GWSS 3307: Feminist Film Studies, Fall 2008

What I find problematic with this statement is the notion that Race could be placed under the category of “solved problem�. It is always difficult to make connections to race and size in such rigid ways. Assuming that size is the last “acceptable prejudice� puts race, class, gender, and sexuality in a vacuum in which our society has already overcome the damaging effects of the social creations of these identities. While some people might believe that we live in a post-race world, I strongly disagree that this society has arrived at such a point. Even though some might argue that racism is not de juro, it is obvious that there is still de facto racism. Race prejudice might be unacceptable in many social settings, in many other environments and spaces it still flourishes and lives. I do agree that there are strong intersections between race and size issues, I don’t think we can fully conceptualize those by making such broad, and simplified statements. In both these types of oppressions we have larger powerful institutions that play a vital role in keeping these constructions alive.
I believe it is unfortunate that fatness creates this hypervisibility in our world that allows some people to believe the have the right to put judgment on something so personal. In the movie Shallow Hal, the relationship between the lead roles became completely public due to the size of Rose. In any other “normal� relationship it would have become a social faux pas to pass judgment on a relationship in such a vicious manner. Until the end the relationship had to be constantly defended and explained by the kind, and warm hearted nature of the fat woman. Even though she is “repulsive� I will be with her because I am a “good� person, she has an exceptionally “good� character. This message that was reified in this movie made sure that there wasn’t any normalcy in this relationship. First it never complicated the fact that some outside force was asking for an explanation to be with somebody of a “abnormal� size. This diverted from the fact that there don’t have to special circumstances to fall in love with a fat woman. Second it created the image that only a very forward thinking, good hearted, and geniunly nice person could be in such an abnormal relationship. Third the fat love interest had to be a witty, intelligent, successful, and rich woman in order to overcome her size. At the end, being with her created an entry into a wealthy class bracket and culture of leisure and success.
I do agree that the oppression of size can be more blatant and accepted at times, I don’t think it is the only prejudice that is still in use. A fat black, poor, lesbian, woman will have a very different experience than a white fat woman.

Posted by hass0257 at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fatness is certainly not the last form of prejudice in our society, but it may be the most prevalent. This may be why Emme refers to it as 'acceptable', though acceptability is a subjective opinion. As to the panel selected by People magazine to discuss "Shallow Hal", there are some interesting discepancies. None of them seem to be a reasonable 'expert' on healthy body images in severly obese bodies. First, at 5'11' and 200 lbs., reportedly a size 14/16, Emme is on the lowest end of the obesity scale. She is a plus-size, and she surely knows how it feels to be made fun of for her size, but being a 16/18 myself, I know how much worse the prejudice is for women much larger than me. The other two women, Jennifer Holliday and Carnie Wilson, are not fat. They both underwent surgeries to not be fat anymore, which I deem is just as radical as extreme dieting or purging to lose fat or maintain a slim figure. Most women, regardless of their size, have internalized our society's expectations and ideals as to how our bodies should look. "Shallow Hal" just brings them into a wider discussion.

In regard to "Shallow Hal", I was appalled at the film's blatant mockery of fat women. No mention was made as to Hal's or Mauricio's fatness. There were no jokes at their expense based on their obesity. Every time an insult was made about Rosemary's fatness, Hal's repudiations weren't based on his acceptance of her size, but were made into jokes because of his ignorance as to how big she really was. The whole premise is how funny it is that he is in love with a fat woman but doesn't know it.
It is sad how other people's fatness is often deemed okay for discussion. This is especially the case with women's fatness, and is at the root of the widespread reality of eating disorders, body-image issues, and related concerns of many women and girls in our society today.

Posted by Ms. Chevious at 7:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I think Emme's claim of fatness being the "last acceptable prejudice" is somewhat true. Some people are still racist but those people are looked at as totally ignorant. It is Not acceptable in be racist in our society anymore. Yet it does seem somewhat acceptable to people to be prejudice against obesity. Weil on supports this point in part because she's white. Holliday however says nothing and probably doesn't think the statement is true because she is African American and also older. She was an actress when African Americans were not that commonly seen in film. She probably experiences racism or notices it while the other two don't because they're white. Emme's statement is definitely problematic because I think a lot of people feel that they're made fun of or prejudiced against and it's looked at as acceptable. Like people with psychiatric problems; while this isn't a physical trait pople still look at these people as 'crazy' and that's accepted. People who are handicapped are also prejudiced against in some ways and movies and shows attack them to make people laugh like in South Park's "Special Olympics" episode. I think it is completely unacceptable to judge anyone by their appearance or be prejudiced against a specific group or type of person.

We can account for difference by recognizing it but not making fun of it or judging the characteristic that makes someone different. I think we can add humor into it to a certain extent but when we don't promote positive self image of the person it makes it offensive and hurtful.

Posted by marsh410 at 6:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Emme used to be a plus-sized model and very prominent broadcast journalist for E! Entertainment news. I agree with her statement that far is the last bastion of acceptable prejudice to an extent. I believe it is because the degrading stereotypes and language that surface from the prejudice come from the belief that being fat is a choice. It is a similar type of discriminatory behavior that the gay community has experienced when society wrongfully accepts the belief that sexual preference is a choice. The underlying problem in both fat and gay appreciation is the reluctance of our society to grant lifestyle choice to its citizenry. The more freedom of choice the body politic is given, the less ability any institution (social, religious, political) is given to control individual behavior. Therefore, less control means less power. I think the particular issue of the marginalization of overweight people is troubled in our society because much of it is done not only under the guise of choice, but under the guise of choice for unhealthy behavior. When bodily acceptance is intermingled with a health issue, it becomes easier for people to discriminate against someone whom they presume to be “choosing� an unhealthy lifestyle in the same way they would isolate a drug addict or a criminal for the “betterment� of society.

Posted by J Kriegs at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I believe that Emme’s claim of fatness being the “last acceptable prejudice� is somewhat truthful, yet slightly inaccurate. Fatness certainly is an accepted prejudice, but the same people who make fun of/judge fat people are likely to be the same people who use the word “retarded� when referring to something stupid and are the same people who call others “fags� or “girls.�

I think we have to examine the definition of acceptance. Not everyone appreciates fat jokes, just like not everyone finds racist remarks intolerable. Perhaps fatness is the MOST accepted prejudice, but it is definitely not the LAST. While it is crucial that we examine the prejudice surrounding fat people, we can’t forget about the other prejudices.

I imagine that the reason why fat jokes and other negative connotations surrounding fatness are so “accepted� is because many people see fat people as being lazy, which is an attribute that (in the eyes of someone who isn’t fat) could be seen as a personal choice; something that could easily be changed (whereas skin color cannot be changed). I’ve heard people say things like “how could they do that to themselves� or “that’s disgusting.� Most of us dislike at least one part of our bodies, so it’s possible that people make fun of others’ weight as a reflection on their own self-image. Like Emme says: “You see other women look at a very thin woman and say nasty things. Maybe it's because our collective self-esteem isn't good. Why can't we support other women? We have to work on that.�

Posted by bute0023 at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are some interesting things said in the People Magazine article that had Jennifer Holliday, Carnie Wilson, and Emme discuss their thoughts about the movie Shallow Hall. Emme seems to try to pull out any positive aspects from the movie. She is the only one that thinks any part of it is funny, and the only one that think there can be good that comes from it. I think this is due to her successful career as a plus-sized model. She has found a way to make money off her being a large woman. The other two women, Jennifer and Carnie, have only experienced ridicule and teasing for their sizes. The both of them have struggled to change their size and loose weight, because they are in the performance industry that is accepting of only thin people. I think there is truth to Emme’s statement about fatness being the “last acceptable prejudice.� In our current society, it truly is no longer acceptable to be openly racist, sexist or homophobic, but people still do make fun of fat people. I think this is because people don’t take it seriously as oppression against a group of people. I think many people understand fatness to be something that a person could change, if they tried hard enough, or wanted to. But the reality is that being large is part of some people’s identity, and that will not change. Not everyone is going to be thin, nor does everyone want to be. It is dangerous to say that one oppressions is “the last� one to be fought against, because of course, there are always more. I think we can account for difference and oppression by understanding intersectionality. All people have multiple identities, and this allows for more connections to each other than we can imagine. Understanding intersectionality allows space for inclusion, connection, awareness, and equality through accepting difference and by not striving for sameness.

Posted by AJ at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I do consider Emme’s claim of fatness being “the last acceptable prejudice� true to a point. In today’s culture people are so desensitized to the concept of obesity that it is socially acceptable to make fat jokes or a fat-phobic comments. However, along with obese people, gays, lesbians, and those with handicaps (also made fun of in the film), and others still face desensitized prejudice and experience it every day. Most people associate ‘fat’ with ‘unhealthy’, and this is not always the case and people can’t understand why. The problematic element of Emme’s comment is that she completely ignores prejudice against race, gender, class, and religion, though not purposely. Purposefulness aside, these prejudices are still ‘accepted’ but are instead chalked up to ignorance or just not being “pc�. You’d be hard pressed to find a black person who says that prejudice against blacks is over, or a woman who says that gender prejudice has been solved. I think it’s interesting that Holliday did not speak to this point

even though they were interviewed together. Holliday, being a black and overweight woman, it seems would experience at least two kinds of ‘acceptable’ prejudice yet says nothing. Even Wilson said something about if being black were made fun of in the film, but Holliday remained silent. We can account for difference and oppression by realizing that it is our false preconceptions as a culture and society that keep all marginalities down, and in order to accomplish the end of prejudice, marginalities must instead of pitting against one another, realize that they share the same goal.

Posted by Mel at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The idea of beauty as one particular body type has been so deeply ingrained into our culture that often times we forget how prejudicial and marginalizing this can be. Yet people like the Farrelly brothers come along and make horribly offensive films that remind us of this sad fact. Shallow Hal was simply one fat stereotype after another, and it seems hard to believe that anyone could see a positive message mixed in with the constant insults. It was surprising to see that two out of the three women interviewed for the People Magazine article were victims of this system and went under the knife just to change their body in an attempt to conform to the ideal. Emme made some good points about making an effort to change perception, but I did not agree with her when she said that fatness was the "last acceptable prejudice". That statement, and Carnie's comment about how reactions would have been different if it inner beauty was portrayed as white, just seem to pit marginalized groups against each other, which gets us nowhere. Prejudices are just not something that can be compared.

Posted by allora at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The problem I noticed most within Shallow Hal and one that is addressed in the People magazine article is the lack of pride that Rosemary is allowed to have in her body. The film is tremendously sexist- with men dictating the amount of confidence Rosemary can seemingly have in her body. In the magazine article, they ask if Rosemary “not hiding her body� meant the film had positive aspects. In addition to Holliday’s comments that all the shots of her body are “in the context of getting laughs�, each scene in which Rosemary is scene wearing skimpy clothing where she exudes some level of confidence in her body is used as a punch-line. During the pool scene, when she’s wearing a bikini, a child ends up stuck in a tree because of her cannonball. When she’s wearing shorts with her parents her father chastises her and tells her to change into something more “appropriate� for a woman of her size. All of these scenes, and many more, do not portray larger woman’s bodies as a source of pride but rather a source of shame, due in large part to the reaction and prejudices of men. The film is horribly offensive and has a particularly ugly lense through which it views women, especially those who are large.

Posted by thur0139 at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Emme's claim that "fat is the last acceptable prejudice" is certainly a fair statement coming from someone who obviously knows. I don't disagree with the fact that she feels that way but I do however recognize that there are a lot of ways people can be prejudice and being prejudice against fat people is not acceptable by my standards! Her point is well received but not well articulated because I think the point she is trying to make is about the ridiculous taboo set up around weight in this American culture that is indeed outstanding in comparison to other social taboo's. Also important to note is the fact that prejudice messages are something people often internalize after so many years of hearing how (supposedly) other people feel about you. People begin to hate themselves for what "they think" other people think when really they are the active agent in the "hate game" and people are way more receptive to difference than media makes them out to be. Despite my understanding of internalizing prejudices and forming insecurities as a result, the culture we live in still portrayed the negative messages and is still ultimately responsible.

The way I re-imagine difference and oppression is by throwing out our capitalist system completely! The reason weight is a taboo in America is becasue our capitalist, consuming culture is based on a campighn of fear and consumption. In other words, the media of all sorts is desighned to play on peoples fears of unacceptace that we all have, and use them to sell you things.

Example: (Deep cheesy voice) "Do you have a few extra pounds around your waistline? Try (insert ridiculous, non-creative product name here.) the wonderful new product that melts fat away!."

In order for this positioning of marginalities to be together and unified rather than placed as opponents of one another, we need people to start realizing the system we operate under in America is a fraud and doesn't serve anyone but the few powerful people at the top.(IE: corporations and government officials) When people realize the injustice behind our entire materialistic lifestyle that is American culture, they might experience a personal revolution that allows for disregarding the entire foundation of all oppressions and isms that are still rampant in today's society.

Posted by Revolutionary at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The beginning of this article quotes, "PEOPLE turned to three celebrities who have publicly battled weight issues". Already this article is leaning towards the idea that i fat person must battle their weight. I think that's an unfair assumption and as Emme later points out that she is happy and content with her body size. It doesn't sound like she is battling. She goes on to say, " If we start saying, 'I want to be happy with myself and whatever shape I was given at birth,' I think it's going to change." I also found it interesting that they chose to interview two celebrities that had undergone stomach-reduction surgery. The was definitely a contrast between Emme and the other two women. Jennifer Holliday and Carnie Wilson are now considered thin after their surgeries. While it may have been what they wanted for themselves I don't believe that it's sending the right message. We shouldn't have to fix our bodies to fit inside of society's norms. Society should change to include everyone and stop grouping people and projecting a "norm". Wilson said, " The end message was good". I disagree with this. Hal said, "You're beautiful" but that is the onlly thing that is offered and right after he says that they pull the last joke when Rosemary gets in the car. Please. This is offensive.

Posted by Tina Fey at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The People Magazine article was very interesting to me because it shows the kind of dysmorphism we have culturally about weight. These are three women who have been particularly damaged by our culture's obsession with women because they are in the public eye. No doubt the very magazine who was interviewing them in the context of critiquing 'Shallow Hal' has run articles targeting their weight as an object of spectacle!

I think Emme is on the right track with her statement, but that it is quite problematic in other ways. I believe that fat is one of the last acceptable prejudices - something that is so codified into our culture, it leads nearly everyone to believe that health, body size/mass/weight and beauty are all inextricably linked, that bodies which are too large cannot possibly be considered beautiful. The fat positivity movement is still gaining visibility and momentum. For many people, it is hard to 'take it seriously' because it is interpreted as something people of size can change regardless of genetic makeup, economic class, and a million other factors - making it even harder to address. Emme's statement probably comes from the fact that we are conditioned to pit ourselves against other oppressed and marginalized groups to gain that visibility. (I could draw correlations here to the awful "Gay is the new black!" trend in the media since Obama winning the general election and Prop. 8 passing in California along with similar bills elsewhere...) To combat this, the marginalized must work together in solidarity, to draw commonalities between our experience, instead of driving in various wedges between groups.

Posted by allison at 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think Emme’s claim is unfortunately true. However, people who talk openly about fat in a derogatory sense know it is not okay, but they still do it because they know they can get away with it. The “fat jokes� which circulate in our society are considered acceptable, because weight can fluctuate. A fat person can become a thin person, unlike someone of color becoming white. I think it would be a lot different if everyone was born into a specific body type, which physically could not change from its original state. Then I don’t think people would be as derogatory about fat appearances, because its permanent. I do not mean to say race is not an issue, but it is at least recognized, now, as prejudice to make racist comments. I found it interesting that Emme was so relaxed about the film, compared to the other two (which had both undergone gastric bypass surgery) who were deeply offended by the film. Emme was not set on becoming “thin�, but embracing her figure.

She was obviously the most comfortable out of the three about her body image, and she is the heaviest of the women. One of them was now unsatisfied with their extra skin from the drastic weight loss. Emme expressed concern about the film’s intent, but she was able to make fun of the film’s awful attempt at changing perception of fat people.

