Sexuality and musicality often come hand-in-hand as one enters this new era of a 70s musical, complete with free love and women’s liberation. One can see the attributes of 70s values evidently through movie-musicals such as Cabaret (1972) and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) but the precursor to sex heavy and gaze shifting musicals is Howard Hawks’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). Despite the film’s release during the restrictive Hays Code, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a highly entertaining movie musical that follows two showgirls, Lorelei Lee (Marilyn Monroe) and Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell), who seem to serve as the masculine characters due to their manipulation and innate sexuality. Instead of utilizing these bombshells as sex objects, Hawks instead places them into a role of domination appealing to a sense of a gender swapped narrative. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes can be seen as the first hint regarding the future of movie musicals, especially considering its release date during the height of stereotypical 50s American values. Although to some Gentlemen Prefer Blondes may not be viewed as the pinnacle of feminism or liberation, its presentation of Dorothy Shaw and Lorelei Lee when compared to their male counterparts allow for a transfer of the gaze from male to female.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was released over a decade prior to the end of the Hays Code, and directors were already teetering between the confinements within the Code. Hawks is no exception to pushing the boundaries, especially considering the profound implications that came with transferring the patriarchal stereotypes of Lorlei, Dorothy, and the gaze. In the article “Working the Crowd: Movies and Mass Politics,” Michael Tratner mentions the stereotypical format of film that persisted during the Code era. Tratner exclaims, “What the Hays Code shows, however, is that it took much more to deal with the variation within movie audiences than just structuring each movie to imply a transcendent and hence identical, white, middle-class male” (55). Tratner explains that Hays Code conventions ignored the diversity of audiences and instead focused on the white, middle-class male, or in other words the patriarchy. One can assume Hawks used this to his advantage because those working within censorship rules were possibly only focused on the fact that Dorothy and Lorlei are attractive and eventually find husbands. Instead, Hawks ensures that Dorothy and Lorlei were more masculine, which can be seen through their male manipulation and gender-bending flirtation devices. This of course resulted in a transition of the gaze which is most prominently showcased in the number “Anyone Here for Love” where the Olympic Swimmers are instead the object to be gazed upon creating this transition of the gaze.
The male gaze is a term coined through Laura Mulvey’s gaze theory, which theorizes that Hollywood cinema exists within the way a woman is looked at by the characters, the camera, and the audience in a sexualized point of view. According to Laura Mulvey in Visual and Other Pleasures, “An idea of a woman stands as lynch pin to the system: it is her lack that produces the phallus as a symbolic presence, it is her responsibility to make good the lack the phallus signifies” (1). Mulvey mentions how the use of women in cinema is to appeal to the stereotypical and patriarchal normality. One can see this evidently through earlier movie musical films, for example Mervyn LeRoy’s pre-code classic Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933). In the ensemble number “Pettin’ in the Park,” the audience sees this gaze first-hand with seemingly nude women changing on stage behind a sheer curtain. The screen shows the gaze from a young boy, the actors on stage, the camera, and the audience making it incredibly obvious that this scene exists for male visual pleasure. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes has the exact opposite effect, most prominently shown through Dorothy’s characterization and performances. Her occupation as a single showgirl destroys any ties she might have to the typical patriarchal woman, but her approach to sex enhances this destruction. In Dorothy’s number “Anyone Here for Love?” one is able to see this role reversal presenting the gender-swap and gaze shifting nature within the film, which deviates completely away from the traditional male gaze. Here, Hawks utilizes the male Olympic swimmers as the sexual appeal, placing them in an almost feminine role while Dorothy dominates over them. The swimmers have the perfect physique and are presented in such a way that urges the audience to view with the same sexual desire as Dorothy, which is only enhanced by the camera and Dorothy’s characterization.
The presentation of “Anyone Here for Love?” shown through Dorothy’s gaze, when paired with the audience’s and camera’s, allow the men to take the place of sex symbols within the film because of Dorothy’s masculine role. The use of Dorothy as this masculine entity deviates from Mulvey’s original gaze theory because it places the Olympic Swimmers as the primary object of attraction. In regard to the conditioning of the male gaze in Hollywood film from the studio system Mulvey argues, “The magic of the Hollywood style at its best (and of all the cinema which fell within its sphere of influence) arose, not exclusively, but in one important aspect, from its skilled and satisfying manipulation of visual pleasure. Unchallenged, mainstream film coded the erotic into the language of the dominant patriarchal order” (3). Here, Mulvey states that all Hollywood films are manipulated by the sphere of influence that results in visual pleasure from the feminine due to under coded eroticism from the patriarchy. Of course, Hawks does manipulate visual pleasure for the audience and the characters, but not towards the female and instead towards the male, as stated previously. Throughout “Anyone Here for Love,” the Olympic Swimmers are scantily clad in tight nude swim shorts while Dorothy pokes and prods through them. The men are emotionless, muscular, and acrobatic giving forth the idea that they are objects with a sole purpose to be enjoyed. Typically, this position would be placed on the woman, but Dorothy is confident, dominating, and opinionated while the men are objects. The camera follows this same sense through Hawks’ expertise. With various close-ups of the Swimmers’ bodies rather than that of Dorothy, who is fully clothed, one is able to feel more of a sexual attraction to the men who are transferred into this traditionally female role. See, Dorothy is the masculine power taking control over the now feminized male sex objects.
The sexualization of the Olympic Swimmers as sex objects was not overlooked by audiences at the time but can be seen as an oddity because of Jane Russell’s sex symbol status. As a starlet, Russel was often seen in such a light with prior films, but Hawks instead intentionally utilized her as a tool to create these male sex objects. Jeanine Bassinger mentions the significance of the men in this position when she states, “Jane Russell cavorted with an ‘Olympic team’ on shipboard in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, ironically singing ‘Anyone Here for Love?’ as the men—all Greek Adonises—ignore her while doing their athletic routines. The implication about their sexuality was not lost on audiences” (404). Not only was the sexual implication present to audiences, but so was Dorothy’s control in her black jumpsuit. Throughout this number, she is put in a position of control due to her placement by the swimmers’ pelvises, one a man might assume if the roles were reversed. If one put a man in her role, the audience would observe hyper-feminized and scantily clad women, instead Hawks makes the men hyper-masculinized with their broad muscles and appeal to the feminine eye. Therefore, the gaze undergoes a gender-swap that instead is targeted towards the women in the audience, rather than their male counterparts.
Howard Hawks’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a radical film with outstanding comedic elements that predate the innate sexuality and feminine liberation in movie musicals to come. Although Laura Mulvey’s gaze theory would suggest that women are only made to be looked at, Hawks proves that men can be placed in this sexually suggestive position as well. Dorothy’s number “Anyone Here for Love?” is a catalyst and provocative event, especially given the times, that transfers the male-gaze to a female-gaze. Hence, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a masterful spectacle that showcases the sexual preferences of women instead of what gentlemen prefer.
Works Cited
Bassinger, Jeanine. The Movie Musical! Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2019.
Mulvey, Laura. Visual and Other Pleasures. Routledge, 1989.
Tratner, Michael. “Working the Crowd: Movies and Mass Politics.” Criticism, vol. 45, no. 1, 2003, pp. 53–73. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23126371. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.
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