“Walk down the right back alley in Sin City and you can find anything,” said Marv (Mickey Rourke), the lumbering lead of the first storyline in “Sin City.”

Some may argue you can even find misogyny.

This weekend Frank Miller’s graphic-novel “Sin City” premiered on the big screen with all guns blazing to the top of the box office. But when the smoke cleared, the fundamental question that arises when any stunningly stylish, but excessively violent, film emerges remained: What does this really say?

The film follows several storylines that all involve scantily-clad strippers/prostitutes, severing off various body parts and a valiant male lead coming to the rescue of a desperate female. At the same time, the film features characters all trying to survive in a tough city any way they can and even portrays a band of rogue prostitutes as the source of vigilante justice.

“Sin City” is fiction; that is not in question. It is two hours and six minutes designed to entertain. However, what needs to be examined is why this form can be considered entertaining. While its plot elements can be isolated in the scope of “art,” how do its themes reflect on the filmmaker, crew and audience?

I took this movie in on Saturday night, coming fresh from a conference at Hampshire College in Western Massachusetts on reproductive freedom and women’s rights, courtesy of the Northeastern University Feminist Student Organization (NUFSO). At the movie were several of my friends as well as other members of the NUFSO.

When the lights came up at the close of the film, everyone was in agreement – it was great. It wasn’t until later that I started to hear the criticisms of the film’s portrayal of women as “damsels in distress” and lowly prostitutes – a thought that did not once occur to me while watching it.

The majority of women in the movie are not cast as upstanding, model citizens. Most of the female leads are “dancers,” or just plain hookers, and even the parole officer Lucille (Carla Gugino) is seen wearing little to no clothes.

I don’t agree with objectifying women or making them pure sex objects. However, this film concentrates on the underbelly of society. Yes, the women are prostitutes, but the men are murderers, cannibals and rapists.

In the world of “Sin City,” no one is really innocent. Conflict is not settled with rational discussion and mediation; it’s settled with guns, knives, bombs and an arsenal of ninja-like weapons I couldn’t name if I tried. Truly, this film is not meant to be a how-to guide for model living, but rather a how-not.

Perhaps it isn’t the occupations that are ruffling feathers; perhaps it is the costumes. Leader of the pack of renegade prostitutues, Gail (Rosario Dawson), wears something that might be better placed in a WWE wrestling ring or a bondage film and Nancy (Jessica Alba) has a pair of chaps that almost smoke right off the screen.

But riddle me this, is their sex appeal further exploited than devilishly handsome Dwight (Clive Owen)? Or is the midriff baring of Alba more scandalous than Hartigan (Bruce Willis) in the nude?

As for the knight in shining armor coming to save the defenseless dames, that can be seen as a half-truth. Without spoiling too much of the plot, the men may have the final say, but the women of this film define tenacity. They take beatings as much as they dole them out. Make no mistake about the ladies of “Sin City,” they are not to be crossed.

The violence in the movie against women is indeed disgusting; however, so is the violence against men. In fact, so is the violence in general.

So what does this film tell us?

Taken in parts, the movie can easily be dismissed as sexist trash. All the women are prostitutes, they can’t defend themselves and are only in the film for eye candy. But placed in the setting of “Sin City” as a whole, they are as brash, ruthless and, while not immediately evident, scared as any of the leading men.

If you do walk down a back alley in Sin City, you have an even chance of getting your ass kicked by a man or a woman.

That, my friends, is gender equality.

— Bobby Hankinson can be reached at [email protected]