Posted by kerli006 at 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think that because Emme is shown in a different light than everyone else she gets the brunt of many jokes. She is out there showing off her body by modeling clothes, so she knows that no matter how hard she tries, this is something that isn’t going to change. Either you are big or you are small, and the industry that she is in, there is this idea of what a model should look like, skinny and beautiful. As hard as it is to say, society and Hollywood don’t want to see a larger person walking down the runway, it is just unnatural, and how could a large person be beautiful. Also, for a singer you are not there to see how she looks you are there to see how well she sings, but there is still this idea of because you are on screen you have to look a certain way. Especially in Hollywood there is this idea of what beauty is and what it takes to look good on the camera; there are few women and men that have broken this mold but it still does not change people’s ideas (although some have taken a different perspective to the idea of large). Personally, I think that no matter who says it and how they go about saying it there is always going

to be prejudice against larger people because there is an idea that if you are a certain weight at a certain height you could not be healthy, which is not true. Therefore no matter how many people say that being large is ok, there is society or Hollywood will make it a point to say that they are not healthy. Which in some cases is true, but there has to come a point where someone cannot change their whole life to fit the idea of perfect and the point of acceptance comes in. Acceptance will come from those who care about you and want to be by you, for the ones that do not accept how much you weigh then they won’t be around you. It is just like race, no matter how many laws are passed or how many movements there have been there are always going to be the people who still have prejudice against those who are different. Also, there are people out there who are shy about their bodies and want to hide them, obviously they are not going to speak out, however, this does not cause problems because the bottom line is you can’t change everyone, just like how a large person should not have to change their bodies just because someone/Hollywood said so. Take Emme’s case for example, she broke the mode on what a model can look like and made a name for herself, but no matter how popular she gets or how good she gets at modeling, she will always fall under the category of a “plus� size model and not just a model; some things cannot be change despite how much they should be changed. I don’t think there is a way for accounting for differences and oppression just the simple fact that people will come to accept it or they won’t.

Posted by week0065 at 8:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I really see truth in Emme's statement that fatness is the "last acceptable prejudice." I think it's interesting that the other two women interviewed are not fat anymore. On some level, I think that Wilson and Holliday hold this prejudice because they couldn't accept themselves as fat women. From the very beginning of the interview, Holliday says she had a difficult time watching the fat Rosemary. Wilson makes a great point that if this movie were about race and not weight, "it would be shocking."
When asked if anything in the movie made them laugh, Emme was the only one that said yes. The fact that she was proud of her cannonballs as a kid shows that she wasn't ashamed of her size the way the other women are. Emme has embraced her size and made a successful career for herself being who she is. The other two women still have issues with their weight, even though they are thin.

Posted by Natalie at 7:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think that Shallow Hal did a good job displaying how many people in our society view women based on their outer appearances. This isn't exactly a good thing though becuase the way many people treat others who are fat isn't very nice. They tend to focus on the things the movie hinted on like breaking furniture and eating a lot of food all the time. This in turn reinforces the stereotypes that many people hold to be true. Other stereotypes the movie emphasized other than how bad it is to be fat sometimes is how mean the "beautiful" people are. As a whole I enjoy Shallow Hal purely as a film meant to be comedy. However I can say I enjoy it because I realize that the comedy in the film is based on the stereotypes that I know not to be true for all people. I do agree with many in the class though that this is a very discriminating film but I think it is important to realize that the film was intended to be a comedy and how it is interpreted is all in how the viewer perceives the writers intentions.

Posted by bergm154 at 3:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Shallow Hal was a highly disrespectful film. It exaggerates and horribly displays the various false misconceptions and stereotypes perceived about fat people. In the article read in reference to this film, Emme states that fat people are the "last acceptable prejudice." In my opinion, I agree with this statement on various levels. For centries America has dealt and struggled with discriminations of all kinds. Movements, protests, and riots have constantly occurred due to this unjust, cruel society that has formed their standard 'normal' expectations over decade upon decade. We as people have overcome and made progress in many areas such as segregation, the right to vote, and equal pay for women. Although there still remains discrimination in accordance to these and other issues, it is on a different level of being a bit more discrete than in the past. One of the last standing prejudice issues that remains more vulnerable than others is the issue of being 'fat.' Unfortunately, people still tend to openly talk negative and joke around about fat people. Extremely negative comments and looks are given so openly toward

fat people that it almost seems as if people think this is alright and not a form of discrimination. Movies like Shallow Hal further back this injustice to fat people up by constantly making fun of them and misrepresenting them as individuals. Examples include the metal chair and booth breaking, the huge splash made at the pool, and the constant panty jokes. I could go on and on because the entirety of the movie was nothing but false exaggerations of fat people and extremely discriminating and offensive jokes.
Emme's "last acceptable prejudice" comment is further justified by Wilson's comment which I was rather pleased to hear her recognize. Wilson brings up the point that what if a film were made that featured a Black woman with her 'inner' beauty being white. And throughout the film, Black jokes were made and horrid stereotypes were constructed to portray and misrepresent the African American race. Then on top of all this, the individual was hypnocized back to see the true color of the skin and thinking "Black is beautiful." If a film were made like that it would absolutly shock and astonish the human race. It would be like traveling back in time and the Black Power Movement and organizations such as NAACP and SNCC would rise up and revolt. People would think the film unjust and cruel and there would be no laughter to be shared in theaters. Well then, this is discrimination either way no matter if it involves race, gender, or body size. It is prejudice. . .plain and simple. So why is it that it is alright to make films like Shallow Hal and not think it will affect anyone negatively? Because 'fatness' is one of the main standing prejudice issues we as individuals are trying to struggle with to prove that it is an unjust discrimination that affects people just as much as race and gender.
Throughout the article, Emme constantly stood up for herself and vocally voiced her opinions. This is significant because she is a famous plus size model. She is constantly being looked and critiqued based on how she looks. Being a model she is wide open to the public and how they view her so her opinions are widely important because they signify strength. If more women stood up and voiced their feelings and pride for themselves it could help people perceive fat people on a more positve level. The main way to overcome this unjust prejudice and conquer the society formed stereotypes is to recognize and perceive fat people as individuals that are just as healthy and beautiful as anyone else that exists in this world.

Posted by hendr324 at 12:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Emme’s statement that fatness is the “last acceptable prejudice� seems to me to stem from the fact that society is conditioned to associate fatness with laziness, bad eating habits, and thusly poor health. And as horrifying a statement as it is, I believe that she is (sadly) correct. Society’s acceptance of the ideology that thin is “normal� and “healthy� allows movies like “Shallow Hal� to be made in the first place. The fact that it did will financially, playing to men and women alike serves to remind us that we as a society absolutely share this irrational and unfounded prejudice. Additionally, celebrities like Carnie Wilson, Jennifer Holliday, and most notably Oprah endorse this ideology by undergoing gastric bypass surgery or by dieting on and off for 25 years with a national audience all supporting and approving of the shared goal of thinness.

Emme's statement is justified in that there is a national obsession with being thin, as the diet industry makes billions a year and that on any given day at the check-out lanes, one can find numerous magazine articles devoted to “how to loose the weight.� With this collective mentality it seems natural (yet also obscene) that everyone would simply assume that it’s “acceptable� to assign negative connotations to fatness. Yet her statement is problematic because it doesn’t allow for any oppositional opinions on the matter to be considered. It is simply a statement that seems to suggest we all think this way, and yes, perhaps the majority of Americans do, but there are certainly millions upon millions who do not.

Posted by kafka at 12:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I basically agree with the statement that fatness is “the last acceptable prejudice.� (I would argue that prejudice against atheists remains much stronger because it cuts across all gender, race, class, and sexual orientation lines, but that’s a topic for a different class.) While no one could possibly argue that no other prejudices exist (racism and homophobia obviously still exist), a person is least likely to be told off for making fun of a fat person. Wilson’s point about how this film would have evoked outrage if it were about a black woman whose “inner beauty� was white shows this perfectly. Of course there would be people who would laugh at such a film, but the general public would find it revolting. The outrage over “Shallow Hal� does not match that level.

That Holliday didn’t comment on this issue is not surprising because she is clearly prejudiced herself. She admits at the end of the interview that she struggles day and night to be thin because that is who she wants to be. She likes being thin because she finally has men’s attention now that she’s not “helpless and pitiful,� implying that she was

pitiful when she was fat.

Emme’s statement at the end is important: “Why can’t we support other women?� People put down others in an attempt to raise their own self-esteem (or at least to knock others down to their level). Why can’t we simply acknowledge that people are different and that that is what makes us all beautiful? We need to start thinking of this not as “thin versus fat� but rather as a group of people who are tired of being judged for being “different.� As Emme says, “we have to work on that.� We have to all work together to improve not only how we are treated but how everyone is treated.

Posted by Katie Green at 11:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Let me first just say that I really don't think the Farrely brothers would expect this much debate and criticism over a movie they made. They are known for their raunchy and outrageous comedies, but when it comes to this film, they are just known for making asses out of themselves. Now to Emme's claim that fatness is the "last acceptable prejudice." I guess for the most part I have to agree with her. Skinny, chubby, and fat people alike can make a fat crack just like that others. For some reason there is no shame in making fun of fat people. We act like it is not a problem. There is no consideration into health, how they are treated or anything, for some reason people of all shapes and sizes find it ok to poke fun at the overweight. I think the real question is who to blame?

For me, I have to blame movies and television. Even though I am going for film studies and love the two industries, it is very clear that most movies and shows present fat people in a comedic light. It seems like there are two scenarios. They are either being made fun of, or they are making fun of themselves for being fat. I am sorry but what we watch on television and film make us who we are. We either pick how we want to be from what we watch. Now when people see fat people as a joke the majority of the time, they are not going to take their lives seriously and just treat them as a punch line. It seems that as long as I could remember, being fat was always something that people would laugh at. I think for a lot of people who don't consider themselves fat that would say the same thing. This is unfortunate. I can't completely blame the entertainment industry, but it is a start to finding out why fat is that "last acceptable prejudice."

I have to say I really couldn't read Jennifer and Carnie's answers without thinking about how they both had surgeries done to get rid of all of there weight. It was weird to reading that the two most negative people in the article were the ones who had surgery. For some reason knowing that these two both had surgery done and were bashing the film just rubbed me the wrong way.

Posted by keilh004 at 10:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I would have to agree on some level with Emme on how fatness is the last acceptable prejudice. I like how they add that is the movie was a white person playing a black person it would be much different. People would be very angry! Even though they are a lot different concepts, they both affect the way we view people. I do agree with Emme on how weight is a prejudice but not how it is the last. There is still a lot of racism, classism and racism out there; we just do not want to accept it. I did not find Jennifer Holliday to talk much. I have seen Dreamgirls and know that she is African American. Therefore, I think that she just wants to stay silent because she knows that weight is not the only “acceptable prejudice� left because racism still exists.

In America we are supposed to be thin to be considered feminine and are sadly looked down upon if we are not. I do not consider my self as over weight but am constantly watching my figure because I do not want to be what America sees as “fat.� People are brainwashed to find “fat� jokes as funny because they are a form of “queer� in this country. When this movie first came out I found it funny like most viewers but taking this class changed my ideas on what is considered normal to the American eye. Although it does have Hal ending up with Rosemary, they had to push it a step farther and have the car slant sideways as she rides away with Hal. To some it is just another joke in the movie but it does really show that weight matters to American society. They are both happy and it is a good ending until they had to prove that she still is “fat� and nothing can change that.

Posted by lemme021 at 10:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The People Magazine article really provoked a lot of thought about ‘fatness’ being such a huge issue in society today. To me, it was interesting that Emme is the heaviest of the three yet had the most humor about the movie. In my opinion she comes off the most comfortable with her body. Holiday and Wilson were both obese and then proceeded to lose a ton of weight. Having to watch the film, Shallow Hal, really disturbed them because it made them relive embarrassing events in their lives when they were obese and once again see the ridicule obese women receive in their everyday lives and the stereotypes of obese women put into a film.
I find some agreement with the statement that fatness is the “last acceptable prejudice.� People use the word fat like it means nothing, and doesn’t offend anyone; when in fact it tends to be considered a very derogatory term, especially when referring to women. It is interesting that the black woman, Holiday, is the only one that remains silent when this is said.

I don’t believe that this statement is necessarily justified. I think it is just a statement pointing out that people are different, and we need to accept it. Whether is being that your fat or skinny, or white or black, not everyone is the same, which is what I believe is special about our world. If people are comfortable with their bodies and are not endangering their health by being overweight, then who has the right to call them fat and ridicule them for what they look like. It all comes down to people needing to become more acceptable of others. People need to worry about themselves and quick picking fun at people that are different then themselves.

Posted by sulli396 at 10:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The People Magazine article really provoked a lot of thought about ‘fatness’ being such a huge issue in society today. To me, it was interesting that Emme is the heaviest of the three yet had the most humor about the movie. In my opinion she comes off the most comfortable with her body. Holiday and Wilson were both obese and then proceeded to lose a ton of weight. Having to watch the film, Shallow Hal, really disturbed them because it made them relive embarrassing events in their lives when they were obese and once again see the ridicule obese women receive in their everyday lives and the stereotypes of obese women put into a film.
I find some agreement with the statement that fatness is the “last acceptable prejudice.� People use the word fat like it means nothing, and doesn’t offend anyone; when in fact it tends to be considered a very derogatory term, especially when referring to women. It is interesting that the black woman, Holiday, is the only one that remains silent when this is said.

I don’t believe that this statement is necessarily justified. I think it is just a statement pointing out that people are different, and we need to accept it. Whether is being that your fat or skinny, or white or black, not everyone is the same, which is what I believe is special about our world. If people are comfortable with their bodies and are not endangering their health by being overweight, then who has the right to call them fat and ridicule them for what they look like. It all comes down to people needing to become more acceptable of others. People need to worry about themselves and quick picking fun at people that are different then themselves.

Posted by sulli396 at 10:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I would agree with the statement that Emme made with saying that fat-ness is the last acceptable prejudice. In the U.S. is seems we have accepted everyone as equals, or made strides to do so in the past except for overweight people. Our nation is so fixated on the fact that being thin is beautiful and that being overweight is ugly. As a nation we have come so far in accepting differences, with race, gender, and sexuality, but it is so ridiculous that we can’t socially accept someone because they are overweight, or “considered� overweight. So many people pay too much attention to what is considered beautiful by Hollywood’s standards. What about everyday standards and normal non-celebrity people. I think that for someone to be successful in Hollywood or in the movie business they should not have to be rail skinny, because that is not what most people look like. It’s just giving people a perception that that is what perfect should be, when in reality who has the right to say if someone is perfect or not. I think that if people, especially Hollywood, was more accepting of normal looking people then the rest of the U.S. would follow along, because that’s what most people have been doing up until now; following the Hollywood trends, and I am sure people will continue to do that long into the future.

Posted by jcareykc at 9:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I agree with what Emme says about fatness being the “last acceptable prejudice.� They make a good point when they talk about how if the movie was about race, it would entirely different and people would be outraged. However, comparing race and body size is not entirely relevant because these have two very different histories and effects. For some reason, people think that physical attributes are okay to make fun of. People have a notion that if a person is obese than they are unhealthy, unattractive, and that its their fault because they eat too much. However, recent studies have shown that being overweight cannot always be attributed to how much a person eats, and a lot of it is genetic. Who cares anyways?! Just as people have deconstructed notions of race, gender, class and sex, people should deconstruct notions of body size. I think the fat-positivity movement is doing this, but it

needs to be more mainstreamed. Women need to resist notions of the ideal body, but it is extremely difficult. Our society is made for a certain type of person to succeed, and there is much discrimination towards overweight people, especially women. I think that rather than pitting marginalities against each other, we must deconstruct how certain notions have come to be and who is benefiting from these people being oppressed. I think the discussion of fatness is different than discussions of race, gender or class, because when a woman who is known for being overweight speaks she is not given the credibility she deserves. People would rather listen to a doctor or a health expert. I think that people really need to learn how weight is not necessarily related to health, and that there are many factors that contribute to body size.

