Gazes Revision

The Queer gaze is not the reversal of the Male gaze. It's not just about men looking at men for sexual pleasure. The Queer gaze actually has far more behind this.

The Male gaze is actually insulting to men because Freud just saw men as animals.

The Queer gaze is oppositional because they oppose the dominant sexuality. Such as homosexuals who 'come put' instead of being subjugated.

Judith Butler is suggesting that gender is not what you think it is. Gender is not your biological shape. It is about how culture and media has shaped your mind psychologically. Your taught how to be a man, your taught how to be a woman.

The role of men has been fragmented such as men using moisturisers. David Bowie experimented with gender and was known as a cameleon.

Some of the attributes that we used to associated with women is now associated with men such as men smelling of perfume, wearing eyeliner and having long hair. This means that men no longer have straight and homosexual but also shades in between.

Ethnicity is a construct, it is more about brotherhood than colour. 

Queer theory is trying to reduce ideas to the level that we are all humanity and it's not just about sexuality. Even if you are not gay you can still empathise.

If we don't have this idea of binary opposition than nothing is fixed. Nothing in your identity is fixed. Traditional views are white, middle class, male and straight but to be oppositional you have to read agaisnt this.

ITS ABOUT EXPERIENCES THAT ARE NOT JUST SEXUAL. 

Queer means 'that's strange' or 'that's odd'. Mr Humphrie in Are you being served is an example of how homosexual men are not seen as a threat but have become comical and non-threatening.

1980s Gay Subtext:

1. Top Gun

2. Rocky III

 

Progresses to Brokeback Mountain where homosexually is more overtly seen.  They are however being oppressed like women are, therefore women align with the characters as well as (homosexual) men.

The significant of gender in film theory:

1. Mulvey is a big theorist but she focuses on gender and writes that everyone is straight.

2. Gender IS significant because it is the only thing important.

3. However in film spectatorship gender has decreased in favor of sexuality being an important factor.

4. Modernist film analysists Freud and Lacan focused on gender and the male mind.

5. Film Anaylsis will always be filtered by your own mind.

6. The empathy for the coming out process of being homosexual makes it different to male characters who have animilistic desires for the female.

7. Women are forced to leave their sexuality and look at the film from a guys point of view. 

8. Focusing on gender narrows, limits and ignores how women can read a film. Mulveys theory can be disproved.

9. There is a sense of community, ritual and agression when men are gathered together. Men who worked in a feminised environment where they cannot be racist, homophobic or sexualised, they will

take it out in these gatherings (suppressed animilistic desires).

10. This is also shown in society through media, sport, culture, games etc.

How far does a spectator’s gender affect their viewing experience in contemporary cinema?

