Abstract
Ever since Laura Mulvey published in 1975 “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” singling out the spectatorship in classical Hollywood cinema as mainly masculine, an increasing number of feminists have directed our attention to female spectatorship in the cinema. These critics offer insightful readings of various films in terms of spectatorship. However, their selection of film genre tends to be limited to certain categories with explicit feminist concerns. To remedy the situation, I propose to rethink female spectatorship, with concentration on the subject of gender identity in transvestite films. The introductory chapter opens with a succinct review of cross-dressing in Hollywood cinema. I take notice of various images and functions of transvestism in different time period. On the one hand, the above phenomenon points out the change in the society and culture. While on the other hand, the stereotyped filmic transvestites of a certain time period show the domination of the cinema mechanism on the audience. Following this is the review of contemporary scholarship on female spectatorship and the analysis of their strengths and limitations. Issues such as “male gaze,” “visual pleasure,” “gender identity” and “psychic structure of identification” will be highlighted. The studying points will be recent findings of Mary Ann Doane, Miriam Hansen, E. Ann Kaplan, Judith Mayne, Tania Modleski, and Laura Mulvey. Drawing on psychoanalysis as the theoretical frame, Chapter Two explores how Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis are applied to feminism, post-colonialism and female spectatorship. I shall take issue with Freud's theory of sexuality based on his essays “Female Sexuality” (1931) and “Femininity” (1933). Then, go on to discuss Lacan’s theory of the mirror stage and the idea of Phallus in the Symbolic. For it is the basis of many feminist film theorists' work. The third part further treats how Lacanian theory is adopted in feminism and female spectatorship. In the fourth part, I would discuss Judith Butler's studies in gender performance and her provocative re-reading of Lacan's theory. There I shall elaborate on ways in which Butler may contribute to a more complex understanding of female spectatorship. Finally, I will examine the application of Lacan's theory in the colonial context, especially in Frantz Fanon and Homi Bhabha's work, and its relation to black female spectatorship. Chapter Three is devoted to Tootsie (1982). In this male transvestite film, Michael (Dustin Hoffman) plays an actress in order to make a living. Here the attention will be on such issues as the complexity of identity formation, the representation of femininity and the performativity of gender in the film. Several technical aspects will also be considered, for example, the close-ups and the sequencing. Deducing from the above analysis, I regard the relationship between filmic transvestism and female spectators as performative and constructed. Chapter Four will consider The Associate (1996). In the film, Lauryl Ayres (Whoopi Goldberg), who cross-dressed as a white male, deploys her trickery art to survive in the male dominated business world. In addition to pointing out the ambivalence between black women and white men and the domination of the white in the colonial context as well as in the cinema, I will pay careful attention to Whoopi Goldberg. She plays and overturns masculine and feminine codes in order to make the film at once funny and provocative. Departed from the stifling conventions of femininity and gender in the roles she plays in The Associate, Whoopi Goldberg can be said literally to embody Judith Butler's “gender trouble.” The conclusion chapter summarizes the discussion in other four chapters. I will also state the difficulties, such as the theoretical frame and the obtainment of related materials, and new approaches to study female spectatorship, such as historical and political approaches. In reviewing and rethinking the various topics in filmic transvestites, I expect to shade a different light on female spectatorship theory.