‘We are all born
sexual creatures… it’s a pity so many people despise and crush this natural
gift.’[1]
The evolution of representations
of sexuality in modern western society has been dramatic over the past century.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the North American film industry. Some
perceptions have been challenged and dispelled, however the shame of female
sexuality has remained largely static.
Sexuality is referenced
or alluded to in almost all cinematic art of the 20th and 21st
centuries. The texts selected for this study - Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), Mary Harron’s American Psycho (2000) and Darren
Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010) - are
from vastly differing time periods, yet they offer similar commentaries on
sexuality. All three are examples of the Giallo genre, a sub-genre of
psychological thriller which makes use of mental disorder in its characters to
explore the darker, unmentionable taboos of western society. Specifically, the
films explore the interconnection between sexuality and violence in an explicit
and therefore confronting way atypical to traditional Hollywood depictions of
romance and sexual interaction.
Conventionally,
American mainstream films over the course of the 20th century have
shied away from extremes of explicit sex and sexuality, using cinematic clichés
to allude to sexual intercourse, rather than displaying it. Rarely is sex used
as more than a formulaic device in the narrative plot. Nudity beyond female
breasts is avoided, promiscuity is championed as a male-only pursuit, and
monogamous, heterosexual relationships triumph. This is especially true with
regards to censorship protocol, which favours violence over explicit depictions
of female pleasure[2].
Films of the Giallo subgenre subvert
these ‘sugar-coated’ representations by overtly portraying sex as a violent act
with a victim and an aggressor. They define two parties to misogyny – male
aggression and female passivity. The connections drawn between violence and sex
vary, however each text questions the shameful nature of female sexuality.
Re-assertions of this
shame have been consistently motivated by the pressures on auteurs to capture
commercial appeal. Hence, by reflecting and propagating stagnant and
misogynistic audience agendas, Hollywood hegemony has entrenched societal
sexism. However, the influence of popular film cannot be encapsulated so
succinctly; rather texts’ impacts on audiences are considerably more nuanced,
depending on their subjective understanding and psychological identification
with the victim, or indeed the aggressor.
It is only films such
as these, that transgress the boundaries of mainstream censorship, that represent
the realities of gender inequity. The fundamental conceptions of gender common
to the three films demonstrate their universality for the western audiences
they both reflect and influence. As audiences are more likely to absorb
material that they believe in, agree or identify with[3], the
popularity and critical acclaim enjoyed by the three texts shows that they
reflect and/or influence their audience’s beliefs. When considered in retrospect[4], the
films’ contextual differences ground their narratives in the peaks and troughs
of the sexual revolution.
Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal
1960 ‘slasher’[5]
film Psycho established many of the
contemporary standards for its genre, including the doomed archetype of the promiscuous
woman at the hands of the sexually dysfunctional serial killer afflicted with
Sigmund Freud’s Oedipal complex[6]. The
climax of the film draws significant parallels between murder and rape, as
violence as a result of sexual frustration is Norman Bates’ outlet for
punishing and eradicating expressions of female sexuality. Literary editor
Barbara Epstein suggested films such as Psycho
reflect contemporaneous societal disapproval of female independence[7]. The
film still resonates because though progress has been made, society’s
expectations of women remain prohibitive; this is reflected by more recent
films like American Psycho and Black Swan.
Mary Harron’s 2000
horror film American Psycho, an
adaptation of the novel of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis, observes the misogynistic foundations
established by Hitchcock. It follows the rampage of Patrick Bateman, a privileged
New York ‘yuppie’ by day and axe-murderer by night. By killing those he deems
worthless, like homeless men and prostitutes, Bateman satisfies Ernest Jones’
classic ‘God-complex’;[8] his
need to do so derives from living in an emasculating society of consumerism and
hedonistic frivolity. Contemporary feminists such as Ariel Levy believe that
the gratuitous ‘liberation’[9] of
female sexuality in the 1980s exacerbated its commodification and veiled
persisting inequity and misogyny, and this phenomenon is clearly evident in
Harron’s film. The film is, by Harron’s own admission, not ‘feminist’ in an
‘ideological’[10]
sense, and thus attempts to objectively represent the realities of the era
Ellis depicted in his novel.
Conversely, Darren
Aronofsky’s 2010 film Black Swan is a
postmodern psychological thriller exploring Nina Sayers’ crisis of femininity
and sexuality. As a ballerina struggling to portray both the white, asexual
swan and black, sensual swan, she embodies the crisis of the modern woman under
pressure to embody virgin and whore simultaneously. Her suggested ‘bisexuality’
and ‘schizophrenia’[11],
diagnosed by sociologist screen analysts Mark Fisher and Amber Jacobs, are devices
of characterisation and allegories representing the virgin/whore dichotomy. Aronofsky’s
portrayal of femininity and womanhood as a violent battle between virgin and
whore has been disregarded as simplistic by various critics[12],
but is also a postmodern reduction of what female sexuality has become under
the societal pressures fostered by popular culture and its conceptions of
womanhood.
Psycho, American Psycho and Black Swan derive the universality of their commentary by establishing and dissecting archetypes of gender. Psycho focuses on a man and a woman, American Psycho on a man and Black Swan on a woman. By observing the chronology of the three texts one can determine the static nature of the gender and sexual roles most commonly presented in the 20th century. Though Giallo films are more overt in their verdicts, they remain as pessimistic about the degraded role of woman as commercialised films stereotypically constructed for mass consumption.
