Take-Home Test: Film

Take-Home Test: Film

Question 1 (a). Representation of Williams’ Argument.

Williams argues in relation to spectator positioning, asserting that the female spectator is partially accorded happiness particularly, at the end of the film (Stella Dallas). Referring to the window scene when Stella (mother) is conveyed a pure spectator in a single patriarchal vision. Williams presents that despite tremendous loss and sacrifices that might revolve around a mother-daughter relationship in the society, the spectator can be made to identify with the existing contradiction that surrounds the heart of socially constructed roles of a daughter, mother, and wife.   Unlike what would appear as criticism to Joanne (Mia’s mother in Fish Tank), William would posit that women perhaps experience conflicting demands made on them. She wouldn’t be quick to judge Joanne but would advise that Joanne handles these contradictions to attain ending happiness.

Linda Williams would view Joanne’s scenario intensified with isolation and separation that she faces as a spectator, only that she is overwhelmed to the demands in controlling her daughter. However, given the fact that Joanne’s age may exempt her, Williams would argue that she (Joanne) would tend to turn into control of what she is demanded of, when she appears to realize why Connor lefts her that abruptly. An argument may cascade that she would do a better job in protecting the little daughter Tyler better than what she had done to Mia. As the film ends with the last dance of Mia, Tyler, and Joanne dancing Mia’s way, it elicits a sense of hope, and the bittersweet experience touched with grace. When Williams asserts that “the mediation of the mother and daughter’s look at another radically alters the representation of both,” she aims to present out that both Stella and Laurel (daughter), are presented as female spectators who are brought to accept a necessary loss for both the mother and the daughter.

Question 1 (b): Discussion on the Construction of Motherhood.

According to Williams, a woman experiences conflicting demands made on them that leave them as spectators positioned to their connections with what they love most in order to attain a different level of achievement.  Stella Dallas sacrifices her only connection to her daughter in order to propel her into an upper-class world of surrogate family unity. Such are the mixed messages–of pleasure in sacrifice of joy in pain, that a woman has to persevere in order to resolve the melodramatic conflicts of “the woman’s film.” That is the sacrificial model of motherhood that Williams presents that should describe a mother’s character. But relating these sacrifices to motherhood or mothering presented in the Fish Tank Film, Joanne fails to bear these sacrifices and turns out as a bad and absent mother.

Despite the fact that Joanne dances with Mia, it is evident that Joanne and Mia’s friend Keely are obsessed with dancing in a manner that expresses physical exuberance that intent to attract men contrary to what Mia the daughter wants.  Joanne fails to sacrifice and take up the motherhood burden rested on her for the development of the daughter. Joanne does not forego pleasures and fantasies of romantic love to get deeply in love with the daughter Mia in order to boost help her daughter with the dancing talent till she rescues them from the marshy edges of the Thames river. Instead, Joanne fails to support the dream of the daughter by exuberating dancing moves that only attracts men. This comes to create the sense of an absent mother in the struggles of her daughter. This sees Mia drift away from her mother. However, in viewing these scenarios unfold, it seems critical to blame or criticize the actions of Joanne, given her seemingly young age of a mother.

But regarding the construction of motherhood that Williams present, insisting that a mother has to sacrifice and forego a lot for her daughter for it to appear a good act suggests to be an extreme act of sacrifice. I would question why that should be that way in terms of the construction of motherhood. Though this would seem a monolithic position to take for the female spectator, it locates the heart of a social role of women, particularly a wife and a mother, unlike that of a single woman. The fact that the woman is supposed to handle contradictions and demands that they experience may not warrant some instances like one presented by Joanne. For Joanne, unlike that of Stella Dallas, she is faced with a situation I would term “overwhelming,” particularly to a young mother like her.

However, I suppose there is an aspect of hope given that towards the end of the film, Joanne appears to have learned from her mistake and supposedly intends to offer better support to Tyler her last born daughter than her previous treatment to Mia. She is able to realize that Connor leaves him abruptly, and Mia also leaves with Keely. Fictitiously, motherhood may appear an easy burden to carry and persevere, but in reality, the demands associated with such a sacrifice should not be neglected by Williams in her presentation of female spectatorship. I believe that sometimes it is the patriarchal actions that contribute to the increased sufferings and heavier burdens that mothers have to deal with instead. Joanne seems not to have a responsible husband, and Connor plays his cards only to satisfy his needs yet has a family that he cares for aside. This later puts Joanne into more difficulties when Connor leaves her.

