Last week Gucci debuted the trailer for the TV spot advertising its new fragrance, Gucci Guilty, and revealed that the commercial is being directed by none other than Frank Miller, cinematicauteur of the comic book world.
Frank Miller’s work is consistently, offensively, shockingly misogynistic.
I say this as someone whose first graphic novel was a copy of Batman: Year One, and I say this as a girl who has been in love with comics from the age of eleven. There are two kinds of women in Frank Miller stories:
1. Women who are employed in the sex industry.
2. Women who are beaten and/or brutally murdered by the end of the piece.
Frank Miller likes Noir, a genre which is rife with virgin/whore dichotomies, but there comes a point when one must draw the line. Take the stories selected for the Sin City movie. The only woman who is not a prostitute or a stripper is a lesbian parole officer who likes to walk around her apartment naked. Elijah Wood amputates her arm and eats it in front of her. She is then gunned down by corrupt cops.
Frank Miller introduced us to Catwoman as a former prostitute. He created the first female Robin and the formidable assassin Elektra, only to eventually torture and kill them, respectively. Wonder Woman in The Dark Knight Strikes Back is mostly just around for Superman to have sex with. Successful print reporter Viki Vale in All Star Batman and Robin dictates a story about idiotic playboy Bruce Wayne while lounging around in her underwear, but drops her evening plans immediately when Bruce Wayne requests that she join him in five minutes with all possible excitement and not a trace of bother. And then there’s this cover. Note the placement of his signature.
It seems that the only woman Frank Miller feels safe with is one who is dependent on a man’s attention for her survival.
>>>Read the full essay at Styleite.