Posted by Alias at 9:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In an attempt to produce a movie with the message of the true nature of beauty, the Farrelly brothers end up completely contradicting themselves while proving with fat jokes, empty swimming pools, and broken chairs that appearances are everything. Rosemary was only seen as beautiful when Hal was hypnotized to believe she was slim. It was after the hypnosis wore off that he convinced himself that big actually is beautiful. In People Magazine’s article “Weighing in on Hal�, former fat women discussed the film Shallow Hal. While they were disgusted by the portrayal of obesity, they were also hurt by the memories it brought up. They all agreed that the film was unrealistic and hurtful yet Emme pronounced the more positive comments than those of Holliday and Wilson.

Emme claims that fat is the “last acceptable prejudice�. I do believe it is important who supports this claim and who voices his or her opinion because celebrities can influence the public. However in this case, I think it is interesting to note that while these women are speaking out against Shallow Hal for its depiction of true beauty, all these women have attempted to conform to the norms of beauty in out society. Holliday and Wilson both underwent a radical method of stomach-reduction surgery and are between 135 and 145 lbs. Emme has made a career showing off her now 200 lb body as a plus-size model. While I don’t think its right to make fun of someone for his or her body type, the public does. And it is evident by the production of movies such as Shallow Hal. Oppression also occurs with sexism and racism with violent attacks. While it is no one’s place to judge which is more important and what marginalities should be accepted and which condemned, it does happen

Posted by savor004 at 9:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I thought the three women provided very interesting arguments. A reason I see it making a difference who vocally responds to such issues is to hear personal accounts, which can be very persuasive in an argument. I especially liked Emme’s attitude about seeing the bigger picture. Communication needs to happen on the subject of weight and attractiveness within society but I don’t think this movie in particular was seeking to take on that responsibility. I think there are better ways to stimulate such a discussion without the insults.

When Emme and Holliday were discussing how to make society view overweight people differently, Emme mentions that it is a difficult expectation for women to stand up together to change perceptions because of the “collective self-esteem isn’t good�. This stood out to me because this alone is an issue that needs to be examined. Is women can’t support their own personal bodies no matter their size, how can they even start to fight on behalf of others bodies? This definitely runs hand in hand with the battle of negative perceptions to overweight people. It seems on the grand scale, to really make a difference there needs to fight for all other sizes as well as overweight.

In response to fatness being the last acceptable prejudice, I don’t necessarily believe it is the last (ageism is still rather acceptable). But I do believe that weight is often used for inappropriate humor. This may exist because many overweight comedians, such as Chris Farley, have used their own large weight so exclusively in jokes that society may feel that it is open to ridicule and laughter.

Posted by luco0005 at 7:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The diversity of People Magazine panel of three "celebrities who have publicly battled weight issues" which included two women who had taken (extreme perhaps) actions of stomach reduction surgery towards "thinness", and a plus size model is more than a little problematic. This is not to say that their opinions on the question of images of “fatness� is invalided -as the discussion proves. But it's important to consider what kind of conversation is being advances? What is revealed in their comments like “I still work day and night to be thin, because that's who I want to be� (Holiday) or “I feel better about myself physically, but I still have skin that's just hanging because I lost 155 lbs. So that makes me uncomfortable,� (wilson) which, in the context of this particular article, seems to suggest a certain problematic idea about thinness and beauty in their opinions (and by extension People's).

The claim of fatness being the last acceptable prejudice is determinately problematic as it's not in any sense qualified by Emme. The fact that by no means do we live in a world that has overcome racial, class, ethnic, religious, sexual, differences nor even has it become what one might argue “political incorrect� to broadcast such prejudice (obvious examples include how media covers Muslim identities, how race and crime is approached, how the questions of undocumented immigrants is handled... the list is almost indefinite as there is not shortage to the ways that a white supremacy, patriarchal, heternormative, and capitalist society produces prejudice and significantly the way it justifies the existence of such prejudice).

Considering the “justification� of “overweight� being “problematic�, “stigmatized� or even “ugly� is so heavily rooted in pseudo-scientific ideas about health, we can extract the fact that “Fatness� in many respects, has not received the same scrutiny that other forms of discrimination have undergone in questioning the logic of their underpinning. The fact that this article doesn't really provide a challenge to concepts of “thinness� and “beauty� nor “health� particularly, I don't believe advances the conversation around prejudice and “fatness� very far.

Posted by Sofia at 7:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I do agree that this country definitely has an issue with how it views overweight and obese women and men. I don't agree that it is the "last acceptable prejudice." There are so many people that are still racist and sexist and so many other types of "isms" that I don't believe people are only just prejudice about weight. As far as people speaking out about weight as an issue, you don't hear about it a lot from people who aren't overweight or didn't used to be overweight. I'm not sure why that is but it seems that as of right now, socially, this country isn't as concerned about the feelings of overweight people as they are of people of color or the multiple other rights people are fighting for.
None of the women in the article were thrilled with this film, and neither was I. Although they did try to show that inner beauty is what matters, they still overly emphasized her weight and her inability to go anywhere without getting mocked or made fun of. The movie was distasteful and completely rude, but that's my opinion.

I think those who don't publicly support overweight actors, actresses, models, etc. are just trying to avoid a bullet. They most likely have an opinion, whether it is one way or another and as of right now, the media isn't overly focused on the obesity issue unless it affects someone who used to be smaller, or someone who is setting a world record. I know that sounds terrible to say but that's how the media is and there are countless shows about losing weight without getting surgery and how much happier these "skinny" people are after they drop the pounds. It's sad really, because people seem to be getting shallower as the years progress, or maybe it's just the age I'm at right now. The majority of the men I talk to and interact with aren't interested in anything I have to say and if they aren't too busy checking out my ass or my roommates ass, they are starting at my chest, instead of listening to what I have to say. It's pathetic really, and I hope someday it gets better but it seems the media doesn't help any when the typical model weighs 100 pounds and she has no shape.

Posted by izzy at 6:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I personally was not offended by the movie even though I was teased by my parents, other parents, a former elementary teacher of mine, my peers and everyone I can remember from my youth. I would consider myself medium build now but I am not "fit" or "sexy" by any means. I remember being young and thinking to myself, "if I was skinny no one would make fun of me," and I remember being afraid of my body. However, as I grew up I learned to enjoy my body as it is more and more. Even though I remember my past, I was still not offended because Shallow Hal is a comedy movie. I didn't find anything so extreme or taboo that I thought it was disgusting. However, I do think what was said in the article is still valid. It is a prejudice and it is acceptable for people to talk about fat people openly. I also understand that jokes are hurtful to some people sometimes, but that is where being comfortable about one self comes in. When ever I debate about comedy using stereotypes in their material, I always think about how I feel when people make fun of Asian people, since I am Asian-American. I can't say I was ever deeply offended people a comedian poking fun at Asian stereotypes because I understand they are jokes. Things are funny...

...when we are in on the joke, when we understand the joke. It's that idea of the "inside joke". I think stereotypes give us a general inside jokes that most of us can understand. For me, it is like, if I can make fun of you, you can make fun of me as long as we are all comfortable with it. BUT, I do feel for the people offended by Shallow Hal. I can see how they are offended and I am not saying that Shallow Hal is all good. The issue with this debate is both sides are right. It is offensive to plus size people, but it is also comedy and something that shouldn't be taken so seriously. The funniest part of the movie for me wasn't even a fat joke, it was when Jason Alexander yells at Jack Black for responding too late. So yes, I see both sides and I do sympathize and maybe even empathize for the plus size public, but personally I can not take this movie too seriously.

Posted by leex2356 at 5:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I feel that it is significant who remains silent in regards to when Emme said, “Fat is the last acceptable prejudice. People still think they can talk openly about fat people in a derogatory sense.� Jennifer Holiday, remained silent because she knows that “fat� is not the last prejudice because she is a black woman. If I were her I would have been highly offended by Emme’s comment. I feel that Emme’s statement is problematic because she sounds very self-righteous
in regards to being “fat� (and she is only a size 12 which I don’t consider plus-size). There are many other prejudices still in place (racism, sexism, classism, etc.) and I feel her comment completely disregards other forms of prejudice. It is hard for me to re-imagine a way of accounting for difference and oppression without pitting marginalities against one another because this too often occurs in our society and throughout the world.

I feel that we as humans need to unlearn a lot of our behaviors that society has ingrained in us. But I feel that this is difficult because it is very difficult to realize our own faults. I feel that all forms of media need to be more diverse in their composition of race, class, origin, education and weight in order for there to be more diversity in attempts to prevent such pitfalls. There is a new show on the Style Network, called Ruby, it is a reality show based on a “fat� women and her struggles with her weight. I feel shows such as this are important in educating people and opening there minds to being accepting of being “fat.� But why isn’t there a reality show that has a “fat� person who is happy with their weight instead of trying to fight it?

Posted by thoughts at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I feel that it is significant who remains silent in regards to when Emme said, “Fat is the last acceptable prejudice. People still think they can talk openly about fat people in a derogatory sense.� Jennifer Holiday, remained silent because she knows that “fat� is not the last prejudice because she is a black woman. If I were her I would have been highly offended by Emme’s comment. I feel that Emme’s statement is problematic because she sounds very self-righteous
in regards to being “fat� (and she is only a size 12 which I don’t consider plus-size). There are many other prejudices still in place (racism, sexism, classism, etc.) and I feel her comment completely disregards other forms of prejudice. It is hard for me to re-imagine a way of accounting for difference and oppression without pitting marginalities against one another because this too often occurs in our society and throughout the world.

I feel that we as humans need to unlearn a lot of our behaviors that society has ingrained in us. But I feel that this is difficult because it is very difficult to realize our own faults. I feel that all forms of media need to be more diverse in their composition of race, class, origin, education and weight in order for there to be more diversity in attempts to prevent such pitfalls. There is a new show on the Style Network, called Ruby, it is a reality show based on a “fat� women and her struggles with her weight. I feel shows such as this are important in educating people and opening there minds to being accepting of being “fat.� But why isn’t there a reality show that has a “fat� person who is happy with their weight instead of trying to fight it?

Posted by thoughts at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think that in this interview, that it is most crucial to compare Wilson’s and Holliday’s comments to Emme’s. Emme is clearly very comfortable with her natural body and the other two represent the counter emotions of embarrassment and extreme self-consciousness about their bodies. However, I think all three of them make strong points—especially when considering their concepts of their own self images. As these women express their reactions, I think it is crucial that Jennifer Holliday explains that the film reminded her of past harassments and pain. As an actress she is constantly judged; she is told to fit into this impossibly slim beautiful mold—yet her most famous role as Effie in Dreamgirls called for a woman of her size to play that role! To me this demonstrates that in real life there exist women of all sizes, yet we are rarely shown that in the world of Hollywod film. Emme insightfully remarks that fatness is the “last acceptable prejudice.� I believe this statement is exemplified quite well when Wilson offers the idea of Rosemary being black rather than fat. Her point is that these prejudices hurt people to such an extent that they often try to become a second self that will not be rejected by society. However, no one would dare tell a black person to try to become white, but this is essentially what our culture does to fat people. However, it is interesting that the one woman who does not respond to this comment is Holliday—who has actually experienced what it is like to be both black and fat.

However she does chime in when the women begin to expand on this idea of society forcing fat people to become what they are not. They mention the huge diet industry and all talk about their own battles with weight. It is important to note that both Wilson and Holliday seem more hurt by and sensitive to their treatment than Emme even though they are no longer fat. I believe this demonstrates that they are, in fact, not themselves, and therefore remain less confident in themselves. This brings up the most crucial misrepresentation, I believe, of fat people by media and society: fat=unhealthy. I personally find having to “staple� one’s stomach and constantly battle with the food one eats as far more unhealthy than the healthy diet and exercise regime that Emme describes. I believe that society as a whole must look at how its representations of fat people is causing fat women not only emotional scarring and creating widespread prejudice against these women—but that it is actually the cause of dangerous unhealthy habits; habits which prevent a person from embracing her natural, healthy size!

Posted by lenth006 at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I can understand why Emme makes the claim that fatness is the “last acceptable prejudice�. As a whole people are more likely to deem making fun of a fat person socially acceptable than they are to accept other blatant prejudices, like race. I think this statement is extremely problematic, however, because it could be interpreted to imply that fat prejudice is somehow a bigger problem than other prejudices. Although it’s no longer socially acceptable to be flat-out racist, this doesn’t mean racism doesn’t exist or is not a problem. In movies, for instance, racism and sexism are alive and well in stereotypes. Although I do think prejudices need to be looked at individually to truly understand them, I don’t think this requires that they be pitted against one another in this way. Furthermore, it’s important to consider what happens when these identities overlap.

I thought it was interesting to think about how both Wilson and Holliday responded to the film as “formerly fat� women who have lost weight. They specifically take issue with the hurtful way Rosy is made fun of, saying it reminded them of the pain they experienced when they were fat. To me, objecting to the straight up meanness of the film is different than objecting to how it portrays fatness as negative in general. Emme, on the other hand, is someone who has embraced her size and is happy with it. It’s not just about not being cruel to people who are fat, and I think Emme hits the nail on the head when she says we need to “change how we perceive ourselves�.

Posted by happyfeet at 3:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I first viewed the movie when it came out, I didn’t really think too much about the negative message it was portraying. I simply saw it for the comedy aspect of it and I laughed along with it. After reading the People magazine article and viewing it again, I have a much different perspective. To some degree I do agree with Emme’s comment that “fat is the last acceptable prejudice.� It is true that it is much more acceptable to poke fun at people for their weight. But it seems that the way that some people deal with their insecurities with being overweight feeds into this acceptance. We all are familiar with the idea of the “funny fat kid� who uses humor to make people laugh with him instead of at him. I understand that overweight people do this to protect themselves from getting hurt but I see that in some way this must make some people feel like it’s okay to make fun of the weight. If they are making fun of their own weight, then it makes it all a joke and opens it up for others to make fun of it. This in no way makes it okay for overweight people to be hurt by this cruelty, but in some way feeds to society's acceptance

of the “fat joke.� Just like with any prejudice, it takes stepping into other people’s shoes and seeing things from their viewpoint to truly see how individuals are affected.
It was interesting to me that Jennifer Holliday said “I still work day and night to be thin, because that’s who I want to be.� She says this as if she will be a different person if she were thin. This is kind of the whole premise behind the movie. She says that you should be comfortable in whatever body you are given and that beauty is not just being thin, but this comment does not agree with that.

Posted by Jolene Lewis at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The three women responding to Shallow Hal, Carnie Wilson, Jennifer Holliday, and Emme, all had similar views of the movie. I agreed with the way the women reacted to the film. It was disgusting to me that there are people in the world who are so neglectful of others feelings. When Carnie Wilson pointed out how outraged people would have been if they were using a black women instead of a fat one, and when Emme said, “Fat is the last acceptable prejudice,� it really struck me. I myself have dealt with weight issues. Going from training for the Olympics, to breaking my back, and unable to physically do anything, my weight increased 40 pounds. I have finally lost some, and am comfortable, but I can say I know what it’s like to be unhappy about your body. It is truly saddening that such cruelness can be seen as comedy. I think these women who commented on the movie are doing society a favor, by shining some light on the issue of not only weight prejudice, but also the oppression that people struggling with weight can be subjected to. In this day in age, we should be moving on from unjustly hurting others for the sake of comedy.

