Threatening gazes: Observation and objectification in the TV series Marvel’s Jessica Jones

Abstract

Jessica Jones is one of the few female heroes of the Marvel universe, or, to be more precise, an anti-heroine. This article on Jessica Jones (2015‐present) deals with Jessica’s post-traumatic stress disorder and her status as a victim by putting aside the obvious gender issues. Powerlessness and self-empowerment shall be discussed as an ineluctable condition of human life on the one hand (Sartre) and a political allegory of omnipresent surveillance on the other hand (Foucault) ‐ without denying that personal responsibility remains an important issue in the series. It will especially be analysed how film aesthetic means, like camera perspectives, involve the viewers into the aforesaid frightening processes.

Violence in the American Imaginary: Gender, Race, and the Politics of Superheroes

“…Jones’s fear of being recaptured and put under Kilgrave’s control is another reminder of her vulnerability. Remembering that Kilgrave once used her powers to harm other people turns Jones’s “physical strength into his fetish” (Lickhardt 2020, 106). While Castle’s military training becomes his resource as the Punisher, Jones’s powers become a tool of Kilgrave’s abuse.…”