The Subversion Of Traditional Gender Identity In Almodóvar's Cinema

Pedro Almodovar's cinema is a reflection of the social transition taken place in Spain since 1970s, and the present study focuses particularly on the transition that highlights the subversion of the traditional patriarchal gender order. Through the lens of men's study and gender analysis, this study observes the heterosexual and homosexual males and females in Almodovar's five films, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, The Law of Desire, All about My Mother, Talk to Her, and Volver, arguing that Almodovar has overthrown the conventional gender order and gender identity which reigns over our society, and has reconstructed a new order in his own cinematic world.Chapter one, The Overthrown of Patriarchy, discusses the straight men characters in Almodovar's cinema. Almodovar's films have dispensed with traditional masculinity; even the macho figure is feminized and suggests an impaired masculinity. And fathers are absent in his films; Almodovar subverts the patriarchy by reconstructing its most representative image, father. The male friendship depicted by Almodovar is emotional and articulate, which is different from the traditional Hollywood's depiction of male love disguised in violence and competition.Chapter two, The Empowered Femaleness, leads to the discussion of Almodovar's portrayal of women. Almodovarian femininity interweaves both masculine and feminine traits, and his treatment of mothers can be addressed from two aspects, the malevolent patriarchal mother and the benevolent matriarchal mother. In his cinema, female characters unite in emotional solidarity, affirming their right to control their own bodies and to attend to the law of their own sexualities and heterogeneous desires.Chapter three, The Centering of the "Marginals", observes Almodovar's transsexual and homosexual roles. It firstly works through the paradox of the authenticity of the self-fabricated transsexuals, arguing that what makes them authentic is their dream realized; and then expatiates on the flexible and mutable gender identity and sexuality of Almodovar's characters. Finally, the chapter applies the gaze theory to explore the homoerotic gaze inscribed in Almodovar's depiction of man.In conclusion, Almodovar creates and explores the representation of sexual beings, and bears with them unfixed identities which are independent of their sex and sexuality, thus rewrites the sexual and gender orders of the traditional patriarchy.