There are a lot of movie costumes so iconic that we will never be able to forget them. Unfortunately, there are just as many or even more inappropriate, impractical, or just plain weird ones in the history of film. We want you to try running in a pair of high heels or try to strike a battle pose in a spandex suit. Movies are not always made to be realistic, but we sincerely think that the wardrobe department made a mistake with the following costumes… They really should have gone with something else for these.
What On Earth Were The Designers Thinking When They Made These Movie Costumes
The Red Swimsuits In Baywatch
When someone brings up Baywatch, many people immediately think of the red swimsuits worn by lifeguards. There is nothing quite like seeing the actresses running in them in slow motion. The movie made even more use of it. “The essential spirit of Baywatch is that sexy vibe,” Zac Efron shared with the NZ Herald in 2017. He added, “In this movie, we definitely take it to an extreme.” It earned the movie an R rating for risqué content, which fans of the show did not like. Kelly Rohrbach had just one complaint about the swimsuit. “It really rides up,” the actress informed GQ in an interview back in 2017. “[The film crew] would use glue and tape it to my bum so it wouldn’t make a wedgie wrinkle.”
The Red Swimsuits In Baywatch
The Stripper Outfit In Closer
There is no way that you can forget Natalie Portman in the role of stripper Alice in Closer. Before this, the actress had been known for wholesome characters such as Padme in the Star Wars saga. She did not make it to the list for the pink wig or doll-like getup. Instead, we want to direct your attention to a wardrobe malfunction that took place at a revealing scene. This freeze-frame has earned a ton of attention ever since word got out about it. The outfit is pretty iconic in its own right. You have probably seen people wear it as their Halloween costume in the past. Among others, Kristen Stewart and Elsa Hosk have both done the same thing in the past.
The Stripper Outfit In Closer
The Samurai Armor In The Last Samurai
A-lister Tom Cruise only had good things to say with regards to the historical accuracy of The Last Samurai. “It was a real transition time in Japan, with the Industrial Revolution going on in the United States,” the actor told Urban Cinefile. “[The Japanese people] know we’re going to honor their culture and attempt to explore what it is.” However, it looks like this was not the case. Even though it is pleasant to look at his samurai armor, it did not hit the mark. As a matter of fact, it is not something that even an American guy would wear if he were accepted by the samurais. This movie is set in 1876, but he was wearing armor design from two hundred years prior. You can argue that it might just have been an old set, but there is no way the material would have lasted two centuries.
The Samurai Armor In The Last Samurai
The Harley Quinn Outfit In Suicide Squad
Harley Quinn wears a jester suit when she made her debut on the screen in Batman: The Animated Series. We did not see a getup like that in Suicide Squad. They instead put Margot Robbie in hot pants and tight clothes as if she were a sex symbol. In 2016, the star told the New York Times what she thought of it. “As Margot, no, I don’t like wearing that. I’m eating burgers at lunchtime, and then you go do a scene where you’re hosed down and soaking wet in a white T-shirt. It’s so clingy, and you’re self-conscious about it,” she said. The getup was changed for the better in the next movie.
The Harley Quinn Outfit In Suicide Squad
The Iconic Pink Dress In Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
While Marilyn Monroe looked sexy in her pink gown in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, it could have been even more revealing. A real-life scandal influenced its design as we know it. At first, she was supposed to wear something even racier than that. However, word got out that the actress once posed nude for photos. This controversy forced 20th Century Fox to change the design of her dress since they could not afford more public outrage. This is the reason the costume designer had to come up with something else quickly. In the end, William Travilla designed the strapless pink dress. Even though it was more modest than originally planned, it was still a sexy and alluring outfit all in all.
The Iconic Pink Dress In Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
The Thing Costume In Fantastic Four
No matter how you look at it, Fantastic Four was a flop. Among other things, the costumes could have been improved. Michael Chiklis had even worse luck than the rest of the cast. It was not easy for him to turn into the Thing in the movies. The costume had such a bad effect on him that he saw a therapist for it. In 2005, the actor revealed to the New York Times, “Once they glued the suit on me, I couldn’t get it off without help, no matter how hard I struggled… I couldn’t eat real food, and I lived on protein drinks during the entire shoot. Going to the bathroom was horrendous. It was a physical and psychological nightmare.” What makes this even sadder is that no one even liked the costume.
The Thing Costume In Fantastic Four
The Corset And Dress In Cinderella
When the first preview of Lily James in Cinderella came out, people could not stop talking about her small waist. Netizens could tell that it was not healthy for the star. When the movie finally came out, the actress shared her thoughts about it with E! News. What she had to say must have been a nightmare for the PR department of the movie. The star explained that she went on a liquid diet to squeeze into the gown. “If you ate food [in the dress] it didn’t really digest properly,” she said. James went on, “I think it’s so important to be healthy and confident and natural.” No matter how you look at it, this does not sound good. People asked Disney what kind of message it was trying to send.
