It seems it’s not enough that the first question we ask when a female superhero is announced for a comic movie is “Who’s she gonna hook up with?” Now we have to obsess over her weight as well.
Scarlett Johansson is far from fat. She’s a beautiful woman who has a body most women would kill for. Yet immediately the top question asked when a woman takes on an action role and starts working out is “How much weight is she going to lose?” It can’t be about being in shape to do her own stunts or just look buff enough to stand up next to Robert Downey Jr. and whomever else she’s squaring off with?
In a Huffington Post column, Johansson wrote:
Since dedicating myself to getting into “superhero shape,” several articles regarding my weight have been brought to my attention. Claims have been made that I’ve been on a strict workout routine regulated by co-stars, whipped into shape by trainers I’ve never met, eating sprouted grains I can’t pronounce and ultimately losing 14 pounds off my 5’3″ frame. Losing 14 pounds out of necessity in order to live a healthier life is a huge victory. I’m a petite person to begin with, so the idea of my losing this amount of weight is utter lunacy. If I were to lose 14 pounds, I’d have to part with both arms. And a foot. I’m frustrated with the irresponsibility of tabloid media who sell the public ideas about what we should look like and how we should get there.
Elizabeth Rappe at Splash Page noted:
No one suggested that Christian Bale wasn’t buff enough to play Batman or argued that Samuel L. Jackson needed a few crunches for Nick Fury, or called out the 300 ex-Spartans for not keeping up the regime. So, why does the Black Widow immediately come under the fitness microscope? Why should a superheroine be held as a standard for all women to emulate?
Our own Matt Brady asked not long ago why when a superheroine hits her husband, it’s funny, but a superhero hitting his wife is abuse. I gave a short answer in comics, but I think it’s all part of the same problem as the things I’ve listed here, honestly. Women are still too often assumed to be there just for decoration, not to be badasses on their own. I’m not as up on my Marvel comics as I’m sure some of you are, so correct me if I’m wrong, but the Black Widow is a pretty tough character on her own, with a shady background and questionable loyalties, a complex woman and one capable of taking care of herself–as is the Black Canary (why all the blackness? Anyway…).
But the female character is assumed to be there as a love interest, not just to be a character in herself. The men don’t have to prove they’re tough, but Johansson has to buff up–and when she does, she has to defend herself against charges that she’s trying to crash-diet and lose 15 pounds, because a woman exercising must be doing it to lose weight, not to get stronger. And when a woman hits a man, the idea that she might actually be able to do as much damage as a man or even more is still just laughable–even though anyone who’s seen Gina Carano fight should know that women can knock you out too.
Just for the record, I’m stoked for Iron Man 2 and I’m not automatically opposed to an eye-candy matchup between Johansson and Downey. I just think we’ve got a long way to go still on the way we think of women as action heroes.
April 15th, 2009 at 8:21 am
This is probably neither here nor there, I do remember a LOT of attention on Christian Bale’s workout routine for Batman Begins, particularly because he was coming off of The Machinist where he lost something like a third of his body weight.
April 15th, 2009 at 8:31 am
Amen, Sarah.
I think it might be a little different if she were bulking up a little to become more defined, but merely losing weight? Absurd.
April 15th, 2009 at 9:01 am
I concur with Jeff. There was scrutiny over Christian Bales physique from Machinest into Batman. However that was out of the ordinary in the case Sarah is speaking of. I think Scarlett Johanssen has one of the best female bodies in hollywood. and she does not need to lose weight. Even if she were to gain weight it will take a whole lot to make her look unsexy cuz she has booty for days
(this is coming from a gay man XD)
April 15th, 2009 at 9:12 am
In a related story, Scarlett Johansson is absolutely beautiful. I could look at that picture of her for hours. She’s like art.
April 15th, 2009 at 9:33 am
*pout*
I don’t want her to lose any weight–she’s perfect as is; she’s art.
April 15th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
I think the difference between the scrutiny on Bale and the scrutiny on Johansson is that Bale was building musculature to look like he could kick your ass, people are harping on Scarlett because they are hoping she’s “hot enough” to be a love interest. It’s not about if she can kick ass, it’s if she’s hot enough for dudes to watch her kick ass. The pressure is on looking thin for beauty’s sake, not building muscle for her character’s sake. The distinction is important — yeah, there are pressures on both men and women, but it’s the quality of that pressure that’s often headdesking. i.e. Girls wear skin tight clothing with little visible protection and stiletto heels into battle, and dudes get Kevlar and musculature.
Basically, compare the woman that plays Starbuck to the woman that plays Silk Spectre. Who would you want to NOT get in the face by? That, to me, is the difference.
April 15th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
The big difference is that Bale was doing one of those actor’s stunts of switching between extremes. Remember, for the Machinist he had made himself freakishly, skeletally skinny, not just a bit thinner than his usual average. He then followed this (according to the Batman Begins featurettes) with bulking up so far that the filmmakers had to ask him to take it down a size or two.
Not particularly healthy either way, but it in no way disproves the double standard being referred to in this post.
April 15th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
It that same kind of weird gender reasoning that states “My Super Ex-Girlfriend” was a comedy because it was a woman, but if it was a “My Super Ex-Boyfriend” it’d have been a horror movie.
April 15th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
People said that Michael Keaton wasn’t muscular enough to play Batman.
People said that Brandon Routh wasn’t muscular enough to play Superman.
People said that Adam West was too paunchy to play Batman.
In fact, I’m trying to remember a superhero character where the actor or actress did meet the physical expectations that the fans have. Hugh Jackman probably came the closest and he was believed to be too tall.
I don’t think Scarlet Johannsson needs to be thinner – she needs to put some muscle on or get some tone because she doesn’t look tough enough to be an ass-kicking super-spy.
I’ve always been puzzled by this supposed stigma that requires actresses to get skinnier. I know they are under that pressure – but where is it really coming from? I’ve never met a man that found a stick figure like Kate Moss to be more physically attractive than a more zaftig figure like Salma Hayek.
April 16th, 2009 at 4:45 am
I do remember people worrying about various superhero actors’ physiques. I don’t think it’s so bad to think like “Scarlett Johansson doesn’t really look like she could kick someone’s ass,” because… she doesn’t. But I concur with Robert Frost, do not get thinner, add some muscle. Physically, that’d be all I’d ask for the role.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:26 am
Half of Jackman’s interviews for the current Wolverine film seem to be about how much weight he had to gain for the role. And many of the interviews with the stars of 300 focused on how they felt having to keep such an eye on their diet/figure.
Nevertheless, the point remains: male actors playing superheroes need to build unfeasible muscles; female actors apparently need to drop already unfeasible dress sizes. That is daft.
The love interest angle isn’t daft, though. Read the first 2 series of Ultimates – Black Widow is both a love interest and a bad ass.
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November 5th, 2010 at 7:10 am
She can be suited for any type of superhero characters.Why all will bother being a pessimist.Just think about her in a positive way such that she can do it.
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