In contemporary cinema, dominant male directors lead the way in the film industry, leaving behind a trail of male gaze. However, film theorist are there to change the way films are made, or least how they are interpreted by the spectator. Sigmund Freud's studies in psychoanalysis had an affect on how we view films as a spectator. We now see phallic or yonic imagery more clearly, and how it can help us to understand the characters subconscious mind. Feminism and film theorist Laura Mulvey coined the phrase 'Male Gaze' where the audience are put in the perspective of a (heterosexual) man, therefore woman are sexualised to create voyeurism. Lacan believed in the Mirror Stage which constructs the idea that we we perceive in the mirror is true, is actually false, and a mere representation that the media constructs. even though these theories arose years ago, male directors are still dominating the film industry. However, I don't think that gender is the most significant aspect in films, as there are so many over aspects such as race, sexuality, class and disability. 'Black Swan', released in 2010, is Darren Aronofsky's take on Swan Lake, where Natalie Portman plays a competitive ballerina ready to personify her 'Black Swan' side. Aronofsky's known for making surreal, disturbing films, and 'Black Swan' is no different. With Lacan's 'Mirror Stage' and Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' clearly present throughout the film, viewers respond differently depending on their view of gender theories in the film industry. Portman's character Nina is confusing to the general audience as her anxiety and hallucinations escalate, we are drawn further in to examine why she constantly strives for perfection. I think Aronofsky intended to create a emotional pleasure as scenes such as the lesbian love scene between Portman and her co-star Mila Kunis, were there to cause controversy. The director didn't hold back as stated in an interview with Empire online, when asked 'How did you approach the sexual content of the movie?' he answered 'No-one told me to tone it down, and I'm glad about that. I guess it is a bit adventurous for an American film'. The emotional pleasure in 'Black Swan' is quite significant because even though Nina is mentally disturbed, we are still aligned with her, we see her point of view and her reflections. Many of the scenes are disturbing, especially scenes where Nina's darker side, the 'Black Swan' side, comes out. this also known as her Id, which is the part of the brain which is more animalistic, therefore the animal in Nina comes out. It can be said that there are oppositional gazes in female, with the obvious one being the Queer gaze, which leads us back to lesbian scene a sexually naive Nina imagined. A preferred reading would see Nina as just a ballerina who strived for perfection, especially since she ended the film by saying "I was perfect", painting her a victim of her sexually-domineering director, Thomas, and controlling mother. Whereas a negotiated reading would see that the ballerina has become so obsessed with transforming into the 'Black Swan' that all the characteristics of a 'Black Swan' has taken over her to the point where her conscious mind, her 'White Swan', is no longer present, until the end that is, when she stabs herself.

Sigmund Freud founded psychoanalysis, a method for treating mental illness and also a theory which explains human behavior. His contribution to psychology means that we have a better understanding of how the brain functions. 'Black Swan' is a psychological thriller, therefore it leads the spectator to read more into the film and question the meaning of it. I think that he final meaning at the end of the film, with Nina ending on "I was perfect", shows that consciously she knew that her image needed changing, however her Id took over, which has been subconsciously controlled by the narrow standard of beauty we have in today's society. Nina's Subconsciously Suppressed Desires are scaredly like real-life and are a part of human nature that if we continually suppress these desires, that it can become dangerous to society, as seen in the film. Ninas desires comes across when she sees Kunis' character, Lilly, as a threat, her Id drives her to either have intercourse with her, or kill her. This is her sexual and animalistic desires coming through. The scene where Nina dreams about Lilly and the scene where Nina stabs 'Lilly', is an example of these desires. Freud also outlined how your relationship with your mother and father can have an effect on how you have relationships later on in life. For example, if you were deprived of affection from a young age then you will become an aggressive and dependent person later on in life. With Nina, in 'Black Swan' she has an obsessive and controlling mother which leads her to become obsessive and fixated on perfections. This is shown at the beginning of the film when Nina's mother threatens to throw away a specially decorated cake after Nina doesn't want a piece. Burden with guilt of the effort she took to make the cake, Nina accepts the gesture with a nervous smile. The spectator can see from the start can see Nina's mother, who regrets giving up dance, is also regretful of having her daughter. Nina's anxiety then make sense because growing up she would've doubted her existed and whether the start of her life was worth the sacrifice of her mother's. Freud also believed that women have 'penis envy' towards men which means that a woman would have to have a male child in order to gain some sort of power. Linking to 'Black Swan', Nina's mother may need to find power in some other way because her lack of a son makes her inferior to men. Also, because of the lack of a father figure, Nina's relationship with men are inadequate and lead her to be sexually naive. Another factor to Nina's behavior could be that she doesn't have one nurturing parent, and although her mother cares about her to some extent, this is only because she is passing on her ballet career that ended too soon. The use of mirrors and reflections create the spectacle pleasure as Nina becomes more aware of her 'darker self'. The reflections are about of the Mirror Stage and highlights how Nina's hallucinations has caused her to become self-obsessed. The reflections make us align with Nina as we visually see that her Id is taking over her conscious mind, which makes the spectator feel remorse, as society has made people suppress their desires in order to fit in, or in Nina's words, be perfect. Another use of spectacle pleasure would be how the director, Thomas, played by Vincent Cassel, sees Nina as an object for men to sexualise as he insists that she embraces a darker, more promiscuous side to become the 'Black Swan'. In conclusion, Aronofsky, a male director, captures Portman's character and her progression to become more sexual to appeal to her audience as an intended message to show how society has become obsessed with sexuality and self-image.