The Corset And Dress In Cinderella
The White Shirt In The Deep
The Deep would not have become this popular if it had not been for the white T-shirt that Jacqueline Bisset wore. It hardly covered anything as she emerged from the water. It is said that the director bragged about how this piece of garment turned him into a rich man. This also propelled Bisset into sex symbol status, but she was not happy with it. “I’d like to get my public image nearer to my reality,” the actress told Roger Ebert in 1982. She said that it led to “a lot of misconceptions.” In 2018, Bisset informed the New York Post that she felt like she was “going to die!” when she saw it onscreen.
The White Shirt In The Deep
The Frank-N-Furter Outfit In The Rocky Horror Picture Show
There are not many costumes as iconic as the Frank-N-Furter outfit donned by Tim Curry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The movie earned a lot of controversy even though it flopped at the box office. While it is famous now, it only gained a cult following later on. These days, you can’t go to a party without seeing anyone dressed like Frank-N-Furter. The credit for the costumes goes to none other than Sue Blane. In 2011, the designer shared, “Luckily Tim had worked in a corset before so he took to it like a duck takes to water.” She said that she was blown away by all the people in Frank-N-Furter costumes she saw at the movie viewings. That is not bad at all for a movie banned in many places.
The Frank-N-Furter Outfit In The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Cleopatra Costume In Cleopatra
It is truly upsetting that most of the Cleopatra film has been lost to time. Before a surviving copy burned down, the movie was deemed too hot. You see, Theda Bara wore a lot of very racy costumes in the movie. In fact, the Hays Code deemed the film “obscene” for that reason. There are churches that found copies of it, only to destroy them. What we know is that the actress donned a snake-like metal bikini for the film. This sort of outfit would still be considered risqué even in this day and age. There is a list of cuts that they had to make that continue to survive. Among other things, there are references to cutting out “snake breast plates” and an “objectionable costume” from the film.
The Cleopatra Costume In Cleopatra
The Daredevil Costume In Daredevil
No, Ben Affleck did not make it to the list because his red Daredevil leather suit revealed too much. Instead, it is on the list because it was just plain awful. It seemed way too tight for any of us, much less a superhero. The costume came with an S&M vibe. This just goes to show that some things are not meant to be adapted too closely. The actor was not a fan of it either. In 2006, he told Hollywoodland reporters, “By playing a superhero in Daredevil, I have inoculated myself from ever playing another superhero. Wearing a costume was a source of humiliation for me and something I wouldn’t want to do again soon.” Despite what he said, he went on to bring Batman to life in 2016.
The Daredevil Costume In Daredevil
The White Dress In Basic Instinct
We have to admit that Sharon Stone looked alluring in that white dress in Basic Instinct. But what made it so iconic was what was not lying beneath it. This must be one of the most freeze-framed moments in the history of film. As the actress uncrosses her legs, she gives the viewers a glimpse of what was below the dress: nothing. This has been a pretty scandalous scene for quite some time now. Stone said that she had no idea that she exposed herself until she watched it with an audience. When she found out, she gave Paul Verhoeven a slap across the face. The filmmaker called this “a straight lie,” however. At any rate, the costume has become so iconic that it was displayed at V&A Museum in 2012.
The White Dress In Basic Instinct
What Rebel Wilson Wore In Pitch Perfect 3
There is a behind-the-scenes photo from the Pitch Perfect 3 production that annoyed some fans. We are talking about a photo of three actresses in which two stars had been wearing striped halter tops. However, Rebel Wilson instead wore a different version of it with sleeves. People called this “sizeist” and sent the plus-sized actress supportive messages. The costume designer took to Twitter to respond to these allegations. In March 2017, Salvador Perez defended himself by saying, “I let each actor decide how their costume fit, it was their choice. Rebel, Ester and Hana Mae wanted sleeves.” He went on, “To me, it is about dressing women however they look and feel great, whatever size they are.”
What Rebel Wilson Wore In Pitch Perfect 3
The Superhero Costume In Superman Returns
Fans did not love the Superman outfit worn by Brandon Routh when photos of it first came out. Some claimed that the “S” did not feel right, while others complained about the height of the neckline. The crotch was also another point of contention. There is a rumor saying that his… anatomy is so big that they had to use CGI to make it look smaller. Prior to the release of the movie, the costume designer told Newsweek more about this specific part of the process. “Was it too big? Was it not big enough? Was it too pointy? Too round? It was somebody’s job for about a month just working on codpiece shapes,” shared Louise Mingenbach. The director denied that they had to use CGI to reduce its size, however. Who knows? Maybe it was the actor who spread the rumors himself…
The Superhero Costume In Superman Returns
The Nefertiti Outfit In The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments earned a ton of critical acclaim when it first came out in 1956. The costumes had been a part of it. They were gorgeous, and we especially like the blue gown that Anne Baxter put on as Queen Nefertiti. Even so, it was not historically accurate at all. For one thing, there was no way that they could have used that specific shade of blue since it did not exist yet in 1350 B.C. There was the matter of what she wore beneath the dress as well. While censorship was rampant back then, you could see the outline of her breasts in a couple of scenes. No one knows if it was done on purpose.
