The image above was taken from a movie poster advertisement for the 2014 Marvel film, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. According to IMDb, this movie ranks in the #20 spot under the category of the Best Superhero Movies. In order to focus on the advertisement itself, it’s important to push any prior knowledge of the film aside. Whether you’ve seen the film or not, try to look at the advertisement as just that, without considering the plot points and/or the characters that are portrayed throughout the film.

As with any form of media, advertisements have one clear goal, the goal to persuade audiences to consume a product. In this case, the ad urges audiences to watch the film and even potentially purchase the physical copy of it once it is released. For those audiences who enjoy an action film, packed with suspense and maybe even some violence, the realm of superheroes is a perfect place to take all of that in. However, there’s more to a film than how many gun fights or explosions appear on screen; there’s also the issue of gender portrayals and what kind of impact said portrayals may have on society and people’s thoughts. 

In this particular film poster, Goffman’s Gender Displays was used to explain how gender portrayal here can be quite damaging to women. The categories below provide evidence for how this particular image keeps men in power positions:

  1. Relative Size = Captain America is front and center, and therefore the focus of our attention. He is also much larger than Black Widow, the only female character on the poster. This asserts a sort of dominance over her. The film does have his name in the title, so the audience may not be too concerned with this unless they look at the deeper meaning. This was not the first time, nor was it the last that such a form of dominance was used in movie advertisements. 
  2. Function Ranking = As indicated by his position on the poster, Captain America has the higher rank compared to Black Widow. Another interesting feature of Black Widow here, which is much more subtle compared to other aspects of the poster, is that she’s holding two guns. Again, removing any prior knowledge of her character, we see the two prominent male characters without any weapons (save for Captain America’s shield of course). This can subtly indicate that women are less likely to fight with their fists, maybe because they are weak compared to men, or because they don’t want to get their hands too dirty. Whatever the case, this cannot go unnoticed.
  3. Licensed Withdrawal = This may be the most obvious gender display in this poster. Black Widow’s head is tilted up and to the side, and her eyes are looking away from the camera. This invites the audience to look at her body and face in order to notice how beautiful she is in society’s standards. She is also standing in a very closed, feminine position with her legs, while all the men are standing with more of an open, sturdy stance.

Shared by: Maddie Glosny
Image Credit: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81Zhka77vZL._AC_SY679_.jpg