Feminism, Construction and Politics of Gender in the Movie Frida - Research Paper Example

ANALYSIS of feminism, construction and politics of gender in the movie Frida (2002): How does the protagonist in Frida (2002) display FEMINISM in her extravagant life through her sexuality, religion and politics? Introduction: The inception of 20th century, among various related and consequent cultural metamorphosis, provided specific scope for yielding and nourishment of feminism, a socio-cultural and philosophical discourse that basically affirms women’s liberation in terms of expression and humanist rights. While since the late 19th and early 20th century feminism was expanding its scope gradually in different domains of human life, since the post World War II period it emerged as one of the most controversial and important philosophical subjects. The associated socio-cultural traits of feminism were also asserted, to some extent quite desperately, by women artists, cultural activists and progressive women, who clearly identified that adhering to the principles of feminism is the best possible way to protest against patriarchal bias and male domination against women liberation. The famous Mexican painter Frida Kahlo is one of the most notable figures in the context of 20th century feminist movement. She not only has depicted her respective notions of feminism through her artistic creations but in her personal life, especially after the marital conflict with her husband, the world famous muralist Diego Rivera, she also practiced the principles of feminism in order to protest against the conventional patriarchal social norms, gender construction and patriarchal politics. Julie Taymor’s famous film Frida (2002) can be observed as a sincere attempt to depict the detailed biographical references of the artist’s life and to which extent feminism was displayed by Frida in terms of the use of her sexuality as a weapon against the religious and political bias that the patriarchal society developed in order to restrain the process of women liberation and progress. Thesis Statement: The film Frida (2002) has not only attempted to encompass the biographical references of the artist’s life but also has tried to show the process of her victimization in the hand of patriarchal gender construction and politics; consequently, the film also shows her uncompromising struggle to demand her dignity as an individual human being, the traits of which have been reflected through her display of feminism while living a life of complete extravagance. Feminism: Basic Ideas and Attempts to define the Discipline Feminism, as a major branch of the modern philosophy and new born social paradigm, has become a subject of great attention for the modern socialists and post modern philosophers across the world. A great deal of debate, arguments and counter arguments has been made over this particular stream of social philosophy. Many intellectuals and philosophers since 19th and 20th century have tried their level best to encompass all the aspects of feminism within the scope of their definition. In order to it at the perfect level, they have attempted to approach the subject from various perspectives but it has not yet been possible to comprehend the total conceptual foundation of Feminism. In this context Rebecca West, once famously remarked, “‘I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is. I only know that people call me feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute’” (Walters 1). It is clear from her statement that though feminism contains certain basic structure but since last two centuries it has encompassed such a wide range of activism that both conception and approach of common people towards it has changed to a great extent. Apart from its basic elements, feminism as a theory also includes different approaches and outlook of life from common people. In this context we can refer to certain reflections that have been provided by certain scholars, who have been regarded as great figures of philosophic orientation in this field. Barbara Smith, in the year 1979, tried to define Feminism as, “…the political theory and practice to free all women; women of color, working-class women, physically challenged women, lesbians, old women, as well as white economically privileged women” (Smith; cited in Dawson 144). On the other hand, Cherrie Moraga in 1983 expressed her opinion that in “Third World feminism is all about feeding people in all their hungers” (Moraga; cited in Saldívar-Hull 51). These two statements are clearly indicative of the fact that to which degree approach of people, including, intellectual, scholars and philosophers vary from each other. On the one hand, feminism includes racism, sexism, cast differentiation and color discrimination and on the other it encompasses social, political and cultural approaches. In the recent time, feminism is classified into two separate divisions, namely, equal-rights feminism and cultural feminism. Equal-rights feminism emphasizes over the aspect of equality between genders, whereas, cultural feminism stresses over the factor of difference between them. Feminists belonging to the equal-rights feminism group emphasize over the fact that the society must be gender discrimination free. To fulfill that achievement, they always try to abolish the gender discrimination from the society. Men and women both are same and they must be provided with equal level social rights. Feminists belonging to cultural feminist groups believe that the society must be perceived from the perceived from the perspective of a woman. According to them, “female values and culture arising from women’s unique experiences” must receive highest attention (LeGates 6). The quality factor between man and women also receive the attention of cultural feminists from economic, political and legal perspective but their main aim is to