Dissolution of Gender Binary and Stereotypical Femininity through Exploration of Cinematic Heroines in the 1990s Filmic Texts

從1990年代電影女性英雄角色看性別二元論述及傳統女性氣質的解構

賈繼中(Chi-Chung Chia)

二元性別論述 ； 傳統女性氣質的解構 ； 女性與暴力 ； 新女性英雄的融和特質 ； 性別論述與社會建構 ； 性別氣質與展演 ； 女性情誼 ； Gender Binary ； Deconstruction of Conventional Femininity ； Women and Violence ； the Combination of the Masculine and the Feminine in the New Female Hero ； Gender Binary and Social Construction ； Femininity and Performance ； Women's Friendship

長庚人文社會學報

6卷1期（2013 / 04 / 01）

45 - 68

英文

1991年好萊塢推出「末路狂花」（Thelma & Louise）之後，立即在批評界引發激烈的爭辯，主題圍繞在女性暴力、復仇及爭取性別平等等議題，提供了電影工作者相當多的素材，對過去傳統電影對於女性角色的特質描述，開始做深刻的省思。這部電影的最大貢獻在於形塑女性獨立精神啟蒙與自主性，跳脫父權思維框架，展現在女主角跨越傳統以來惟男性獨尊的領域。「末路狂花」的兩位女主角一開始的身分只是平凡的家庭主婦與餐廳的女侍，但他們在公路上所經歷的遭遇啟發了他們掙脫傳統對女性氣質的期待與貶抑，進而開始醞釀自我的想像與欲念，重新打造新女性英雄的主體意識。從此片開始，1990年代開始陸續推出以探討女性角色顛覆傳統性別特質認定的影片，而「末路狂花」的重要性在於在拆解過去對女性角色的論述呈現上，扮演了推波助瀾的角色，賦予女性英雄新的想像空間來主導電影敘事。本研究結構上分為兩部分，第一部分著重在分析1990年代重要的電影性別論述，同時將其應用在分析與「末路狂花」同時期的其他重要電影文本，而第二部分則針對「末路狂花」電影本身進行分析研究，同時導入拆解性別二元論述議題。與「末路狂花」同時期的另一部重要電影是「奪命總動員」（The Long Kiss Goodnight），其中主要的主題探討透過女主角極端性別特質的融合來解構傳統刻板的女性特質論述，性別二元論述的架構因此而鬆動，性別已不再是由生物學所決定，而是透過自主意識所做出的自由選擇，從其中可以為女性英雄找到更寬廣的呈現方式與揮灑空間。

”Thelma & Louise”, released in 1991, immediately triggered a fierce debate over the issues such as female violence, revenge and gender equity, prompting the filmmakers to ponder the inadequacy of the traditional representation of femininity in film. The film contributes to the formation of female independence and subjectivity not confined by patriarchal oppression, through the appropriation of violence and vengeance by female protagonists traditionally prescribed as masculine prerogative. Thelma and Louise as the average domestic housewife and waitress are liberated from the constraint of conventional expectation of femininity to cultivate their desire and imagination, free of the male-constructed masochistic passivity and stage a triumphant performance of a more active and assertive feminine principle of subjectivity. It is from ”Thelma & Louise” onward that Hollywood begins to spark a series of films highlighting female act of subverting gendered expectation through violent retaliation as a gesture of undermining the stereotypical patriarchal fantasy and ideology of gender and womanhood. ”Thelma & Louise”'s significance lies in its revolutionary act of dissipating the traditional Hollywood representation of female characters by endowing them with new fantasies and reclaiming these women characters as subjects and agents of the narrative to speak out their wants and desires. This study, therefore, will be divided into two parts, with the first part concentrating on the elaboration of gender issues raised and inspired by ”Thelma & Louise” and heatedly addressed in other contemporary films of the 1990s and the second part focusing on the content analysis of the individual film ”Thelma & Louise” related to the dissolving of the gender binary. Among the films discussed, ”The Long Kiss Goodnight” aptly exemplifies the demolition of the traditional concept of femininity through the juxtaposition of two contradicting identities in the protagonist Samantha and Charly played by Geena Davis, whose past performance is non-violent, nurturing, and passive but now she assumes a more aggressive and violent persona, Charly. The film ends up with Charly assimilated into Samantha as a new subjectivity that disrupts the ideological construction of an ideal femininity, suggesting that beneath every housewife might lurk an ever present violent woman, a force of constant antagonism challenging and destabilizing the conventional expectation of a society dominated by gender binary thinking.

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