The Nefertiti Outfit In The Ten Commandments
The Green Goblin Costume In Spider-Man
Many comic book fans were excited when they heard that a live-action movie was in the works. They felt less enthused after seeing the first photos of the Green Globin, however. Willem Defoe was dressed in a green plastic suit that looked like it came out of Power Rangers instead of Spider-Man. Kitsch is a good way to describe it. Still, the actor did not just like the getup but also insisted on wearing it for all of the fight scenes in the flick! He even learned how to do his stunts to do this. To be fair, we can imagine how hard it would have been to do the pink hat and boots he wore in the comics.
The Green Goblin Costume In Spider Man
The Gold Ball Gown In Beauty And The Beast
In the animated version of the movie, the gold ballroom dress was easily the most iconic outfit. Fans had been sad to see that they did not dress Emma Watson in the exact same way for the live-action version of Beauty and the Beast. They thought that it was too plain and small. The ballgown was made with a ton of effort. In fact, Glamour said that it took 12,000 hours to bring it to life! The actress helped with the design and called it “perfect.” The star said, “In the end, we decided the most important thing was that the dress dance beautifully. We wanted it to feel like it could float, like it could fly.”
The Gold Ball Gown In Beauty And The Beast
All The Outfits In Barbarella
When it comes to space fashion, Barbarella helped make it sexy. The movie had a total of eight costume changes from start to end. They made most of the costumes with more plastic and less fabric. Jane Fonda apparently fell out of the outfits a lot. The getups might look cool, but there is one in particular that we want to focus on. The “nightclub outfit” comes with widows for a breast and the stomach. In an effort to give her some modesty, she wore a brown leather bikini and tights below it. The ensemble was capped off with a cape. If you wear this to an actual nightclub, get ready to be kicked out.
All The Outfits In Barbarella
The Tight Leather Pants In Grease
They might be iconic, but the pants worn by Olivia Newton-John in Grease gave the crew a ton of headaches. First of all, they are hardly suitable to be worn. In 2019, the actress shared this with Reuters Television: “The pants have a broken zip, and I had to be stitched into them because they were made in the 50s.” Critics had a different issue with the pants. People think that the film is anti-feminist. The critics say that her character goes on to change for a guy by turning into a biker girl that smokes and wears leather. On the other hand, he did not even make a fraction of that effort for her. Fair enough.
The Tight Leather Pants In Grease
The White Dress In The Seven Year Itch
Is there a more iconic movie still than Marilyn Monroe standing on top of the subway grate with her white dress blowing in the wind? The backstory here is not a very happy one. As they were shooting this scene from The Seven Year Itch, the actress was dealing with hordes of fans trying to get a look at her underwear. If you ask us, the reaction of her spouse was even worse than that. Joe DiMaggio was not pleased when he realized what they were making his wife do on the set. It is said that he hurt her in the hotel once they wrapped up filming for the day. In any case, they divorced a month after this.
The White Dress In The Seven Year Itch
The Fur Bikini In One Million Years B.C.
The fur bikini from One Million Years B.C. turned Raquel Welch into a sex symbol in the blink of an eye. She did not really do a whole lot in the movie aside from being pretty, so this is quite the feat. In a recent article, Variety said, “Miss Welch gets little opportunity to prove herself an actress, but she is certainly there in the looks department.” The actress did not want to put the bikini on or even work on the movie. As a matter of fact, she assumed that it would flop. Despite this, she is not ruling out the idea of wearing it again. “I’m not sure if I will ever wear [the bikini] again, but you never know. Perhaps one day the script will drop through the door for Two Million Years B.C.” she told the Sunday Post in 2020.
The Fur Bikini In One Million Years B.C.
The Jane Outfit In The Tarzan Series
The gorgeous Maureen O’Sullivan, who also gave birth to Mia Farrow, played Jane in Tarzan from 1932 until 1942. She wore a rather racy outfit, at least for the time. As a matter of fact, the viewers did not approve of her revealing outfit even though she was playing a character who lived in the jungle. When she passed away in 1998, people talked about the infamous Jane outfit. “It started such a furor,” the Chicago Tribune quoted the actress. “Letters started coming in. It added up to thousands of women objecting to my costume. In those days, they took those things seriously.”
