superoutfit
Why is that that all superhero movies contain elaborate, celebratory scenes of the heroes suiting up in their costumes? Do these films provide, in addition to the closet fascist release valve, an opportunity for males to enjoy clothing and appearance without using Barbie dolls? Is this the arch-nemesis of the strip show: men watch women take off their clothes, vs. men watch men put on their clothes?
The worst offender for this kind of thing has to be “Batman & Robin”, in which Batman’s dressing up in latex is played as high gay camp (complete with long, loving close-ups of his rubber codpiece).
I really need to watch that film for the sheer Joel Schumacher decadence.
No. Believe me. You really, really don’t. It’s not even funny-bad. It’s just plain old boring-incomprehensible-bad.
Just watched Gangster No. 1, and it featured elaborate man-getting-dressed scenes, albeit in an intelligent and motivated context. In fact, it got me thinking about the relationship between clothes fetishism and psychosis… for example, American Psycho. So where does that put superheroes? If you leave aside the revenge-tragedy motivation in the Crow, say, he’s a flat-out serial killer. He butchers all his enemies in intricate fashion, leaving special signifiers – stabbing someone’s organs in alphabetical order..? this guy’s a hero?
There’s a potential weblog entry in here somewhere!