Despite initial criticism at the time of release, Paul Verhoeven’s erotic drama, Showgirls (1995), has become a camp classic that challenges notions of identity and sexuality. The film traces Nomi Malone’s challenging journey from a stripper to a showgirl where she experiences the brutal and sexist economy of Las Vegas. Verhoeven (1995) uses the relationship between Nomi, Cristal and Zack to explore Sedgwick’s (1985, pp.23) concept of the erotic triangle. This is where the bond between two men seeking the attention of a women are usually more potent than “the bond that links either of the rivals to the beloved” (Sedgwick, 1985 pp.21). However, this traditional representation of erotic triangle can be altered by the friendship between women. …show more content…
Sedgwick (1985) states that Girard’s structure of the erotic triangle was seen as symmetric, as it was not “disturbed by such differences as gender” (pp.23). However, she proposes that the structure of the triangle should be considered asymmetric as it is disturbed by gender. This is because of the difference between the “disrupted continuum between sexual and non-sexual male bonds and the relatively smooth continuum of female homosocial desire” (Sedgwick, 1985, pp.23). Furthermore, Sedgwick (1985, pp.25) states that the power relationships in a -maledominated society suggest a special relationship between male homosocial desire and maintaining patriarchal power. This idea can be transferred to Cristal and Nomi’s relationship, where Cristal maintains her patriarchal power as the lead of the dance revenue, Goddess, while seemingly also having a desire for Nomi as she asks about Nomi’s sex life. This is evident when Cristal asks Zack if he had sex with Nomi, which resonates with McWhorter’s (1999, pp.10) view that sex becomes something that is interrogated and an object of administrative measures. This is further displayed where Cristal questions Nomi if she had sex with Zack to become the lead of “Goddess” or if she wanted to. The use of close up shot when Cristal immediately replies in a determined tone, without listening to Nomi’s answer, that “I say you did it for the spot” emphasizes Cristal’s envy which is reinforced through the close up shot of her jealous, almost angry facial expression. This suggests that Cristal may have feelings towards Nomi thus emphasizes the erotic rivalry between the two females. Therefore, it seems that Sedgwick’s (1985, pp.22) triangle can be adapted to the power relations between women as seen in the film suggesting that the female-female bond may be more potent than the male-male
To do so, Levy turns to the experiences of several young women whom she interviews. From her interpretations of these experiences, Levy reaches the conclusion that these women’s sexual nature revolves around their need to feel wanted and to gain attention rather than to satisfy their own sexual needs (Levy, 194). But by drawing her experiences from only a small subset of the population, her analysis is ultimately restricted to that of a simulacral woman: specifically, one constructed from the characters that actively participate in raunch culture.
Power, especially in the hands of females, can be a force for immense societal changes. Director Sciamma plays with the role of power in the lives of the four girls, predominantly in the character of Lady. Lady’s sense of control, stems from winning hand on hand fights, but the opinion of the men around her lays the foundation of this empowerment. The more fights Lady wins, the more the men appear to respect her, yet as feminist Simone de Beauvoir explains “[n]o matter how kindly, how equally men treated me when I tried to participate in politics, when it came right down to it, they had more rights, so they had more power than I did (Simone de Beauvoir - The Second Sex- ix),” the “power” Lady obtained was provisional. Lady’s power was directly tied to the opinion of the men around her, in this scene, a portion of the boys sits on stairs physically higher than Lady, invoking a sense of power hierarchy and control. The boys only valued Lady when she successfully participated in the their world of violence, but this participation came with boundaries as “[w]omen can never become fully socialized into patriarchy- which in turn causes man to fear women and leads then, on the one hand, to establish very strict boundaries between their own sex and the female sex (Feminist theory 142).” The men had never truly incorporated Lady into their group, she had just
Shumway, David, R. “Cinema Journal.” Screwball Comedies: Constructing Romance, Mystifying Marriage. Texas: University of Texas Press, 1999. 7 – 23. Print.
The scene described above sounds as if it should be found in a pornographic video displayed on the shelves of a sex shop located in the back alleys of Soho in London. However, this scene is taken from director David Fincher’s widely popular film Fight Club. Even though the scene has an intense air of the homoerotic, the characters in the film are actually fighting and not having sex. Steve Neale addresses this phenomenon in his article “Masculinity as Spectacle”. He upholds the view of feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey by maintaining that the spectatorial look in mainstream cinema is always male. A problem arises when the look of the spectator is forced upon an erotic shot of a male figure. The article states, “that in a heterosexual and patriarchal society, the male body cannot be marked explicitly as the erotic object of another male look: that look must be motivated in some other way, its erotic component repressed” (Neale 14). The erotic component is repressed with violence or with mutilation of the male body. This repression is often found in the action genre in such films as Gladiator and Fight Club where the female object of the spectator gaze is replaced with male figures.
Today, love, sex and romance are three main topics that presented in media as main themes discuss in contemporary popular culture. Social media is important in shaping audience value about feminism through the framework of contemporary media like films, magazines, plays, advertisements, TV shows, graphic novels, etc. The television show “Sex and the City” incorporates “pop feminism” that influences many lives of women. Sex and the City is originally talking about four single thirty-something women living in Manhattan. They are coming to New York in order to seek “love and labels” (Sex and the City). The main theme of Sex and the City is concentrating on contemporary American woman’s conception of sex, love, and romance. As we learned from lecture, sex, love, and romance have a history; they are different in different cultures; they are shaped by gender, class, race, ethnicity, nation, ability, and other differences (Lecture Notes). Sex and the City is focusing on modern American woman’s experiences and their thinks with sex, love, and romance. The four main women characters in Sex and the City represent diversity of gender, class, race, ethnicity, religion, age, able-bodiedness through their different experience and expectations of their life (Lecture Notes). Sex and the City represents that the feminism notions of sex, love, and romance are socially constructed, and this social construction of sex, love and romance are featured in these female characters’ personalities.