Question 2 (a). Representation of two of her points

Basing on Anna Rodger’s article as a scaffold, she firstly presents an imaging absence as abjection. Anna Rodgers relates instances from “The Virgin Suicides” through a retrospective and acousmatic voiceover. She posits that the film is predicated on the absence of the female body and painstakingly assesses the manner in which the young female bodies are eviscerated of their meaty corporeality and recast as priapic cliché. Anna explores her reaction in the view of culture in terms of female phenomenological experience in the world is denied. She examines the narrator of the film on what it reveals or conceals and discovers a distorting effect of adolescent male desires and subsequent crisis of masculinity. As she explores the film, she concludes from the sense that Trip a male character in the film might have been the one who influenced Lux Lisbon through a sexual assault that might have traumatized Lux to commit suicide based from the instance when she was held by Trip in the filed during the homecoming event. Anna presents that the suicides experienced in the film transcend as an act that goes beyond a subversive refusal of the normative patriarchal subjectivity. She asserts that the images that the boys or the men depicted in the film bring out an indication that relates to the girls have a basis of a plethora of clichés that includes the soft-pornography presented and the advertisement.

Secondly, Anna presents an emphasis on the construction of feminity, which extends to become sublime through the fantastic, vivid imaginings of teenage boys who feel deeply for five sisters but barely able to fathom their inability to fetch understanding of the girls’ feelings. Anna Rodgers in referring to the instances that surround the boys and the girls’ subjectivity to performatively commit mass suicide, confirms that the instance relays a passing judgment on the society which appreciates social conformation over human feeling. Five girls committing suicide is an emotionally contained experience. According to Anna, “The Virgin Suicides” offers an investigation of sex in relation to such an egotistical sublime. All through the film, the five sisters have viewed a distance as sublime objects; that is, they are painted as unknowable, unfathomable, and designed to imbue the romantic male with the knowledge of its power of reason and imagination.

Question 2 (b) (i):  Mia’s Presentation as The Main Character

Relating the productive engagement of Anna Rodger’s view on the scaffold to Mia’s presentation in the Fish Tank first reveals the manner in which the young female bodies are eviscerated of their meaty corporeality and recast as priapic cliché. Mia’s representation in the Fish Tank Film also reveals, conceals, and discovers a distorting effect of adolescent male desires and subsequent crisis of masculinity. Connors gets Joanne drunk, only to put her on the bed and goes straight to room to have time with Mia at an excuse of watching TV. The way Connor compares himself to Mia’s friend Billy as a boy, referring to himself as a man rather than a boy, insinuates how he uses his masculinity to make it easy for him to have sex with Mia, who is a fifteen-year-old girl.

With regard to the construction of feminity which extends to become sublime through the fantastic, vivid imaginings of a teenage girl who feels ashamed of growing with a “special “mum who drinks and parties all day as well come in contact with Connor, a man who does not care about her feelings deeply wears her off. The girl (Mia) chooses to stay away from her troubled mother, primarily by spending most of her time dancing.  She really struggles to define herself and find her way out as a teenager. When she resorts to using bad language and aggressively fights off her mother, she has been cast a shadow from her childhood that presents her in this aggressive manner despite her being a good person.

Mia shows similarity to Lux in the way both of them are carried away with sexual intimacy that imprisons them. Though this character, may not strongly be presented by Mia as she is seen to mess only once with Connors and no instance with Billy, for Lux Lisbon, she presents a set of soft pornography that reflects how she got habituated and hooked into sexual activities before she commits suicide. Mia is represented as a young girl aged fifteen years, who, at this age, is believed to have no clue on sexual activity, finds herself committing with an older person, and seems not worried, perhaps not a virgin. Lux Lisbon as well reveals the same set of experiences at the same age that elicits a myriad of questions on their early knowledge of sexuality.

Mia’s family is a broken family; she goes into constant fights with her sister as well as her mother frequently. However, later in the film, it is evident that her mother could be pointed out as the irresponsible one in taking good care of her teenage daughter.  Joanne fails to responsibly take care of her daughters, presenting her as a bad and absent mother. This poses as a contrary scenario to what surrounds Lux Lisbon, whose parents seem responsible but unable to realize the internal battles of their daughters. However, too, Mia comes out as a loner, who, after falling out with her best friend Keely, provokes Keely’s other friends by criticizing their dance routine. This makes her resort to train her hip-hop dance alone in a nearby deserted flat. Similar to Lux Lisbon’s encounters, Mia encounters a young man/boy Billy, who they become friends after Billy expressed sympathetic emotions when other boys assaulted her. However, their friendship appears not to cascade to incorporate sexual relations at least till the end when they leave for Cardiff to begin a new chapter of their life.