Posted by ande4840 at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I agree with Emme’s claim that fatness being the “last acceptable prejudice.� Her thoughts about turning the film into a “black is beautiful� message by creating the inner beauty of a black woman as being white would be appalling and would create an uproar in society today. There is such a stigma attached to being overweight that society’s values include being skinny and fit and not obese. I think it is significant that Emme is the one to make this claim while the other two women stay silent because it shows this stigma clearly. The other two women may be outraged by the prejudice against fat people but they still buy into the notion that skinny is better. Holliday states, “I still work day and night to be thin, because that's who I want to be� and Wilson complains about saggy skin after stomach reduction surgery. Emme’s statement may be problematic in the sense that it may suggest that by saying fatness being the LAST acceptable prejudice other prejudices have been resolved. This is obviously false. I do agree though that outspoken prejudice against “overweight� people is more acceptable today than racism but I do not agree that racism, as well as other prejudices, is not still present in today’s society socially and systemically. Prejudice against homosexuality is also very outspoken in today’s society because of the values that have been put in place. I think we should reconsider these oppressions as a web of interlocking oppressions that all stem from the same social structures and not try to rank who is the most oppressed. I still think Emme had a good analogy for the film though. The movie really is degrading to “fat� people and in no way is it eye opening for society to begin to accept everyone’s differences in shapes and sizes.

Posted by Faith Kolstad at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Emme’s comment about fatness being “the last acceptable prejudice� brings up many interesting discussions. While I think there is some truth in this statement, I don’t think it’s fair to compare one prejudice with another. It’s almost saying that discrimination against people based on ethnicity, physical ability, sexual orientation, etc. does not occur. By doing this, those who experience other forms of prejudice may feel defensive and that their voice is not being heard. Rather than competing for public attention and activism, those who are marginalized need to come together in the fight for equality in every sense of the word. It is also important for all people to advocate for the silenced. Regardless of one’s personal experience with oppression, standing up for equal rights needs to be everybody’s job. For instance, if Gwyneth Paltrow had made this statement about overweight people rather than a plus-size model, it may have been received differently. The women who were interviewed have certain roles in the media that need to be considered when analyzing their comments.
I thought that the comment made by Carnie Wilson makes a good point: “Can you imagine if it was a black woman and there were racial jokes throughout the movie and her inner beauty was white?� Audiences would be aghast. Poking fun at someone’s weight is typically viewed as less severe than telling a racist joke, for example. Calling someone “fat� should be deemed equally as harmful and derogatory. There really is not enough awareness about weight discrimination.

Posted by herma216 at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Looking at the quote about fatness being the “last acceptable prejudice�, I feel that prejudice against fatness is tolerated because there is not a law prohibiting it, like there is for equality for women as men as well as equality between blacks and whites. The reason fatness is not seen in the same light as these other inequalities were is because of the misconception that fatness is a choice, were as being black or a woman is obviously not a choice. A lot of members in society see fatness as a result of an unhealthy life style that could be reversed with a diet plan and exercising. The smarter people know this is not true. Fatness can also be hereditary; it is not always about over eating and not exercising.

I feel that if society and media tried harder to promote healthy self-imagining for us, we as the American population would be healthier: not fatter, not skinner, but healthier.
Two of the three women in the Article choose the option of weight-loss surgery. Is this media’s way of supporting a healthy self image? Saying that a movie is offensive towards obese people and yet the people trashing the movie felt the need to use surgery to become skinny. At least in Shallow Hal, Rosemary was able to accept herself for who she was and did not try and change for the vain reasons of others. Self acceptance shows better self imaging than people in the spotlight who surgically change themselves for others.

Posted by robes002 at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I can agree with the statement that fatness is the “last acceptable prejudice�, the comment she made about how if Shallow Hal had used race instead of weight the audience would find it completely offensive. Especially within film and the use of skinny actors dressing up as overweight, it’s much like the comparison of Kathleen LeBesco of blackface and I also agree that Emme’s statement that, “People still think they can talk openly about fat people in a derogatory sense.� People still feel that it is ok to make comments about those who are over weight, and within media/the public/etc. people who are over weight are consistently the butt of jokes.

I think it is significant who vocally supports this point and who is standing silent on the sidelines. I think if the only people who stand up and say something are people who are over weight, yes they will get their voice heard, but with anything I think that people need garner support from more than just the one group. It would also be extremely helpful if those within Hollywood would start to speak out against such films and recognize the weight issue within films/Hollywood itself.

The women within this article suggest great ideas that could have been done within this film or films in general to better the content dealing with people who are overweight. Jennifer Holliday, Carnie Wilson and Emme all agreed that the character Rosemary was much too emotionally stable as someone who is overweight. Films could shed light on this issue, and instead of Rosemary embracing her body, her body and the way she dresses is used as a way to make fun of Rosemary. Films need to start to show people that those who struggle weight or those who are overweight are just as normal as the rest of us, we all have feelings we all have our own personal issues that affect us in both positive and negative ways.

This film is an example of how powerful Hollywood can be and how it does more than entertain but affects people’s views on others. Hollywood has the power to give those who are over weight a voice if they only would give them a chance.

Posted by lars2805 at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I disliked this Shallow Hal when it came out in 2001 and it has since then escalated to hatred. In my opinion, nothing could save this movie. Bobby and Peter Farrelly make tons of money by making cruel fun of people who deviate from the norm and then they try to end the movie with a message about inner beauty?! Get serious. I agree with Arnoldas, who points out that the “experts� who People decided to interview about Shallow Hal should be taken with a grain of salt. All of these women have somehow given in to the norm of beauty: Wilson and Holliday had surgery to make them skinnier and Emme is a model. I also disagree with Emme’s statement that “fat is the last acceptable prejudice�. I do not think that fat is the only openly voiced and accepted prejudice.

I believe that racism is publically acceptable, with some of society freely using the word “nigger�. I also think that there is an overt existence of homosexual prejudice, with some of society frequently using sayings like “Oh, that’s so gay� or “You’re so gay�. And with jokes like “A woman doesn’t need an umbrella because it doesn’t rain between the kitchen and the bedroom� being considered “hilarious�, I also strongly believe that sexism is also acceptable. However, I have never been the brunt of any fat joke nor have I experienced a prejudice against me because of my size; therefore, I cannot say I have any idea how it feels. I CAN say that I am angry with the reality that there are many forms of prejudice engrained into our society and that Shallow Hal is such a horrible movie.

Posted by Eleanor Roosevelt at 5:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While reading the article “Weighing in on Hal�, I found it very interesting that Emme was the most positive of the three women about the film and also the heaviest. Conversely Jennifer Holliday who has the lowest weight of the three ladies, had nothing good to say about the film and was the most negative. I believe Emme’s claim of fatness being the “last acceptable prejudice� has some truth behind it. In our society words like Fag and the N word are heavily frowned upon, while words like fatty are merely laughed at. However I found it very interesting the Jennifer Holliday the only black women of the three did not vocally support this point. This made me realize that many people might believe that fatness is one of the MANY acceptable prejudices in America. If you turn on T.V. there are still many prejudices displayed toward people of color and the gay community. Emme is considered fat, but she is also white and straight, so perhaps she is blind to the ways other prejudices are still accepted in some way today. I think the only way to accept difference is to get people to see and define things the same.

For instance skinny means beautiful but fat should mean beautiful to everyone as well. In the movie they had inner beauty portrayed physically as abnormally thin women. By doing this, they portrayed the false message that to be beautiful is to be thin.

Posted by woul0006 at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I watched this movie on cable a couple of years ago and I didn't really like it then, mainly for Jason Alexander's character. Now, after watching it again I noticed more things that bothered me. For example, the jokes that were used in the movie were stereotypical and the personalities of the characters generalized. Not all fat people have good personalities/beautiful inner bodies, and not all skinny/"beautiful" people have ugly personalities. In addition, I thought it was bizarre how those average looking men were expecting to date supermodel women. Neither men appear to skip too many meals or spend much time at the gym, yet Hal and Mauricio wouldn't give a second glance to a woman who is less than perfect.

In the article, "Weighing in on Hal" Emme (a plus-sized model) said that "fat is the last acceptable prejudice. People still think they can talk openly about fat people in a derogatory sense." Carnie Wilson responded that "right—can you imagine if it was a black woman and there were racial jokes throughout the movie and her inner beauty was white? Then they said, 'Okay, you're not hypnotized anymore. Black is beautiful.' It would be shocking, wouldn't it? Well, this movie is shocking to me." I thought it was interesting that Jennifer Holiday didn't make any response to Elle's comment. Both Carnie and Jennifer have undergone surgery to loose weight, but Jennifer Holiday has painful memories of when she was 400 lbs and she seems to block out that part of her live, which is unhealthy because she should embrace her past, and not shun it. I agree with Emme's comment that fat is the last prejudice, and it was evident in this film. The Farrelly brothers played off of stereotypes of obese and ugly people by making a lot of crude jokes at the expense of the obese or ugly. For example, the chairs and booths braking in the restaurants, or the cannon ball into the swimming pool. I thought that the movie just kept repeating the same jokes, and they tried to milk it for all it was worth, however it just got old. I thought it was too far when they ran the jokes up until the final scene, the car tilting was unnecessary, we already know Rosie is fat, there is no need to continually make her the brunt of the jokes. I think that if they would have toned down the humor and let Rosie's true image be considered beautiful, and the fact that Hal knows Rosie's inner beauty be the reason why he came back to her in the end. He was disgusted by the idea of her as 300 lbs and didn't want to ruin the image of her as the tiny Gwenyth Paltrow, the only reason he went to her going away party was because she was a good person, not because he thought she would still be beautiful. And also when he got to the party he could not even recognize her and started making out with the maid, this lumps all fat people into an indistinguishable group. The movie could have been more progressive if they would have allowed Rosie's physical appearance to be accepted as beautiful, and help to redefine society's standards of what beautiful is.

Although this film had obvious flaws, I thought that it was made with good intentions, because the Farrelly brothers were actually satirizing people who focus only on physical appearances.

Posted by conlo027 at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The article’s “diversity of experts� should be approached with caution. Two of them are “ex-fat� women and one of them is a famous “plus size model.� While the former ones are highly-critical of the film’s representations, we need to ask why only one “plus size model� sees some potential in the film for positive interpretations. One obvious reason could be that Emme is the only one who is really invested in “plus size� representations, while not being too grotesque and threatening.
The “last acceptable prejudice� argument is seriously problematic. Simply establishing a laundry list of unacceptable prejudices and declaring a closure might be a desirable ideological outcome (for some) but history shows that such attempts never truly solve the contradictions. We do not live in a post-racial, post-gender, post-sexuality, post-class etc society (although some would claim we do). Acceptance, or superficial tolerance of some identities always come at the price (e.g. problems with assimilation, (self)policing, essentialism etc). Once identity becomes accepted/tolerated it allows to punish, police, exclude those that do not fit into allowable category.

What does it have to do with fatness? We can ask, what would have to be compromised in order for fat people to be “tolerated�? Maybe the point is not to merely strive for acceptance, which is clearly important, but attempt to recognize/understand how and why we categorize and treat different bodies differently. For example, how “thinness becomes the seemingly natural signifier for morality, propriety, and appeal� ? (Lebesco 237). Or how fatness becomes associated with poverty and blackness? (238). We also need to ask not only how capitalism benefits by setting up unrealistic ideals to strive for or how social prejudices against difference operate, but also how body management is intrinsic to modern state’s biopolitics through health, productivity, and predictability of its body-subjects.

Posted by Arnoldas at 5:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While reading this article from People magazine, I thought it was very interesting to read the different thoughts from all three, at one point in their life over-weight stars. I found it interesting that Emme was the only one that was trying to take the best out of the film so people can learn from it, instead of getting completely upset like the other two, when Emme was the only one that is still over-weight. “Emme: If we as women start standing up and using our voices, I think we can change those perceptions. It takes a lot of work for us not to buy into a $50 billion diet-related industry. If we start saying, "I want to be happy with myself and whatever shape I was given at birth," I think it's going to change.� As for fatness being the “last acceptable prejudice� it makes me look at the problem in a completely different way, but with a lot of the statements Emme makes shows us that if people look at the movies in a different light that it can justify as something to learn from and for the world to start moving into the right direction of changing the way people think about over-weight people. You can see that people are watching these movies because it grossed over $41.3 million in the first 10 days in theaters, so in the view Emme is trying to make is that if people can maybe learn from these kind of movies that maybe things can change around in the future and over-weight people can be looked at for who they are and not just for big splashes, breaking chairs, eating a lot, and clearing out pools.

Posted by bues0040 at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I hadn't seen Shallow Hall till we watched it in class and my reaction was shocked. I couldn't figure out how Gwyneth Paltrow thought this was a good role for anyone to play. What good message does this movie give out? I would really like to know how this gives a positive message of women or men. In my opinion it does. In the People magazine part of the interview that was interesting was: Emme: Fat is the last acceptable prejudice. People still think they can talk openly about fat people in a derogatory sense.
Wilson: Right—can you imagine if it was a black woman and there were racial jokes throughout the movie and her inner beauty was white? Then they said, "Okay, you're not hypnotized anymore. Black is beautiful." It would be shocking, wouldn't it? Well, this movie is shocking to me.
This is so true, think about it say the situation was not race but sexuality and the plot is a gay women and her inner beauty was a straight women. No one would think that is funny and yet it is the same concept as Shallow Hall.

I don't even want to think of a better way this movie could have been make because it was a bad concept to begin with. If we had to change the image though we could make it more about that being big is beautiful. Everyone is beautiful no matter what size, looks, intelligence. Everyone has something that makes them beautiful and that is what kind of message movies should me sending out here.

Posted by breme071 at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Upon entering any social situation, today’s society has an immediate response to the people around them. We look around and examine the people we are with. The two most obvious signifiers are race and size. The difference between the two is that size is easier to talk about and fits within the politically correct ideal. I agree with Emme’s claim that fatness is the “last acceptable prejudice.� I must clarify that I only agree with it because of the word “acceptable.� I think that there are racial prejudices and others that are considered acceptable to some people, but in a “politically correct� world fatness is still considered acceptable and racial prejudices are not. In the article “Weighing in on Hal,� Wilson agreed with Emme and explained how size is an acceptable prejudice by replacing fat with black. She claimed that the movie would be unacceptable if Rosmary’s character had been black, not fat. At the end of her comment she said, “It would be shocking, wouldn’t it? Well, this movie is shocking to me.� Being black and formally obese, Holliday did not comment on either statements. Her silence may signify that

she does not believe fat is the last acceptable prejudice and that race is still an acceptable prejudice in our society. Her silence makes me very curious to know what she was thinking. Emme’s statement is problematic because it tests the ideal of a politically correct society. Although racial prejudices still exist, the frown on racial prejudices is a veteran in the politically correct archives. Size has barely been touched on. In order to create harmony when walking into a social setting, society must talk about the prejudices that exist, why they are there and how we can advocate open minds.

Posted by jona0062 at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reading Emme’s claim that fatness is the “last acceptable prejudice� was interesting for me because it lent some much lacking perspective to the problem – before reading the article, I wouldn’t have categorized fatness as prejudice. In not being aware of fatness as a prejudice issue, we are reinforcing negative judgments without being conscious of ways that they are affecting those being judged. The statement Emme makes is justified as long as we see movies like Shallow Hal blatantly using obesity as a punch line. This movie demonstrates the public’s acceptance of (or at least indifference to) fatness as a prejudice because it grossed over $41.3 million in the first 10 days in theaters. The worst part about this issue is that it not only marginalizes a group of people, it also pits people against each other. In Shallow Hal, Jason Alexander’s character brings Hal back to his shallow existence because he refused to believe that Hal could be happy with someone who didn’t fit his idea of perfection. In a similar way, we are inflexible with our views of what normal looks like and we hold everyone else to the standard that we set – even if it is impossible to attain. To move beyond the issue of fatness, we need to (as a society) move past the surface level as Hal tried to do and look past the things that don’t matter. Unlike Hal, we need to understand the consequences of our actions and realize that how we perceive others is important.

Posted by joh02629 at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the People article, Emme raises a good point. Fat jokes and prejudices are often unfairly “justified� by associating fatness as a sign of negligent health or laziness. It’s impossible to tell how healthy or lazy someone is by simply looking at his or her weight. Judging someone on his or her presumed health or physical fitness status is unacceptable and a definite form of prejudice. I think it’s significant to consider who supports the point Emme makes. I believe the article would have been more powerful if People had interviewed celebrities of all body types and let them weigh in on the film. The best way to account for difference and oppression in ways that doesn’t pit marginalities against one another is to have discussions about the issue of fatness instead of ignoring it. Although Shallow Hal offers an offensive portrayal of fatness, it at least attempts to address the issue. I find the failure to even recognize the issue in many films and sitcoms (especially the flashbacks of Fat Monica on Friends) much more offensive than the film.

