Courtney

ComArts 250
Due 11/18/13
Transformers and Jennifers Body: Megan Fox and the Male Gaze
Male gaze is a term used to describe the assumption that the audience of a film is made of
primarily heterosexual men. This assumption leads to the objectification and sexualization of
female characters on screen as they are seen as simply an image for men to enjoy, with their
appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact (Mulvey, 62). Ultimately, the male gaze is
the lens through which men see the world, and especially the way men see women. Catering to
male gaze in mainstream cinema leads to a patriarchal bias in which female characters are treated
as nothing more than eye candy for the male characters in the film as well as for the male
viewers.
While Transformers and Jennifers Body both cater to male gaze by over-sexualizing
Megan Foxs characters, Jennifers Body offers more commentary and meaning behind this
sexualization while Transformers simply uses her character as a sexual object and a feminine
prop amidst testosterone-packed action sequences. This drastic difference can be seen in both the
dialogues of the films and in the way Foxs characters are filmed. As seen prominently in
mainstream cinema, this emphasizes how drastically the portrayal of women can change at the
hands of a male director as opposed to a female director. To understand these contrasting
representations of female characters as played by Megan Fox in Transformers and Jennifers
Body, one must first analyze the ways in which each of these films cater to or address male gaze.

The patriarchal bias in Transformers, directed by Michael Bay, is already visible within
the first few scenes of the film. Moments after the title sequence, the viewer is transported to a
military base in Qatar where dozens of male soldiers run and dive to escape their deteriorating
camp. A focus on strength and masculinity predicts the misogynistic tone of the film as dramatic
action music and shaky camerawork emphasize the aggressiveness and action of the men. There
are no women until about 5 minutes into the film, when a soldier video chats with his wife and
daughter. Even then, we see them only on the soldiers screen, actively putting the audience in
place of the male soldier. The wife is depicted as an almost Madonna-like beauty, with sunlight
illuminating her face and making her blonde hair shine. This harshly contrasts the dirty and
grimy male soldiers who are seen in only the dimmest light. While she is a very minor character
in the film, the soldiers wife is over-feminized and treated as nothing but a beautiful image to
contrast the harshness of the military base. Even before the overly sexualized main female
character of the film is introduced, there is already an obvious preference towards male gaze.
Megan Foxs character, Mikaela, is introduced as a popular and beautiful high school
student. While she doesnt say a word in her first scene, she is immediately sexualized as the
camera lingers on her cleavage and sunlight from the window illuminates her face and bronzed
chest. She is also shown with a male students arm around her, marking her as an object of sexual
desires belonging to men. When she is seen next, she is wearing a tank top and a mini skirt that
shows off her toned and tanned bare midriff as the wind blows her hair back as if she is a
supermodel. This imagery sexualizes Mikaela and poses her as a beautiful object to cater to male
gaze.

Mikaela is also sexualized by the process of fragmentation, a term coined by Laura

Mulvey that describes the process of showing only parts of a female characters body in order to
further sexualize her to satisfy male gaze. This is shown when the main character, Sam, offers
Mikaela a ride. The viewer sees Sams face peeking out of the window of his car, but Mikaelas
toned stomach is in the foreground. Her bare midriff is given priority over the main characters
face. However, it is only her midriff that is shown here. She is reduced to a single body part
within a matter of seconds, diminishing her character to a sexual object in order to satisfy male
gaze. This sexualization is seen once again in the next minute when Sams car breaks down.
Mikaela opens the trunk of the car and bends down to look at the engine while the camera
focuses on her body, which is once again in the foreground of the scene. This fragmentation
belittles Mikaelas worth and shrinks it into the sum of her sexualized body parts.
In this same scene, as Mikaela arches her back unrealistically, the audience is put into the
perspective of Sam, who watches her in amazement. While Sam is in shadows, Mikaela is
illuminated by the sunlight as if she is a golden goddess being eyed by the main character,
emphasizing the idea that men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch
themselves being looked at (Berger, 198). Throughout most of the rest of the film, Mikaela is
only shown as a sexual object. When action intensifies, the camera focuses solely on the male
characters and she simply offers a scream every now and then.
The over-sexualization of female characters in Transformers not only affects Megan
Foxs character, it also bleeds into the other female roles. There are only three female characters
in the film with major roles. Two of these characters are completely over-sexualized, and the
other character is Sams mother, who is portrayed as nagging and overprotective in contrast to