Psycho, American Psycho and Black Swan derive the universality of their commentary by establishing and dissecting archetypes of gender. Psycho focuses on a man and a woman, American Psycho on a man and Black Swan on a woman. By observing the chronology of the three texts one can determine the static nature of the gender and sexual roles most commonly presented in the 20th century. Though Giallo films are more overt in their verdicts, they remain as pessimistic about the degraded role of woman as commercialised films stereotypically constructed for mass consumption.
‘Let
the woman learn in silence with all subjection.’[13]
The Giallo genre of
film, originally Italian thriller, has been adapted over the past century to
become a sub-genre of the anglo-American psychological thriller. In its anglicised
form, the Giallo film entails quintessential features such as excessive blood-letting,
mental illness, stylised music and mise-en-scène, all of which are featured in Psycho, American Psycho and Black Swan. Though they are generally
considered to be commercially unviable[14]
and ‘niche’[15],
the artistic merits and social pertinence of the latter three are such that
they have gained considerable mainstream attention.
One final key feature
of the genre is emphasis on sex. In the sex acts featured in this style of
film, there is usually a victim and an aggressor, mirroring the power dynamic
of violence. Inversely, expressions of violence are accompanied by sexual
overtones. These visual representations of sex and violence blur the boundaries
between the two, representing the reality of subjugation and domination typically inherent within modern
western society due to entrenched gender inequity.
Film director Alfred
Hitchcock’s most famous work is his 1960 tour de force Psycho, in which he moralistically condemns a woman seizing the
only means of liberation at her disposal.
The film follows Marion Crane, a woman who spontaneously absconds with
forty thousand dollars cash from her place of business in order to escape and marry
the man she loves. On her getaway she stops at the deserted Bates Motel and
meets its ostensibly meek proprietor Norman Bates. She is stabbed to death in
the shower by who appears to be Norman’s mother, yet is later revealed in the
film to be Norman himself. According to the psycho-analytic explanation [16]
at the end of the film, Norman has taken solace in dressing like his mother and
developing a split personality disorder in order to reconnect with her after
her death. This split personality is visually shown with an overlay of the
mother’s skull over Norman’s face (see Fig 1).
Psycho’s
discussion of taboos foreshadowed the sexual revolution to come later in the
decade. These taboos included ‘sexual perversions; decay, and death; …murder;
the corpse; bodily wastes; the feminine body’[18] Janet
Leigh’s character Marion was one of the rare women to be shown on screen in her
lingerie, making her character a prototype for the ‘sexual’[19] slasher-victim.
Contextually, her characterisation as a woman attempting to liberate herself
from quotidian drudgery heralds the feminist movement to come[20],
yet her unfortunate fate also spells its doom.
Mrs Bates’ references
to Marion’s ‘ugly [sexual] appetite’[21]
are particularly telling of the mother’s’ disgust at the idea of sex, and
furthermore, the jealousy felt by an overbearing mother like Mrs Bates.
Throughout the film, the mother figure is established as one of asexuality. Even
though Norman’s mother is dead, he continues to abide by her stereotypically
1950s moral code as it has become his judgmental conscience.
In this way, she
watches over Norman like a hawk, or any kind of bird, evident in the decoration
of Norman’s parlour. Stuffed birds survey all that occurs within Norman’s life.
(See Fig. 2) Though they are passive, being dead, their beady, judging eyes are
no less intimidating. Their presence symbolises that of Mrs Bates, and
Hitchcock positions them over Norman’s shoulder throughout the scene, staring
down as though about to strike for any misbehaviour. Bates himself highlights
the comparison, saying, ‘My mother there?
But she’s harmless. She’s as harmless as one of those stuffed birds.’[22]
A fear of the taboos and dirtiness of sex has been instilled in him so
deeply by his mother that years after
her death, her voice is so clear within him that it intermittently usurps his
identity altogether. It is these scenes that establish the connection between
sex and Norman’s shame. This shame soon results in Norman’s violent purges.
The shower scene’s
aesthetic has ‘provided critics with the rationale for lovingly and endlessly
recounting all the details’[24]. Janet Leigh refused to shower ever
again[25]. In
his interviews with Hitchcock, filmmaker Francois Truffaut noted that, “That
killing is pretty much like a rape.”[26] Marion’s
vulnerability and nakedness heighten the psychologically disturbing nature of
the killing and its sexual connotations.
The scene hinges on
Norman’s use of violence as a method of purging the shame of sexuality. It
begins with the ritualistic cleansing involved with the ordinary shower; before
a dramatically different kind of cleansing ritual begins to take place. As the
silhouette of the mother appears through the curtain, the audience becomes
aware that Marion is about to be punished by Norman’s mother for her perceived
‘ugly appetite’[27]
for sex. The silhouette establishes the menace of the mother figure and
furthermore, her ominous sexuality. This ‘abjection’[28] of
her identity is merely another example of treating women as the ‘Other’[29].
