Identifying Female Masquerading Through Film - Essay Example

Identifying Female Masquerading Through Film Whether their roles are biographical representations of famous women throughout history or as full of fantasy as playing a fairy godmother, female characters have captivated audiences with their ability to connect, empower, seduce, command and show compassion. Through these performances, movie audiences have often developed unnatural assumptions of what a woman’s sexuality means and how she uses it in daily life. This notion is captured on the Biography channel’s web site as they quote legendary old Hollywood actress Rita Hayworth who famously said, “Every man I knew went to bed with Gilda…. and woke up with me.” When translating the allure of female sexuality on screen to the realm of media theory, it is clear the concept of female masquerading is a major component to the film industry. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and define the role female masquerading plays in film by comparing how the media theory of imaginary signifiers can be applied to the concept. The following paragraphs will give an overview of each media theory as well as discuss how each notion applies to and affects one another. Through this analysis, the goal of this essay is to establish that female masquerading is a subversive strategy to further progress the impression a female character makes within a film. Before beginning with the analysis portion of the essay, it is important to first provide some insight into the concepts of the female masquerade and imaginary signifiers within the film industry. Concept Background In beginning the informative portion of this paper, the first concept to be discussed is the female masquerade. According to Mary Ann Doane, female masquerade is an essential part to the representation of women in movies. Defined as “excessive femininity,” female masquerade can be described as an overt representation of female sexuality on screen (Bonner, 2007). For this theory to be successful, the female audience member or spectator must be able to maintain a comfortable level of distance from the character on screen. Once spectators feel a comfortable disconnect from the women on screen, they are able to realize that the representations being presented to them on the big screen are exaggerated masks of femininity. An example of this concept in action can be seen in the iconic actress Marilyn Monroe. During her career, Monroe was known for her ability to infuse overt and blatant sexuality into all of her performances. While she quickly became famous for her figure and sexual nature, she was not a person with whom the average female spectator would identify herself with. This disconnect is what the female masquerade is based around. With female spectators subconsciously separating themselves from the women they are seeing on screen, they are able to step back and view how these women use excessive femininity to play a part or get what they want on screen. Although women may be able to take bits and pieces of this type of behavior back into their regular lives, actually infusing this into their daily world is not something they would feel comfortable doing - which is why the world of film allows female spectators to pretend to be someone else. The next concept of the imaginary signifier is defined by Christian Metz. This theory consists of tying cinema’s interlocking mechanisms of production, exhibition and the development of movies themselves to the audience response of fantasy, desire and pleasures (Pieto, 2010). As Metz describes, imaginary signifiers are essential in film because their purpose is to have movies act as “good” objects for audiences. These positive experiences connect audiences with pleasurable emotions and therefore create a draw which will leave film spectators wanting to return to the cinema to experience those same emotions again. This theory can be furthered upon analyzing how people develop the type of movie genres they enjoy. Ask any person what their favorite type of movies are and you will get a deeper understanding into the types of emotions that each person finds pleasurable. Analysis With the background for these two theories provided, the paper can now shift to the analysis portion. When taking the understanding of female masquerade as the ability of a female spectator to understand the role of excessive femininity and combining it with the purpose of imaginary signifiers to create pleasurable emotions from film, the end result demonstrates that female masquerading within film is used as a subversive strategy to use infused sexuality to build various emotions among audiences. The importance of this combination is that both male and female spectators are attracted to the notion of excessive femininity. While both genders have the subconscious understanding that this glorified sense of overwhelming womanhood on the big screen is not the reality of daily life, the fact that it causes pleasurable emotions for both sexes says something in itself. Essentially, in many film experiences, female characters who are masquerading themselves on screen represent the type of excessive femininity which men seem to desire and women may find themselves wanting to infuse to a degree into their own lives. An example of this analysis in action can be seen throughout film history. Consider these legendary female film characters: Mrs. Robinson from The Graduate, Themla & Louise or even Scarlett O’Hara from Gone with the Wind. For each of these film’s eras, they represented the epitome of female sexuality blazed across the silver screen. The nature of this female masquerading was presented in such a way that in each of these films, the female characters quite frankly became epic. With appeal to both sexes, these roles are perfect examples of how female masquerading is used as a subversive strategy to use feminine sexuality to dominate film by creating pleasurable experiences for audiences. In concluding this analysis, it is evident that the role of a female character holds much more significant weight than just to be a pretty face to look at on a movie screen. With the sole objective of female masquerading on film to garner audience attention, a positive outcome of this is that women are given the opportunity to take on more challenging acting roles with various levels of depth, plot twists and character traits as audiences grow more and more reliant on the need for female presence to create imaginary signifiers which result in pleasurable experiences at the movies. This realization highlights the complexity of women themselves by demonstrating the depth of which these characters can perform and impact audiences on film. Bio, “Rita Hayworth Biography,” accessed May 8, 2012, http://www.biography.com/people/rita-hayworth-9332633. Bonner, “Notes on Mary Ann Doane’s ‘Film and the Masquerade,’” (2007), accessed May 8, 2012, http://a-s.clayton.edu/vbonner/courses/cms4320/readings/doanestudyguide.html. Pieto, “Christian Metz and the Imaginary Signifier,” pieto/the/media/ecologist (2010), accessed May 8, 2012, http://pietothemediaecologist.wordpress.com/2010/04/14/christian-metz-and-the-imaginary-signifier/. Read More