Super Attractive and Successful Actress Scarlett Johansson is Complaining About 'the Male Gaze' Again

I feel the need to preface what I'm about to say with a disclaimer. I have no issues with Scarlett Johansson. I'm a fan. She's good in every movie she's done. She's great on her frequent SNL appearances. To the extent you can tell what a celebrity is like based on their work and talk show appearances, she seems like the kind of A-Lister you could hang out with for a while without wanting to fake your own death to get out of the conversation. And, because it's germane to this discussion, she possesses certain physical characteristics that could be considered appealing, in a purely aesthetic sense.

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As Seinfeld put it, "Men are superficial. We're interested in what's on the surface. We're like, 'Oh, nice packaging!'" And ScarJo checks all the superficial boxes.
But she's a product of Hollywood. Which might be the reason why every so often, she seems to have this need to gripe about being successful in part because she's objectively beautiful. She did it four years ago:
And she's at it again:
Source - In a recent interview with The Times of London, Johansson said that when she first entered the industry, the roles she was offered usually centered around “desirability,” and the goals and needs of her male counterparts. However, she thinks the Hollywood of today is ushering in “a different time for young women.”
“The messaging is different — there are many more role models, women are visible in powerful positions and the opportunities I have had to play women who don’t have to just be one thing or another have increased,” Johansson said. “But when I was younger, a lot of the roles I was offered, or I went for, had their ambitions or character arcs revolving around their own desirability, or the male gaze, or a male-centred story. That is less frequent, though — something has shifted.”
Now a cynical man might be tempted to point out that part that "something" that "has shifted," might be the 40th birthday Johansson celebrated last fall. And that perhaps she's not going to be offered the sort of roles she landed in Under the Skin or Ghost in the Shell:
You look at her filmography, and it's obvious she's been up to her magnificent chest in movie roles that are all based on "desirability." She owes her career and everything she's accomplished to the dreaded Male Gaze. She can act. That's not in doubt. But she's not getting paid to jump off skyscrapers in a skin tight white cat suit if she looked like Joy Behar.
And hard as it may be to accept, but that's what being on camera is all about. Being someone others want to look at. Hell, it goes back to long before the invention of motion pictures. Ever since the Ancient Greeks wrote plays and built stages to perform them on, the audience wanted to see people on those stages who were aesthetically pleasing and sexual desirable. If humans want to look at ugly examples of our species, they don't have to go far. In most cases, no further than the bathroom mirror. Movies are supposed to be escapist entertainment. You buy a ticket to escape into a world where people who look like ScarJo are highly trained badasses who can beat the bag out of a hallway filled with henchmen. And since that works both ways, where a guy who looks Chris Evans can emerge from a chamber in a lab ripping with muscles and start kicking Nazi ass. It's not a crime. It's not even a sin, really. It's definitely not a shame. It's human nature.
Here's what I said four years ago when Johansson was unhappy about Black Widow being "a piece of ass":
You know why her Black Widow character is "hypersexualized" in the Marvel Movies? Because she's hypersexual. As is ScarJo, who just so happened to be the perfect casting choice. She looks incredible. No one can wear a cat suit in an action scene like she can.
And just as importantly, has all the traits that makes Natasha Romanov sexy as hell. It's not like she's some princess who needs to be rescued all the time. She's smart. Fearless. Resourceful. Clever. Fercrissakes, she's the only woman in a boys club of enhanced humans, heavily armored tech geniuses and literal gods, and stood shoulder to shoulder with them while they stopped an alien invasion. Without a single superpower other than her training and own personal awesomeness.
But right. Let’s go work ourselves all into a lather over the fact that this highly empowered and heroic character receives the dreaded Male Gaze from Tony Stark. Who happens to be a billionaire playboy. And attracted to extremely attractive women in the exact size and shape of Scarlett Johansson. Oh, the horror.
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Still, this is another one of those stories that makes you appreciate how well we’re doing as a culture. When one of our biggest problems is one of the most beautiful women on the planet - playing a character “who uses her sexuality” as a weapon to save the world - is really sexy while saving the world, then we are running out of problems.
So relax, lady. Enjoy being one of the most beautiful women in the world and all the perks that come with it, instead of complaining about how much people like to look at you. Scarlett Johansson has been in the business of attracting the Male Gaze. Just be grateful that business is still good.