One clip, many perspectives

My roommate had the movie Flashdance on this weekend, so it was fresh in my mind and I thought it had some interesting Feminist and Marxist perspectives (as well as the historical aspect of the 80's...). This is a fairly famous scene (and maybe a little scandalous), but even though it is a short clip, it is very easy to notice certain things about class and gender.






The Feminist lens is fairly obvious here. The main character, Alex (a name that is played with in the film to create confusion as she works a traditionally male day job as a welder) is a dancer at a club full of men. The woman, and more importantly, her body is on display for the entertainment and objectification of the men who are paying to patronize this bar. The angles and shots set up a gaze that is from the point of view mostly of the two men watching her and the other patrons of the bar. The only close-ups of her deal with sexualized parts of her body, her legs and ass, or her very feminine silhouette.
Using a Marxist lens I also notice that the male lead in this scene, and Alex's love interest in the rest of the movie, is labeled at the end to be her boss. Throughout the film, he uses his money and political power to his advantage. This scene in particular positions him higher than her because he is a patron of the bar, while she is the worker. Also, his right hand man is willing to compromise her privacy and simply give up her social security number just because the boss thinks she is good looking. The power that he gains from his wealth, though, is more evident throughout the film as he is seen with the best seats at the opera or driving an expensive car and getting a prime parking space compared to the workers at his Pittsburgh steel mill. He is even the one to get Alex an audition at a prestigious dance school that she has been wanting to get into her entire life, but just didn't know how to get in. She casually mentions the school to him and next thing you know, she has an audition. It is very obvious in this movie that if you have money, you have power.