Jessica Rabbit: Promiscuity and Male Self-Esteem

The movie Who Framed Rodger Rabbit is an oldie but goodie. It follows the story of Rodger Rabbit, a “toon,” who is framed for the murder of Marvin Acme. The subplot of story revolves around the relationship between Rodger, a quirky, animated  (literally and figuratively), neurotic, rabbit and his hot, voluptuous, and promiscuous looking wife Jessica Rabbit. I think that the portrayal of Jessica, Rodger’s wife, is particularly interesting. Throughout the piece Jessica is depicted as a sex symbol. She is tall, voluptuous, has big eyes, a deep sultry voice, and is dressed in a red sparklingly dress with a sweetheart cut, leg slit, wearing red pumps, and purple elbow-length gloves. Jessica is also often questioned about her affection and commitment to Rodger Rabbit. Throughout the film various men, of whom she denies, make a number of unwanted advances toward her. Furthermore, while Jessica is portrayed as a sex goddess throughout the entire movie, she also remains extremely loyal to Rodger.  She states over and over again, “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way,” a famous quote from the movie. Jessica lends a significant hand in clearing her husband’s name, and throughout the movie proves to be quick witted, intuitive, calm, composed, and good at combat.

Jessica is rarely regarded for this wide range of positive aspects, and depicted primarily as sex symbol. Her looks and her clothing (something that she cannot help as revealed in the film) seem to make it ok for a multitude of men to hit on her, and at times sexually harass her and question her loyalty to her husband. The way her perceived promiscuity lends these things reminds me of Ferguson et. al.’s findings that when the stereotype of promiscuity is activated individuals perceive a victim of sexual harassment as less traumatized and more responsible for the event (p. 479, 2005).  It seems that in this film, because Jessica Rabbit looks as though she would be promiscuous, even though she is a loyal and married woman, that the sexual harassment she experiences is warranted. I find this incredibly concerning, because it takes Ferguson’s findings to a whole new dimension. That being said, if one can so easily be perceived as promiscuous by appearance alone, and this notion is perpetuated as a normal thing to think by the media (i.e. as seen in this film), then that puts a great number of females at risk than I initially thought.

Beyond this, the fact that Roger Rabbit is married to Jessica, someone who is seemingly “out of his league” made me consider the Aubrey and Taylor article. The results Aubrey and Taylor’s article concluded that the, “woman-only condition did result in significantly higher body self-consciousness (M = 3.17, SD = 0.15) than the control condition (M = 2.76, SD = 0.13), and the woman 1 boyfriend condition fell in between these extremes” (Aubrey & Taylor, p. 49, 2005). This means that men who saw a photo of a women alone were more self conscious than those who didn’t, and that those who saw a picture of a “hot women with an average guy” fell somewhere in-between. However, we discussed in class that this might be the case because the representation of the supermodel women and the average boyfriend as being “together” in the magazine, may not have been convincing enough. However, the love that Jessica has for Rodger Rabbit in this film is incredibly convincing, so I wonder if showing a relationship like that would lead to a kind of difference in feeling of self- consciousness from men. 

References:

Aubrey, J. S., & Taylor, L. D. (2009). The Role of Lad Magazines in Priming Men’s 

Chronic and Temporary Appearance‐Related Schemata: An Investigation of 

Longitudinal and Experimental Findings. Human Communication Research, 35(1), 

28-58.

Ferguson, T., Berlin, J., Noles, E., Johnson, J., Reed, W., & Spicer, C. V. (2005).    

Variation in the application of    the “promiscuous female” stereotype and the nature  

of the application domain: Influences on sexual harassment judgments after  

exposure to the Jerry Springer Show. Sex roles, 52(7-8), 477-487.