| Early in the movement for sexual equality, feminists accepted the fact that biological differences exist between the sexes, but they were adamant that most behaviors of men and women were socially constructed and have little or nothing to do with corporeal sex. Sex was considered a biological category whereas gender was historical. Critic Judith Butler asserts that patterns of behavior and their repetitive performance determine sexual citizenship. Feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey posits that Western cinema is influenced by patriarchal discourse so that viewers are taught to view women as objects in film, as subject to the male gaze and that such representations further influence the cultural construction of gender, thus creating a domino effect wherein gender is a script enacted by members of a particular society. The films Monster's Ball and Black Snake Moan provide relevant examples of characters that simultaneously operate under multiple statuses resulting in plurality of experience and hybrid identity. These examples highlight the persistent sexual imbalances of patriarchal culture which come at a very high cost to society, for women as well as men, and unless a critical moment interrupts our reception of not only films, but real lived experience, then as a society we have little choice but to continue enacting the same repetitive performances of a patriarchal script. |
