Misogyny and Racial Stereotypes: The Real Issue Behind Michael Bay's Movies

I've come to the realization that a majority of my posts are filled with snide remarks toward Michael Bay's body of cinematic work. Anyone who has read these posts will have probably come to the conclusion that I'm not a fan of this director. The main problem is that my remarks have so far been pathetically superficial and empty. I've called his films crap on several occasions, failing to even expand upon the reasons why I dislike his work so much. So instead of continuing this blog by constantly stating that Bay is rubbish, I have decided to write an article which actually explains my real problem with his features. 

It's safe to say that I'm not a fan of Mr Bay. But then again I get just as fed up with the Bay-haters of this world as I do with the films themselves. These haters will not only devote large portions of their time to insulting the intelligence of anyone who enjoys Bay's films, but they also convince themselves that they are delivering some kind of previously undiscovered awareness to his fans, forcing them to alter their initial opinions.

Going on forums and blogs (such as this one) and merely claiming that "Bay is crap" is bringing no such awareness to the table. Everyone, including fans of of his films, know that Bay's movies are daft and silly. They are just not taking everything as seriously as those who claim to loathe them.

At the core of their existence, Hollywood films are entertainment products. Of course Hollywood films can be educational, of course they can possess philosophical themes that make you think about a subject which you may have initially overlooked, and of course they can entertain you whilst doing both of these things simultaneously. But there's no implemented law which states that a feature must do all of these at one given time.

The critics and Bay-haters love to kick up a fuss. In their eyes, these sort of films shouldn't be allowed to exist. They are supposedly the death of cerebral cinema. They believe that such films bring about the end of all interesting and experimental forms of film making. But then if 2009s Transformers Revenge of the Fallen really was the extinction of experimental, idea-based cinema, then what was Inception; the incredibly successful Christopher Nolan film which was released the following summer?

Trashy, brainless features - much like Bay's work - have been around since the dawn of Hollywood, just like the thought provoking and innovative films have been. They have both existed since the industry's infancy.

Back in July 2011, I fell victim to purchasing a ticket to see Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Despite hating all of the director's previous bodies of work, I was actually rather charmed and intrigued by the trailers. Much like James Cameron, all of Bay's films appear to have a somewhat skillful marketing department that knows how to generate interest amongst the general movie going public.

The trailers appeared to show a film which was dark, aggressive and a change in direction from the previous two films. There were also interviews released along side the feature where Bay admitted to getting it wrong the first (and second) time round. I was given the impression that here was a filmmaker who had realized some of his mistakes and was now in the process of fixing past errors.

Naturally I was wrong, but before I came to that conclusion, I had to sit through three hours of a noisy, heartless pile of tosh which more or less turned my brain into cement.

One thing I did notice, however, was that a large portion of the audience was having a whale of a time. The screening room I was sat in was completely full, and the atmosphere that such a crammed audience is capable of delivering was one of content satisfaction.

Whilst I left the film with a sulk on my face, the rest of the crowd appeared to be exiting with a smile on theirs. Dark of the Moon did receive a lot of criticism from the movie critics and IMDB users after its release, however a lot of the general public seemed to enjoy it (the box office figures also suggested that it was massively popular; warranting multiple viewings by many), which implies that Paramount Studios had done their job.

So the general public seemed to enjoy a film which many critics and internet users like to claim is naff. What's wrong with that? If it entertained, then is there a real problem?

Well in many ways no, but sadly there are a few rather serious issues with films such as Dark of the Moon which I think can be rather problematic for our society. I'm referring to the misogynistic and racist portrayals that frequently make themselves visible in such features.

This is a problem which is not exclusive to Bay's work entirely. It is actually an issue which pops up in a frighteningly large number of the mainstream films of today and has existed throughout all of Hollywood's history. In fact, it even takes place in films which exist outside of Hollywood's production circles.

But it still exists prevalently in Bay's films, and seeing as I'm writing a post based around the problems I have with his movies, I'm going to use him for my referencing.

My first major problem is with the shameless portrayal of woman as sexual objects throughout his stories.

Most of the female characters in Bay's movies are depicted in a highly sexualized manner. The camera will often make heavy use of shooting women from a low angle, looking up at their barely clothed bodies as they step from a vehicle or bend over a car bonnet. Close up shots of women in bikini's and short skirts are frequently the norm throughout these narratives (not only is the camera acting in a sexually charged manner in these films, but in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, even the CGI becomes infected with Bay's voyeuristic fixation, as one of the robot characters develops a habit of dry humping Megan Fox's leg throughout).

What is most unusual about this sexually charged attitude is that it has the peculiar ability to turn a highly popular children's toy franchise, such as Transformers, into what can only be described as soft porn for the masses.

Women's personalities and intellect also seem somewhat nonexistent in Bay's movies. Instead this filmmaker has decided that it is far more important to emphasize the female body than the lifeforms who actually occupy them.

I have no objection to women who choose to celebrate their identity by sexualising or glorifying their bodies. Women, like men, should have the freedom to embrace their bodies and be able to portray their appearance in which ever way they see fit. Whether that be through modelling, art, dance, adult entertainment or any other form of aesthetic expression which exists within our world.

But this is not what Bay's movies are doing. There are no choices for the women here. They are films that are controlled and created by a group of men who use women to bring their fantasies of their ideal woman to life. This is not women celebrating or loving their bodies, this is men controlling women; telling them how to dress, stand and behave whilst they point their lens upward from the gutter. .

These films are much like the other forms of the media who create unrealistic images of women. Much like the tabloids, celebrity/adult magazines and billboards which litter our world, they are building an unachievable image of the female body.