The self-righteous ‘Mrs
Bates half’ of Norman’s identity performs the task of purifying Marion, by
penetrating her repeatedly with a phallic knife. (See Fig. 2) In this way, although
it is a jealous act of punishment for promiscuity, it also carries undertones
of rape and sexual victimisation. This indicates that Norman’s actions are not
isolated to his abnormal personality type. Psycho’s
use of universally masculine symbols like the knife links Marion’s killing
to ‘a system of male dominance’.[30] Norman’s
attempts to simultaneously assert his masculinity and punish the source of his
‘sinful’ sexual urges illustrate both the dichotomy of his personality, and the
psychological damage of misogyny as a wider phenomenon.
The scene concludes with
a third cleansing ritual as Hitchcock captures Norman’s rigorous cleaning of
the cabin’s bathroom. The viewer follows all his minute, mundane actions with
extreme close shots of mopping the floor of the bath, then wiping the tiles,
wrapping the body in the shower curtain, flushing the toilet and putting all
evidence of Marion’s existence, including her body, into the trunk of her
vehicle. At the climax of this final cleansing ritual Norman dumps the car in a
swamp. This grotesque burial ritual, perpetrated by the mother side of Norman’s
split personality, would seem fitting for a woman guilty of ‘disgusting things’[32]
(implied to be sexual in nature). Hitchcock’s other films, including Frenzy and Vertigo suggest ‘the corpse of woman is a figure of extreme
pollution’[33]
and so it is fitting that her journey end in a place of extreme pollution, a
swamp. The status of woman is equated to the lowest of the low, and yet the
subjective camerawork encourages the audience to feel sympathy for Norman – the
misogynist and dominator.
Psycho
is
representative of the puritanism of 1950s morality with regard to sexuality;
Hitchcock’s conservatism is comparable to that of his intended audience. Not
only is Marion punished for being perceived as sexually available, she is also
punished for attempting to escape the accepted confines of society.
Contextually, this narrative reflects the values held by Psycho’s original audience, who saw the film as an extreme version
of their own understanding of the shame of sexual desire, and the righteousness
of masculine dominance.
‘Many
a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it.’[34]
The protagonist of Mary
Harron’s 2000 film American Psycho, Patrick
Bateman, describes himself as being composed of only two base motivations:
greed and disgust, both feelings of superiority reflecting the desire to
dominate others. As a 1980s Wall Street yuppie by day and axe-wielding serial
killer by night, his favourite targets are ‘women… those that he considers
under him in his particular social scale.’[35] The
film is intended as a diluted version of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel, though confronting
nonetheless - ‘… a savage portrait of male behaviour of its worst…’[36]
The strongest contrast
in both the film and the novel is its exploration of the clash between
Patrick’s two worlds of horror and ‘social satire’[37]. The
latter world is concerned with excessive materialism - Valentino suits and
Black American Express cards. The concern Patrick attaches to appearances is
evident in his hyperbolically self-involved voice-over: ‘I'm on the verge of tears by the time we arrive at Espace, since I'm
positive we won't have a decent table. But we do, and relief washes over me in
an awesome wave.’[38]
Conversely, his nocturnal world centres on motifs of weapons such as chainsaws,
knives and nail guns.
In the society of which
Patrick is a product, sexual subjugation equates to power, because it removes the
terrors of intimacy. Intimacy, in Patrick’s universe, is irrevocably
emasculating; he wishes to protect his masculinity from being ‘endangered’[39]
by traditionally feminine emotions like love and affection. Physical violence
has the same distancing effect for the perpetrator. The film draws out the
parallels between Patrick’s physically violent abuses of women, and his stereotypically1980s
hedonistic, misogynist sexual practices. The violence is merely an unveiling of
the subjugation women already experience during sexual congress with him.
Through both outlets, Patrick satisfies his fantasies to be the ‘omnipotent’[40],
impenetrable force in his nocturnal world; this is to regain some of the
dominance he and his patriarchal counterparts had lost as a result of
feminism’s headway.
Both Norman Bates and
Patrick Bateman are terrified of intimacy, but for two different reasons.
Norman’s mother has indoctrinated him to believe that all women, and all sexual
urges, are indecent. Patrick, however, views the idea of intimacy as synonymous
with weakness. All the emasculation he endures to belong to the materialistic
society that has created him, such as manicures, tanning beds and facial masks is
compensated for by his nightly domination of two innately masculine fields[41]: violence
and sex. For example, Patrick’s peel-off face mask represents his two lives as
two faces, peeling off one to reveal the cold-blooded gaze beneath. (Fig. 4)
The primal, intrinsic
nature of Patrick’s sexual dysfunction is most prevalent in the scene in which
he finishes an evening of sexual conquest by chasing a naked sex worker down
the hallways of his apartment block wearing only Nike shoes and carrying a chainsaw.
The Nike shoes symbolise the link between Patrick’s primal nocturnal world and
materialistic reality. The nakedness of the characters dehumanises them both
and turns the chase into an animalistic pursuit. This scene climaxes with the woman
running down a large, spiralling staircase, as Patrick drops his chainsaw onto
her from the very top. Upon his successful elimination of his target, the
audience looks up from the victim’s point of view to see Patrick give a lion-like
roar at his achievement. This zoomorphism, dehumanising Patrick to uncover his
base instincts, conveys the extent to which the dichotomous nature of
subjugation and domination is entrenched within human nature. It also contrasts
with the materialistic focus on polished surfaces and social niceties throughout
the film, and this juxtaposition highlights the notion of Patrick’s violence as
a purging action similar to Norman’s.