Jacques Lacan believed that when faced with the reflection in the mirror, the reality is too hard to bear and the subject cannot differentiate between reality and imaginary. In 'Black Swan', the Lacanian theory runs throughout and is common factor when representing the different sides to Nina. This is clear whenever Nina sees reflections of herself, she also sees the reflection of her Id. One scene where Nina looks in a fragmented mirror, her reality is distorted into multiple reflections of her. At the final stage of Nina's transformation into the 'Black Swan' she hallucinates about killing Lilly with a shard from a broken mirror. this shows that Nina's world has shattered and that both of the identities are dying, as in turn she is actually killing herself. These hallucinations come into the fantasy part of 'Black Swan' and how the spectator finds it hard to distinguish what's reality and what's hyper-reality. But as Nina's Id takes over, her hallucinations become more vivid and her animalistic nature becomes out of control. In turn, this leads to the death of her 'White Swan', which represents her innocence and virtue. In her final scene, Nina becomes tainted with her blood which has destroyed the purity of her white costume. The irony of the film is that she has embraced her role of the 'Black Swan' so much so that it has taken over the 'White Swan' side of her and fractured the very existence of both identities. The final scene also shows a god-like perspective as we are seen looking over Nina as she falls upon the mat with blood seeping through her costume. This could show a religious factor as the scene almost depicts a sacrificial scene which leads the spectator to believe that this is Nina's fate all along, that she was meant to embrace the role completely to the point where she dies like her character. The birds-eye view lets us into the mind of Nina and how she sees herself, which makes her acts somehow reasonable and understandable. The scene also links back to the idea that God is omniscient and omnipresent, which means that he knows everything Nina does and is always present. By using mirrors continually through the film, Aronofsky shows the view from Nina's point of view. In this case, I don't think that gender affects how a spectator identifies with Nina as all genders will align towards someone who has been pressured to adapting to societies standards that she can no longer be herself. 

The Male Gaze was coined by Laura Mulvey, a feminist and film theorist. Mulvey believed that with the film industry largely dominated by male directors, women were seen as objects to bring sexual pleasure when looked at. This is shown through close-ups and phallic or yonic imagery. By using these close-ups, the female characters in 'Black Swans' are objectified because this creates voyeurism, which means they are looked at for sexual pleasure. Scenes that include voyeurism is the close-up of the oral sex scene between Nina and Lily, which can be seen as male gaze but I also think that the queer gaze is prominent in this scene particularly. There is also another close-up scene when Nina and Lily are in the taxi, which shows Nina's sexual naivety, and the queer gaze can be dominantly seen here too.  However the active 'look' of male characters, particularly at women gives them the power. Given that as the spectators watching the film, male spectators too will look at the female characters and feel that they are gaining power, meaning that there is a global appeal to men who feel the necessity to dominnate their power as their Id comes through. An example of how the male characters in 'Black Swan' view the female characters would be when Thomas alerts Nina of how Lily is dancing. He says "Watch the way she moves. Imprecise. Effortless. he's not faking it". This draws the audience to compare Nina to Lily, and the male spectators would actively 'look'. He is also dominating Nina by telling her to look, he has the power and in turn is a bit like how the male director, Aronofsky, is doing with female spectators, as we have to watch the scenes that show male or queer gaze. Our alignment is with the men in the film who assert the gaze upon the women and objectify them. This somehow makes it justifiable as this is what happens in society. Sexual pleasure is dominant in these scenes which means that it takes over from any intellectual pleasures that can be read into.