Conseula Francis’ “Flipping The Script: Romancing Zane’s Urban Erotica” is an analysis of how contemporary romance novelist, Zane, frees African American women through her “frank and open discussion of sex as liberatory” (Francis 169). Zane has been called an “erotic revolutionary, someone who challenges traditional scripts that offer men greater pleasure to indulge in a fuller range of sexual expression” (Francis 168). Francis states that Zane accomplishes a rare feat in her ability to “[reframe African American] female sexuality as a space for emotional satisfaction rather than a space defined by physical and emotional oppression” (Francis 169). As a result of how distinctively counter-cultural Zane’s work is, her work is oftentimes mistakenly
In the French film 8 Femmes, François Ozon, the director, guides a play from the 1950’s that focuses on a lively family that have deep secrets that all intertwine. In this musical mystery, comedy film, a murder has happened and each woman has their own motives for wanting to kill the man in the home. Yet, Ozon’s storyline is not the main focus of the film. The film follows each of the women which show the themes of betrayal, secrets, and most importantly sexuality. Sexuality is a main theme in many of François Ozon films that he directs. Sexuality in the cinema can be seen in many of his films because it affects Ozon personally.
Volpe, Edmond L. "James's Theory of Sex." Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Portrait of a Lady: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Peter Buitenhuis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1968.
‘Lad flicks’ or ‘lad movies’ is a type of film genre that emerged in the late 1990s. They are defined as a “‘hybrid of “buddy movies”, romantic comedies and “chick flicks”, which centre on the trials and tribulations of a young man as he grows up to become a ‘real man’. ‘Lad flicks’ respond in part to the much-debated ‘crisis in masculinity’” (Benjamin A. Brabon 116). This genre of film explored what it meant to be a ‘real man’ in the twentieth century and in order to do so, they would have to grow up and leave their juvenile ways behind to enter the heterosexual world. Gender relations in ‘lad flicks’ portray masculinity as a troubled, anxious cultural category hiding behind a humorous façade and also rely greatly on a knowing gaze and irony. The two ‘lad flicks’ that will be analyzed are The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Judd Apatow 2005) and Role Models (David Wain 2008).
...vy provokes strong, emotional reactions from her readers by providing a narrative about the television show Girls Gone Wild in order to criticize how the company pressures women to expose themselves on camera. Levy reveals that the cameramen of Girls Gone Wild receive bonuses for capturing a hot girl flashing her breasts on camera as opposed to a normal girl (12-13). Levy intentionally includes this information in order to expose how the company treats women as objects instead of people; the women are literally rated on a scale from one to ten on the show (Levy 12). The fact that the cameramen receive bonuses based on the attractiveness of the girls shocks and disgusts the reader. By providing a behind the scenes account of Girls Gone Wild, Levy strengthens her argument because she convinces her reader that GGW profits from taking advantage of women.
Essay #1: Sexual Politics It has been said that “Society has always defined for us what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman, what a man should be like and what a woman should be like, and these traditional definitions of gender roles have limited and even harmed individuals”. The theme of sexual politics comes to mind in this quote. One can define sexual politics as the relationship of the sexes, male and female, regarding power. Society’s definition of this can limit an individual in their gender role and restrain a person from being themselves.
Boa, Elizabeth. "Wedekind and the 'Woman Question'." Boa, Elizabeth. The Sexual Circus: Wedekind's Theatre of Subversion. New York : Basil Blackwell Inc. , 1987. 167-202. Print.
“Year after year, twenty-something women come to New York City in search of the two L's: labels and love” is the very catchy line that opens the film with Fergie’s ‘Labels or Love’ as the soundtrack and The Big Apple as its introductory shot. The scaling deduced from the bird’s eye-view-point of New York City, showing its Metropolitan atmosphere with skyscrapers and the famous Brooklyn Bridge; to the urbanites of the City; then to the lead actors of the film. A fifteen year-old girl watches the film, mesmerizing the ecstatic city while admiring the skinny white bodies of the ladies. And last but never forgotten, she gets carried away with the funky upbeat rhythm of the song emphasizing “Gucci, Fendi, [and] Prada . . .” That is the introduction of Sex and the City and the focus of its cinematography. With its elements, the movie can honestly influence teenage girls. Yet as much as critics such as Maya Gordon of Psychology of Women Quarterly say how media contributes to the sexual objectification and values women “based on their appearance,” this film should be an exemption.
On the other hand Brantenberg’s novel exploits the real worlds views of sexuality and applies them in th...
... decades ago. This book is one that will allow the reader to view many aspects of sexuality from a social standpoint, and apply it to certain social attitudes in our society today, these attitudes can range from the acceptance of lesbian and gays, and the common sight of sex before marriage and women equality. The new era of sexuality has taken a definite "transformation" as Giddens puts it, and as a society we are living in the world of change in which we must adapt, by accepting our society as a changing society, and not be naive and think all the rules of sexuality from our parents time our still in existence now.