Patrick is literally a
textbook narcissist – ‘auto-erotic, and exhibitionist, with fantasies of
omnipotence and omniscience.’[43] So
allergic to sexual intimacy with anyone other than himself, he stares at his
reflection during sex. In his sex tape, a shot seen through the eye of
Patrick’s video camera shows him in the centre of the frame; in the tape’s
playback, Patrick is the star of his show, not the women he has paid to be
there. Furthermore, the audience views the scene through the camera’s voyeuristic
lens. This scene comments on the rise of ‘raunch culture’[44] (‘overt
sexualisation’[45]
of women in the mainstream media), in the contexts of the 1980s and 2000,
misinterpreted as ‘liberating’ but merely heightening the subjugation of women
and their desires behind closed doors. To explore this phenomenon, American Psycho draws a contrast between
the surface of the female, presented by doll-like, asexual characters such as
Reese Witherspoon’s delicate Evelyn (see Fig. 5), and the reality of sexual
subjugation of women once removed from their pedestal.
(Fig 5)[46]
Finally, the
ritualistic preparation for the killing of Paul Allen intentionally parallels a
classic date rape scenario. Bateman ensures Paul’s intoxication and his own
sobriety on their dinner date, weakening the ‘prey’, and brings him back to his
apartment, where he murders Paul with an axe. Before Paul’s killing, high angle
shots are used to show Patrick’s preparation. Once Paul is dead, Harron shoots
Bateman from below to show his increased status, and the empowering effect of
his powers of destruction. Half of his face is spattered with blood, visually
symbolising the divide between his emasculated, yuppie persona and he who has
just executed his colleague. He is foregrounded in the centre of the frame, as
he lights a post-coital cigar. The cigar conflates Allen’s murder with sex, and
expresses Bateman’s satisfaction; this contextually connects to the boundaries of
sadomasochistic pornography that were being pushed during the 1980s[47].
Far from being deterred by radical feminism, misogynistic attitudes toward sex
were propagated by increasingly graphic and violent pornography, which Bateman
watches religiously throughout the film. Harron’s use of filmic intertextuality
demonstrates that increasingly graphic and freely available pornography propagated
misconceptions about female sexuality, in particular implying women to be
appreciative of subjugation.
The final frame of the
film shows Patrick sitting in his chair, the focal point of the frame,
heightened in status by a low angle shot, with a sign directly above his head
on the door behind him saying ‘this is
not an exit’[48].
The frame’s composition suggests that there is no escape from his own
monstrousness, because the social environment that surrounds him provokes his
domineering behaviour.
1980s ‘postfeminism’[49]
gave women a false sense of ‘their own independence, invulnerability, and
sexual entitlement’[50],
subsequently desensitising them to the ‘male domination and women’s
victimization’[51]
at the hands of misogynists like Bateman. The feminist movement had declared
victories prior to the 1980s, with many assuming its goals to be successfully
achieved. However, underneath this perception of ensured entitlement lay the
subtleties of misogyny, too entrenched to be changed.
Black
Swan, directed by Darren Aronofsky, is a psychological
thriller chronicling the trauma suffered by Nina Sayers, a ballerina preparing
for her first starring role as the Swan Queen in Swan Lake. It is characterised as belonging to the ‘neo-Giallo
genre’, as it appropriates conventions from the genre but also chronicles its
narrative in a postmodern fashion that departs from convention. The production
of Swan Lake within the film is also
postmodern in many respects; in an attempt to revitalise the story, the
company’s director Thomas has chosen to split the personality of the Swan Queen
into two parts – the innocent white swan, and the sensual black swan. Nina is a
perfect match as a fragile, asexual white swan, but in order to reach the level
of perfection to which she aspires, she must uncover the sexualised black swan
within her.
A rival dancer, Lily,
is less technically adept than Nina but more in touch with her dark side; her
dancing is characterised by a feeling of liberation, as she is loose and free
with her body. She is constructed as Nina’s nemesis, always darkly clothed and
possessing threatening black swan wing tattoos (see Fig 6).
She is also the source
of Nina’s ‘forbidden’ Sapphic desires. The film thus draws a parallel between
being sexually liberated and being evil. Nina’s transformation into a
sexualised black swan is physically traumatic and involves self-harm. She
strips skin off her hands, scratches her back, drawing blood, stabs her own
face with a file, splits her toe nail in two, and literally transforms into a
black swan, sprouting feathers and goose bumps. (See Fig 7) The latter is
similar to Patrick’s zoomorphism in American
Psycho and Mrs Bates presence as a bird in Psycho, all suggesting sexuality to be animalistic and base. The
gratuitous violence of the Giallo genre inhabits Aronofsky’s laborious close
shots of Nina’s bloodied hands and feet, the stab wounds in her face, and the
open gash on prima-ballerina Beth’s leg. The violence culminates when Nina
stabs herself in the stomach, mistaking herself for the darkly sexual Lily.
The film conveys sexual
awakening as a painful and traumatic metamorphosis for a woman. In a postmodern
take on the female character ‘defined in terms of her sexuality’[55],
Nina perceives the ‘ideal’ of womanhood to be fluidly embodying both the virgin
and the whore. The pressure of this impossible expectation consumes and
eventually destroys her. The obsessive quest for artistic perfection and the
expectations to embody both extremes of sexuality lead to her self-destruction.