Posted by Da provida at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are many ways in which all of the characters in the film "Bound" are physically or metaphorically bound by something or someone. Violet is bound by her marriage. Caesar is a violent member of the mob with experience torturing people. He also has weapons and the mob on his side; all of these obsticals make it impossible for Violet to leave him. Caesar is also bound by the mob. They would kill him if he fled and kill him if they suspected him of disloyalty which is why he cannot flee after he notices the money is missing. Shooting the godfather of the mob and his arch enemy caused his relationship with the mob to rupture and freed him. Caesar is also bound by his over-confidence and superiority complex; he continues to push Violet and tells her there's no way she could shoot him, right before she pulls the trigger. This moment 'cuts Violets ropes' metaphorically. Corky is also bound in multiple ways throughout the film. I think she is somewhat bound by her gender because of the profession she chose. In the beginning she tells Violet she is "just lucky to have the job" filling in for the man who had been working there. Caesar is shocked that Corky is a woman and relieved that Violet hadn't been cheating on him, so

he thought. Corky is also physically bound by ropes in Violet's apartment but frees herself. Violet and Corky are also bound to eachother throughtout the film. They need eachother in order to successfully rob the mob and to escape. Violet and Caesar are bound to eachother in that they need eachother to fool the mob into thinking first that everything is normal and then that the godfather had been in an accident. For Violet and Corky i think the final moment of freedom and release is when they drive away in Corky's truck together with the money and no suspicion that they have it. They are both free of their jobs, Violet is free of Caesar, and they are free to be together.
Nellie Marshall

Posted by marsh410 at 8:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fat is in some ways the last acceptable prejudice. As mentioned in the class discussion, fat bodies somehow become collective, public bodies, and invite (mostly negative) comments from outsiders. Somehow this negative commentary is considered normal or even acceptable, since the weight issue is tied closely with health in many minds. Anyone not incredibly skinny is seen as being overweight or unhealthy, and while there are certain heightened health risks with excessive weight gain, there are also certain heightened health risks with dieting and excessively thin bodies. The People Magazine article mentions the extensive dieting and training needed to keep weight off, and this struck me as particularly hypocritical. It is difficult to see such women (with the exception of Emme) as pro-fat or even pro-women since they reinscribe the dictates of patriarchy by feeling the need to be skinny.

Weight-loss surgery is drastic and can put patients at risk. It also can in some cases offer an “easy out� for women; instead of accepting and loving their bodies, in can seem like an easy solution – they can simply become thin and then they will love themselves. While this is not true for all who have such surgeries, it is most likely the case for some, like Holliday who still believes food is “out to get� her. If women (and men) are able to fully accept themselves, whether fat or skinny or average or whatever, these issues would not exist.

Posted by seitz057 at 6:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I can agree to some extent with Emme’s claim that fatness is the “last acceptable prejudice�, because of the fact that fatness is a physical attribute and therefore is always more or equally visually apparent as religion, sexual orientation and class to name a few. Especially in American culture where popular culture and science stress the unhealthiness of being “obese�, demeaning fat people is very much still widely accepted (although I think progress is being made). However, I think in comparison to other world wide prejudices, fatness is not the greatest concern as people are killed daily for their religion, race and nationality to only touch the surface. I have never seen a news headline saying that someone had been murdered because they were fat.

The vocal support of Emme is significant because as a self declared fat person she is speaking up for herself and for other fat people. I’m not sure if the question is referring to the silence of the other two panelists or to the silence of others in general, because I felt that Wilson and Holiday both shared the same idea that its not okay to make fun of people based on their weight (except possibly for the comment about the crying kid in the tree, but that would be funny out of the context of the situation, so I let that slide). If the question was referring to the silence of our nation as a whole, I think it’s a shame that our culture hasn’t spoken out very well against demeaning fatness, but on the other hand I’m not sure that our culture can. America doesn’t want to stop looking down on fatness, because it is profitable. The media constantly puts down the majority of the population (last I heard 2/3 of adults are “obese�) by upholding unrealistic celebrities and models as people we should a spire to be which supports the diet industry. However, the diet industry is rooted in shaky nutrition principles that usually are unhealthy, keeping consumers from actually achieving their weight goals so that they can spend more money. Furthermore, doctors are not adequately educated in nutrition to give realistic plans to patients. This includes all people, because whether or not a person gains weight from bad nutrition, their organs are negatively affected. That goes on to the next point that, because fatness is not accepted rather than poor nutrition, many thin people think there is nothing unhealthy about eating horrible foods as long as they don’t get fat which also contributes to the diet cycle. But then again health is subjective to some extent, and depending on a person’s point of view, living a long life may or may not hold any worth whatsoever. However, dying young can be achieved by so many other ways than becoming morbidly “obese�. Unfortunately, because fatness is a physical attribute, it becomes an easy scapegoat. In this way marginalities are pitted against one another, because everyone has some kind of health problem or other, but most people would rather make fun of fatness than admit to their own shortcomings. I don’t think the problem of making fun of fatness is going to go away in this country until people either grow a conscience or go blind, or cease to be fat. I don’t think people are going to grow a conscience, they will continue to be weak minded and make fun of people’s physical attributes, and people will not cease to be fat because our economy is based in indulgence and there are plenty of diseases like thyroid conditions. I’m not saying people’s fatness is their own blame, I’m saying that very few people are able to live outside of the mainstream’s influence, and when the mainstream is telling you to make meat and dairy staples, use food to shape your identity, and that kids want soda and toaster strudel for breakfast most people’s metabolisms will only make up for the influx for so long.

Posted by CrazyOldMaurice at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the key elements of Bound is sexuality and the way the two lead women use their sexuality to their advantage. However as much as Violet uses her sensuality and attractive body, she is also trapped by the after effects of using sexuality in order to movie ahead financially or even socially. She is trapped by the choices she made earlier in her life when she meets Corky. Once she slipped into the mafia life or as Cesar called it the “business� she doesn’t know how to successfully escape the role of the bystander that has to experience all of the murders and criminal activities. Violet overhears Caesar and his Mafia buddies beating and torturing Shelly (Barry Kivel), a man who has been skimming money from the business. Upset by the violence and cruelty Violet realized that she can’t live through her sexuality anymore. However she knows that she is to a certain degree bound to her past decisions. Once Violet has realized that she used her femininity and sensuality in a patriarchy that allowed her to gain financial support from a cruel man, she needs to find a different way to get out of that system. In the middle of the storyline when Violet is trying to unsuccessfully convince Cesar to run away from the mob it is made clear by him that she doesn’t have the choice to run away without him. Even though he is her lover and boyfriend he goes as far as threatening her life in case she tries to run off. Loyalty is only seen by him if she stays by his side at all time. This is one of the clear signs that Cesar believes that their past relationship and Violet past career as a waitress has made her completely bound to him. He makes constant references to the fact that she would be nothing without him, and that she maybe tried to screw him over by working with Johnni. Cesar believes that the only reason Johnni and Violet could be connected would be her sexuality. Cesar makes constant references to Violets financial needs and her sexuality. This is why until the end of the movie the only suspicion he has against Violet is switching over to Johnni for financial support. Violet is always bound to a man for financial needs however Cesar soon realizes that she worked against all man in order to free herself from her initial decision to be financially dependent on a man.

Posted by hass0257 at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is in the movie Bound that I have realized for the first time how many lesbian sex scenes reminded me of and reified the conventional ideas of heterosexual sex acts. With the combination of the Kessler and Noble reading and watching Bound after that, I was able to complicate my own understanding of queer sexuality in a heterosexually dominated film industry. It is for this reason I believe that the sex scene is definitely feminist in many aspects. Throughout the movie Both Corky and Violet are consistently placed into the stereotypical understanding of femininity and masculinity. This act of placing them into the typical understanding of gender had made me at first very uncomfortable and disappointed, however after our class discussion I had realized that the very understanding of the social construction of the “male� and “female� gender roles was being put under strict scrutiny by this movie. Throughout the movie and especially in the sex scene these roles of gender are put on display and yet in the same time complicated. While the sex scenes stayed true to the reality of lesbian sex the directors still worked on keeping their mostly heterosexual audience captivated and interested. While I understand that the movie wasn’t just targeted towards a lesbian audience, I still wonder would specific changes or decisions were made in order to make the heteronormative audience feel comfortable. Kessler mentions this by explaining that “Bound to draw favor from both heterosexual and lesbiancrowds: (1) images of desire that work for both lesbian and heterosexual viewers, (2) strategic use of stereotypes, and (3) camp or parody of the prototypical
Hollywood gangster� Even though this movie drew in the heterosexual crowd it was able to stay true to the reality of the lesbian sexuality. For example in the first sex scene the positioning of the two female bodies doesn’t try to replicate heterosexual sex. Intercourse is not defined by some phallic object or any type of penetration by a symbol of masculinity. The “butch� female is the one that is shown to be penetrated by the “femme�. “This scene presents a type of lesbian sexuality that is not often shown in heterosexual films: lesbian sex without the need of any phallic object.� (Kessler) It seems that the usual concentration on the breast and the typical male gaze and close up shots looking at the butt or breast was also omitted in the scene. It was interesting to know that this scene was viewed by many lesbians as authentic, since one is exposed to so many male driven images of lesbians.

Posted by hass0257 at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The themes of being bound in relationships and performativity play significant roles in the film for Violet’s character. Violet is bound in her relationship with Caesar. She has been stuck with him for five years and due to his mafia power and intimidating personality, she is unable to leave him. Violet is also bound into performing an artificial gender role around Caesar and his friends. When they are present, she plays the role of the ditzy and obedient sex kitten. There are ruptures in the theme of being bound. Corky, in general, represents a release for Violet from being bound. In the scene where Violet is sitting on the bed and telling Corky about her plans to steal the money, Violet speaks intelligently and quickly and the tone of her voice is more natural and less seductive. She releases her personality around Corky. The end of the film also represents a release for Violet. She is free of Cesar and in an unrestrictive relationship with Corky.

Posted by Da provida at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gender played a huge part in this film. The whole idea of these women mapping out such a great plan, especially while knowing that at least one person’s life would be ruined (bringing in the concept of the femme fatale) is something of the queer sort. After Corky and Violet murder Caesar, nobody suspects that the two of them had anything to do with Caesar’s death or the money simply because of their gender.

The women (Violet in particular) were able to take advantage of their perceived innocence because they were able to fool the mafia men. They performed how they were expected to in order to stay safe. This meant that Corky was supposed to be the butch who repaired things, and Violet was supposed to be the ditzy, sexy heterosexual for Caesar.

Corky and Violet were always bound by men; Violet was bound in her relationship with Caesar. As Caesar said himself, she was “nothing� before she met him. She was in it for the money; she was bound by financial limitations. Corky was bound in prison; she too was bound by financial limitations; the reason she was in prison was because she was “spreading the wealth around.� Both Corky and Violet broke free from their bounds by eliminating the men and the structures run by men in their lives. Corky and Violet both needed money; that is why they were both bound in the first place. Corky and Violet were able to get the money they always needed without the help of any man. Their walking away with the money together was a huge symbol of their capabilities as women.

Posted by bute0023 at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the film Bound, each of the characters in the film is bound together, socially and literally. Corky was bound in prison for five years, is literally bound in the closet by Caesar as if to repress her lesbianism, and is bound to the term “butch� by her actions and looks. Violet has been bound to Caesar for five years and made to feel indebted to him, and has to play an innocent and “femme� role to keep him and the mob happy. This is why Caesar does not suspect anything when she and Violet are hooking up on the couch. Corky and Violet end up being bound together as they create the plan to steal the money and extenuating circumstances tie them further and further into the plot. Caesar is bound to the mob through his actions, which keep getting him wound closer and closer to death. Male panic leads him to tie Corky up in the closet, where even the close camera shot shows us that she can’t escape. Throughout the film, the majority of the characters are bound within the confinements of their apartment building, and we rarely see them leave or scenes outside. However, Corky is able to free herself from the ‘closet’ and save

herself and Violet. Violet is also able to break free of her “femme� constraint as she tricks Caesar, shoots and kills him at the end. Only then are she and Corky both free to leave the apartment with the money, and presumably live a better life together.

Posted by Mel at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the film “Bound,� there are many examples of that title being played out. The first of course, is when Corky is tied up and gagged in a closet. This represents Violets boyfriend’s attempt to repress Corky’s homosexuality, as well as Violet’s by bounding Corky, the woman who physically embodies his idea of lesbianism. Male panic plays a huge role in this situation because not only are these two women (Corky and Violet) the ones that have stolen the money, but now he is threatened with not being necessary to Violet because of her involvement with Corky. Corky gets freed from her ties eventually and escapes with the help of Violet.
Another example is when Violet and her boyfriend are in the bathroom and she has to pretend that she was just showering with him. Although she is bound in a physical space, she cleverly manipulates the situation so she has authority and frees herself, and consequently her boyfriend too.
She plays on her performativity of her femme identity to manipulate situations and to present herself in a seemingly non-threatening manner. This theme is reoccurring, for example when Corky is over and they are fooling around on the couch and her boyfriend comes in, he doesn’t suspect anything because Violet plays so innocent and feminine. When Violet is talking with the mob men she always acts victimized and non-threatening. Corky and Violet are set free at the end because Violet manipulates her boyfriend’s death and convinces the mob men that she was merely a victim herself. Actually, she doesn’t even need to convince them, she just never lets on that she thinks critically about her relationship or that she has the potential to plan a robbery. Although one could look at Violets femme identity as being something that bounds her in itself, I think it’s ironic that she uses it to control the men around her and take advantage of there hypermasculinity.
If Corky would have been visible to the mob men, I think it’s fascinating how different the situations would have been. Violet would not have seemed so innocent all of a sudden, and Corky would have posed a huge threat, creating male panic amongst the mob men.
There are so many examples of being bound in this film, these are just a couple that I find most interesting.

Posted by AJ at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The film Bound presents many references, both literally and figuratively, to being bound. The beginning of the film starts in a closet focusing on an extravagant collection of women's high heels, beautifully sewn dresses and many hats. As the camera moves down toward the floor, it focuses on feet bound by white rope and continues to move up Corky's body showing her hands similarily bound in rope. The rope obviously represents the physical aspect of being bound and trapped in an area. The beautiful collection of women's clothing can represent Violet as being bound to her femme identity. Violet is a femme lesbian caught in a straight life with Ceaser and the mafia family that is strictly composed of high powered male figures. When Violet states to Ceaser, "I want out." this signifies both the bound feeling of wanting out of the family and the desire to communicate freely her sexual feelings toward the female gender.
Ceaser and the family bind Violet with money, protection, a home, and power but they fail to give her the most

important thing, freedom and self expression. When communicating with Corky she refers to sex as work which further reinforces the bound feeling she posseses in the relationship with Ceaser. We as people are often bound to our jobs for money and a feeling of security which is what Violet feels with Ceaser.
In the Bound and Investigated: Lesbian Desire and Hollywood Ethnography article by Jean Noble it comments that "members of one sex share so much that they bond on the axes of sexuality too." In the scene where Corky first goes over to Violet's place is the defining moment where Corky and Violet are bound together. When Violet puts Corky's hand under her slip it is in that moment that the two women become one. When they kiss for the first time in Corky's truck it further signifies the close sexuality that the two share on the same level. One of the most impacting scenes, in my opinion, that helps portray the idea of the two being bound both sexually and physically is when Ceaser has them both tied in rope in a room. As Ceaser exits the room momentarily, Corky and Violet are on the floor, back to back, attempting to help each other from the rope. When Ceaser enters back into the room the camera focuses on the two women in this position. I think this scene, although injected with Ceaser's humorous comment "No, no, no." which presents male panic, is a beautiful moment that signifies the importance and meaning of being bound to one another. This scene also causes rapture and allows for freedom of the two bound females.
From the moment Corky and Violet make the plan to steal the money and decide to carry through with it they are bound to commitment. As the plan gets further and further messed up with Ceaser's paranoia of plots and kills members of the family the two females also become deeper and deeper connected. When Violet calls Corky on the telephone, the camera focuses on the telphone cord which is binding them together at the moment. The camera then focuses on the fact that their two apartments are only separted by a thin wall. While talking on the phone, Corky and Violet both put their hand up to the wall. They are only separted by a thin wall and are bound by the telephone cord and the deep connection they feel shines through that amazing moment in the scene.