Oppositional Gazes are gazes other than the male gaze. These include the queer, female and black gazes. The oppositional gazes challenge Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' and bring power to the minorities that aren't heterosexual men. These bring power to these minorities that usually only heterosexual men would have. Female and queer gazes are the two gazes to discuss, or lack thereof. Female gazes are lacking in the film industry, especially if the director is male. This is what I believe to contribute to the lack of female gaze in 'Black Swan' when there is a dominant use of male gaze. an example of female gaze in 'Black Swan' would be when Nina kisses Thomas, this is because as Nina lusts after Thomas, the spectator does too, so the female spectators will actively 'look' at the male character Thomas and lust after him too. Aside from the male gaze, the queer gaze is very much prominent in the film and proves to be just as much a minority as the female gaze. However because the gaze is a strong factor in the film, it causes controversy about the explicit content. An example of this would be the close-up shots of Lily performing oral sex on Nina. Even though the spectator is later informed that this was indeed a dream and not reality, it still expresses Nina's sexuality, her urges and desires, driven by her Id. This means, as the spectator aligns with Nina, her desires are also experienced as well, through the queer gaze. The preferred reading would see that the male gaze is the dominant gaze and the negotiated reading would see that the queer gaze is dominant. However the negotiated reading would see that the female gaze plays a factor as women may look at Lily and aspire to be like her, like Nina does. I think that it depends on your sexual orientation not your gender. For example, a woman watches 'Black Swan' but when she watches it she would show either the female or queer gaze, just because she is female, doesn't mean she wouldn't display a queer gaze. I think that using the queer gaze as one of the dominant gazes creates controversy but I think that the director, Aronofsky, knew how it was going to be received because he noted in a interview that he didn't want to hold back on the amount of sexuality he used. I think that he wanted to highlight that sexuality is so prominent in society that to an extent, it shouldn't have to censored on film. However I also feel that because the queer gaze comes from a minority group, it may develop emotional responses from those who've have experienced different views as a minority. The fact that Nina is asked to become more promiscuous and she switches her sexual preference, makes the act seem like a choice, which is not the case for most LGBT people. The decision seems to mock what most people don't choose to do, and making the decision to appeal as voyeurism for men when it also makes it demeaning for women.

So in conclusion, the idea that gender is a significant factor in affecting a spectator's viewing experience is largely based on Mulvey's theory of the 'Male Gaze' and how male spectators will align differently towards characters than female spectators. The male gaze prominently seen throughout the film, most likely from the perspective of the male director. However, we also see the reflections of Nina, therefore we see her point of view. Although I don't believe that her view is from specifically to do with her gender, but rather a psychological standpoint on how mental illness has developed from societal expectations. Beauty expectations for women may also come into play, as Nina strives for perfection, which means that gender is a factor in the spectators viewing experience but it is not the most important one. I think that your sexual preference is also a significant factor because the oppositional gazes comes across. This means that no matter what your gender, you can still also be affected by your sexual preference.

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Black Swan Article

• Broken mirrors, broken minds.

• Histeria epilepsy - confused sense of reality, blackouts (Nina's diagnosis)

• White swan, black swan - split personality

• White swan/superego - black swan/ID, animilistic nature released. Death of her superego, innocence.

• Thomas - father surrogate, object of Nina's niave, psychosexual attachment.

• Mirrors and photos are representations of Nina

• Mother lives her life through daughter - level of hatred of her daughter, competing with her daughter.

• As Nina's mental state breaks down she damages herself through flesh and bone - animilistic desires internalisig. He has to do this as a release. The penetration as a way to get something out of her.

• Nina's body isn't actually hers. Seem less link between dance and music. What she suffers to get to that point, her shoes, restricting foods etc.

• Thomas is fulfilling his expression by controlling Nina.

• Lily is already the black swan (sexualised), tanned skin compared to Nina who is pale and inocent. Nina wants to be her (queer gaze). Nina is turning into Lily, actually stabs herself.