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by Jennifer Bedard
Emerson College
Many people in
America view films as a reflection of our society rather than as a constructing
element of it. This is problematic, because in the dominant cinema of
the present many prejudices and inequalities occur. One example of this
is the depiction of women in film. In the dominant cinema, women are often
reduced to objects of sexual desire for the male protagonist. The few
female protagonists there are seem to he only allowed to play "Cinderella"
waiting for the rescue of her "Prince Charming". Some victims of
the "Cinderella complex" include Melanie Griffith in Working Girl,
Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, and Kathleen Turner in Romancing
the Stone. In these films, the female protagonists' only goal is the
successful transformation from either classless whore to a "sexy woman"
(Pretty Woman and Working Girl) or undersexed frump into
a "sexy woman" (Romancing the Stone). A "sexy woman"
could be defined as a young, attractive, smart (but not too smart), slightly
vulnerable female waiting for a heterosexual relationship based on romance,
not on sexual desire.
Upon first viewing Desperately Seeking Susan, it may appear to
he a film about the transformation of a slightly vulnerable, boring suburban
housewife into a "sexy woman". Roberta, played by Roseanna Arquette,
is the female protagonist. She leads a doll life that is mostly controlled
by her selfish, egotistical, and often extremely goofy husband (Gary Glass),
who sells hot tubs and baths. She lives in New Jersey and the most exciting
part of her life is reading the personal ads. The personal ads give Roberta
the connection to Susan, the character played by Madonna. Susan is an
independent, mischievous woman who travels alone. She and her boyfriend,
Jim, send each other messages about where they are or where to meet each
other if they are both in New York. They do this through the personal
ads. Roberta longs to learn more about Susan's lifestyle so she goes to
New York for their next meeting. Through a series of mishaps Roberta gets
knocked on the head and is coaxed into believing she is Susan by Jim's
friend Dez. From
this moment on she not only adopts Susan's style of dress and lifestyle,
but grows more emotionally and sexually independent from the experience.
The film, in many ways, can he categorized as a Cinderella transformation
story. After Roberta has altered her personality and clothes, she ends
op in a sexual relationship with her prince charming, Dez. However, Desperately
Seeking Susan does not strictly adhere to the "Cinderella complex".
Desperately Seeking Susan is not solely about Roberta's transformation
from an undersexed frump into a "sexy woman". The film actually takes
on a slightly feminist stance. I argue that the main focus in the film
is Roberta's search for a female role model who will provide her with
an alternative definition from her own of what it means to be a woman.
In Susan, Roberta finds a woman who is powerful. Susan is in control of
her relationships, her lifestyle and her sexuality. Roberta's desire for
a female role model is stronger than her desire for Dez. In fact, by exploring
the underdevelopment of the male characters, the lack of the male gaze,
and the film's effective use of mise-en-scene, I will demonstrate that
the film succeeds in empowering Roberta with the feminist attitude that
is initially portrayed through Susan. Roberta is transformed into a highly
independent woman rather than the "sexy" object of masculine desire
that a surface reading
tends to suggest.
The male characters in Desperately Seeking Susan are reduced to
types characterized mainly by their jobs. There are two types of
males in this film: Gary and Larry (notice the similarity in the names)
and Jim and Dez. Gary and Larry are part of Roberta's suburban life and
are highly defined by their careers. At Roberta's birthday party, Roberta
introduces Larry to us as Larry Stitlman, Dr. Stillman, Gary's dentist.
Gary's entrance is marked by an abrupt interruption of the party scene;
our focus suddenly turns to the TV (with the aid of Gary) for a
preview of Gary's Oasis hot tub commercial. An immediate identification
of the two men with their careers is set up. Throughout the rest of the
film, we relate to Gary and Larry solely through their identification
with their jobs.
Jim and Dez are part of Susan's New York lifestyle. They both have careers
in the arts. As opposed to Gary and Larry, they are the kind of men with
jobs that are fun and romantic, if not lucrative. Our first encounter
with Jim is during his introduction to Susan. In the following scene we
meet Dez, who works as a movie house projectionist, and the parallel between
the two is drawn by their physical resemblance and lack of character depth.
