“Your gaze hits the side of my face,” in her 1982 piece, artist Barbara Kruger explores the male gaze through this iconic photograph. Throughout the last century, much has been said about the relationship between feminism and being seen; Kruger interprets the male gaze as an aggressive force that adds a layer of meaning to the classically beautiful form of the face seen on the piece.
We as a society often discuss the power relations regarding sight and the perception of women. Lake Bell’s directorial debut “In A World…” spins a slightly different take on the subject, dealing with the male voice in place of the male gaze. Think of all the movie trailers you’ve seen—“In a world…” rings a deep, bass, male voice. The protagonist Carol (played by Lake Bell)’s father (Sam Soto) is one of the most prominent voices in the industry, a guy who has his own autobiography, a lifetime achievement award and even a band of faithful groupies. And of course a misogynistic set of values and a complete bag of insecurities can’t be left out.
Carol is a vocal coach and aspiring voiceover artist hoping to break into the male-dominated field someday. Her father advises her to just concentrate on the accents that she does so well, because people just don’t want to hear female voices on trailers—“it’s not being sexist, it’s just the truth!” In an interesting turn of events, Carol catches a lucky break when Sam’s heir apparent Gustav Warner flakes out on a trailer due to a sore throat. After successfully stealing his gig, Carol starts getting attention from film producers, including one for the new epic movie ‘The Amazon Games’. The movie is gathering attention because it plans to bring the ‘In a world…’ trailer back; now the attention is on whose voice will utter those iconic words.
[Spoiler Alert: This paragraph will discuss the outcome of the epic trailer voiceover battle]
All is revealed at the awards ceremony at the end of the film, perhaps the most interesting scene in the movie from a dialogue perspective. Two conversations give the movie’s feminist take a deeper twist—the first is the bathroom conversation between Carol and the Amazon Games producer. Notice how it’s placed in the bathroom? These two female figures in a male-dominated world are talking in a male-prohibited space after hearing Carol’s voice emerges victorious in the epic voiceover battle. A shell-shocked Carol thanks the producer for picking her, but is quickly put down by the producer who says that she’s using Carol to further her feminist cause: “You were picked because I wanted to use you. Girls all over the world hearing your voice will be inspired…you weren’t picked because you were the best, because frankly you weren’t.”
The second conversation that changes the movie happens between Sam and his thirty-year-old new wife. All throughout the movie she’s depicted as an annoying groupie-type with a baby voice; in a scene where she deals with a hysterical Soto after he realizes that his daughter was picked over him, Soto’s wife transforms into an assertive female figure who tells her husband to suck it up and go thank his daughters after receiving his Lifetime Achievement Award. And it works.
Overall, Bell (who wrote, directed, starred in, and produced the film) utilizes dialogue and words very effectively. There are some interesting snippets utilizing the interplay between words and the visual—Gustav saying “culture was my education,” while doing clearly uncultured things, Louis having to resort to flailing his arms for Carol’s attention when Carol doesn’t stop talking. Another interesting element is the use of phone conversations to further various plot threads at once; simultaneous situations that sometimes parallel each other and at other times contrast with each other are woven together elegantly.
Growing up, I’ve always been one of those girls with a husky voice set in the lower registers; a voice that is not very ‘feminine,’ i.e., not the sexy baby voice (which apparently is greatly appreciated in the bedroom). I came to appreciate my voice when I started doing debate and public speaking, an arena where I found that a girl with a low voice appears apparently more logical arguer and less like a hysterical nagger. Before then, I hated my voice because it seemed to set me apart from other girls, made me less ‘girly’ in a way. I guess that’s why they call it finding your voice, the process of becoming more comfortable with who you are and learning how to accept yourself for who you are. And that’s what Carol (and Lake Bell) ultimately strives to do—Carol with her clinic for girls who aren’t taken seriously because of their sexy baby voices and Bell with her endearing film.
Watch the trailer here!
