Guns And Monsters

6 Pages 1624 Words

The representation of violence exacted upon women in cinema is inextricable from being projected upon all women. To provide a scene that objectifies the female is to reduce the feminine form to its non-dual state, e.g., a sexual object providing a vessel for male gratification (hubris and sexual) rather then being defined by its duality of sentient and physical forms. Those who construct scenes of violence against women are bound to a moral responsibility to subjectify the woman’s perspective, thus reestablishing the female as a victim rather then an object and rendering the act of violence intelligible (deplorable, open to interpretation).
The cast of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Volume 1 is predominantly female, the main character (“The Bride”) is a fearless heroine who battles other savage villainesses. However, this film’s revenge plot is based on acts of sexual and physical violence (The Bride’s is intended to be murdered, raped, and believes her unborn child was killed) which do not objectify The Bride. Rather then being objectified, she is depicted as a woman who’s honor was forcibly removed. She is reduced to a coma state (an object) by those who victimized her; when she awakens she seeks vengeance. The men responsible for sexually abusing her are objectified by the object they objectified, rendering her superior.
Requiem For A Dream establishes the means one will go to in order to serve an addiction. Marion Silver (played by Jennifer Connelly) becomes addicted to drugs and subsequently subjects herself to prostitution so that she may continue to fulfill this habit. In a climactic sequence, she is a reluctant participant in a lesbian orgy as viewed by well-paying male on-lookers. Though I condede Daren Aronofsky may have felt he was justified in objectifying his female characters in such a graphically promiscuous manner because they voluntarily subjected themselves into prostitution, his extensive vis...