Women on Center Stage

There are also posters which accord to women primacy of place, at least within the confines of a romantic love story. These women seem, by the sheer force of their compelling stories - and the associations that their names evoke - to demand a sympathetic treatment. On the left, the story of the Trojan War is told from Helen’s perspective - both her name and her face take the central space. As in the movie "Troy," which was in good part inspired by "Helen of Troy," the emphasis is not on Helen as the embodiment of a negative and destructive sexuality, however: this is a story of romance, not of sex, an emphasis visually conveyed by the absence of her body - Helen is reduced to a beautiful face, "the face that launched a thousand ships" as the poster reminds us. The second poster again centers on a female with a famous name, Cleopatra’s daughter "more beautiful and desirable than Cleopatra herself." She stands in the center with her Egyptian costume and the leg exposed for a little sex. The subsidiary images and taglines provide the context: again, this is a romance where love and romance are the focus of the plot: "the spectacular fiery love story." The copy may define her in more typically submissive terms as "a captive queen willing to surrender her throne to the man she loves," but visually she stands at the center, independent and alone, without needing the reference of a male figure to shape her meaning.