The Jane Outfit In The Tarzan Series
What Emma Frost Wore In X-Men: First Class
The team behind this movie dropped the ball a bit in terms of designing a costume for Emma Frost. The character is known for her skimpy and sexy outfits in the comics. In X-Men: First Class, January Jones was given coats, lingerie, and capes as she brought the character to life. On the bright side, the star liked this pretty outlandish outfit. In 2011, Jones spoke to MTV and revealed, “I have a lot of very interesting costumes in that movie. There’s nothing like a cape that makes you feel really tough.” Critics were not impressed by her outfits nor the performance that the actress delivered in the movie.
What Emma Frost Wore In X Men First Class
All The Latex In Watchmen
Even though Malin Akerman played a character called Silk Spectre in Watchmen, she instead wore a bright black-and-yellow latex leotard. It does not like it would be comfortable to walk in that thing, much less fight in it. The actress felt the same way. In 2009, she told MTV, “The costumes were definitely a big challenge.” She added, “[My costume is] definitely not the most comfortable thing to wear for 18 hours straight. It’s very constricting, and then you add heels, the corset and a blonde wig to that. When they say, ‘Get up and fight,’ you go, ‘Excuse me, in this outfit?’ It also takes on the temperature of whatever the room is. If it’s really hot, you’re boiling. If it’s really cold, you’re freezing.”
All The Latex In Watchmen
The Catsuit In Catwoman
You will not find a lot of praise for Catwoman nor the catsuit that Halle Berry wore in it. For one, IGN wrote, “The costume alone cannot make a bad movie, though this one sure gives it the old college try.” It seems like Reno News & Review agreed since it said that the Hollywood star should “burn that damn costume for all to see.” Berry did not express her dislike for it in so many words, but she was not a fan of the flick either. In 2005, she went to the Razzies to claim the Worst Actress award. She said, “First of all, I want to thank Warner Bros. Thank you for putting me in a piece of s**t, god-awful movie!”
The Catsuit In Catwoman
The CGI Suit In Green Lantern
No matter how you look at it, Green Lantern was a disaster. It did not help that the actor did not wear a regular costume. The superhero was instead clothed in a computer-generated suit. Can you believe that Ryan Reynolds had no idea what he was going to look like until the first trailer came out? We bet that he wished that he did not learn the truth at all. While it was indeed a bad costume, the actor at least got to poke fun at it when he was cast as another superhero in Deadpool. In one scene in the film, the titular character said, “Please don’t make the super-suit green… or animated!”
The CGI Suit In Green Lantern
The Catwoman Costume In Batman Returns
Most fans will say that the best portrayal of Catwoman goes to Michelle Pfeiffer. It is amazing that this is the case even though she wore a silly costume. In 2017, she shared what it was like with the Hollywood Reporter. “It was the most uncomfortable costume I’ve ever been in. They had to powder me down, help me inside and then vacuum-pack the suit,” she said, “I had those claws, and I was always catching them in things. The face mask was smashing my face and choking me.” When she was on Good Morning America, she was asked for words of advice to the new person to play the role. “Make sure, whilst designing the costume, they consider how you’re going to go to the bathroom,” she said.
The Catwoman Costume In Batman Returns
The Bandage Outfit In The Fifth Element
Director Luc Besson teamed up with fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier to make the costumes in The Fifth Element. They came up with getups made to look as bizarre as possible. For one thing, Milla Jovovich had to wear a dress that seemed like it was totally made of bandages to play Leelo. The star had conflicted feelings about this specific outfit. In 1997, she talked to Entertainment Weekly and called the outfit “ a bit embarrassing.” She said, “In the fashion world, most of the guys are gay, and they have the etiquette not to notice. But those English guys working on the set were whistling and stuff.” Jovovich went on, “My character’s all about what’s inside. It’s not really about her clothes.”
The Bandage Outfit In The Fifth Element
The Red Corset In Elektra
In Elektra, Jennifer Garner reprised the titular superheroine even though it looked like she died in Daredevil. The makers of this sequel promised the actress that she would have costumes that were more faithful to the comics, but this was not the case. Garner talked about her outfit when she was interviewed by the BBC in 2005. “I knew the comic book fans weren’t happy with her wearing black in Daredevil. So, it was important for her to be in red,” she said. The folks who made it should not have focused that much on color as they neglected the fact that it looked like cheap lingerie.
The Red Corset In Elektra
The High Heels In Jurassic World
Fans of the series were surprised when Jurassic World finally came out. They wanted to know how come Bryce Dallas Howard did not take off her heels during the movie when they were very impractical and uncomfortable. Her character does not even twist an ankle or get an injury even as she runs as fast as she can. The actress defended this choice when she spoke to Yahoo! “From a logical standpoint, I don’t think [Claire] would take off her heels… I’m better equipped to run when I have shoes on my feet. So, that’s my perspective on it. I don’t think she would carry around flats with her. I think she’s somebody who could sprint a marathon in heels,” she said.
