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In Cusp, although emphasis was obviously placed on the “female-doing� of gender, we can synthesize many ideas about our own everydayness through this film. Throughout the film, the strength that gender and power had was variable and flexible. Sometimes we saw strong representations and other times, we saw weak ones. For example, when Alice’s mother scolded the man on the street for intentionally stiffing Alice, we saw a representation of “strong single mother� taking charge for the good of her daughter. On the other hand, we also saw weak representations of power, like when the mother’s friend nonchalantly walked past her shady ex-boyfriend on the street, saying to Alice, “Sometimes you just can’t fight.�

From these examples, we can observe that the strength of power that we demonstrate is allowed to shift, and as females, both demonstrating power and not demonstrating power are each culturally approved. Alice becomes frustrated when she confronts “limits� of power—but this is only because the women around her impose their interpretation of power on Alice, saying that she should act the way that they find effective in terms of their own everydayness. I believe that the way a woman performs externally should reflect her chemistry internally. Perhaps this means that a woman’s everydayness reflects her wants and needs. Much dissonance resonates within Alice throughout the movie, and understandably so. She does not yet understand the way gender and power work for her.

I noticed that while the women were at home their interactions changed dramatically. They were not vigilantly pursuing the performance of any specific role; in fact, they were genuine, intimately touching each other’s hair and faces while they talked. They looked like a tribe of women, listening to and comforting one another uncritically—with no reference to what they ought to be. It was wonderful to watch, because the essence of each character was 100% present, whereas when they were responding to oppression, they often reacted unnaturally.