Our May Theme Week for 2014 will be Representations of Female Sexual Desire.
Female sexual desire is one of the most controversial subjects on the face of the planet. Wars are waged to control female sexuality: from The Trojan War with the coveted Helen at its core (depicted throughout the ages from the Greek literature of Homer’s Iliad to Hollywood’s Troy) to Robert’s Rebellion of the ever popular Game of Thrones with the “virtue” of Lyanna Stark at its root. In the documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated, we learn that the graphic violence of Boys Don’t Cry with Brandon’s gang rape, beating, and murder didn’t warrant concern on the part of the MPAA, but its depictions of female sexual desire (a sex scene between Brandon and Lana that focused on Lana’s sexual pleasure) got the film slapped with the dreaded Unrated label.
Why is female sexuality so controversial? Why does it make people (particularly the people who create our media) so uncomfortable?
With desire comes subjectivity, which is powerful and subversive for a woman to experience within the context of patriarchy. Regulation of female reproductive rights and rape culture are two techniques used to deny women sexual agency. Oftentimes, popular depictions of female sexual desire can also serve to invalidate or objectify women (i.e. the controversial rape of Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones or the denial of the existence of lesbianism in Gigli). Frequently, female desire is depicted as being powerful, but out-of-bounds, uncontrollable, and even horrific (Teeth, Ginger Snaps, Jennifer’s Body). On rarer occasions, depictions of female desire can be just as empowering as the desire itself (The Fall, Stoker, Lost Girl).
We invite writers to explore the complex, controversial theme of female sexual desire as depicted in film and TV. Feel free to use the examples below to inspire your writing on this subject, or choose your own source material.
We’d like to avoid as much overlap as possible for this theme, so get your proposals in early if you know which film you’d like to write about. We accept both original pieces and cross-posts, and we respond to queries within a week.
Most of our pieces are between 1,000 and 2,000 words, and include links and images. Please send your piece as a Microsoft Word document to btchflcks[at]gmail[dot]com, including links to all images, and include a 2- to 3-sentence bio.
If you have written for us before, please indicate that in your proposal, and if not, send a writing sample if possible.
Please be familiar with our publication and look over recent and popular posts to get an idea of Bitch Flicks’ style and purpose. We encourage writers to use our search function to see if your topic has been written about before, and link when appropriate (hyperlinks to sources are welcome, as well).
The final due date for these submissions is Friday, May 23 by midnight.
Game of Thrones
Gigli
Teeth
Troy
Bound
Lost Girl
The Fall
Boys Don’t Cry
Mad Men
Stoker
Blue is the Warmest Color
Philomena
Jennifer’s Body
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Thelma & Louise
Ginger Snaps
There can be no discussion of the representation of female sexuality in film without at least mentioning the works of French avant-garde boundary-pushing filmmaker Catherine Breillat. Most notably recommended are “A Real Young Girl” and “Fat Girl”, both of which are dark, clinical examinations of teenage girls’ blossoming sexuality. Like all of Breillat’s films, they contain explicit sex scenes, though all pornographic scenes are performed by adults. “Fat Girl” deserves a trigger warning for a particularly disturbing rape scene at the end involving the titular character, who is thirteen years old. Breillat’s films are uncompromising and definitely not for the faint of heart, but they are a fascinating and rewarding experience.
I totally agree! I plan to write about Breillat for that week. Are you interested in submitting a piece?
Regrettably, I do not currently have any of her films in my possession, though I am interested in revisiting “Fat Girl” and seeing more of her work, particularly her earlier films. However, I look forward to reading your piece. Watching a Catherine Breillat film may not always be a pleasant experience, but it is a consistently challenging one. And if there’s one thing I enjoy, in cinema as in the general discourse of ideas, it’s a good challenge.