Some Problems with Gendered Subjectivity and Representation: Baise Moi and Hard-Core Pornography

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2021.321

Keywords:

Gender, Genre, Pornography, Sexuality, Representation, French New Extremity, Michel Foucault, Judith Butler

Abstract

Based on a theoretical framework developed by the works of critical theorists Michel Foucault and Judith Butler, this article questions the role of gendered representation in the discourse around the film Baise Moi (Despentes and Trinh Thi, 2000). The film has been criticized, due to its engagement with pornography and trash aesthetics as well as its “bad ending”, and associated with a reaffirmation of patriarchal power practices on screen. This article argues that such readings remain within the limited territory of seeking an ideal representation of femininity based on the gender/sex binary which Butler’s early work on gender has critiqued. The first section of the article explores the discourse of “extremity” and “illegality” that surrounds Baise Moi by way of situating the concept of “screen representation” within the Foucauldian territory of power. Following this trajectory, the article discusses how Baise Moi conveys a layered audio-visual organization and negativity that attest to the attainability of non-conforming sexualities through an ironic adoption of pornography. It is argued that the film’s ironic and referential negative aesthetics exploits and overwrites the narrative – the narrative that provides the means through which the film can overturn gender norms associated with the genres it adopts from, such as hard-core porn’s idealism around female sexuality.

Author Biography

Temmuz Süreyya Gürbüz, National University of Ireland Galway

PhD Candidate, Huston School of Film and Digital Media

References

Archer, N. (2009). ‘Baise-Moi’: The Art of Going Too Far. E-Pisteme, 2, 67-77.

Brown, B. (1981). A Feminist Interest in Pornography — Some Modest Proposals, m/f, 5/6: 5-18

Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge.

Despentes, V. (2009) ‘Interview by Alan Kelly’, 3Ammagazine. http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/virginie-despentes-interviewed [accessed 21 August 2013]

Downing, L. (2004). French Cinema’s New ‘Sexual Revolution’: Postmodern Porn and Troubled Genre. French Cultural Studies, 15(3), 265-280.

Downing, L. (2009). Pornography and the ethics of censorship. In L. Downing and L, Saxton. (Eds.), Film and Ethics: Foreclosed Encounters (84-98). Routledge.

Eisenstein, Z. R., (1988) The Female Body and the Law. The University California Press.

Erensoy, Ş. F. (2020). Rethinking Pornography within the Context of the New French Extremity: The Case of Baise-Moi. CINEJ Cinema Journal, 8(1), 60-86.

Foucault, M.(1978), The History of Sexuality, trans. by R. Hurley. Pantheon Books.

Foucault, M. (1982). The Subject and Power. Critical inquiry, 8(4), 777-795.

Franco, J. (2003). Gender, Genre and Female Pleasure in the Contemporary Revenge Narrative: Baise moi and what it feels like for a girl. Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 21(1), 1-10.

Hall, S. (1997). The Work of Representation. In S. Hall (Ed.), Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (13-74). Sage.

Irigaray, L. (1997). The Sex Which Is Not One. In C. Katie, and others, Writing on the Body: Female Embodiment and Feminist Theory (248-256). Columbia University Press.

Kuhn, A. (1997). The Body and Cinema: Some Problems for Feminism. In K. Conboy, N. Medina and S. Stanbury (Eds.), Writing on the Body: Female Embodiment and Feminist Theory (195-208). Columbia University Press.

McKenzie, S. (2002). Baise-moi, Feminist Cinemas and the Censorship Controversy, in Screen, 43(3): 315-324.

Nettleback, C. (2003). Self-Constructing Women: Beyond the Shock of Baise Moi and A ma Seuor!, in Flinders University Languages Group Online Review, 1(3): 58-68.

Quandt, J. (2011). Flesh and Blood: Sex and Violence in Recent French Cinema. In T. Horeck and T, Kendall (Eds.), The New Extremism in Cinema: From France to Europe (18-25). Edinburgh University Press.

Rolling Stone (2014). ‘Barely Legal: 30 Nearly Pornographic Mainstream Films’, <http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/pictures/barely-legal-30-nearly-pornographic-mainstream-films-20140318> [accessed 31 Jan. 2017]

Romney, Jonathan, ‘Le Sex and Violence’, The Independent, (2004).

Rubin, G. (1992). Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality. In C. S. Vance (Ed.), Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality (267-320). Pandora Press.

Wimmer, L. (2011) “Sex and Violence from a Pair of Furies”: The Scandal of Baise Moi. In T. Horeck and T, Kendall (Eds.), The New Extremism in Cinema: From France to Europe (130-142). Edinburgh University Press.

Williams, L. (1989). Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the "Frenzy of the Visible". University of California Press.

Williams, L. (1991). Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess. Film quarterly, 44(4), 2-13.

Filmography

A Ma Seour!, Dir. Catherine Breillat, Criterion, 2004

Baise Moi, Dir. Virginie Despentes and Carolie Trinh Thi, Pan Europeénne, 2000

Fatal Attraction, Dir. Adrian Lyne, Paramount Pictures, 1987

Irreversible, Dir. Gaspar Noé, Lions Gate, 2002

Romance, Dir. Catherine Breillat, Lions Gate, 2002

Scarface, Dir. Brian De Palma, Universal Pictures, 1983

Thelma and Louise, Dir. Ridley Scott, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), 1991

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Published

2021-12-14

How to Cite

Gürbüz, T. S. (2021). Some Problems with Gendered Subjectivity and Representation: Baise Moi and Hard-Core Pornography. CINEJ Cinema Journal, 9(2), 99–129. https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2021.321

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2021): Fall 2021

Section

Articles

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