gender: "Consumption"


Subject: gender: "Consumption"
sverhoef@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
Date: Thu Oct 21 1999 - 17:32:39 CDT


Yeah, I had some weird problems with this film. I wasn't sure with the
business-as-usual ending ("Drive careful . . ." -- What the
fuck?!?!?!?), I wasn't sure if the character that got raped wasn't
supposed to have remembered what happened, or if she was used to that
sort of treatment, or if she was too embarrassed to do anything but
disappear? I've decided against the black out theory, because I think
the filmmaker would have shown us the "knock out drops sequence."
I think they developed the idea of an aesthetic or mindset of women as
consumables pretty well.
I thought the containment of the notion of miscegenation was
remarkable--gangbanging is okay, but don't go mixing those colors, don't
threaten the white man's privilege!
I also wonder if the actors in this film ever contemplated this footage
showing up unexpectedly at some point in the future and what sort of
effect it might have on their professional or personal lives. We've
talked about data stream to some extent constituting identity, and this
is some pretty wide bandwidth shit--tough to debunk if you needed to.
Finally, I've got to offer an alternative story, 'cause fuck that
victimization shit. This wad I knew in Chicago tried to rape me once.
After sustaining some fairly visual injuries trying to fight the guy
off, I started talking to him. I told him to kill me. I told him to
kill me now, because he was going to have to kill me at some point, or
else he was going to prison. That stopped him. I don't know for how
long, 'cause I flew out of there so fast . . .
Susan



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