The Problem of Representability: Lesbian Depiction in the Horror Film and Contemporary Art
In: Illuminating the Dark Side: Evil, Women and the FeminineSearch for other papers by Jenny Keane in
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The politics of representing femininity is contingent on a premise of social/cultural patriarchy. The feminine is presented as ‘lack’, as the binary opposite of the masculine - ‘she’ has no image except in relation to the male. Even more pervasive, however, are representations of that which deviate from this prevailing orthodoxy, namely the ‘lesbian.’ How can this femininity that does not assimilate into a masculine-feminine binarism be depicted? The theorist Terry Castle believes that the lesbian in literature and cinema is generally presented as a spectre; she is subtly implied but never acknowledged. Castle writes, ‘the lesbian remains a kind of ‘ghost-effect’ in (…) modern life: elusive, vaporous, difficult to spot - even when she is there, in plain view, mortal and magnificent, at the centre of the screen. Some may deny she exists at all.’ (Castle, The Apparitional Lesbian, 1993). Thus many films, the horror film in particular, epitomise patriarchal and heteronormative ‘ideals’, while inextricably adumbrating and portraying the lesbian character as elusive, horrific, and Other. In this paper I will discuss the mainstream representation of the lesbian in film and my artistic attempt to analyse these images. My visual art practice is based on representations of female sexuality, and the artworks are focused on the word ‘horrific’. Through video installation and performative drawings based on the subversion of horror films, the work explores the self-portrait in an attempt to investigate sexuality, the dichotomy between fear and desire, and connection to the (female) body. Thus, via an analysis of Terry Castle’s concept of the ‘apparitional lesbian’, and other theorists including Rhona Berenstein, and Patricia White, I will present my art practice as an example of a positive representation of the lesbian body. I will show through an analysis of my art practice, alongside the work of other artists, that I attempt appropriations and subversions of the horror genre to challenge the culturally constructed tropes of heteronormativity and explore the issues of female sexuality that have previously been represented as monstrous, dangerous, or evil.