The High Heels In Jurassic World
The Black Widow Costume In The Avengers
In case you did not know, it is not easy for stars that play superheroes. When Scarlett Johansson was on the press tour of The Avengers, she talked about what it was like to be in the tight suit. “It’s like 800 degrees in my costume… and it’s a unitard, and I have nothing underneath it!” she said. She did not like it from the very start. In 2017, she told Inside the Actors Studio, “I mean, who wants to get into something like that? You just think, ‘Oh God, really? Couldn’t it have, like, I don’t know, some sort of a peplum skirt or something?’”
The Black Widow Costume In The Avengers
The Gold Bikini In Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
There are plenty of amazing costumes to be found in Star Wars. However, we daresay that the most famous one would be the gold bikini that Carrie Fisher wore in Return of the Jedi. The actress said that she was initially fearful when she saw it. In 2016, a Fresh Air episode narrated what it was like when it was presented to her by George Lucas: “[She] thought he was kidding, and it made [her] very nervous.” The actress said, “What redeems [that scene] is I get to kill [Jabba the Hutt], which was so enjoyable. I sawed his neck off with that chain that I killed him with. I really relished that, because I hated wearing that outfit and sitting there rigid straight, and I couldn’t wait to kill him.”
The Gold Bikini In Star Wars Return Of The Jedi
The Purple Latex Outfit In X-Men: Apocalypse
This actress had been a huge fan of Psylocke, so she must have been delighted to land the role in this movie. Olivia Munn wanted to turn the character into more than just a costume. She told Collider, “Just because [Psylocke’s] dressed like that, she’s not this promiscuous, slutty girl.” However, she had to put lubricant over her body before she could slip into it. Despite this, she broke the latex anyway. Upon the release of the movie, it did badly at the box office even though it was faithful to the comic books. For a movie that had a number of serious and intense scenes, her costume was just too sexy and silly.
The Purple Latex Outfit In X Men Apocalypse
The Batsuit In Batman And Robin
Is there anything about this movie that was not done poorly? The sense of humor and the script were already bad enough on their own, but the Batsuit did not help either. George Clooney could not get out of it right away and had no choice but to pee in it. On top of that, it came with nipples! To this day, people still make fun of this feature. Director Joel Schumacher stands by this decision. In 2005, he talked about this in Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight. “The bodies for the suits — the inspiration for them are Greek statues that have perfect bodies. It never occurred to me not to put nipples on the men’s suits because I didn’t know the male nipple was a controversial body part.”
The Batsuit In Batman And Robin
The Pink Dress In Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
In the fourth installment of the Harry Potter series, Emma Watson donned a pink gown to the Yule Ball. This was an appropriate outfit, but the fans of the books were not happy with it. The source material said that she wore a periwinkle blue dress! Hermione was not the type of girl to go for pink either. Jany Temime, the costume designer, did not agree with that. “[Hermione] was a tough girl. She was a girl [who only hung out] with boys. And now she appears at the Yule Ball and she’s in pink. People look at her as being a girl – and a very pretty one, which was not established before,” she said.
The Pink Dress In Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
The Pants In Labyrinth
Those who have seen Labyrinth all want to know whether David Bowie wore a codpiece or not. It was the talk of the town when it came out. A blogger decided to take matters into their own hand and decided that there was no need to do such a thing. While the creators of the flick got flak for making the bulge so visible, they did not regret it. In 2016, designer Brian Froud referred to them as “perv pants.” He also told Empire, “Every so often you go, ‘Oh, my God! How did we get away with that?!’”
The Pants In Labyrinth
The Amazon Armor In Justice League
It was refreshing to see the Amazon armor this time around. After all, it looked like something that you could fight in. When the photos of the Amazons in Justice League came out, fans were upset to see that the new getups were a lot skimpier. People think that the change was sexist. Jessica Chastain looked like she agreed. She retweeted the photos and said, “Hey men, what would you wear to fight? Hint: don’t expose your vital organs. Ugh, I miss [Wonder Woman director] Patty Jenkins.” In any case, the actresses who played the Amazons have since revealed that they were all right with the change.
The Amazon Armor In Justice League
The Memorable Mankini In Borat
What makes this entry so unique is that this is an actual crime in certain parts of the world. Sacha Baron Cohen wore a “mankini” in Borat, but you might not want to wear one to Kazakhstan. Six Czech guys got arrested on charges of “minor hooliganism” after they posed in the swimwear in Astana. Do not forget that the fictional Borat hails from the Central Asian country. The actor even offered to help them out. On Facebook, he said, “To my Czech mates who were arrested: send me your details and proof that it was you, and I’ll pay your fine.” Learn from their mistake and do not even think about it.
The Memorable Mankini In Borat
The Skimpy Outfit In Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle
In 2016, the first photos of the sequel came out. There were folks who were not impressed by what they saw. Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Dwayne Johnson were dressed sensibly enough for the setting. The problem was that Karen Gillan was wearing something that looked like it was far too small. The actress told everyone that they would get their payoff. It turns out that the characters in the photos were the in-game avatars that the main characters take on. “It looks absurd that the woman is dressed like that and then the men are covered — but that is exactly the trope that we were highlighting in 1990s video games. She’s meant to be like Lara Croft. That’s the reference – this ridiculous male fantasy,” she said.
The Skimpy Outfit In Jumanji Welcome To The Jungle
The Barely-There Costume In Zardoz
When Sean Connery finally said goodbye to the role of Agent 007, he tried his hand at something new. To be specific, he played Zed in a bizarre sci-fi flick called Zardoz. The actor had to wear a barely-there bright red fabric, which was then paired with boots that reached his thighs. You might be surprised to hear that this was not an issue for Connery. When director John Boorman was asked about it by Vulture, he explained that he just told the temperamental Hollywood star, “This is what you’ve got. This is what you’re going to wear.” According to him, there was “never any argument” about it either.
The Barely-There Costume In Zardoz
How Hollywood Portrays Women
Did you find those costumes strange? If so, wait until you hear all the weird ways women have been portrayed in Hollywood. It is sad that it is so common to see female characters in weird situations on the screen. We do not really see much resemblance to the things that women experience in real life. On top of that, these female characters do everything with perfect hair and makeup no matter what.
How Hollywood Portrays Women
Female Characters Are Treated Badly
Even though there has been a surge in female-led movies recently, Hollywood in general still treats heroines badly. Screenwriters rely on many stereotypes when it comes to these characters. We do not personally know any woman who can still fight in pumps or run while in high heels at speeds that would put Usain Bolt to shame. Nor do we know anyone who wakes up with a full face of makeup. Do not forget all the dead mothers of the Disney princesses who hardly ever get mentioned. Let us take a look at all the things that the industry gets wrong about women. Boy, are there a lot of them.
Female Characters Are Treated Badly
Heroines Are Always Stunning Beauties
While it is sad, it is true that beauty seems to be a requirement if you are an actress trying to get a big break. Characters who do not need to be good-looking are then portrayed by gorgeous stars in the film adaptations. The team also ignores or modifies the physical flaws that they have. Hester Shaw from Mortal Engines was written with a facial scar and just one eye in the book. In the movie, she has two eyes and a scar that does not dampen her beauty. It is even more problematic when this is done in biopics. Joan Clarke is the mathematician who appears in The Imitation Game. The person she was based on was not all that attractive. As a matter of fact, a coworker said that she looked like “the back end of a bus.” It does not seem right that she was portrayed by the lovely Keira Knightley.
Heroines Are Always Stunning Beauties
Women Do Not Know How To Drive
While the stereotype goes that women are worse drivers than men, the statistics do not back it up. If you look at movies, you might assume that every female driver does not know how to drive. On top of that, there are a lot of jokes delivered by female characters such as Letty from the Fast and Furious flicks. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was not immune to this flaw either. In one scene, Caractacus Potts jokes with Truly Scrumptious, “If women want to drive motor cars, they should learn to operate one” These days, such a comment will not be taken lightly whatsoever.
Women Do Not Know How To Drive
No One Wakes Up Looking Like A Mess
How is that female movie characters can wake up with not a single lock out of place? We all know that anyone who has just woken up will look less than perfect. This is not the case in Hollywood, where women apparently wake up with makeup on. We all know that this is unrealistic because there should at least be smears on the pillow. It is a good thing that this trope has been getting less and less common as of late. In Frozen, Anna wakes up all haggard and messy as women do in real life. This is also true for male characters, who wake up with no beard stubble every single day.
No One Wakes Up Looking Like A Mess
Losing A Man Can Turn A Woman Crazy
There is an especially annoying film stereotype that says that the life of women revolves around men. When a female character loses the object of her affection, she goes crazy and occasionally tries to kill him. Fatal Attraction has given us a phrase to describe such a character: “the bunny boiler.” The flick mixed it up by equipping the obsessive woman with superpowers. Glenn Close is not happy that she helped give birth to this concept. In 2017, she shared with the New York Times that the movie ending “[made] a character [she] loved into a murdering psychopath.” It is worth noting, however, that other movies have relied on this stereotype such as My Super Ex-Girlfriend.
