*Spoiler Reflections* On Indecent Women in First Class

Indecency reigns in Hollywood - but then, everybody knows that already. I don't have to tell any of you about the sexual content that seems required in any movie rated at least PG-13. (And, tragically, some rated PG.) Most of this behavior seems applauded or, at the very least, tolerated. X-Men: First Class, though, has a rather odd stance on its sexual content.

There are three female characters who bring indecency to the movie: Angel (Zoë Kravitz), Emma Frost (January Jones) and Raven (Jennifer Lawrence). Angel is a stripper when Charles (James McAvoy) and Erik (Michael Fassbender) first find her. In her defense, she seems to have been on her own for nearly her whole life (perhaps grew up on the streets?), and she takes up Charles on his offer of a job where she can keep her clothes on. However, she later says she'd rather have men stare at her with her clothes off than because she's a mutant. Then she evidently becomes Sebastion Shaw's (Kevin Bacon) mistress.

Emma Frost begins the movie as Shaw's mistress. She nearly always has some large piece of clothing missing - whether she's in a bikini, an extremely short skirt, or a shirt with an almost unbelievably low neck. At one point, she strips down to her underwear for a Russian general and then uses her telepathic abilities to make him think she's on his lap.

Raven is less promiscuous than the others, but she still has her problems. Her clothing is immodest, though not as much as Emma's. Near the end, she tries to seduce Erik by waiting for him in his bed, sans her clothing. To his credit, he seems uninterested, though it seems he just thinks she's annoyingly immature. Also, it's not clear whether their kiss at the end of the scene leads to anything more or not. Either way, Raven acts like a little idiot.

This isn't to say that the good characters in First Class are perfect. CIA agent Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne) infiltrates a hotbed of communists by boldly walking into the building in only her underwear - it's a Las Vegas club and she blends in with the strippers. Charles hits on a young lady at a bar with the aid of his telepathic powers. She asks him how his seduction technique is working out, and he tells her that he will let her know in the morning. Where this would have ended up is a mystery, because Raven gets Charles to leave soon after.

Now to get to my point: Angel, Emma, and Raven all end up fighting for the bad guys. Angel and Emma work for Shaw and then switch allegiance to Erik/Magneto after Shaw's death, and Raven sides with Magneto. (In First Class, Raven seems to choose Erik because she's in love with him. By the original trilogy, she has definitely developed an evil character.) All three indecent women side with evil.

So does First Class intentionally portray indecency as evil? The answer is no. Some of the indecent actions are portrayed neutrally, if not exactly positively. For example, when Angel is a stripper, the general impression the movie gives is that she's in a bad situation, but not necessarily a bad person. This could be partly true, but not enough emphasis is placed on just how bad her actions were. Raven's attempted seduction of Erik is shown as a result of her search for a person she can truly belong with, not necessarily as the first step in the wrong direction. So indecency is shown more neutrally than I would like.

Another question could be asked. Does First Class portray indecent women as evil and/or misguided? The answer is yes. The most immodest, sexually immoral women in the movie all end up as bad characters. That's a bit of an odd take on indecency: Indecent actions are not necessarily wrong, but indecent women are bad. But, odd or not, for a big, popular movie, that's definitely a step in the right direction for Hollywood.