Oh yes, *that look* is EVERYWHERE.

It’s the look that says “Lookit me! I am attractive in the way it is socially acceptable for women to be!”

So it’s not a big shock that it’s used in Desperate Housewives, probably also in Sex and the City and various other places I frankly don’t have the desire to go and look at.

Now, I have a particular view on sexuality and attractiveness and it’s that normal is what you are used to – because this sort of body, and presentation of bodies, is the one that society has rubber stamped into being “sexy” it’s the one that is used to attract people who are interested in looking at conventionally attractive bodies.

There’s a sort of vicious circle going on. We are conditioned to like what we like by society. You can see it reflected in the different presentations of historic bodies (um, bodies throughout history, not, like, the Natural History Museum).

For me, part of the Feminism Project, is about breaking free of those social assumptions, or at the very least revealing them for what they are.

Things we have been told that are not neccesarily true.

I’m beginning to think that The Pose may be ubiquitous. I’ve stumbled on an excellent (or appalling, depending on one’s point of view) example on page 85 of this week’s Radio Times. I was hoping to post a link to this, but I can’t find the image on the Internet. (Maybe someone more Internet savvy than I am could do so.)

The interesting thing about this is that it isn’t for an action movie, or anything like. It’s a publicity shot for Desperate Housewives. My impression is that Desperate Housewives is aimed primarily at an audience of women. (And, when I’ve watched the show on television, the adverts have confirmed this impression… I think that the products advertised give a fairly accurate indication of the viewing demographic.)

I now wonder whether The Pose (emphasising the curves) attracts (mostly heterosexual?) women as well as men.

Helping to make your point, in your example with the man:

http://collider.com/uploads/imageGallery/Shoot_em_Up/shoot_em_up_movie_poster_onesheet_clive_owen.jpg

he’s not really adopting the same pose as the women… even if he wasn’t wearing that coat, he wouldn’t be displaying whatever breasts he may have.

I take your point, and the stances are iconographic. However (and between my comic book, roleplaying, computer game and action movie addictions I see a lot of “heroic” poses) there is a distinct difference in the stances for women and for men and sadly it’s not an homage to the children of Ra – it’s about showing as much (often frighteningly fake and inflated) curve as possible.

Yes, the synopsis left me twitching too – I wasn’t suggesting we swap one problem for the other, but felt that the style of poster in and of itself was refreshing enough to be of interest. Going to have to reserve judgement on the film itself.

The clambering up rocks in the trailer put me strongly in mind of “Picnic at Hanging Rock”.

Also hypocritical given Australia’s history!