Dangerous Dames. Heather Hundley

Чтение книги онлайн.

Читать онлайн книгу Dangerous Dames - Heather Hundley страница 11

Dangerous Dames - Heather Hundley Cultural Media Studies

Скачать книгу

and violent female-bodied characters existed prior to Kill Bill (Ripley in the Alien series [1979, 1986, 1992, 1997] played by Sigourney Weaver, Sarah Connor in The Terminator [1984] played by Linda Hamilton, Le Femme Nikita [1990] played by Anne Parillaud, Tank Girl [1995] played by Lori Petty, M played by Judi Dench in the James Bond series [1995–2012], G.I. Jane [1997] played by Demi Moore, and Lara Croft [2001] played by Angelina Jolie), they acted as solitary female-bodied characters. Given the large number of dangerous dames they include, the Kill Bill films pique our interest.

      On the surface, Kill Bill presents postfeminist and postmodern messages and aesthetics. The films’ visual elements establish a nostalgic, fragmented, intertextual, and non-linear spectacle of female-bodied power that seemingly celebrates multiculturalism. In doing so, the films stray from typical expectations of hegemonic femininity. The lead female-bodied characters are unflinchingly brutal as they engage in human death and destruction. By enabling the performance of transgression and gender deviance, these visuals serve to distract viewers from more restrictive patriarchal ideologies embedded within the texts. Postfeminism is markedly different than postmodernism, but the postmodern aesthetics in the Kill Bill films undermine the potential feminist and postfeminist messages. Specifically, women’s power and strength proclaimed in feminism and postfeminism are essentially mocked with excess and spectacle vis-à-vis the excessive carnage, use of Japanese anime and characters’ impossible feats defying gravity and the laws of physics. Ultimately, the films convey modern, patriarchal ideologies enshrouded in postfeminist and postmodern glitter.

      Superficial Postfeminist Ideals

      As a result of second wave feminists’ quest for women’s equality, “women are assuming lead roles in action narratives on a fairly regular basis” (Brown, 2015, p. 4; also see Jones, Bajec-Carter & Batchelor, 2014). We witness this ←25 | 26→increase beginning in 1979 with Ripley in the Alien series and continuing through contemporary texts; however, while many action movies incorporate one or two women who remain surrounded by male characters, the Kill Bill films are particularly rife with powerfully dangerous female-bodied characters. The members of DVAS include Beatrix Kiddo codename Black Mamba (Uma Thurman), Vernita Green codename Copperhead (Vivica A. Fox), Elle Driver codename California Mountain Snake (Daryl Hannah), and O-Ren Ishii codename Cottonmouth (Lucy Liu). Such prominence of leading female-bodied characters who are strong, capable, in control, and mirror typical male hero and villain behaviors clearly supports the idea that we live in a postfeminist era.

      Not only are the films’ antagonists and protagonists predominantly female-bodied, but the characters comprising the majority of the DVAS are competent, capable, decisive, determined, skilled, and strong. These positive portrayals align with the postfeminist suggestion that gender is no longer a limiting factor for women’s career advancement, achievement, or strength.6 Indeed, in creating these characters Tarantino aimed to provide role models: “I actually want 13-year-old girls to see this movie. I think this will be very empowering for them” (quoted in Medved, 2003, para. 12). These women were certainly at the top of their elite profession, with only two men—the leader and his brother—among the DVAS. In fact, female-bodied characters are just as likely as male characters to work in white collar and professional occupations (Children Now, 2004; Signorielli & Bacue, 1999; Signorielli & Kahlenberg, 2001; Steinke, 2005). The character Vernita Green (alias Mrs. Bell) was successful enough to retire at a relatively young age (in her 30s), and to marry and have a child as her second career. Elle Driver continued working as an advanced assassin, killing her and Beatrix’s mentor, Pai Mei, a revered and feared martial artist, as well as her former colleague, Budd, their leader’s brother and former DVAS member.

      The second most successful member of DVAS, only behind Beatrix, was O-Ren Ishii. She built her professional reputation by avenging her father’s death, killing a Japanese mafia-style boss, Matsumoto, and his two henchmen. According to Beatrix’s voiceover, “By 20 she was one of the top female assassins in the world.” Upon leaving DVAS, Ishii became her own boss and the leader of the mafia bosses in Tokyo. When Tanaka, a mafia boss, questioned why they should take orders from the half-Japanese, half-Chinese American, she decisively responded by cutting off his head with one swipe of her katana and said

      ←26 | 27→

      As your leader, I encourage you from time to time, and always in a respectful manner, to question my logic. If you’re unconvinced that a particular plan of action I’ve decided is the wisest, tell me so, but allow me to convince you and I promise you right here and now, no subject will ever be taboo. Except, of course, the subject that was just under discussion. The price you pay for bringing up either my Chinese or American heritage as a negative is… I collect your fucking head. Just like this fucker here. Now, if any of you sons of bitches got anything else to say, now’s the fucking time!

      Notably, her ethnicity and nationality, not her sex or gender, generated concerns in her leadership. This particular intersection of interlocking power and oppression unlocks gender as a possible contributing factor to read her as a leader. The undertone supports postfeminism in its suggestion that race, not sex or gender, is the only constraint O-Ren faces on her path to success.

      The strong and decisive character Gogo Yubari, O-Ren’s 17-year-old bodyguard also draws on postfeminism, and especially its embrace of femininity and sexual power (Arthurs, 2003; Atwood, Brunt, & Cere, 2007; Lazar, 2006). Gogo’s girlish youthfulness was emphasized and eroticized as she wore a Catholic school girl outfit complete with a white button-up blouse, short plaid skirt, long white socks, and Buster Brown shoes. She was further infantilized (and sexualized) with her hair in pig-tail style braids and often seen sucking on a lollypop. Rather than associating her age with innocence, it was connected to her ruthless power, sexual desirability, and deficient self-control. As Beatrix described: “what she lacks in age she makes up for in madness.” In one exemplary scene, Gogo propositioned a man at a bar, asking if he wanted to “screw her.” Surprised and excited, he answered “yes.” She responded by stabbing him in the gut, and as she pressed up against him with a firm grasp on the impaled knife, thereby not allowing him to double over as he bled to death, she challenged, “Do you still want to penetrate me or is it I who penetrate you?” This postfeminist scene reconfigures patriarchal notions regarding who wields phallic (and deadly) power. Yet, her “madness” aligns with how female-bodied power is subsumed within a patriarchal structure, positioning her outside of masculine norms of rationality. Portraying her as out-of-control limits her power as she is unpredictable and, therefore, untrustworthy. As with Lorraine in Atomic Blonde and Mary in Proud Mary (Chapter 4), she aligns with the femme fatale/Eve figure who lures in men through (sexual) deception causing him to face his mortality (Hallissy, 1987). Nevertheless, audiences may hastily view her as a dangerously powerful teenage girl who can easily measure up to or surpass adult male characters’ abilities, thus suggesting postfeminism has arrived.

      ←27 | 28→

      The strongest and most successful dangerous dame is clearly the protagonist, Beatrix, who undoubtedly serves as a sign that postfeminism is part of our contemporary culture. Surrounded by formidable opponents, Beatrix’s ability to defeat them positions her at the pinnacle of career success as a powerful, and unconquerable, assassin. Indeed, Elle noted her respect for her ex-colleague, describing

Скачать книгу