Posted by hendr324 at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I will examine the ways in which gender operates in the film Bound, specifically how it serves to both tie certain characters together and tear others apart. The word "bound" can operate as both a noun and an adjective, the noun referring to a real or imaginary point of beyond which a person cannot go and the adjective to someone fully committed to a goal (e.g. bound and determined). Both of these definitions work within the context of the film and will help us extrapolate on the theme of gender.

Corky and Violet are both bound to a single goal (the 2.2 million dollars they plan to escape with) and as a result create between them a boundary through which they cannot escape. As Corky warns during the scheming, "once we do this we can't go back." They are bound together in these ways by situations they both facilitate. However, they are also 'bound' together in ways that they cannot control. When we hear about Corky's past we learn that she was in prison (literally bound) for five years, whereas Violet has been a bad relationship with Caesar (literally and figuratively bound) for five years as well. They are bound together by forces both outside and inside their relationship.

Men in the film are bound together through patriarchy, the mob, and their own narcissism. Caesar, as well as the other mobsters, frequently warn Violet implicitly or explicitly that she is bound to her relationship with Caesar if she she wants to stay in the family. Likewise Caesar is bound to the mob- his 'family'- a relationship that he could only escape through death. After finding out about the missing money, Caesar is bound and determined to not be made a fool, and hatches his own plan to rectify the situation. During this plan, Caesar literally binds together Corky while showing the boundaries of his own narcissism and adherence to patriarchal delusions when he, as well as the other mobsters towards the end of the film, do not initially consider Violet or Corky intelligent enough to hatch such a scheme. In these ways, gender operates to bind the characters of the film, both literally and figuratively.

Posted by thur0139 at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The characters of bound are trapped in many ways, both physically and metaphorically. Right from the beginning we see imagery of Corky being tied up, with the sense of being bound heightened by the low camera angles and close shots. The fact that most of the scenes take place within the apartment building also adds to this. Violet, Corky and Caesar are all bound in their relationships as well. Caesar's connection with the mob is a hard one to break, and it pulls Violet in as well during the course of their five year relationship. The only way Violet is able to free herself from the mob is by playing dumb, taking advantage of the fact that Caesar and Micky are so bound in phallocentrism and male panic that they would never suspect that a woman would be capable of such acts.

Through her relationship with Caesar, Violet is also bound to heterosexuality. Caesar is unwilling to accept her attraction to women, keeping her for his own pleasure.
As discussed in the last blog, Corky and Violet can at times be seen as being bound to their butch and femme identities. Their bodies are both coded by the clothes they wear and the mannerisms they have, yet they are able to break free from this during the sex scene.

Posted by allora at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The concept of being bound was used and shown in so many different ways in this film it's almost hard to narrow it down but one of the things that I really noticed was the confinement to the apartments. Most of the scenes in the movie are shot in Violet's apartment. She has the freedom to come and go whenever she wants but she is still forced to be there because of Caesar and his control issues. One of the moments I noticed some freedom from Violet being bound was in the sex scene between her and Corky. I believe they were at Corky's apartment where there was a bed in the middle of a room and nothing else around. There was a sense of openness and contentment in that room and she was also free because she was expressing her sexuality openly, which is something she couldn't do when Caesar was around.
The opening scene of the movie where you see Corky tied up and lying on the floor of a closet, she is obviously physically bound. I think that was very symbolic because throughout the whole film Corky is the character who expresses herself openly and isn't hiding her sexuality or her attitude about life. Also, it is mentioned that she just spent 5 years in prison so for her, being bound again is not something she wanted to have happen. Her butch look at actions helped in her expression of freedom as well.

Violet was also bound by this femme beauty image. She always had make-up on, her hair was always done and she was always dressed extremely well. We never see her in anything other than a dress and I think that is because she is maintaining this image for Caesar. When they have friends over or see people they know, she has to be the subordinate female who is just there as a sex toy and to look pretty. All of the other men hit on her and Caesar knows she is sexy and wanted so that makes him proud. If she was dressed in sweatpants, this would not be the case.

Posted by izzy at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the film Bound the audience is able to see the title demonstrated throughout the film through the different relationships. The men in the movie are bound to the mob through their connections; they are unable to leave because it’s like a gang once you are in, you are in for life and it could be deadly to get out. Another demonstration of being bound in the film is seen in the relationship between Violet and Caesar. They are not married yet Violet feels that she is unable to leave Caesar because of his connection to the mob. Therefore she is “bound� to stay under Caesar’s oppressive lifestyle; Caesar knows he has the upper hand physically and he uses that to control Violet.

Another form of being “bound� that is used throughout the film is being bound to a stereotype. From beginning to end in the film, the audience is able to identify Corky as the butch figure in the relationship and identify Violet as the femme figure of the relationship. To the public eye, in the movie, these roles do not change. Violet is always dressed in fancy clothes and Corky always in tanktops and jeans. Even at the end of the movie when Caesar figures the plan out, he physically attacks Corky to the point of her being un-conscience and Violet has her hands and feet tied while she sits on the bed. Then it is Corky who is blamed for corrupting Violet (a more butch stereotype) and Violet was treated as if she had no control over the “change� of her sexuality (a more femme stereotype).

Posted by robes002 at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The very first scene that takes place between Violet and Corky in the elevator exchanging glances, I can see that Violet is “Bound� to the domination of her husband. I say this because Violet was obviously very curious about Corky and made it clear without her husband noticing. I think that if her husband had not been present she would have simply began a conversation and not had to play so many games. In this scene, Violet is trapped in her “feminine role� that is specific to the dynamic of her relationship with her boyfriend. She is dutiful and obedient to her “man� and is playing a submissive role, one in which we learn throughout the course of the movie is not the “real� violet. Thus I conclude that Violet is bound to her role in her relationship.

In addition to being bound to her role within her relationship, I can also extend it further into the issue of her sexuality. Violet has indeed had many female lovers that her boyfriend doesn't know about. In order to fulfill her role as a submissive girlfriend, she has left out this bit of information because she knows it would detract from the "feminine" role she is playing. So I am arguing that Violet is also bound by the heteronormative construction of society that is closely linked to male patriarchy and only escapes because of the help of Corky.

Posted by Revolutionary at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bound opens with a shot of Corky, wrists bound and mouth gagged, laying in a woman's closet. From here on out, the film is filled with imagery of being bound to or contained by something, both physically and figuratively. One of the most crucial themes is that of trust as binding; again and again, Corky and Violet often refer to trust as what binds them together, that which will ensure their success in their bid for quick cash and an escape for Violet. Violet is tethered and bound to the apartment she shares with her boyfriend through both the relationship and the implication of violence; here again, we see the idea of trust as binding, because her partner ultimately does trust Violet. She is aware of the threat of violence that comes with this trust, however – Violet remains physically contained because of Caesar's trust as well as his fear.

Conversely, in Corky, she finds a woman who she can form a bond with that challenges the boundaries set by Caesar. Violet finds not only sexual liberation through her relationship with Corky, but also a trust based on respect instead of the presupposition of violence. The entire narrative represents the story of Violet's bid for freedom; to leave one constriction in favor of one that does not constrain her through violence.

Posted by allison at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

“I had this image of you inside me… like a part of me� (Violet)
“Where is f…king money?� (Cyrus)
“All part of business� (Violet)
“You made a choice once� (Violet)
“What choice?� (Corky)
“I want out� (Violet)

From the beginning of the movie when we hear the above quotations, we can sense that the characters are bound whatever situation they are in and are trying to break through for some freedom. The first shot of the characters in the film is that of Corky in the dark closet tied up. Corky who has just gotten out of the prison is all alone but develops a relationship with Violet as the film progresses. Initially, she is attracted but cautious about Violet’s advances on her but the trust between them is build slowly. When situation worsens for Cyrus after he kills the mob leader’s son, Cyrus doesn’t allow Violet to leave him. Corky is hearing all the conversation from the next door apartment and understands the slim chances of Violet being able to run away from Cyrus. Corky could have happily sneak away with the 2 million dollars but she stays and makes her moves since she feels bound to Violet. Here we are also metaphorically see that she is bound in that apartment all alone while all the action is taking place in the next apartment.

Violet’s is bound by two other characters which are her boyfriend Cyrus and her girlfriend Corky. She has been with Corky for about five years even though she is a lesbian. She is not bound to him sexually but more for stability and money. She says she wants out of the binding relationship that she has with Cyrus which also means she wants to continue with Corky. Violet kills Cyrus as he is on wall that bounds her from taking that 2 million dollars and her lover Corky.

Lastly, Cyrus’s life is bound by the mob and his girlfriend violet. He seems to be a key player with the mob but also a spendable one. So after the money is stolen by Corky, he ends up killing the mob members at his apartment who had come to pick up the money. Since he is a key player in the mob, he doesn’t see a way out but try to break this bound. Ultimately, it is Violet who kills him.

Other examples of being bound in the films are the entire story taking place in one building particularly in the apartments. The characters are trapped in between the walls of their apartments. The films opens with shot of closet where Corky is all tied up.

Posted by dorje003 at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The theme of the characters being bound is found throughout the entire movie through literal references and figurative references. The opening scene shows Cork bound and gagged in Violet's closet. We can view this literally, she is literally bounded and trapped in the closet. This scene is also ironic because it was just revealed to Caesar that Corky is a lesbian, and he forces her back "in the closet". Corky's character is also bound to Violet through the relationship that they have developed through out the movie. They needed to trust each other completely because they each could have turned on the other and gotten away with the money. In the end, their trust allows them to break away from their binding pasts and identities to allow them to be free together.

Violet's character is bound by her relationship to the mob as well as Corky. She has been in a relationship with Caesar for 5 years. She considers it her job, she is actually a lesbian but she is dependent on his money and stability. She wants to be free from the mob, and her plan to steal the money is her ticket out. In the end Caesar is the only thing standing between her freedom with Corky. Caesar doesn't believe that Violet will kill him. She proves him wrong and shoots him dead.

Caesar's character is bound by his connections with the mob, as well as his pride. When he finds out the money had been stolen he doesn't want to run because he knows the mob will think he stole the money. He would rather kill the mob, then be blamed for stealing the money.

This theme of being trapped is also portrayed by the fact that the majority of the scenes take place in Violet/Caesar's apartment, Corky's apartment or the apartment Corky is renovating. This gives the film a claustrophobic feeling, and adds to the theme of being bound.

Posted by conlo027 at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In Bound, the multiple ways in which the characters are bound to one another and their situations reflect many of the ways in which society is bound by conventional, patriarchal thought. The men in the film, foremost Caesar, are not only bound into their pecking order of mobster roles (respect is paid to Johnnie even though he’s done nothing to deserve it), but also by their prejudices about gender. What they think they know about a woman’s “nature� they believe in so fervently that it ultimately costs them lives and $2.2 million. As Nobel’s article points out, Caesar so emphatically refuses to believe that he was wrong about Violet that he “stakes his life on� it and loses. In their steadfast allegiance to patriarchy the men cannot accept that Violet would be capable of conceiving of or pulling off the crime. Ironically, when Caesar says to Corky that her “kind can’t be trusted,� the truth is that his belief system can’t be trusted.

Caesar has bound himself to a tenuous and faulty ideology that only recognizes women as objects to be possessed and dominated. His objectification of Violet has in turn put her in a place where she had, up to this point, allowed herself to languish unfulfilled. She said she’d always known what she was, and that being with men was just “work.� In the scene where she tells Corky that she had always just been able to disconnect from it, she demonstrates how the binds of conventional, patriarchal thought had her trapped. Her resolution to break free from Caesar not only symbolizes her escape from him physically, but also of her departure from living the lie of a life that she has despises. In these ways I think that Bound was successful in exposing and unraveling the binds of the dominant, patriarchal mindset which most often goes unquestioned in mainstream film.

Posted by kafka at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think that Corky, Violet, and Cesar are all bound because of certain issues that affect them from their past and even the present. Corky is considered this type of macho personality perhaps because of the time she spent in jail. Violet is trapped in her life because of her connection with Cesar and the mob. I think she stays with Cesar only because of the money that she can gain. When she should have been with someone she could be happy with, when she finally does find that person, Corky, she has to go through all these struggles just to get away safely. Violet needs to basically fool the mob in order to get away and live her life with Corky. Cesar is the main speed bump in her plan. He is so far involved with the mob that every move he makes they know about. When he loses the money he takes down everyone in his path in order to get it back, including Violet who he supposedly loved. When Corky and Violet are in the truck at the end of the movie I think that can symbolize their freedom. They no longer need to worry about their past, Corky’s past jail time, and Violet’s past with Cesar and the mob. The scene with them at the end is like they are starting a whole new life together.

Posted by jcareykc at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the film Bound, the title can be viewed in one way as the bounding of a heterosexual male by his own castration complex. Violet’s male lover, Caesar, is a bound by the idea that if he runs away from the mob he will inevitably be castrated of his power and his dignity. This is in comparison to Violet and Corky’s sense of freedom in which they plan to rob the mobsters and run away. They are not afraid of the mob coming after them and are not afraid of the heterosexual male power that the mob exudes. Caesar is bound by this castration complex and devises a plan to not lose his power by proving that it was the mobster’s own son who has betrayed him. In Brandon Goes to Hollywood, Rigney describes the fear women rejecting femininity and blurring the lines between male and female, which describes corky. She then goes on to compare this to men beginning to lose their masculinity and now instead of being seen as powerful they are seen as sinful and unclean. Caesar is afraid of this and he tries to literally bound Corky from her power that she now possesses by blurring these lines between the genders. He never thought that she may have been the one who stole the money and framed him but now that he has figured it out he feels castrated of his power as a man because it was a woman who outsmarted him. Although Corky is the one who is bound literally by ropes, it is Caesar who is bound by his phallocentrism. To be castrated by a woman he thinks is worse than being castrated by the mob.

Posted by Faith Kolstad at 9:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the film Bound, the title can be viewed in one way as the bounding of a heterosexual male by his own castration complex. Violet’s male lover, Caesar, is a bound by the idea that if he runs away from the mob he will inevitably be castrated of his power and his dignity. This is in comparison to Violet and Corky’s sense of freedom in which they plan to rob the mobsters and run away. They are not afraid of the mob coming after them and are not afraid of the heterosexual male power that the mob exudes. Caesar is bound by this castration complex and devises a plan to not lose his power by proving that it was the mobster’s own son who has betrayed him. In Brandon Goes to Hollywood, Rigney describes the fear women rejecting femininity and blurring the lines between male and female, which describes corky. She then goes on to compare this to men beginning to lose their masculinity and now instead of being seen as powerful they are seen as sinful and unclean. Caesar is afraid of this and he tries to literally bound Corky from her power that she now possesses by blurring these lines between the genders. He never thought that she may have been the one who stole the money and framed him but now that he has figured it out he feels castrated of his power as a man because it was a woman who outsmarted him. Although Corky is the one who is bound literally by ropes, it is Caesar who is bound by his phallocentrism. To be castrated by a woman he thinks is worse than being castrated by the mob.