define feminism in terms of women empowerment, “judging their success by the extent to which women have imposed their values on society” (LeGates 6). The greatest flaw associated with such observation is that it rules out all sorts of possibility that a male can be feminist. The liberal or equal-rights feminism focuses over certain facts that would help a woman to receive more legal and political power in the society, whereas the cultural feminism questions if women have made any progress even after privileged to this powers traditionally. In this context, it can be said that argumentative or radical nature of the cultural feminism has not provided much success to the development of feminism since its inception. The extravagant life of the protagonist as depicted in the film and display of Feminism: The film Frida (2002) encompasses aspects of manifold importance as it has attempted to capture different phases of the artist’s life and her enhancing consciousness about sexuality, gender construction and politics. An overview of the socio-cultural situation of the contemporary Mexico would reveal that contemporary political revolution and intellectual movement contributed to a great extent in developing Frida’s liberalist awareness about art, gender construction, and the patriarchal domination that is imposed upon women when it comes to freedom of expression through art. Frida’s family background, especially her father’s liberal approach towards educational and intellectual development of his children, was one of the most important reasons that since her very childhood she started becoming conscious of the surrounding socio-political situation (Johnston 7-8). While her mother wished her daughters to grow up according to the norms of traditional system, it was mainly due to her father’s initiative Frida was admitted to National Preparatory School, one of the best educational institutes in the entire nation (Johnston 9). The film shows how Frida, since the early days of her childhood started becoming conscious of various cultural aspects, her acquaintance as well as increasing affection for art and her identification as well as experiment with sexuality (Frida 2002). Unlike other girls of the contemporary society, the positives of Western education provided her with the enlightenment and adopt a positive, liberalist attitude toward every domain of life and such liberal attitude in the gradual course of her intellectual progress contributed in a quite constructive manner. Her free interaction with opposite gender, cultural activism, experiencing sexuality: as the aspects have been depicted in the film, bear strong evidence in support of the observation (Frida 2002). The impression about her feminist insight and desperate quest to enjoy life according to her own terms, as a human being was provided in the initial part of the film through the scene of sexual intercourse with her beloved and her active participation in cultural activities (Frida 2002). Frida’s understanding of feminism and her active intellectual support for the cultural and philosophical discourse can be identified as a gradual process that grew stronger with the maturity of her personality. Joan Borsa’s observation, in this context is of high relevance as she suggests that, “A process that cannot be simply reduced to formal description or interpretation but must be considered across the intersecting and contradictory discourses and representations that surround the specific topic or person being addressed” (Borsa 263). The process of cultural transformation that occurred in contemporary Mexico clearly introduced a novel observation toward life and notions related to humanism. Frida, as it has been depicted in the film, clearly identified herself as a part of such transforming social system that aimed at providing a better, restriction free life to common people, especially to women; consequently, her belief in feminism and foundation of the courage to exercise the feminist traits was developed since her very adolescence. In the future life her refusal to remain as a subject of oppression, discrimination, and her sexual practice challenging the traditional form of gender politics evidently prove that she has claimed her rights desperately to live life as an individual human entity, rather than being recognized as a woman accepting male supremacy. In accordance to the principles of equal-rights feminism and cultural feminism Frida (2002) provides sufficient scope to interpret the protagonist’s actions in terms of displaying feminism. Frida’s quest to develop her own identify as an artist, rather than being identified as wife of Diego Rivera, her struggle to attain her own artistic style are some of the important traits that provide implicit suggestions in favor of the argument that she wanted to attain specific appreciation as an artist and that can be interpreted according to the principles of cultural feminism as a desire to be recognized as a better artist than that of her male counterpart. It is interesting to see that her paintings and the subsequent aesthetic appeal of her art works have mostly generated from her personal experiences or the images that evolved in her subconscious (Frida 2002). While the entire world recognized and appreciated the muralist works of Diego Rivera, Frida remained just her companion and consequently was judged according to her husband’s fame. In this context attention can be drawn to a brief scene, where reporters have come to Rivera’s studio and Frida is also working in the same place, though engaged in her own works. She, at the first place, neither was interviewed not drew attention of the reporters but the moment Rivera recognized her before reporters as a better artist than him then only she was paid attention. Immediate reaction of the protagonist is remarkable in the scene (Frida 2002). Though Frida has not mentioned