Losing A Man Can Turn A Woman Crazy
Women Only Ever Talk About Men
Have you ever heard of the Bechdel Test? Named after illustrator and concept creator Alison Bechdel, it is a threshold used to see how a movie treats its female characters. To pass this test, female characters have to discuss something apart from a man. It might sound like a low bar, but there are plenty of movies that fail to accomplish this. Even Twilight does not clear i. While female-led films do better in general, some of them could have done even more. For one thing, people think that La La Land fails since the names of the majority of the female characters are shown only in the credits.
Women Only Ever Talk About Men
Motherhood Is For Every Female Character
It goes without saying that it is never easy to be a mother. In that sense, every mother deserves respect. However, there are plenty of people out there who would rather not have children. It is odd that this is not acknowledged in most movies. Even female characters who do not feel particularly inclined to have kids end up with children before the end of the movie. We have Claire from Jurassic World, who originally says that she does not know if she wants kids. Her sister tells her that she will change her mind in the future. Before the credits roll, she becomes a surrogate mom to her nephews. This plot point has earned the movie a lot of flak, with some viewers saying that it is totally sexist. It does not help that the other non-maternal character winds up eaten by one of the dinosaurs.
Motherhood Is For Every Female Character
Unequal Attractiveness Does Not Work Both Ways
You will not find a completely ugly guy in Hollywood, but this is something else that bothers us. How often do you see a pretty unattractive guy with a stunning woman in films? This typically serves as a comedic plot point, especially when there is a more conventionally handsome guy in the movie. For one thing, Mark Wahlberg nearly explodes when he sees that Will Ferrell is married to Eva Mendes in The Other Guys. While this is not inherently bad, it is pretty odd that you hardly ever see the opposite. Average women just do not get with very attractive men in Hollywood. In real life, it does not matter all that much since relationships are typically based on other things. Hairspray tries to subvert this trope by pairing up Nikki Blonsky and Zac Efron, but she is not unattractive at all.
Unequal Attractiveness Does Not Work Both Ways
The Hysterical Woman Trope
A long time ago, the ancient Greeks thought that the uterus would move around the body. This is what they believed brought about hysteria. Even though we know that this is not the case, it seems like Hollywood has yet to get rid of the hysterical woman trope. This is especially evident in horror flicks. I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Scream both show that the hysterical woman is nothing but a burden to the rest of the characters. Most of the time, she can be calmed down with a slap to the face. Airplane! lampooned the stereotype as people line up to put a woman out of her hysteria with the use of weapons that get sillier as they go.
The Hysterical Woman Trope
Giving Birth Is A Breeze
In case you did not know, childbirth is not easy at all. You would not think so if you only base your experience on Hollywood movies. In Revenge of the Sith, there is no blood as Padme gives birth to Luke and Leia. On top of that, she had perfect makeup on as she delivered the twins. There is a reason for the stereotype, however. During the Golden Age of Hollywood, the Hays Code forbade movies from depicting childbirth. To be fair, it would not be easy to watch childbirth in all its gory glory. At the very least, Children of Men portrays the birth of a baby in a pretty realistic manner even though it made for a very grim depiction.
Giving Birth Is A Breeze
Slim Woman Get Called Fat
Media is one of the culprits behind all the negative body images that many girls and women have. We can blame movies at least partly. For one thing, Anne Hathaway is called “fat” in The Devil Wears Prada even though she can’t be further away from that. This can be damaging to young viewers. Love Actually is not safe from this brand of body shaming either. Martine McCutcheon played a character that was described as “plumpy” by her dad. In 2017, the star defended this when she spoke to Cosmopolitan. “Every woman thinks there’s something wrong with them when in actual fact… they are perfect and lovely as they are,” she said. “[Natalie] was meant to be the embodiment of that.”
Slim Woman Get Called Fat
Women Do Not Take Normal Showers
When you are taking a shower, you just want to get yourself clean after a long day. Why is it that movies show women as if they are aware that there are cameras around? These scenes are not often used to show that a woman looks after herself. Most of the time, they are just an excuse to show an actress nearly naked. A good example of this is Psycho, whose famous shower scene has been the topic of film analysis for decades on end. However, Janet Leigh had actually been wearing clothes when she shot this scene. “Because the cutting was so fast and accompanied by that music, you’re, like, ‘By God, I saw her nude,’” the actress informed a journalist by the name of Ed Gross in 1984.
Women Do Not Take Normal Showers
Not A Single Hair And Makeup Flaw In Sight
It looks like filmmakers found themselves in a dilemma with the rise of the action girl. When you are fighting, there is no need to look pretty. After all, most people will probably be sweating and perhaps even be covered in blood by the end of it. No makeup can hold after physical exertion either. As we all know, beauty seems to be imperative in Hollywood. This means that they simply mess up her hair a little and gives her tiny injuries. Princess Leia has fallen victim to the trope. In the first movie in the saga, she experiences danger and even imprisonment. Despite this, she still looks flawless! We have no idea how the buns can stay intact after everything that she goes through.