Jim and Dez share a similar build, dark hair, blue eyes and a predominantly
black wardrobe. Their personalities are bland and vacant. The two are
variations of the same generic character-a sharp contrast to the abundance
of semiotic signifiers used to create the characters of Susan and Roberta.
The character of Dez receives more screen time because he becomes Roberta's
love interest; however, his character is not developed further. His role
becomes reduced to how he looks and therefore sexually objectified (much
like the female of most Hollywood productions). This is exemplified in
Dez and Roberta's love scene. After Dez and Roberta have sex, they hear
someone trying to break into Dez's apartment and both get up. Conventionally,
in Hollywood films, when a man and a woman have sex, we are only privileged
to see a woman's breasts or backside during the sex scene. The man usually
ends up with his pants hack on before any flesh is revealed. However,
in Desperately Seeking Susan the opposite happens. We catch a glimpse
of the front of naked Dez, before he throws a towel around himself. Later
we see his whole nude backside when the towel drops. Roberta is never
shown in this scene. In fact, it is through Roberta's viewpoint that we
objectify Dez.
This objectification and identification with Roberta is important and
interesting in that it denies the power of the male gaze. The male gaze
is often used in Hollywood films to align the viewer with the male when
he looks at a woman with sexual desire. It is often used as a means of
subtle objectification. Through the use of the eye-line match, the audience
is positioned as the male viewing the woman as a sexual object. In Desperately
Seeking Susan we are rarely given this opportunity. Atone point in
the film, Roberta runs into a building to hide from a man who was following
her. The security guard of the building looks Roberta up and down with
desire. However, they both remain in the frame together. We watch the
security guard looking at her body as a sexual object; however, we do
not get the classic point-of- view shot, establishing the woman as the
object of the gaze.
The only scene that presents us with the male gaze is used for narrative
purposes. Through a fish tank, we are positioned to watch Roberta undress.
The eyeline match and shot-reverse-shot space editing of this scene sets
the audience up to see Roberta through the male gaze of Dez. However,
the scene is quickly formulated to serve as a metaphor of Roberta's victimization
by equating the goldfish in the tank (being eyed by a cat on the table)
with Roberta (being eyed by both Dez and a mysterious man who has been
following her throughout the plot line).
In Desperately Seeking Susan, the mise-en-scene us used to contribute
to Susan's image as the powerful woman. The distinctions between the character
of Susan and the image of Madonna, herself, are few. The character gets
her strength from the non-diegetic influences of the actress who plays
her, Susan/Madonna became a walking sign system of feminist control. In
one scene, Susan lays on her back on a hotel room bed, thumbing through
Roberta's diary. A cigarette dangles from the corner of her mouth (a masculinized
act). When Gary enters the room, Susan manipulates the camera angle like
she manipulates and controls most facets of her life. In Susan's point
of view, the camera tilts to a 360 degree angle, positioning Gary upside-
down. It becomes important to note Susan's clothes in this scene. She
gets tip from the bed, asks Gary for his car keys and takes one of his
business shirts to wear. Susan is wearing a garter belt, white lace stockings
and boxer shorts. Garter belts can he a sign of being too sexually promiscuous,
hut since Susan wears them
with boxer shorts and a man's shirt, they serve as signifier of her own
control over her sexuality. Like Madonna, Susan aims to blur the ideology
of gender with control (a believed trait of "masculinity") white
maintaining her femininity.
In some parts of Desperately Seeking Susan, the feminist stance
is undercut. For example, at the end of the film Roberta and Dez are together
as are Susan and Jim. True love and conventional Hollywood closure won
out once again. however, I do think that by reducing the male characters
to types, the rarity of the male gaze and using mise-en-scene to contribute
to Susan's image as the powerful woman, the film is able to take the focus
away from the relationship of Roberta and Dez and place the emphasis on
Roberta and Susan's relationship. This relationship becomes more significant
in that it establishes the feminist awakening of Roberta (in this case,
a type of "Every-woman") as a woman who learned to take control of
her destiny without the aid of the handsome Prince Charming.
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