his easy-going and fun father. Even the female extras are sexualized in a ridiculous manner.
Towards the end of the film, a woman is seen screaming as a Transformer hurdles over her. She
wears what appears to be a bikini top and a skirt and kneels down in a sexual pose. Her hair
blows back in the wind as she screams and her tan skin is illuminated by the sun unlike the male
characters around her. This emphasizes how every woman in the movie is affected by male gaze.
While Transformers is a fantasy film, dreams and fantasies tell us about the real, setting up
hierarchies of the mundane and the magical and the misogyny in this fantasy world is merely a
reflection of the misogynistic views of the films creators (Gray, 122).
As Transformers actively over-sexualizes Megan Foxs character for the sole reason of
catering to male gaze, Jennifers Body comments on the sexual appeal of her character, Jennifer,
by acknowledging male gaze and exploring the effects it has on young women. Jennifers Body,
directed by Diablo Cody, places an extreme focus on the beauty and sex appeal of the main
character as well as her body, as emphasized by the title of the film. This focus turns male gaze
on its head as Jennifer becomes more and more monstrous and the audience watches as her
insecurities take over.
Jennifer is introduced as a teenage girl who is obsessed with her appearance. In one of
her first scenes, Jennifer approaches the films heroine, Needy, at her locker. She looks at herself
in Needys locker mirror and seemingly flirts with her reflection as she reapplies lip gloss. Later
in the film, Jennifer wears a tank top and underwear as she admires herself in her bedroom
mirror. Her body is seemingly perfect in accord with conventional standards of beauty. She is

thin, tan, and toned. This sexual appeal and physical perfection is the only thing Jennifer is
confident in; it is seemingly all she has. As seen here with Jennifer, this harmful objectification
places an emphasis on womens beauty alone and the image their bodies portray towards others
is internalized to represent their overall value and worth (Davis-Quirarte, 5).
Jennifer not only gains confidence from her physical beauty, she uses it to her advantage.
When she and Needy go to a concert at a bar, Needy asks how they are going to get drinks as
they are underage. Jennifer replies by grabbing Needys breasts and saying these are power
bombs, Needy, emphasizing how male gaze affects women as they can drink illegally just by
conforming to standard ideals of femininity and beauty. Jennifer also uses her sexuality to lure
men closer to her so she can devour them. In one scene, she seduces a football player and leads
him into the forest behind the school. The audience is put into the perspective of the football
player as he watches her unzip her top, revealing her bare chest. It is clear that male gaze is being
satisfied, but seconds later we watch, still from the perspective of the football player, as Jennifer
becomes demonic and opens her jaw to kill and eat him. This sudden change in her appearance
seemingly takes advantage of male gaze and attempts to devour it, just as Jennifer devours the
football player that the audience shared perspective with just seconds before.
When Jennifer begins losing strength and the audience watches her beauty fading, she
emotionally falls apart. As she gets ready for the schools dance, she looks at herself in her
mirror once again. Her eyes are visibly sunken, and her hair falls out in clumps when she brushes
it. This time she doesnt admire or flirt with her reflection but instead sheds a tear as she smears
makeup on her skin. Jennifers crumbling confidence and obsession with her image emphasizes
the sad idea that a woman must continually watch herself. She is almost continually

accompanied by her own image of herself (Berger, 198). This critique of the sexualization of
women and the harsh beauty standards women are expected to conform to engages with the idea
that women are sexual objects. Instead of simply objectifying Jennifer, the audience is invited to
see her as a real human and to question her sexualization as opposed to viewing her through the
lens of a man.
As shown by the drastic difference between the sexualization of female characters in
Transformers and Jennifers Body, female directors are often times much more capable of
portraying female characters than are male directors. However, women made up only five
percent of directors in Hollywood in 2011 according to The New York Times. The dramatic
majority of men in the film industry is to blame for the ridiculous over-sexualization of women
in film and for the large preference towards male gaze in mainstream media. Perhaps an
overtaking of the film industry by women is what is needed to finally give female characters as
much recognition as male characters, as opposed to being treated as mere sexual objects.