Looking at Anne

Throughout King Kong, the portrayal of Anne as a helpless, sub-human character really disturbed me. Anne is nothing more than a pretty girl. Her beauty is essential to the story, yes, but her mind is essentially non-existent. Anne, it seems, has no capability to speak for herself, or even to simply stand up and run when Kong is pulling her near. During her first encounter with Jack, she does not find his immediate slap in the face at all perturbing. She laughs it off and says something cute, for fear of breaking the to-be-looked-at-ness that is so essential to her character.

After watching the movie, I was comforted by a few things. Firstly, King Kong is an old movie, released in 1933. This was a very long time ago... perhaps this caricature is not still applicaple... secondly, it is only a movie-- and Anne was, like I said, a caricature. Anne's lack of identity--her unability to express herself in any way-- is necessary to juxtapose with Kongs forceful, larger-than-life-like presence.

However, this to-be-looked-at-ness still exsists, and is in full-force today in modern cinema. We are often told that "sex sells", and this seems to be true. The public is often unwilling to participate in a viewing if they do not have something beautiful to look at. I wonder if the camera as a window helps to create this iconic relationship between beauty and helplessness. I also wonder if we are anywhere closer to abolishing this strict to-be-looked-at-ness-- that strips the woman down and objectifies her-- than we were in the first half of the 20th century.