The Portrayal of Women in Shane Black’s The Nice Guys Anonymous 10th Grade

When Ryan Gosling was asked to describe The Nice Guys, which tells the story of Gosling’s Holland March, a private detective who struggles to find consistent work in 1977 Los Angeles, California. One day, though, an old woman hires him to look for her niece, a path which ends up with him meeting Jackson Healy (played by Russell Crowe), muscle for hire. When March and Healy discover that their cases are connected, the two work together to find a young girl named Amelia (played by Margaret Qualley). Black has a legion of devoted fans who would assuredly agree with Gosling, but Black’s films have not been released without criticism. Through his decades-long career (from the first film he was involved in creating, Lethal Weapon to his most recent film, The Predator). Nearly every one of Black’s films have been criticized for their oftentimes misogynistic or at the very least negative portrayal of women. Black’s 2016 film The Nice Guys, despite being mostly well-received by critics and audiences alike, was no exception. Women in The Nice Guys are sexualized and degraded to a point that virtually all women in the film are seen as objects.

The film begins with a young boy taking a pornographic magazine from his parents room so that he...