Seeing the Female Body Differently
Gender issues in The Silence of the Lambs
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3614464 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Diane Dubois (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2001 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 297-310 |
| Publication date | 2001-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Gender Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0958-9236 • E-ISSN: 1465-3869 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09589230120086502 |
| OpenAlex | W2014880661 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 10 |
In this paper it is argued that the habitual representation of women in film has played \na considerable part in constructing ideas of femininity, which contemporary filmmaking can deconstruct. \nThe Silence of the Lambs deconstructs femininity as it has been constructed in four classic genres: \nthe serial killer movie, the horror or monster movie, the ‘pupil and mentor’ movie and the ‘psychiatrist \nand patient’ movie. The Silence of the Lambs can be shown to deconstruct the generic amalgam of \nvoyeurism, the ‘male gaze’ of the camera, castration anxiety and the confused and reinstated gender \nidentities typical of the serial killer movie. The empathy between Doctor Hannibal ‘the cannibal’ Lecter \nand young FBI agent Clarice Starling criticises the encoding strategies of the classic monster movie wherein \nboth woman and monster are feared objects within patriarchal orders of seeing. Starling’s appetite for \nsuccess coincides with Lecter’s more obviously worrying appetite; the film deconstructs those films wherein \nthe ambition of the female pupil is personi ed by a demonic mentor. Starling, unlike most female pupils, \nis not punished for her ambition and strength, qualities partially created through the iconographic \nmeanings of actor Jodie Foster. In psychiatrist and patient films, the heroine’s behaviour is explainable \nwhen located within the patriarchal metanarrative of psychoanalysis, towards which The Silence of the \nLambs is deeply ambivalent
Aesthetics · Art · Femininity · Literature · Monster · Psychoanalysis · Silence · Sociology · Voyeurism · Cinema and Media Studies · Gender Studies · Nostalgia and Consumer Behavior · Psychology · Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,36 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2025 (14) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |