Pamela Chan
CTCS 412 Blog (Week 4)
As a filmmaker, Todd Haynes has been known
to express the theoretical gap that feminist scholars filled for him as a young
queer artist and a student. His critical approaches to feminism and gender
issues have been present in most, if not all, of his critically acclaimed
films, and are, unsurprisingly seen vividly in Far From Heaven.
All throughout the film, I couldn’t help but
think about how Haynes’ melodrama powerfully visualizes and narrates many of the
questions that Judith Butler’s theories of performativity have raised about the
complex standards of socially constructed gender roles.
The
period piece displays the repressive and conformist character of the
fifties-era. In a sense, the film juxtaposes the impossibilities of
consummating an interracial romance to the seemingly impossible step of taking
on a homosexual identity. For Cathy and Frank Whitaker, their social circle of
whiteness, wealth, and heterosexuality are an implicit norm. Both, however,
struggle with taboo desires that ultimately threaten their place within this
privileged social structure. Through Cathy’s desire for Raymond and Frank’s own
desire for men, Haynes introduces the twin themes of interracial romance and homosexuality
in an era where these kinds of issues were considered truly deviant and extremely
dangerous.
With her work, Butler seems to argue that
gender roles are performative identities
created as a result of “compulsory performance.” She defines gender as “a set
of repeated acts within a highly rigid regulatory frame,” that over time, seem
to “produce the appearance of a substance, of a natural sort of being.” In this
sense, the daily ‘performance’ each individual offers for society further
establishes the deeply patriarchal ideals that continue to taint our
understanding of gender and sexuality. Basically Butler reminds us that identity
is something we demonstrate and act out—a sort of ‘performance’ we put on.
A drunken Frank, for example, makes light of
Cathy’s beauty, insisting, “It’s all smoke and mirrors.” Cathy replies with
“Every girl has her secrets,” and this specific cocktail party exchange seems
to further the ideas of appearance and performance within Haynes’ film. As a
melodrama conceived in the feminist mode, Far
From Heaven seems to be all about “smoke and mirrors.” Oppression and
repression are concealed by the superficial-- the inner desires of both husband
and wife are continuously suppressed by their consistent attempts to achieve a
normal appearance. However, because of the world that surrounds them, both
Cathy and Frank begin to encounter unwanted challenges regarding aspects of
their own essential identities.
Furthermore, society has
invested much effort in keeping women confined within their respective roles—and
Haynes poignantly displays Cathy’s position as a woman within a patriarchal
society throughout the entire film. Being the embodiment of pure suburban
domesticity, Cathy has nowhere to go and no way to escape once it becomes
evident that the ideal she represents is all a sham. As a woman, she is the
typical subject of judgment, and Haynes carefully portrays Cathy’s feelings of inadequacy
and marginality within the world around her. For example, while with Raymond at
a modern art show, she is not only stared at by the other women, but also by
her neighbor’s gay uncles. At the African-American bar, the black people inside
stare similarly at Cathy, and I believe this highlights on the often-contemptuous
role held by the female sex.
All in all, it was just really interesting
to see how Haynes approached his 2002 award-winning film through such a unique frame
of feminist film theory.
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