One of the motifs employed
throughout the film is the mirror. The mirror represents a duality between the
appearance of oneself and the reality. This duality highlights the dichotomy
between white swan and black. Eventually, the mirror begins to betray Nina as a
reflection not of her body but her mental state. Her reflection begins to
disobey reality, as though there is another independent, evil version of herself
living in the glass, soon to emerge and usurp her virginal form. Aronofsky
initially uses wide shots to encompass both Nina’s actual body in the film and
her reflection in the mirror in order to highlight the way that the mirror does
not reflect reality. Nina is visibly still, while her reflection turns around
to face Nina’s back menacingly. The image is disturbingly unnatural to a
viewer, as it is unsettling to see a reflection betray reality. Aronofsky
portrays the internal conflict caused by the unnatural, unrealistic
expectations and pressures put upon Nina.
At the end of Nina’s
metamorphosis, there is a shot shown only of her reflection in the mirror. The
real Nina has been usurped by her devious reflection. (See Fig. 7) The mirror
used in this instance is multi-facetted, a large centre mirror surrounded by
more than ten smaller ones around its rim. Nina’s inner turmoil has created not
two personalities but a myriad of Ninas. Finally, to destroy the whole concept
of the mirror as a divide between the two personalities, Nina smashes it and
uses a shard of it to stab herself. This shattering of illusions and boundaries
between reflections and reality represents the completion of her metamorphosis.
Her prior innocent self has become indistinguishable from her current sexual,
violent, visceral and ‘awakened’ form.
Nina’s mother, like
Norman’s in Psycho, is a significant source
of violence, tension and conflict within the film. Her character represents modern
western society, and thus she expects her daughter to ‘have it all’ – namely
perfection. It is Nina’s mother who is birdlike like Norman’s, as she swoops like
a black crow through the house. It is Nina’s mother who makes Nina scratch her
back nervously until she bleeds; it is the mother who viciously chops off her
fingernails, drawing blood. The horror of the overbearing mother is illustrated
most effectively in the scene in which Nina runs into her mother’s studio. Her
mother’s paintings come alive, their faces animated and screaming at her in a
multitude of voices – ‘Sweet girl!’ They personify her mother’s interminable,
surveying presence, overwhelming the fragile, ‘sweet girl’[57]. Her
mother’s pressure has caused Nina’s crisis, just as society’s pressures on
women to embody whore and virgin, and juggle professional and familial lives,
can destroy their chances of fulfilment.
‘Shame
may restrain what law does not prohibit.’[58]
The uniting factor
within the three texts is the association of shame attached to sexually
active/dominant women. These three mainstream texts simultaneously reflect and influence
society’s preconceptions of the feminist movement and its goals. Psycho’s audience condemned rebellious
women[59],
thus Marion Crane, the 'sexual' woman, ends her journey in a swamp; prospects
of liberation are buried with her. American
Psycho conveys the struggle of feminism to detect misogyny under a false
surface of gender civility, as the feminist movement became more focused on
subtleties after the sexual revolution of the 1970s. Black Swan’s audience was largely comprised of modern women struggling
to navigate the meaning of sexual independence and ‘having it all’[60],
as the protagonist struggles to reconcile the dichotomous white and black
swan.
From the examination of
these three texts, one can conclude that there are two parties to misogyny:
male perpetrators and the permissive passivity of their female victims. Women
live ‘in intimate association with their oppressors’[61];
the binary opposition of masculinity and femininity inextricably links the two
genders together, and so one must seek change to redefine the behaviours of the
other.
The cultural hegemony
of Hollywood glorifies subjugation of women to such an extent that many women
accept it as the status quo, further entrenching it. Women who aren’t aware of
their own rights because of the influence of popular culture are ill-equipped
to improve their status. Further deconstruction of mainstream texts is impeded
by academic snobbery, as many intellectuals ignore the need to ‘take these fictional
characters seriously.’[62] However,
it is because of, not in spite of, film’s popularity, that it is worthy of rigorous
analysis. If relatively few academics are willing to reveal and criticise
sexism in western society’s popular narratives, positive change in future
narratives will be impossible.
However, this is not to
say that the messages of films always operate solely on an unconscious level
that requires complex analysis to decode. Astute audience members, merely
through viewing, are able to draw their own conclusions on the variety of issues
films represent. The schizophrenia of Norman, Patrick and Nina metaphorically
represents the extremes of their murderous strength and emotional weakness.
Though they are able to violently dominate, they are also dominated, whether by
their mothers or by the social standards of their society. As they can’t
control their own lives they attempt to cruelly control the lives of others. This
social dynamic is a self-perpetuating vicious circle, in which aggressors feel
justified in their subjugation of others. Often this subjugation occurs as a
purging action, as Norman Bates’ violence punishes the shame of female
sexuality and Patrick Bateman’s violence is an outlet for expressing his
supressed masculinity. In Black Swan, the
purging action is done by Nina to herself, to punish her own lesbianism and atone
for possessing any sexual desire at all. Audiences with an insight into the
psychology of these characters and their disorders – sadism, narcissism and
masochism respectively – have the opportunity to comprehend their causes. The
narratives explain the motivations behind characters’ violent acts, and in
doing so, enlighten their audience as to the complex origins of human
aggression.
