The film "Far From Heaven" has two main characters that exemplify many theories from Stacey's "desire and identification"theory with women, like the main protagonist Kathy, to the black character Raymond and his perfect example of Fanon's ideas on his article, "The Fact of Blackness".
How does Jackie Stacey's article, "Desperately Seeking Difference", identify with the female character Kathy in the film "Far From Heaven" with desire and identification?
Stacey discusses in the article the how "binary opposition between masculinity and femininity offers a limited framework for the discussion of a fascination..., which is articulated actively through an interplay of desire and identification" (395). The character Kathy in "Far From Heaven", is facing the opposition between masculinity and femininity with her fascination with the African-American culture and people. She does this by interacting with the black character Raymond who she then turns her fascination into desire of his personality. Her identification with this character becomes highly seen when she finds out that her husband is homosexual and feels like she will be judged and exiled from her social status due to her husband sexual orientation.
Though the two situations are different, Kathy's desire for Raymond leads to her identification of herself and understanding how black people were feeling. Kathy also takes on both the role as mother and father in the film. Her husbands, situation had made Kathy keep her feminine expectedness as well as made her have to fill in for her husbands absence, while he was facing his sexual orientation in private. This is the example of Stacey's opinion of women facing the opposition of femininity and masculinity and how a woman is to take on both roles through desire and identification.
How does the character Raymond in "Far From Heaven", portray the image to Frantz Fanon's article, "The Fact of Blackness"?
Raymond is a black male in the 1950's who is educated and well rounded in his knowledge of business, hard work, art, and the world. Fanon's states, "In the white world the man of color encounters difficulties in the development of his bodily schema. Consciousness of the body is solely a negating activity" (418). The bodily schema in not only the physical aspect of what is expected in a male but his whole self and his development.
Raymond's encounters with the white people throughout the film, slowly prevented difficulties in his development of his bodily schema. His relationship with Kathy, went from business oriented to friendship, and quickly became misread by both the white and black community. He was once discussing something with Kathy in the film outside a movie theater and grabbed her arm as she was walking away. Without hesitation, a white male yells, "hey boy" to get him to stop. If this was a white male addressing a women in the same manner nothing would have been said to anyone. He was prevented here, the capability to evolve and grow as a man due to his color and dealing with the white man.
In the end, Raymond had to leave town, because of misunderstanding seen by others with his relationship with Kathy. His daughter was attacked, which prevented his growth as a father, because white children attacked her. He had to sell his business and move out of town. All of these things are encounters Raymond had as a black man dealing with white people and how throughout the film, he was prevented his right to develop his physical schema as man because he was black.
No comments:
Post a Comment