Justice League

Justice League had a lot of potential following the huge success of Wonder Woman, and it can be argued that Gal Gadot drew in much of the attending audience. To a degree, the film played into this fact by making Diana the emotionally intelligent moral compass in the story, and demonstrating that successful leadership of the group required her ability to empathise and care about the wellbeing of others. However, despite this potential, Justice League disappointingly let down its female viewers by being unnecessarily sexist in multiple ways, and completely catered to the male gaze.

Firstly, Diana was constantly oversexualised. Whilst Superman and Aquaman were shirtless in the occasional scene, it was always done in a masculine, empowering way; in contrast, the audience were shown continual up-skirt shots of Diana, and the camera went into slow-motion on her rear when her skirt was lifted up multiple times. Although it could be said that this was difficult to avoid when getting effective shots during fight scenes when she was wearing fewer clothes than her male counterparts, which in itself was a shame, it is important to note that this does not occur in Wonder Woman despite Diana partaking in many fight scenes with a greater focus on her. This proves that these up-skirt shots could have easily been avoided to keep her presence empowering rather than degrading. Additionally, Diana’s day clothes consisted of only tight and skimpy outfits with high heels, and the camera almost always had either her rear or cleavage in the shot, providing a sad reminder to female viewers that in Justice League, as in many films, whatever a woman is she must also provide sex appeal for her to be included in the story.

Furthermore, the other men on her team also all made clear that they were sexually attracted to Diana. Aquaman had an embarrassing moment of growling at her whilst commenting on her looks, which was completely unneeded within the plot, and made a mockery of the fact she was becoming their leader when he evidently didn't respect her in a professional way. Even the Flash who was, overall, a likeable male character, had a completely unnecessary moment of laying on top of Diana with his head on her chest, leaving female viewers undoubtedly uncomfortable. These moments are worth mentioning because they transformed Diana’s presence from a potentially positive example of a powerful female leader into a discouraging reminder of the commonality of derogatory sexual exploitation of female characters on-screen.

Moreover, the other female characters in the film were sadly portrayed in an equally derogatory way. The Amazonians were dressed in far more revealing clothes than in Wonder Woman, which disempowered them and was an unnecessary distraction from their action-based role in the film. Their clothes reduced their presence from the strong warriors they were shown to be in Wonder Woman into sexy eye-candy in Justice League.

Finally, all of the civilian women were followers, not leaders. Whilst the civilian men were leading their families out of danger and taking charge, the civilian women were either asking for help and guidance, or had no voice at all. The only civilian woman that was shown to be strong-minded was the interviewee on television who spouted numerous obscenities. However, she then stated that she wanted her husband back because he was a ‘provider’, showing her financial dependence on him and removing any positive impact she could have had. Lois Lane putting herself down and saying that she wasn’t strong also contributed to this negative view of women in its own way. Whilst it would normally be completely understandable for anyone to struggle when losing a loved one, when coupled with the way women were portrayed in the rest of the film it became an additional reminder that women played only supporting roles in Justice League, and the only unquestionable strength and power the audience saw came from the male characters.

Overall, despite an entertaining storyline and several enjoyable comedic and dramatic highlights in the film, I found the portrayal of women in Justice League disappointing, which lowered its rating. It is an excellent example of why the film industry needs more female directors and women in positions of power. Positive representation on-screen is incredibly important, and therefore I hope that DC employs a female director, or a male director dedicated to portraying women in an empowering light, if they choose to make a sequel to Justice League.

Rating: 2.5/5