet
Now in the context of the MCU Jen has only been overseen by women, but we can judge what the male gaze would do to her and her character based on the internet’s reaction to a fully female-run show. The meditation scene sent the internet into a frenzy, with certain men reducing Jen’s statement to “getting catcalled”. As if that doesn’t offer to send women into a pit of fear of getting sexually assaulted and or murdered.
They then tried to play the trauma Olympics between Jen and Bruce, while completely ignoring that Jen addresses and acknowledges Bruce’s trauma in the very next scene. Even Bruce concedes that he and Jen are different people. And that he needs to let her figure out how to handle her change in a way that suits her.
She-Hulk is easily one of the best depictions of women we’ve ever seen on screen. And she is definitely the best-written female superhero we’ve ever seen in the MCU.
About Author