Not A Single Hair And Makeup Flaw In Sight
Women Care A Lot About Their Nails
We are sure that this scene will sound familiar to you. After a fight, a heroine realizes that she has broken one of her nails. Catwoman in Batman Returns and Willie Scott in Temple of Doom make for good examples of these. The ladies can’t help but get worried over something so trivial. This would not occur to any woman in real life. There might be real reasons to freak out over a broken nail, but you do not see films discuss infections or pain. The cliché is typically used to show that the female character is still vain no matter what happens to her.
Women Care A Lot About Their Nails
There Are A Lot Of Evil Stepmothers
Kids who lost their moms will probably feel upset that their dad has a new partner because they feel like he is replacing her. This is the reason kids can think that their stepmom is evil. In real life, stepmoms are usually nothing like the wicked women they are made out to be in films. Snow White and Cinderella might have bad luck with theirs, but life is not like these fairytales. We are just glad that there are a couple of movies that celebrate parents that are not related to you. Enchanted, which is a parody of Disney princess movies, shows the main character turning into a stepmom herself!
There Are A Lot Of Evil Stepmothers
Younger Women And Older Men
Ageism is a real thing, especially in an industry like Hollywood. For one thing, Maggie Gyllenhall shared with the rap that she was not considered to play the lover of a 55-year-old guy even though she was 37 years old herself at the time. It is pretty crazy to think that they found her suitable to play the love interest of Jeff Bridges, who was 65 years old back then, in Crazy Heart. Hollywood likes to pair a man with a woman much younger than him. It feels like age-appropriate couples get flak for no good reason. In Spectre, people expressed disbelief that Monica Bellucci was cast as a Bond girl when she is an “older woman.” Mind you, she is only three years older than Daniel Craig!
Younger Women And Older Men
It Is Easy To Fight In Tight Clothes
Female superheroines are typically dressed up like eye candy, but this does not always work. Halle Berry had to wear a very tight and impractical suit when she starred in Catwoman. We wonder how she felt when the movie bombed at the box office. Studios continue to dress action women in needlessly revealing clothes. Olivia Munn, who was chosen to play Psylocke in X-Men: Apocalypse said that she chose to don the tight leotard that her character wears in the comics. “I can see the way that she’s dressed, but it has nothing to do with how strong she is and how powerful she is,” she explained to Collider. Despite this, a one-piece would be more practical than just a bra and pants!
It Is Easy To Fight In Tight Clothes
They Do Not Remember Their Dead Moms
What do Disney princesses Pocahontas, Ariel, and Jasmine have in common? Together with so many others, they all do not have mothers. Usually, they would mention their late mothers in passing, but it feels like the loss does not have any bearing on the story. As a matter of fact, you would think that the princesses do not so much as think about their moms! Disney must have since realized this because they have recently subverted this trope in more recent projects. The live-action versions of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin both bring up the late mothers. There is still hope!
They Do Not Remember Their Dead Moms
You Can Do Anything You Want In High Heels
It is pretty weird that female warriors will still have high heels on even though they are dressed sensibly elsewhere. This type of footwear makes it hard to walk and fight. In 2015, we saw a pretty bizarre example of it in action in Jurassic World. Bryce Dallas Howard runs away from a dinosaur in her pumps that stand at a couple of inches high! The Dark Knight Rises pokes fun at this trope when a goon asks Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, “Those heels make it hard to walk?” In response, she disables him with her stiletto boot. To cap it off, she replies, “I don’t know. Do they?”
You Can Do Anything You Want In High Heels
Body Hair Is Not A Thing
Have you ever seen women with unshaven legs or armpits? It is sad that even movies made for women have fallen prey to this. Sure enough, many women shave these parts of the body regularly. However, they do not typically look that smooth. Fans could not help but wonder why Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman does not have body hair. She was, after all, sheltered from societal pressures as she grew up. There is still a chance that this trope will soon be gone. In Deadpool 2, Domino has armpit hair. It is said that actress Zazie Beetz had been the one to suggest this.
Body Hair Is Not A Thing
Stalking Is A Good Way To Show Love
A lot of Hollywood movies make light of coercive control and even stalking. These things are good ways to show your devotion, apparently. In Passengers, Chris Pratt’s Jim wants to share a life with the beautiful space colonist played by Jennifer Lawrence. He manages to do this by trapping her on the ship without asking her consent. The Notebook, which might just be the most popular romance movie in recent history, also does the same thing. There was a point when Ryan Gosling threatens to end his life if Rachel McAdams does not give him a chance. We do not know about you, but this is a huge red flag. On top of that, the same character writes a letter to the object of his affection every single day for a year even though she does not want to speak to him.
Stalking Is A Good Way To Show Love