Posted by Faith Kolstad at 9:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I find that Violet is the character that could be considered the most "bound" in the film. She is bound by Ceaser, the mob, her feminine role, and money. One thing I do not believe she is bound by is her relationship with Corky, which is refreshing in a Hollywood film. Ceaser ties up Violet in a later scene of the movie, but she is bound to him from the beginning. She considers it working, but it is clear that she is not free to just walk out. She makes reference to this several times and says things like, "you don't know Ceaser the way I do". This gives us the notion that Ceaser is a violent man, which we later find out to be true. In connection with her ties to Ceaser, she is also involved with the mob. From watching the Sapranos, we all are aware that this a business which you can not just walk away from. She is also trapped in her feminine role. I call it a role because there are times in the film where she breaks away from her stereotypical appearance. She is merely playing a part, yet she can be considered bound by it in the sense that she has played it for so long that it would be shocking and even dangerous for her to break out of it. She is herself with Corky however, and reveals her true nature to Ceaser later when she shoots him. She even clearly states, "Caesar, you don't know shit". This can be seen as a pivotal moment when she breaks free of all her binds.

Posted by Tina Fey at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Throughout the film Bound, the most interesting binding reference to me was that of Corkey’s character. First, she was bound by her past. She had been taken advantage of and it landed her in jail. There was a moment of rupture involving her trust issues. It was an intimate scene in Corkey’s truck when Violet informed her about her plan to deceive her mob boyfriend. When the two women are discussing the risks in trusting each other Corkey states, “We’re about to find out.� Corkey decided to take a leap and dive into Violet’s plans regardless of the outcome. Violet’s character also had an interesting binding accompanied with numerous ruptures. Visually, she was an innocent, beautiful female that was constantly objectified as a trophy girlfriend. She was bound by her boyfriend, Caeser, and by the mob lifestyle she was involved with. From the start it was apparent that Violet used her appearance to her advantage. She sweet talked, batted her eye lashes and charmed everyone in the room. In the end, Violet did the ultimate rupture and defeated Caeser and an entire mob of men! The actresses were visually

portrayed as butch/femme. I think that because of this, they were bound within their characters. On the contrary, the idea of butch/femme is not as simple. In the November 19th powerpoint, Judith Butler was quoted. She questioned the heterosexual ideas of masculinity and femininity in terms of butch and femme. “…what if they are expropriations that expose the non-necessary status of their assumed meaning (11/19)?� The struggle that arises is how can people categorize lesbians as butch and femme when it is a personal choice of expression and may not have anything to do with masculinity and femininity categorized in heterosexual relationships. The assumptions that Butler refers to are often used, but one must examine further the binding effects of categorization.

Posted by jona0062 at 8:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the film Violet is represented as “bound� to Cesar. There are several examples throughout the film which show her confined to this relationship. When Cesar and his mafioso companions are beating up the man in the bathroom, Violet is instructed by Cesar not to leave the apartment. He tries to make her feel more comfortable about the situation with alcohol, until eventually one of the Mafioso members allows her to leave the scene. Violet’s association with Cesar has lead to her a life in mafia. Later on in the film, after Cesar realizes the money is missing, he once again does not allow Violet to leave the apartment. Cesar uses is gun as a threat. Violet is shown sitting in the tense living room, and the camera angle of this scene originally comes out from the gun. The gun is of course, conveniently pointed at Violet. Towards the end of the film, after Cesar knows that Corky and Violet took the money, Violet is shown litterally bound with rope at the hands. Throughout the film Violet is attempting to break free from her tricky relationship with Cesar. With Corky as motivation, Violet is eventually able to escape from Cesar’s controlling “mafioso power�.

Posted by kerli006 at 8:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The theme of confinement appears many times within the film "Bound". It first occurs within the opening sequence, with Corky seen bound and gagged on the floor of Violet's closet. We can see later, too, how Violet is still bound in her own closet, so to speak, by her invisibility as a lesbian because of her ultra-feminine appearance and mannerisms. Caesar is bound to the mafia, and his actions in the scenes of his killing the don, his son and one of his henchmen and his ensuing flight all highlight this, how he has no way out other than murder. Violet and Corky are bound together through their affection and attatchment to each other. We see this when both women remain and defend the other when their scheme is revealed, and are thus pursued by Caesar. Once their plan is put into motion, Violet and Corky are again bound, this time to their plan. They cannot turn back and undo what they have already started.
Moments of release are also depicted, such as in the scene where Corky is taken out of Violet's closet by Caesar. The scene where Violet tells Caesar that he doesn't "know shit" and then shoots him multiple times gives her an outlet of expressing her true desires to him and her rejection of him. Violet also finds freedom at the end of the film, when she and Corky are finally free of the mafia and are out together as queer women.

Posted by Ms. Chevious at 2:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The film Bound uses the identities and relationships of butch and femme to highlight a certain fallacy about what is often perceived as their dichotomous nature. The film focuses constantly on the dualism of the central women in a series of ways to point to subtle differences and similarities that allow the reading of these identities to be broken down. From close up on coffee cups (one straight black and one with cream) to the very stylized shot of Corky and Violet when Corky says “we're about to find out ]� (if Violet's going to screw her over with Caesar) in which their faces look symmetrical- lined up to mirror one another, to their connection over the wall, to the final line of the film where Corky asks “You know what the difference is between us, Violet?... Me neither.� The film constantly builds up and breaks down the ways in which these two characters are bound to their perceived notions of each identity. Both from the position of the characters perception and also as the audience we follow an almost linear introduction to the characters and then breakdown of their initial positions. Consider the most obvious example of this in the exchange that draws on several elements of identity, confusion, and difference:

CORKY: I know! You can't understand, because we're different, Violet. We're different.�
VIOLET: We're not that different, Corky.
CORKY :Let me guess. This is where you tell me that what matters is on the inside. That inside you, there is a little dyke just like me?
VIOLET: Oh no, she's nothing like you. She's a lot smarter than you.
CORKY: Is that what her daddy tells her?
VIOLET: I know what I am. I don't need to have it tattooed on my shoulder.

The films strength lies in it's complication of these identities without denying their existence and the comfort in which the film explores the tensions and manifestations of such identities in the two characters. Within the first five minutes of the films we are shown how each character is bound to their perceived identity. We gain in the first few scenes three realms of insight into the ways their identities conforms to notions to that of butch and femme. Corky is sexually shown as the pursuer, employing the gaze onto Violet as she walks from the elevator. Her physical body is marked with tattoos and attire (leather jacket, white tank top, boots) all suggesting her identity as butch and lastly and importantly for setting up the similar indicators of Violet- she is shown to make a living though the physical labor of being a so-called “handy-man�.
Violet conversely is shown as the coy seductress, dressed appropriately in a short mini-skirt and suggestive top, making sexually explicit references to her father's hands (who also fixed things in the mode of Corky signifying again the somewhat masculine attribution to the work), and shown to make a living off of her feminine abilities of being good at sex.
Nobel's pieces takes up this argument specifically tracing how Violet takes on the role of sexual initiator, Violets active participation in the movement of the plot, and in the last scene as it is Violet who saves Corky and herself. Similar Corky is shown in the converse positions of Violet's dominance.

Posted by Sofia at 1:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well the most obvious meaning to "Bound" is when we see Corky tied up. She is physically tied up and and beat up. But there is a network of knots deeper than just the physical knots. Corky is trying to find a new direction with her life. She was in prison, someone she trusted stabbed her in the back, and now she is trying to move on with her life and seems to be stuck. Violet doesn't appreciate her relationship and is stuck in a difficult position in the middle of underground violence. On top of that, they both in the closet and wanting someone they can truly trust. Corky and Violet together are able to unbind some of their troubles if they know they can trust each other. First they have found someone they can be sexual with. The sex scene allows them to break free. With the money they are both able to break loose and test new waters. Violet ends up shooting her boyfriend. Corky gets to put her plan into action and finds someone who she can trust in her missions. This really brings her closure since she was back stabbed earlier in her life. There are a lot of mutual benefits between Corky and Violet.

Posted by leex2356 at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The concept of being bound is addressed in this film both literally and figuratively. In the beginning, both Violet and Corky are very much bound to their pasts. Violet in particular asserts that she has made a choice to live the way she does, saying “you make your choices, you pay your prices.� She seems to feel that she has chosen her life with Caesar and can’t change it.

Corky is also bound to her criminal past- it is mentioned several times. Both women start out bound to their ideas about their own and eachother’s sexual identities- Corky maintains for most of the film that her and Violet are “different,� although Violet insists they aren’t. In the end Corky breaks free of this thinking and realizes they aren’t as different as she thought. (“Know what the difference is between you and I? Me neither.�) In terms of the plot, all the characters seem to be trapped by their previous actions and there is a mounting sense that they are being closed in on. For Caesar, this is his ties to the mafia which drive him to do anything to avoid being found out. For Corky and Violet, the moment they enact their plan there is no going back and they have no choice but to go forward despite so many things going wrong. Finally, I noticed literal confinement in many scenes of the film with Corky and Violet- in a booth, in a car, and being unable to leave their respective apartments.

Posted by happyfeet at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the film, the most obvious binding situation is Violet to her boyfriend Caesar. She even compares her five year relationship with him to Corky’s five years spent in jail. Violet feels as if she is bound by him, bound to her work as she refers to it. She knows secrets of his mob and getting out will not be very easy without being looked at suspiciously. When she tries to leave Caesar after he kills Johnny and Gino Marzzone, he will not let her go. He tells her that she must go with him. Also, because Caesar is such a dangerous man, she cannot simply just tell him that she is leaving him for someone else. He would kill Corky and probably force Violet to stay with him.
Caesar is also bound by the men in his mob. He knows he will die if he turns his back on or disrespects the mobsters. He is not able to simply get out if he wants to. When he loses the money he knows that he will die for it, even though he didn’t really take it. He is trapped in this life of crime and in the mob.
Another way the characters seem bound is Corky to her butch identity and Violet by her femme

identity. They are represented so extremely that it seems neither of them can break away from these identities. Violet always wears dresses and heels, and there is a lot of emphasis on her made-up face. She even has to put makeup on before she is ready to fight Caesar. Corky is very butch. She wears work pants, boots, and a leather jacket. She has a dirty job and is represented very ruggedly. She seems bound by this identity by the camera in that every time she is shown by herself she is doing some dirty job. There is really no look into her personal life to see who she really is.

Posted by Jolene Lewis at 10:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I would say the series of scenes at the end of the film when Violet and Corky are trying to steal the money has several examples of them being bound. First of all they are bound by the apartment they are trying to get out of with the money. It is very difficult for them to leave because there are not many ways for them to escape. Another way that they are bound is to each other. If they want to escape with the money than they must follow the rules that they set for themselves or else they will not be able to make it out. In this instance they are both bound physically by each other but also by the pact that they have with one another and the trust that they have in each other. Other instances in this scene where the two women are bound is with Violets male partner. Here they are bound by his male dominance and also simply by him physically holding the women back from getting away with what the money. Finally, everyone in the film is bound by the Mob guys and the money. In this particular scene everyone is bound by their law and what they want, the money. If it was not for them wanting the money than the scene would be a lot less complicated and the characters would not be bound by by all the different events going on in this series of events.

Posted by bergm154 at 10:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This film opens with Corky literally bound in a closet. As it progresses, however, she and Violet lose their physical, as well as metaphorical bindings.

Corky and Violet are both metaphorically bound at the beginning by their respective butch/femme identities. Corky wears the pants, boots, and male underwear while Violet wears the make-up, dresses, and stockings. However, as Kessler points out, while the two “are aesthetically constructed in traditional butch and femme roles, their characters reflect cultural changes� (18). They do not remain bound by the stereotypes of the butch/femme identities. Violet may act more “female,� but she is the sexual aggressor, the typically “male� trait while Corky is more submissive.

In the beginning of the film, the two discuss how different they are. At the end, though, they realize how similar they are when Corky asks, “You know what the difference between us is?�, Violet shakes her head, and Corky replies, “Me neither.� By this point, they have both broken free of their physical and metaphorical bounds. They are no longer being held hostage by Caesar. Violet no longer has to pretend to be the loving, supportive, submissive girlfriend of a mafia member. They are both free to live their lives how they want to live them without having to cater to any of society’s rules. As Noble says, “Bound stages a struggle over hegemonic interpretations of female sexual iconography.� It is the story not only of two women’s struggle against the mafia but also queer society’s struggle against present-day conventions.

Posted by Katie Green at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

“The Wachowski brothers say that the film “Bound� is about "the boxes people make of their lives", that it is not only gay people who "live in closets". They wanted to define all of Bound's characters by the ‘sort of trap that they were making out of their lives’�(Wikepedia). Violet’s character is portrayed as trapped in her life with Caesar. She is never happy or able to fully express who she is. In addition, in the first scene, Corky is laying inside Violet's closet, bound and restrained by Caesar. “This scene is echoed later in the film when Violet says ‘I had this image of you inside of me...’�(Wikepedia). This theme of being “bound� is also made clear by the fact that the majority of the film takes place in Violet and Caesar's apartment, Corky’s aparment or the apartment next door where Corky is doing work. The camera rarely leaving the apartment complex shows how all of the characters are trapped in their lives.

They are bound to the specific identities that they have made for themselves. When Corky and Violet escape at the end of the film they are outside in the real world. Corky is sitting in her car waiting for Violet saying how she thought they needed an escape vehicle. Once they took off in the car it was there own kind of personal release. They were now finally allowed freedom to be who they are and express the feelings they have for each other. This freedom was especially clear in Violet’s character. She was released from Caesar, and no longer bound to him and her old life.

Posted by sulli396 at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I feel like in many ways the relationship between Violet and Corky did “reinscribe gender roles that allowed for the continuation of patriarchy (power-point), but in the end, it was Violet who killed Cesar. The visual images do the work of establishing both gender and gender difference (Noble, 3), but the characters are subversive because in taking on the “butch� or “femme� role, they are displaying that gender is a performance, as Judith Butler argues in her works.. Throughout the film we see how Corkie adopts a masculine identity. The articles discuss her leatherjacket, boots, tattoos, etc., but she also takes on a masculine identity with her attitude. She often makes statements that one would think of a heterosexual, macho man saying: “stealing is a lot like sex� or “I can fuck someone I just met,� but in the end, I think that we are supposed to view the two characters as equal: “you know what the difference between you and me is Violet…me either� (Bound). Even though Violet acts like the helpless girl who needs Corkie to take her away and help her start a new life, she also uses her femininity and appearance

of vulnerability to her advantage. We see how Violet is bound to her apartment, the mafia and Cesar. Corkie and Violet are also bound to each other. The ways that the camera angles are always in an aerial or panoramic view also give the sense of a “bound,� and enclosed space. I also noticed that the same colors were used throughout the film: red, green, black, white, gray and brown, and also the film was quite dark with lots of shadows of the faces, especially on Corkie and Violet. Perhaps this is symbolic of their being bound to the apartment building and also hiding their relationships and sexuality.

Posted by Alias at 9:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The title Bound is obviously a good title for the movie because there is constant reference of being bound by person, place, or thing. When Violet jumps in Corky’s car and they have sex, after words Violet states that she needed that. Obviously Violet could have received that from any girl had she not been in a relationship with Ceaser, which literally shows that she is bound by him. Also, Violet is bound by Shelley because he witnessed Violet in a bar with another woman; to keep Shelley quiet; Violet does her “work� to him. Also, Corky is bound by ropes in the opening scene in a closet from the choices that she makes by not giving up on Violet even though they hardly know each other but because of this, figuratively, it shows that they love each other because that’s what they needed. Jean Noble also suggests that it is metaphorically fighting/bound to come out of the closet as a “femme quest�. Ceaser also finds himself bound to the mob and pure loyalty to them, explains his reactions for why he goes “insane� when he finds out that supposedly Johnny was trying to frame him. He tried to unbind himself from

that loyalty and run away but he cannot. Therefore, he tries to prove his loyalty by going on a mass murder to those he was trying to stay loyal to, confiding him to the mob.

