Recently I watched scenes from American Psycho, a film based on the book by Bret Easton Ellis. In one of the first scenes in the movie, a young man is washing his face. He is also using creams and putting on a cosmetic mask. It appears as if he has quite an extensive beauty ritual.
Within in the framework of this movie this beauty routine may mean certain things. One thing being the cosmetic mask hides the vacant life that the character actually has. In this movie, what else can we surmise from this young man use of cosmetics? Thinking about this film through the lens of feminist theory, may change or add to our understanding of the screenwriters’ motives. I would like to explain how some different theories help explain why this scene is effective.
Feminist theory starts from a basic position that has historically portrayed woman as the ‘other.’ The Feminist theory maintains that women are outside of what is considered the main. Simone de Beauvoir, an early Feminist, maintained that “legislators, priests, philosophers, writers and scientists, have striven to show that subordinate position of women is willed in heaven and advantageous on earth.” She says that woman “represents only the negative, defined by limiting criteria”
Women therefore, because of secondary position or inferior status are constantly in need of products to aide in their maintenance. It is women who commonly use cosmetics, creams and coloring to attain wholeness, not men. Women are a huge market for the cosmetic market.
Shifting focus to the movie once more, the beauty routine of this young man seemed useful to the screenwriter portraying him in a certain light. The author was using ‘signs’ as discussed by Ferdinand de Saussure. In the movie the screenwriter was using cosmetics as a ‘sign.’
Saussure believed that the structure of language is what has importance. In doing so he divided the ‘sign’ into 2 parts. The ‘signifier’ and the ‘signified.’ The first being the code used and understood to represent the second. According to Barker, “Culture is said to work like sign language.” Put another way, it appears, there are signs in culture besides language that enable a person to immediately understand their meaning.
This particular example could further be examined using the theories of Roland Barthes. Barthes examines ‘myths.’ He says, “Myth has the task of giving a historical intention a natural justification…” (Women use cosmetics) The author of this movie, Ellis, is using this ‘myth,’ that women are the ones who should be using cosmetics, to make a dramatic point in the story.
Regardless of what the message the author has ultimately wanted to give to the audience, the interesting idea to me is that the author has used this device at the beginning of the story. By doing this he seems to be disturbing the established concepts of what is socially accepted. By doing this he has engaged the audience by changing and ‘playing with’ the accepted cultural signs. He is pulling the audience into the story. This forces the audience to ask, “What’s next?”
Barker, Chris, 2008. Cultural Studies, Theory and Practice. 3rd ed. Los Angeles, Sage Publication
De Beauvoir, Simone, 1949. The Second Sex. Introduction, Woman as Other
No comments:
Post a Comment