anything, rather calmly accepted such judgment but her sharp turn, deep glace over Rivera clearly suggest that her feminist nature interprets such declaration as a subordination of her talent and considers it derogatory to be interpreted through some third party influence. Quite naturally it can also be interpreted that apart from adhering to the principle of cultural feminism, she also wanted to receive the same or even a greater degree of recognition from the world of artistry and she would not tolerate any male domination from any of her male contemporary artists. A close observation of her life during the post marital conflict period is important in order to justify this argument. During this phase of her life she not only has produced certain artistic masterpieces that claimed for her the worldwide fame, but in terms of living life she executed all the extravagances, quite desperately that are practiced by her contemporary male Mexican artists. She not only indulged herself in pronounced physical relationships with several males but at the same time went on exercising lesbian relationships. It has also been specified in the film that while in a lesbian relation she always wanted to play the role of a dominating partner (Frida 2002). These instances clearly affirm the argument that through the course of cultural feminism Frida actually desired to establish the features of equal-gender feminism and she, both consciously and unconsciously, placed herself in such a position, where she wanted to be interpreted as an equal to the male artists in every sphere of existence. The extravagant display of feminism has provided her an iconic position in the Mexican cultural context and foundation of the position became even stronger with the progress of time. Geetha Ramanathan’s observation supports this argument as she has observed that: “Culture and persona are conflated, as in culture and its popular imagery. The iconic status of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo is a case in point. Literary historians see her as a progenitor of artistic feminist modernism …. An English language film for a general audience on Frida would then bring her biography to a North American audience in a context where Frida was recognized an familiar, but still largely unknown, lending the film an opportunity to “perform difference” in rich and complex ways” (Ramanathan 188). The film Frida (2002) not only acted as an important medium to establish the feminist status of the artist on a stronger ground but at the same time it also helped to understand the traits of her feminist nature in the context of deconstructing the conventional norms of gender construction, politics and male bias in a more explicit manner. Frida’s understanding of sexuality, the role of sexuality in socio-cultural context and the nature of gender politics have also been depicted in the film; consequently it has also been shown how Frida has used sexuality and her body politic as effective weapons to defy the conventional social norms, the patriarchal gender politics. According to the poststructuralist cultural notion, “The body is not only a text of culture. It is also, as … philosopher Michel Foucault … [has] argued, a practical, direct locus of social control …. Our conscious politics, social commitments, strivings for change may be undermined and betrayed by the life of our bodies – not the craving, instinctual body imagined by Plato, Augustine, and Freud but the docile, regulated body practiced at and habituated to the rules of cultural life. Throughout his later “genealogical” works (Discipline and Punish, History of Sexuality), Foucault constantly reminds us of the primacy of practice over belief. Not chiefly through “ideology”, but through the organization and regulation of the time, space, and movements of our daily lives, out bodies are trained, shaped, and impressed with the stamp of prevailing historical forms of selfhood, desire, masculinity, femininity” (Bordo 13-14). The scope of Foucauldian genealogy, thus, has gone beyond the extent of interpreting a body and its construction simply as a reflection of cultural mirror but it interprets the entire process as development of notions such as masculinity or femininity. Since the initial part of the Frida (2002) the protagonist’s choice of dresses, her physical decoration challenges the conventional notion of masculinity or femininity. Frida was seen to be an active participant of the intellectual movement, a close associate of Diego Rivera leading an assembly with her male outfits and her pronounced bravery to indulge in sexual relationship, even going to the extent of asserting her will over others (Frida 2002). Compared to other female counterparts of the contemporary society, Frida used her understanding of sexuality, quite purposefully, to challenge the convention notion of gender politics and traditional gender construction that gives more priority to male supremacy. While the patriarchal gender politics and conventional notions of social construction, in the name of social control, attempt to suppress women and restrict their freedom of choices in terms of race, class, and sexual orientation, Frida has breached all such conventional limits and went on experiencing the traits of feminism to assert her sense of individuality, equality and supremacy over her male counterparts. Susan R. Bordo’s observation in this context proves to be highly contextual as she has suggested: “Viewed historically, the discipline and normalization of the female body – perhaps the only gender oppression that exercises itself, although to different degrees and in different forms, across age, race, class, and sexual orientation – has to be acknowledged as an amazingly durable and flexible strategy of social control” (Bordo 14). Frida’s decoration of her own body, experience of sexuality, mixing with people from various cultural