Understanding the
danger of negative portrayals of female sexuality is integral to moving toward
healthier narratives. Ideally, the complexity of female sexuality will be
acknowledged, instead of the insubstantial, dichotomous categorising of female
characters as virginal or promiscuous. Women will be permitted some control
over the ‘construction of our own sexual paradigms’[63], as the idea of femininity
is redefined to encompass more than two archetypes.
Despite the disturbing
revelations of Giallo films, their candid examination of base sexual and
violent human instincts in characters’ actions informs modern audiences of the
subterranean aspects of the human condition[64].
The universality of the darkness of human nature and the desire to dominate
others in a violent and/or sexual way is revealed to the audience. Only by
acknowledging[65]
their aggression or passivity can men and women seek change.
Thus, the importance of
the film industry is twofold. It provokes reflection among audiences, often
representing and stimulating social change. Filmmakers are unable to select
their own subconscious values, however they do choose to reflect or challenge
dominant agenda, and the discretion with which they use that power is at the
mercy of their audience and their studio. At the end of the 1950s, audiences
were reticent to accept a woman attempting to push accepted limits concerning
her sexuality and her social status. In 2000, audiences could appreciate a
satirical view of 1980s misogyny, falsely assuming it to be anachronistic. In
2010, however, audiences reacted to a new challenge to mainstream values, as Black Swan conveyed the neurosis of a
young woman coming to grips with her sexuality. Its commercial[66]
and artistic[67]
success was unprecedented for a film that had passed the Bechdel test[68].
Giallo films dare to approach these new frontiers, to look beneath society’s
surface, and will continue to do so by examining the interdependent nature of
sexual aggression and violent desires for dominance.
Reflection
Statement
As my major work
analyses sexuality and violence in popular film in conjunction with the western
sexual revolution, extensive research into concepts, form and critical style
has been integral to its progress. By consulting various works, I have gained
significant insight into forming my critical voice; by familiarising myself
with sociological and feminist concepts particular to film analysis, I have
gained a sense of authority over the confronting and complex subject matter. Over
the course of such varied research I have built an argument strengthened by an
interdisciplinary and hence somewhat postmodern approach.
While researching, I
discovered that sociological evidence is often pertinent to the modern literary
critique, particularly in the comparatively nascent field of film study. The
premise of my critical essay is that audiences respond most deeply to films
that reflect their own values. These values, however, are in constant flux,
depending on audiences’ contexts and demographics. The Zimmerman-Bauer study of
Obstinate Audience Theory provides socio-scientific evidence to support this
premise; it also established a more scientific, substantive basis upon which to
structure further argument.
To further support this
claim that films reflect the values of their contextual audience, I consulted
critical analyses of my chosen texts. The works ‘The Women Who Knew Too Much: Hitchcock and Feminist Theory’ by
Tanya Modleski and ‘Alfred Hitchcock: the
Legacy of Victorianism’ by Paula Marantz Cohen both support my conclusion
that Psycho’s 1960 audience was not
yet ready for the sexual revolution to come later in the decade.
American
Psycho’s 2000 audience was afforded a retrospective look
at the 1980s. The book Female Chauvinist
Pigs, written in 2005 by Ariel
Levy, is a retrospective discussion of the evolution of feminism throughout the
1980s. It argues that though women perceived themselves to be sexually
liberated in the 1980s, they were in fact celebrating a falsity of ‘their own
independence, invulnerability, and sexual entitlement’[69].
Yet misogyny and subjugation lurked, as they do underneath the polished
surfaces and masculine hedonism of American
Psycho. It was the discovery of Levy’s work that heightened my conceptual
understanding of the influence of context on the values and agendas of film
production as a part of media, and how they translate to the textual
construction of a film. This revelation significantly impacted my argument
regarding the three films’ commentary regarding the sexual revolution.
Though my third text, Black Swan, was produced very recently
in 2010, reports of its demography conclude that the majority of its audience
were female and less than 35. I interpreted this as showing that the film
resonated most with young women, demonstrating their interest and desire to
challenge stereotypes of lesbianism and shallow femininity questioned in Black Swan. The demographical statistics
did not, however, offer a conclusion as to whether Aronofsky’s film
successfully denigrated the limitations of archetypal femininity. They merely
indicated women’s desire to see their own rebellions and struggles reflected in
a rare, female-oriented narrative. Reports of the film’s commercial and
artistic success led me to attribute its construction to an evolving and
increasingly female-oriented social climate.
As a general overview
of feminist concepts and terminology used in film studies, Shohini Chaudhuri’s
collation of essays, ‘Feminist Film
Theorists’ introduced me framing devices such as the male gaze, the female
voice, subjectivity and objectification, and archetypes of femininity and
masculinity. To familiarise myself specifically with visual analysis, I
consulted various fine art essays, including Charles Bernheimer’s ‘Degas’s Brothels: Voyeurism and Ideology’
which discusses the ballerinas objectified by Edgar Degas, and Joris-Karl
Huysman’s perception of the portraits as permeated by the ‘ineradicable dirt of
female sexuality’[70].
