Daves

  In “Beauty (Re)Discovers the Male Body,” Susan Bordo explores how men and women are displayed and perceived, focusing on concepts like “The Gaze” and Industrial Revolution-era gender stereotypes men as dominant breadwinners and women as homemakers. She argues these categories are being reinvented in modern society. Similarly, the 1999 film The Thomas Crown Affair challenges these traditional stereotypes through its characters, Thomas Crown and Catherine Banning, who redefine gender norms as they evolve throughout the film. Bordo highlights “The Gaze” as central to understanding how gender is viewed. She explains women’s relationship to the gaze as one where they learn to anticipate and even enjoy the sexualizing attention: “Women learn to anticipate [it], even play to the sexualizing gaze... truth be told, [women] get somewhat addicted to the experience” (Bordo 135). This dynamic is evident in The Thomas Crown Affair with Catherine Banning, whose seductive introduction with h...