Just as Anna Rodgers relates Mia’s experiences to feminism as a result of the surrounding masculinity, the same is posited by Lux Lisbon. They both seem to fall culprits of a patriarchal effect. They represent teenagers who have been instead of offered protection and sense of self-worth been abused sexually by men. Lux Lisbon’s case expresses a subtle instance of rape, though not directly and overtly presented by the movie. Unlike for the Lisbon’s in “The Virgins’ Suicide,” Mia’s situation towards the end of the movie gives a glamor of hope as she is seen in her last dance, dancing together with Joanne and her little sister Tyler in her rhythm suggesting a turning point to a more intact and responsible family. She also sets off to begin a new life with Billy in Cardiff, thus, proof of a life-changing experience. This is opposite to Lux, whose battle does not show a turning point but rather takes her to an extreme point that she commits suicide.

Question 2 (b) (ii): Lux Presentation as The Main Character.

Lux Lisbon, for her case, represents the narrator’s erotic fantasy of a fourteen-year-old girl who turns out to be a real deal. Anna Rodger’s feminist narration is reflected with Lux Lisbon as well given her smart, outgoing, beautiful, and independent nature that draws several instances of subjectivity that elicits a construction of feminity, which extends to become sublime. Her sexuality distinguishes her most from the rest of the other four sisters.  Lux is lust personified, unlike her other sisters, with Cecilia represented as a disembodied spirit. Lux Lisbon’s first glimpse is presented as sexually charged. This could be drawn from the instance that Lux nocks at the bathroom door to excusing Peter Sissen, only for Peter to rush, shouting that Lux was bleeding between her legs. All through her presentation in the film, Lux presents herself as sexy, and thus, she does not disappoint during the night of Cecilia’s Party. For sure, she was the only girl among the five Lisbon daughters who was accorded the image of the Lisbon girls. Her feminity, according to Anna Rodgers, could be attributed to how bonds more quickly and closely with other girls and her boldness as well as her actions that suggest her strong cling to sexuality. She sneaks a ride on a motorcycle only to return to school with an extremely short skirt. She also tries to put on makeup for the church, which her mum makes her wash, but since she is good at finding her way to sneak off, she manages a chance to flirt with Clip Willard at school and gathers a stream of boyfriends despite prohibitions from her mother regarding dating.

In contrasting Lux Lisbon’s experiences to Mia’s in the Fish Tank Film, there are several presetting situations that distinguish and summarize both of them. Though Lisbon’s family reflects a responsible family in taking care of their daughter, they fail to consider expressing love to their children that exposes them to suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, according to Dr. Hornicker, the psychiatrist. This irresponsibility may be linked to what Mia experiences in the Fish Tank film; however, for Mia, her mother fails to be part of her life by spending time drinking and absent for her.

Both Mia Williams and Lux Lisbon are presented as culprits whose experience goes beyond a subversive refusal of the normative patriarchal subjectivity. They are both assaulted by men. Mia gets to interact with Connor, who also sleeps with the mother and later leaves them. However, for Lux, her experiences are greatly enormously revealed to portray a more subjective patriarchal effect, as put by Anna Rodgers. Lux slips away with Trip under the bleachers to make out for a drink, and after two hours of past the family curfew, she arrives back in a taxi. Later we learn from the boys that Trip had sex on the football pitch and abandoned her. Perhaps, this is what Anna Rodgers tries hard to present on how the construction of feminity needs to extend to become sublime.

Unlike Mia, who had sex with Connor as the only overtly presented sexual interaction in the film. Though with criticisms of having had several sexual contacts before, Lux Lisbon continually haves sex with random men in their house’s roof. She actually became sexually ravenous, perhaps as a consequence of being abandoned by Trip and living with strict parents that happen to traumatize her. Furthermore, we find the future of the Lisbons’ not promising as all the five girls commit suicide, this is emerging to be contrary to Mia’s side, whose mother appears to realize her mistake towards the end of the film. Tyler Mia’s sister in Fish Tank does not appear in the film to have been exposed to the veils of her mother and sister and thus falls out of the “filthy” category. For the case of the Lisbon’s, all the five girls end up committing suicide leaving the family with no glamor of hope.

By posing a critical eye to the Lisbon’s family omen, “the Virgins Suicides” does not only put men at the center of female destruction but also as barely able to fathom their inability to fetch understanding the girls’ feelings.  This is so given a scenario where the rest of the girls are in different rooms murdering themselves, the boys, on the other hand, fail to notice that something is off as they come to rescue the girls from what they think to be a “prison,” they get distracted by Lux who utilizes her sex appeals that blocks the boys from realizing what really other girls are doing. As an indication of total destruction to the family, Lux disappears into the garage to poison herself with carbon monoxide gas unlike what Mia turns to in the Fish Tank movie, she hugs her family and sets off to begin a new chapter of her life with Billy in Cardiff.