I identified similar disgust at female sexuality and desire to ‘purify’ woman
in the protagonists of American Psycho and
Psycho. I adapted it to interpret the voyeurism of
the camera’s male gaze in Black Swan’s
ballet and American Psycho’s sex
tapes.
‘The Dread of Difference’ by Barry Keith Grant is a collation of
excerpts of works discussing gender and horror. Though a minor setback, ‘The Dread of Difference’ focuses a great
deal on gender rather than sexuality, which initially confused the specificity
of my central thesis somewhat. The work was helpful as it showcased a range of
critical voices. One of the voices I admired in particular was that of
Professor Barbara Creed. The adept way that Creed deconstructs Psycho in minute detail, using complex
frameworks such as feminism and postmodernism, established a high standard of
writing for me to aspire to. She also considers multiple stakeholders in her
analysis, such as the director, audience and producer of a text. For example,
in The Monstrous Feminine she writes,
‘Most critical analyses of this scene refer to the way in which Hitchcock draws
attention to the voyeurism, not just of Norman, but also of the spectator in
the cinema.’[71]
She references other interpretations of the text, in doing so asserting the
originality of her own analysis, and uses concepts like voyeurism to support
her arguments. I sought her advice concerning my theory about Psycho’s commentary on the oncoming
sexual revolution. She advised me to identify ‘early signs of the movement’[72]
in the narrative, which I have done on page 7 by identifying Marion as a
‘liberated’ woman (according to her lingerie), ripe for patriarchal punishment.
Another leading
feminist academic specialising in film studies is Professor Carol Clover. Her
work ‘Men, Women and Chainsaws’ influenced
me to consider the role of genre in the film industry. It was her examination
of the ‘rape-revenge’ genre that led me to discover another sub-genre, Giallo
films. By identifying the Giallo-centric conventions of my texts, I was able to
draw out their commonalities, and intrinsically the implied shame of female
sexuality.
My own critical voice
initially emerged somewhat tentative. However, I have gradually learned to lead
an argument in a more forthright manner, having realised that the joy of the
critical essay is its entitlement to overt didacticism. I have capitalised on
the opportunity to critically examine, through a dispassionate but fastidious
feminist lens, controversial texts – for it is divisive works that are most
worthy of deconstruction.
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email 10/5/12, 4.23pm.
[3]Bauer, Raymond The obstinate audience: The influence process from
the point of view of social communication American Psychologist,
Vol 19(5), May 1964, 319-328. doi: 10.1037/h0042851
[4] Smith, Tom W. A Report: The Sexual Revolution? Public
Opinion Quarterly Vol.54, No.3, (Autumn 1990) p. 415
[5] Stephen Robb, "How Psycho changed cinema", BBC News, 1 April 2010.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8593508.stm
[6] Rycroft,
Charles A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (London, 2nd Ed. 1995);
Freud, Sigmund The Interpretation of Dreams Chapter V “The Material and
Sources of Dreams” (New York: Avon Books) p. 296.
[7] Epstein,
Barbara The Successes and Failures of
Feminism Journal of Women’s History Vol. 14, Number 2, Summer 2002 p.
118-125
[8] Jones, Ernest Essays in Applied Psychoanalysis Chapter
V Hildreth Press 2007
[9] Levy, Ariel Female Chauvinist Pigs Black Inc. 2010
p. 64
[11] Fisher, Mark;
Jacobs, Amber Debating Black Swan: Gender
and Horror Film Quarterly; University of California Press Fall 2011
[13] King James
Bible, 1 Timothy 2:11
[14] Mikel J. Koven La
Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the
Italian Giallo Film. Scarecrow Press. 2006 p. 28
[15] Hunter, Russ A
Reception Study of the Films of Dario Argento in the UK and Italy Aberystwyth
University, 2009 p. 2
[16] Schneider,
Steven Jay Horror Film and
Psychoanalysis: Freud’s Worst Nightmare Cambridge University Press 2005, p.
24-25
[17] Frame from Psycho Hitchcock, Alfred Paramount
Pictures 1960
[18] Creed, Barbara Horror and the Monstrous Feminine: An
Imaginary Abjection edited by Grant, Barry The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film University of
Texas Press 1996 p. 38
[19] Clover, Carol J.
"Her Body, Himself; Gender in the Slasher Film". University
of California Press. 1987 edited by Grant, Barry The Dread of Difference: Gender and the
Horror Film University of Texas Press 1996 p. 80
[20] Modleski, Tanya
“The Women Who Knew Too Much: Hitchcock and Feminist Theory” Routledge 1988 p.
112
[22] Bates, Norman
(written by Alfred Hitchcock) Psycho Paramount
Pictures 1960
[23] Hoagland, Lily. "American Horror Story Recap." Www.wn.com.
World News Network, 3 Nov. 2011. Web. 04 June 2012.
<http://article.wn.com/view/2011/11/03/American_Horror_Story_Recap_You_don_t_get_it_do_you/>.
[24] Modleski, Tanya
“The Women Who Knew Too Much: Hitchcock and Feminist Theory” Routledge 1988p.
113
[25] Leigh, Janet Psycho: Behind the Scenes of the Classic
Thriller Harmony Books 1995 p. 53
[27] Bates, Mrs
(written by Alfred Hitchcock) Psycho
Paramount Pictures 1960
[28] Kristeva, Julia
The Powers of Horror: an Essay on
Abjection Columbia University Press New York 1982, p. 22
[29] Ibid.
