Sunday, November 22, 2015

Austin Powers Successfully Depicts Sexism with Satire



Austin Powers is a classic 90's comedy that was released in 1997. Austin Powers is an example of a satirical work of popular culture, which comments on sexism towards women. The movie portrays women as sexual beings, almost as objects. Austin Powers also makes sexual comments equivalent to "cat calls" throughout the entire movie. Austin Powers uses satire to help expose the un-canniness of sexism.

In the theme song for Austin Powers he is walking down the sidewalk dancing and randomly comes upon a trio of models. He takes pictures of them posing, and also hits on them while doing so. While taking pictures he says, "Come on babies, work with me," and "Show me love!". He is obviously cat calling, and the girls go along with, almost flattered by it. This is an example of satire, pointing out how ridiculous men calling out women is, which in reality a women would be disgusted by and not entertained by.

After Austin takes the pictures of the women he hollers, "Oh, behave!". This speaks to the idea in society that a man "wants a lady in the street, but a freak in the bed" (as Ludacris would say). It uses satire to make fun of women needing to be tamed sexually by having Austin comment on their behavior. Austin Powers successfully uses satire in a creative and humorous way by secretly acknowledging how absurd cat-calling is, as well as sexism towards women.

No comments:

Post a Comment