backgrounds and finally experiments with different forms of sexual orientation that have been quite explicitly depicted in the film, clearly assert that she refuses, intentionally, to be a part of the patriarchal social control. Like her male counterparts, as she strongly believes, she also has complete right to enjoy and experiment with her own life and consequently she refutes all forms of social oppression and has challenged and attempted to deconstruct the ongoing process of patriarchal gender politics. The main area of feminist discussion in the Western context was, “That women are sex, that they represent the body side of the mind/body dualism …. Foucault’s approach deconstructs this dualism, redefining sexuality and its truth….Foucauldian-inspired feminists have not, however, tried to move “woman” to the other side of the dichotomy by claiming that women are just as rational as men. Rather they have attempted to subvert the categories that define women inferiority” (Hekman 4). Since time immemorial women have been assigned with certain specific or typical roles that they were compelled to fulfill, being pressurized by the patriarchy. Such particular types of roles played by women were actually created certain archetypical images at the psychical level of human beings from every section of the society and even women are not exceptions to all these boundaries. These boundaries finally emerged as myths and people lack sufficient intellectual capacities to go beyond these myths to interpret females as human beings rather than feminine creatures. Foucault stressed over all those aspects that can deconstruct the social myths about women and take them out of the realm of the roles that society has imposed over them. Various aspects about sexism and interpretation of women, depending entirely over their physical identity have repeatedly been emphasized in the Foucauldian philosophical discourse. Foucault, being one of the major poststructuralist and deconstructionist in the field has attempted to destroy all the myths that were actually centered at female body politic. Due to such novel philosophical cultivation Jana Sawicki has suggested, “Feminist appropriations of Foucault have resulted in path-breaking and provocative social and cultural criticism. Original analyses of anorexia nervosa, the social construction of femininity, female sexual desire, sexual liberation, the politics of needs and the politics of differences have changed the landscape of feminist theory” (Sawicki 95). Conclusion: However, despite all her stubbornness and desperate desire to display feminism through her extravagant lifestyle, she refused to remain just a feminist but deep inside she always wanted to assure that feminism is an integral discipline of humanism as it attempts to establish the fact that women are not objects of discrimination; rather they must be regarded as individual human entities. During the final phase of her life her emotional reconciliation with her husband is a strong proof in support of the observation. Frida’s sudden transformation to live an extravagant life was resulted due to Rivera’s betrayal but she never stopped loving him or respecting him as an artist. In the film it has been shown that during the final days of her life, apart from her elder sister, she developed a very close affinity with Diego Rivera. The chapter “Murdered by Life” in the book Frida Kahlo: Brush of Anguish is replete with eyewitness evidences that suggest even in the final days of her life Frida loved Diego Rivera and during her absence how he is supposed to lead his life, she gave careful suggestions about this situation (Zamora and Sode 11-12). Compared to the book, though in the last part of the film, there are some serious evidential differences but there is no denial of the fact that the film Frida (2002) has sincerely attempted to depict feminism displayed by the protagonist through her extravagant life. The film has depicted in a quite realistic manner Frida’s quest to challenge the conventional notions of gender construction, patriarchal socio-cultural politics and sexuality but at the same time the touch of great directorial artistry has been delivered as the protagonist was shown to be humanist than being confined within the limited scope of feminism. Works Cited Bordo, Susan, R. “The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity: A Feminist Appropriation of Foucault”. Gender/body/knowledge: feminist reconstructions of being and knowing. North Carolina: Rutgers University Press. 1989. Borsa, Joan. “Frida Kahlo: Marginalization and the Critical Female Subject”. Feminism- art-theory: an anthology, 1968-2000. New York: Wiley-Blackwell. 1990. Dawson, Michael C. Black Visions: The Roots of Contemporary African-American Political Ideologies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2003. Frida. Dir. Taymor, Juile. Screen. Sigal, Clancy. Starr. Hayek, Salma. Molina, Alfred. and Rush, Geoffrey. New York: Miramax Films. 2002. Hekman, Susan. J. Feminist interpretations of Michel Foucault. Pennsylvania: Penn State Press. 1996. Johnston, Lissa Jones. Frida Kahlo: Painter of Strength. Bloomington: Capstone Press. 2006. LeGates, Marlene. In their time: a history of feminism in Western society. London: Routledge. 2001. Ramanathan, Geetha. “Mestiza Feminisms and Julie Taymor’s Frida.” Performing difference: representations of "the other" in film and theater. Bloomington: University Press of America. 2009. Saldívar-Hull, Sonia. Feminism on the border: Chicana gender politics and literature. California: University of California Press. 2000. Sawicki, Jana. Disciplining Foucault: feminism, power, and the body. London: Routledge. 1991. Walters, Margaret. Feminism: a very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2005. Zamora, Martha. and Sode, Marilyn. Frida Kahlo: Brush of Anguish. California: Chronicle Books. 1993. Read More