[30] Modleski, Tanya
“The Women Who Knew Too Much: Hitchcock and Feminist Theory” Routledge 1988, p.
112
[31] Truffaut,
François Hitchcock (Updated Edition) Granada
Publishing Limited 1978
[32] Bates, Mrs Psycho Hitchcock, Alfred 1960
[33] Modleski, Tanya
The Women Who Knew Too Much: Hitchcock
and Feminist Theory 1988 Routledge, p. 108
[34] Benjamin
Franklin
[35] Alué, Sonia
Baelo American Psycho or
Postmodern Gothic Universidad de Zaragoza 1999, p. 32
[36] Harron, Mary American Psycho Featurette Lions Gate Films 2000
[38] Bateman,
Patrick American Psycho Harron, Mary
dir. Lions Gate Films 2000
[39] Fraiman, Susan Cool Men and the Second Sex Columbia
University Press 2003, p. xvii
[40] Konrath, Sara A Brief History of Narcissism University
of Michigan, 2007 Accessed Online 12/12/11 <http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57606/2/skonrath_2.pdf>,
p. 2
[41] Neroni, Hilary The Violent Woman: Femininity, Narrative,
and Violence in Contemporary American Cinema SUNY Press 2005, p. 44
[42] Tobias, Scott. "The New Cult Canon American Psycho." American
Psycho. AV Club, 2 Sept. 2010. Web. 03 June 2012.
<http://www.avclub.com/articles/american-psycho,44759/>. Frame from the
film American Psycho dir. Mary Harron
2000 Lions Gate Films
[43] Konrath, Sara A Brief History of Narcissism University of Michigan Accessed
Online 12/12/11 <http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57606/2/skonrath_2.pdf>
p. 1
[44] Levy, Ariel Female Chauvinist Pigs Black Inc. 2010,
p. 34
[45] Shanahan,
Angela Raunch Culture Drowns us all in a
Sea of Sleaze The Australian News Limited February 20, 2010
[47] McKee, Alan The Porn Report Melbourne University
Publishing 2008, p. 18, p. 37
[48] Harron, Mary
dir. American Psycho Lions Gate Films
2000
[49] Gill, Rosalind. "Postfeminist Media Culture." Postfeminist
Media Culture. Sage Journals, 2007. Web. 03 June 2012. <http://ecs.sagepub.com/content/10/2/147.short>.
Abstract from the European
Journal of Cultural Studies
[50] Jeffreys,
Sheila Beauty and Misogyny: Harmful
Cultural Practices in the West Psychology Press 2005, p. 19
[52] Shakespeare,
William Hamlet Act 1, Scene 2 Lord
Chamberlain’s Men 1602, p. 142
[54] Failes, Ian. Black Swan Takes
Wings | Fxguide. FX Guide, 6 Dec. 2010. Accessed Online 4/6/12 <http://www.fxguide.com/featured/black_swan_takes_wings/>.
[56] Gustini, Ray. "Darren Aronofsky Revlon Ad Unmistakably Darren
Aronofsky." The Atlantic Wire. The Atlantic Monthly Group, 2 June
2011. Accessed Online 4/6/12
<http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2011/06/darren-aronofsky-revlon-ad-unmistakably-darren-aronofsky-revlon-ad/38432/>.
[57] Mrs Sayers Black Swan Aronofsky, Darren dir. Fox Searchlight
Pictures 2010
[59] Modleski, Tania
“The Women Who Knew Too Much: Hitchcock and Feminist Theory” Hitchcock, Feminism and the Patriarchal
Unconscious Routledge 1988, p.
110
[60] Flynn, Sean International Women’s Day: Can Women Have It
All Or Are They Being Had? Sabotage Times Sabotage Syndication, Accessed
Online 21/6/12 <http://www.sabotagetimes.com/life/international-womens-day-can-women-have-it-all-or-are-they-being-had/>
[61] Cunningham, Evelyn (feminist)
[62] Greenwood, Dara
“Are Female Action Heroes Risky Role Models? Character Identification,
Idealization, and Viewer Aggression” Sex
Roles Springer Science & Business Media 2007, p. 731
[63] Ibid.
[64] Nadaner, Daniel. "Art and Cultural
Understanding: The Role of Film in Education." Art Education 34.4
(1981): 6-8. JSTOR. National Art Education Association, July 1981. Accessed
Online 4/6/12
<http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3192542?uid=3737536>.
[65] Drury, John. "Collective Action and
Psychological Change: The Emergence of New Social Identities." British
Journal of Social Psychology 39.4 (2010): p. 579-604. Print
[66] Worldwide gross
of $329 398 046, second best box office gross of all time for a dance film,
ranked 233 in biggest worldwide box office gross of all time.
[67] Nominated for
five Academy Awards, winning Best Actress for Natalie Portman.
[68] Tests whether
or not a film marginalises women – a film is deemed ‘non-sexist’ if it features
at least one scene in which two women discuss something not involving men.
[69] Levy, Ariel Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise
of Raunch Culture New York 2005, p. 171
[71] Creed, Barbara The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism,
Psychoanalysis London: Routledge 1993, p. 145