Like the other forms of media, these types of movies do no good to anyone. They normalize this type of behavior, whilst simultaneously assisting to amplify the body hatred which exists among women in today's world.


Whilst the women that Bay and co believe to be of aesthetic beauty are made to parade around whilst the camera and cinematography drools all over them, the other women (aka, the women who do not possess the conventional supermodel appearance) who make their way into these films are portrayed somewhat differently . Characters such as Sam Witwicky's mother - who are not filmed in the same soft porn manner as Megan Fox or Rosie Huntington-Whitely - are reduced to bumbling idiots who are there for comic relief. These awkward characters make stupid claims, ask incredibly inappropriate questions (much like in the first Transformers film, where she keeps asking her son whether she walked in whilst he was masturbating), and run around making an absolute fool of themselves after mistakenly ingesting a bag of hash brownies (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen). So when women are not being fetishized, the are pretty much depicted as idiots.

Not only are female characters the victims of sexualization in the films of Michael Bay, but they also serve no active purpose to the stories whatsoever. Never once has Bay allowed a female lead take control or have direct influence over one of his narratives.


You could argue that the motivation that their presence gives the lead characters helps to influence the direction of the story, but it doesn't. Megan Fox is nothing more than "that girl who Sam thinks is really hot". She doesn't reshape or have any part in the main narrative of the film. She's just there, in the background, being Megan Fox, whilst Witwicky runs around with his robot buddies and saves the universe from some stupid fucking cube.

This is the only purpose these women seem to serve in such films. We never learn about who they are. We get some microscopic snippets into their back story - like Megan Fox's character has a dad who went to jail, whilst Rosie Huntington-Whitely's character has a shit boss - but that's it. We never know anything about who they are as people or what makes them tick, and it often seems that the leading male characters don't know anything about them either.

Whilst the men of Bay's films run around saving the world, the women don't really have that much to do. They stand around in the middle of explosive battles, gawping around whilst the camera pans across their full female anatomy in super slow motion. And when they are not standing around looking all pretty for the director, they are sat in a control room for the entire movie, waiting for the men to safely return home (e.g. Liv Tyler in Armageddon).

This style over substance approach to woman also explains why Bay decided to hire Victoria's Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley for the leading female role in Dark of the Moon; as opposed to a professional actor who can, well, you know, act. Instead of hiring a person who was capable of delivering an in depth and emotional performance, he chose to go with a supermodel who had zero acting experience prior to this film.  

But then again, some women do get to appear in random positions of authority within Bays films. The only problem here, however, is that he decides to pull out the "heartless bitch" stereotype from his bag of insults. These women are cold, callous and demanding. They are not the sort of people who one would expect has many friends in their personal life. They are not pleasant, and this is a stereotype which has cropped up in many movies throughout history. Whilst the leading men frequently come across as brave and likable, the women in similar positions often come across as uncaring and mean.

Bay has never been good at creating deep characters. More or less every person in his films are flat and dull. We never care who lives or dies, because we have zero empathy for them or their well being. They are just cardboard cutouts who are scattered about the sparkly action sequences in order to try and make sense of all the noisy bullshit that's taking place within that particular 'story'.

As a result of this, many could argue that this justifies the empty female characters, but as mentioned above, the women still quite noticeably wield less power than the men who star in these films. The men are always the ones who are off fighting the wars and obstacles of these stories, whereas the women are just there, waiting for them to finish their battles so that they can provide them with love and affection as soon as they arrive home.

And then their is the inherent racism in these movies. Much like the women, these characters have no personalities, no back story and more or less exist as random plot techniques to try and make the whole mess a tad more amusing for those who are watching it.

One example would be the angry, American hating, vodka drinking crack pot Russian characters who are prevalent in films such as Dark of the Moon and Armageddon. In these films, Russian characters pop up to perform some sort of cartoon caricature of a stereotype.

Bay manages to even bleed these racist stereotypes into the visual effects themselves (much like in the fashion that he did with the horny robot who kept dry humping Megan Fox's leg throughout Revenge of the Fallen). Examples being the jive-talking robots in his second installment of Transformers film, as well as the sassy, black-armored, gold toothed robot named Jazz from the first film.

Different ethnic groups are played up to the maximum in these films; again only really existing for comic relief. This may very well just be a bi-product of Bay's lack of depth to characters (remember everyone is a cardboard cut out) but much like with the woman in these films, such an excuse does not justify stereotyping groups of people in this way.

Bay also likes to do that classic Hollywood style of making the Americans look like the super humans of planet earth. In films such as Armageddon, it is America who goes to the rescue.  They are the ones who will eradicate the monstrous asteroid before it reaches the home of all known life. The rest of the nations must sit back and pray that this team of oil workers can save the day (but then again, I suppose if NASA was ever ridiculous enough to rely on these astro-inexperienced individuals to save the day, then the fact that they are all American would be the least of peoples' concerns).

So on one level, Michael Bay's films can be seen as nothing more than loud, simple, popcorn entertainment. On that level, everything works just fine. A film doesn't have to be all deep and meaningful to justify its existence. People who look down on individuals who enjoy such films are snobbish and arrogant.

On another level, however, these films are layered with misogynistic and racist imagery which often reduces women and ethnic minorities to passive, empty, unrealistic caricatures.

This can be quite problematic, as the popularity of these films means that such unfair portrayals are being exposed to large quantities of people. If such negative and passive representations such as  these continue to exist within mainstream entertainment, then it will continue to be a part of society.

Children will grow up thinking that such portrayals and stereotypes are the norm, whilst people of more mature age groups will simply become desensitized and accustomed to such attitudes.

And that is why I'm not a fan of Michael Bay. I don't care about his films being loud entertainment, it's the sexism and racism which I have an issue with.