Posted by week0065 at 9:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don’t think that scene was feminist, it showed that there can be a sexual relationship between persons- that is not necessarily men and woman. However what was most surprising was how intimate the scene was, it was not vulgar, it was romantic. I think that if the scene was pornographic or trashy, that it could be feminist because it would represent woman in a bad light, but it shows that there can be a bond between women that is just as significant as a bond between a man and a woman. Also as one of the articles stated is that it is stereotypical in that the roles change when Violet, the femme, is the sexual aggressor. It is Violet who initiates the action even though Corky, the butch, is the physically stronger and sexual aggressor. This shows a culture change, tying them to modern lesbian culture. The characters are clearly represented as Corky being the butch and Violet being the femme which is significant in that in shows that stereotypically Corky would be the “man� and Violet being the “woman�. But as stated before the roles switch when it comes to the sexual act, and for that

reason, I think that’s why the movie was applauded because it contradicts the stereotypical men and woman scene by introducing a modern lesbian community. Masculinity is depicted, from the article by Kessler, when Violet asks Corky what she wants to drink and she responds “BEER,� Violet then replies with “OF COURSE�. This can be depicted at masculinity in that a beer is to be considered a man drink; which also shows that the movie does have a stereotypical atmosphere. I think that in the scene if they traded places it would be different because it would give more of a man and woman relationship but it shows significance because the butch is getting pleased by the femme, again showing modern lesbian community.

Posted by week0065 at 9:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the film Bound the audience hears over and over about being bound by the choices that the main characters have made in the past. For Corky she choose to steal and she got caught and had to go to jail for it. Violet choose to be in a bad relationship with a man who was in a money launderer. The metaphor of being bound is brought up a lot and see actually see Corky bound in the beginning of the movie again bringing up the point that we are bound by the choices we make through out life. The main characters are bound by femme and butch identities. Corky is bound to play this so called manly man and Violet is bound to play this very grily character. They are bound by these identities because if they were to switch the way they dressed half way through the film they characters wouldn't have this same effect because Corky is supposedly suppose to be this "man" and Violet is suppose to be the "women." Everything needs to be in black and white and if anything gets too close to being gray people freak out because they are not sure how to handle things that go against norms.

Posted by breme071 at 7:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The movie bound, though about the relationship of two homosexual women, is framed by heterosexuality. Both the gaze and the audience it seems, are playing to and appear to be dominantly heteronormative, and male. Violet also reflects this constriction to heterosexuality perhaps echoing the lesbian communities distaste with most portrayals of them through film. Violet is bound by the idea of her sexuality and while she can at times use it for her own personal advantage, it is usually the tool of the men and the sexualization/objectification of her and other females.

She is bound to prostitution both by its economic “benefits� and by this sexualization. She mentions to Corky in the bar (while Shelly is being mutilated) that she wants to get out, both of the crime and of the relationships that she has been forced to create through selling herself. She finds release from this heteropatriarchal violence and sexual slavery through both the destruction of Ceasar and the escape with Corky at the end.
Corky too I think is framed in a very heterosexually acceptable way. As the�butch� in the film she still is a very stereotypically attractive female, and is made butch by wearing a leather jacket and being good with her hands. She is supposed to fit a “masculine� stereotype as the “male� in the relationship but still appear nonthreatening/noncastrating to the hetero male audience.
Personaly I think that Violet is far more subversive to the heteronorm, as she is able to utilize her binding in the frame of hyper sexual, demure, “feminine� and ultimately unsuspecting and unsuspectable, to her advantage, in manipulating the situation to inevitably allow her freedom.

Posted by spiek010 at 5:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As the title of the film suggests, there are many moments and specific scenes where the characters are trapped or bound by other characters or various elements. They are bound by the choices they make, as Violet’s character repeats, “We make our own choices, we pay our own prices�. The opening scene of the film shows Corky literally bound by her hands and feet and gagged in Violet’s closet. She would not have been in that position if she hadn’t chosen to stay bound to Violet’s side even though they hardly know each other. However, Corky and Violet refuse to “give up on� each other throughout the film. Moreover, Jean Noble suggests in her essay Bound and Invested: Lesbian Desire and Hollywood Ethnography, “the opening scene visually, discursively, and metaphorically, stages the performative act of ‘coming out of the closet’, or at least, establishes the desire to come out as Bound’s subtextual femme quest narrative�. Violet’s voice is repeated pleading, “I want out�. Violet and Cesare along with other members of the mob are bound to the relationships and supposed loyalty between them. Violet expresses her desire to leave Cesare and get out, but doesn’t have the will power to unbind herself from that lifestyle. Cesare provides and protects her, and as much as she wants out, she refuses to give that up.

Corky and Violet are also bound by the boundaries of lesbian identity. They are marked as butch and femme and while they subvert the stereotypical lesbian sex positions entailed with that identity, they are bound to these identities, which is sometimes an advantage, and sometimes a disadvantage. One example, is when Cesare ties Corky up and called her a dyke, he refuses (or fails to see because of her femme look) to connect Violet with her because she doesn’t look like Corky (butch appeal). This allots Violet the chance to save Corky because she isn’t bound in the closet with her. At the end of the film, Mickey also fails to see (also probably once again due to her femme look) Violet’s true personality and intentions. He is bound by his desire for her that he is blind sighted about the money scheme. He never thinks it could have been Violet or that she had anything to do with either because she is a woman or because he is bound by his homosocial bond to Cesar and therefore wouldn’t dare to think Violet would have bad intentions.

Posted by savor004 at 5:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The idea of being trapped within manifests itself from the very title of the film, Bound, down to the inner identities of the main characters. In this sense, binding encompasses not only the physical entities of a person, but also their inner selves. It is this means of absolute control that the two main characters, Violet and Corky, strive to overthrow. As women in a patriarchal society, they are predisposed to the strictures that male phallocentrism binds them to. Violet remains at the whims of Caesar and his other mob associates. Corky is bound by the institution (prison, and a record of theft); this is made immediately apparent by the black and white bars which fade in and out at the beginning of the film and then a quick cut to Corky. Their lack of freedom only increases with the potential of the realization of their sexuality. Violet cannot fully admit that she is lesbian to anyone but Corky, who doesn’t even fully believe her. Corky, when trying to pick up a woman at the bar, has her criminal past brought in to prevent her.

Yet, even in these bound states, they find ways to unravel the grips of power. As lesbians, they pose a threat to male power; this threat induces male panic. When Caesar realizes Violet is a lesbian he enters into male paranoia and tries to out do them. This ultimately leads to his death. As the camera angle hints, Violet finally has reversed roles and has complete power over Caesar as she stands over him. Moreover, by refusing to adhere to the typical butch and femme roles (as shown in the sex scene when Violet clearly initiates and controls the sex) associated with lesbians, they restructure the very nature of binding through societal roles. By the end of the film, their subversion of the roles given to them by the institution and society allows for their success. Moreover, it is because they once inhabited these roles that they are free. The mob will never come after them because of the embarrassment of a woman beating out a man. And finally, after their success in the heist, Corky acknowledges that Violet is like her (one can sense an underlying similarity not only in their sexuality, but in their new claim to inner freedom of self).

Posted by lenth006 at 5:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Besides being the title of the film itself, the term "Bound" applies to the film in more ways than one. While characters become physically bound and unbound throughout the film, there are other ways in which bonds are made and broken, especially in regards to gender and sexuality. In many ways, the character of Corky represents what many would think of as a "typical lesbian". While obviously this is flawed, since there can be no "typical" person as people are more complicated than the labels applied to them, in many ways she is bound by this association. She is visibly different from heterosexual norms for women; she cannot "pass" the way Violet has and continues to throughout the film as heterosexual. She is bound by the constrictions this may bring her - like the comments made by Caesar at the end of the film - but in a way she is also breaking bonds. She is not forced to pretend she is straight, as it seems Violet has been and continues to be until the very end of the film. She has taken

the bonds of what a conservative society has told her is "right" and "normal" and broken them, and is a constant visual reminder of those broken bonds. This is why men are seemingly intimidated by her; she represents something that they have no control over, and can never hope to control sexually, and she reminds them that there are other women out there over whom they have no control.
This does not mean that Violet is any less of a threat to men, however. In fact, she can be seen as more of a threat in that she is able to more fully conform to heterosexual ideals for women. In this way men would see her as a sort of "hidden monster". In the scene at the end of the film, when Caesar confronts Violet and Corky about their relationship, he shows his own male paranoia, but also continues to believe that he "knows" Violet, when it should be clear to him that he does not. This may be a fear for all heterosexual men - that the women they think they know and therefore control are actually beyond their locus of control altogether.

Posted by seitz057 at 5:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am going to first explain the many ways that Violet was bound by both physical and metaphorical confinement. Violet said, “I want out.� She said this because she felt bound to multiple aspects of her life. Her life was a lie; she was in a heterosexual relationship with Caesar, but she knew that she was a lesbian. She was also having sex with other men for money throughout the film, even after she met Corky because she was a gold-digger and felt bound to the material objects that this lifestyle brought. Throughout the film Violet was sexually objectified by Caesar and other members of the mob. Corky questioned Violet’s sexuality and Violet said, “They know what I am.� In regards to Violet’s relationship with Corky, Violet was bound as the “femme� lesbian.

Corky was also bound by many factors. She was bound to the confinement of prison she had served five years and even after her release her criminal history followed her. There is a scene in Bound where Corky goes into a lesbian bar and the bartender ask Corky if she has a “real job� yet belittling Corky’s job as a maintenance worker. After the insult Corky moves to a table where another woman is seated in attempts to pick her up, but a lesbian police officer ruins that. The officer says to Corky, “I didn’t know you were out.� Corky is also bound to a “dead end� job because she is an ex-con there are not many job options for her. Corky was also the “butch� lesbian.

Posted by thoughts at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Most, if not all of the characters are “bound� within this movie. Violet is bound to most of the characters. Obviously she becomes very bound to Corky as they become sexually intimate and progress there escape. Violet is also bound to Caesar because of how long they have been together and all that she has become because of him. Violet is weirdly bound to Caesars associates as she pleasures them and is looked after by them. Corky and Violet escape from their lives through each other. Their appearances give Corky the role of the butch and Violet of the femme but that contradicts itself when Violet takes control of their sex life. Although, they look the part there is not one butch and one femme, they both play the parts. Violet pretends to be a dumb woman so she gets what she wants with no worry. While Corky (even though she is very strong) acts like she is the more dominant one, when she really isn’t most of the time. She lets Violet know that she is not dumb and that she knows women very well. During their sex scene Violet plays the butch role by satisfying her and having her under her will. Although, there is never a clear dominant role within the movie. This turns into a spiral effect for Violet and keeps going on into the crime scene.

When Caesar finds out about Violet and Corky he rushes into male paranoia. He acts like a tough guy and tries to outdo them and get his money back but when he is tricked by Violet he knows that he has been played the whole time. Violet eliminates his male dominance by killing him when he thinks she would never do such a thing. When she shoots Caesar she is standing up over him on a chair and then on the floor. She is above him and looking down. I think that that was a good choice of camera angles showing the viewer who the winner is. In the beginning of the movie Corky told Violet that they are different people. Violet seemed to disagree and proved her wrong. They are know they same people.

Posted by lemme021 at 5:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When it comes to its title, there are two things that came to mind after watching Bound and discussing it with the class. These women are bound by two things, their lifestyles, and audiences. There are plenty of examples where these women are literally being bound whether they are tied up or being strangled. It is the metaphorical confinement that had the most powerful hold on my mind.

When I say these women are bound by their lifestyles, I am saying that no matter what they say or do, their lifestyles trump their actions and words. Violet is our "femme" character. She is sexy, sultry, and every straight man's fantasy. She uses her body to her advantage, and she always gets what she wants. The problem is her boyfriend and the rest of his mob friends don't respect her. He treats her like a trophy wife and allows other men to hit on her without a care in the world. They all look at her as a sexy, but "nice girl". Because she has chosen to use her body like she has, she has wound up as the object of every mans affection, but she also has wound up in the mob world. She wants out but if anyone has seen or read anything on the mob, getting out isn't as easy as just walking out of the door. For Corky, she is our "butch" character. She is a tough looking, hard drinking woman, who takes shit from no one. Hardworking and considered trustworthy, Corky is able to land a job after she gets out of prison. Like Violet, she gets connected to the mob. With these two women, their choices to use what they are good at to get where they want to go led them right into a dead end, the mob. To get out, they must betray everything. That is the only way they can be set free.

For a little bit of a deeper metaphor, I really do think that even though these woman succeed and set themselves free from the mob, audiences have a certain control over them. After class we discussed how Corky and Violet lifestyles as both a "butch" and "femme" controlled what we thought about them. Many in the class were quick to pull the heteronormative claim, saying that it was obvious who the husband and who the wife were. A lot of people in class couldn't just look at them at as a couple without thinking that. These characters were still tied to the views of the heterosexual relationship and even though they were free in the film, many in the class still held them down. I don't think that either character represented any of these. They were two queer women who were attracted to each other, and at no point was there a case made for who was the dominate one. The sex scenes show that each "fuck" each other and allow one another to take that power dominate role. They are both equals and it is unfortunate that just because we see a "butch" lesbian, many will think immediately that they are the husband of the relationship when heteronormative terms like that don't matter at all.

Posted by keilh004 at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

These women in the beginning of Bound are very different from where they end up in the end of the film. These changes are consistent to the concept of being bound. The story begins with Violet being bound to a boyfriend and his work within the mafia. Here her gender is the source of her confines. As a woman she is unable to make decisions-as is the case in the scene where a man is being brutally beaten in her bathroom, yet she can’t leave without first getting permission. She is also bound to her heterosexual performance, although some people know that she is a lesbian, she can’t fully come out because of her relationship to Caesar. Heterosexuality and Caesar’s male panic create Violet’s bindings. We see the angry reaction in the end that Violet had always anticipated were Caesar to find out Violet’s true sexuality.

We also see the limitations that Butch/Femme persona place on Corky and Violet when they are planning the heist. We definitely she the butch, dominating role compared to the Femme, passive role. Corky makes the plan while Violet goes along with it.

In the end of the movie we see these women break free of the bindings of the above examples. While their identities don’t actually change they have learned to utilize their characteristics (gender, sexuality, Butch/Femme persona) to win the battle. These identities that once bound them are now the reason they are free.

Posted by luco0005 at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In Bound, each character was ruled and limited by one main element, whether metaphorical or concrete. In terms of the blog question, it made sense to me to explore the ways the two main characters are bound and how the confinement of individuals intertwined to bind the whole cast. In the title credits the imagery of black and white bars and then a cut to corky hints at what binds her primarily throughout the film: the law. he majority of the characters in Bound act independently from the law (excluding the characters from the girl bar scene). Corky, on the other hand, has been to prison and is ever aware that the authorities are on to her (again as in the girl bar scene). We see that Corky has picked up a legal form of employment (renovations), and that she is trying to stay out of trouble. However, her new relationship with Violet ( and with organized crime) effectively cuts away the law's repression of Corky's thieving ways. In Violet's case, in the first several scenes we find that she is bound (for whatever reason) to Ceasar and organized crime.

It could be that Violet is bound by these two relationships, but I've found Ceasar and organized crime to actually be more of a freeing aspect in her life. Ceasar and the mob bosses constantly underestimate her because she is not a man and her own gender does not posses the entitlement (or phallus) to jeopoardize men, and their assumption that she is heterosexual. So, she is able to dupe them and gain agency. Ceasar and the mob aren't completely freeing though: violet can only fool them within the bounds of the two relationships. Her true freedom is exhibited at the end of the film once she has cut herself from the two entities (permanently I assume). However, I think Violet's primary form of being bound is by Corky's perception of Violet's "femme-ness", and her wish to be recognized by Corky as queer and therefore alike. In several scenes throughout the film we are reminded that Corky doesn't trust that Violet is actually queer, because of her outward appearance as "femme". Violet continually tries to tell/prove to Corky that they are alike despite the pair's skin deep differences. It isn't until the duo gets away with their big time heist that finally at the end they agree they are alike. For me the end scene represents both of their release' from being bound. Corky has no practically no possibility of being chased by the cops because the mob doesn't do business that way. Violet has literally no chance of being followed by the mob or ceasar, because the mob boss is bound by his own twisted view of gender that a man can never be outdone by a man, and of course ceasar is dead. And then finally Corky affirms Violet's queerness, so Violet's sexuality is no longer pigeon holed as heterosexual because of stereotypes of "femme-ness".

Posted by CrazyOldMaurice at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)