Chasing Amy and the Bisexual
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NEWSLETTER OF THE UCLA CENTER FOR THE FEB08 CSW STUDY OF WOMEN THE B WORD CHASING AMY AND BISEXUAL (IN)VISIBILITY IN CINEMA AND MEDIA by Maria San Filippo The way the world is, how seldom it is that you meet that one person who just gets you. It’s so rare. And to cut oneself off from finding that per- son, to immediately half your options.... - Chasing Amy hen asked for a description of my dissertation project, I say that it is about representations of bisexuality Win film. The most popular reply—proffered with considerable regularity by people from diverse areas of my life—has been “You mean like Chas- ing Amy?” This 1997 independent film written and directed by Kevin Smith, about a self-proclaimed lesbian who is forced to question her sexual iden- tity after meeting and falling for a man, clearly Uncomfortable visual pleasure. occupies a prominent place in cultural conscious- Chasing Amy (1997), Kevin Smith, View Askew Productions. All photos courtesy of Miramax Home Entertainment, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, and The Criterion Collection ness around bisexuality. (For better or worse, the 1 THE B WORD, continued from page 1 other recurring response has been “You mean what is a recurring issue of (in)visibility both Maria’s writing is fluent and a pleasure to like Basic Instinct?”) In beginning to think in queer media representation and in the about why Chasing Amy should summon this everyday experiences of many bisexual/queer read, as if it came from the air she breathed. nearly metonymic association with cinematic women. Indeed, Chasing Amy engages with a But the arguments she advances in her dis- bisexuality, I recognized several ways in which number of similar identity struggles faced by this film provides an apt entry into many of bisexuals: the widespread belief that bisexual- sertation, now becoming a book, are original the points I take up in my dissertation. To ity is “just a phase” or “the easy way out,” bi- and potentially unsettling. Bisexuality in start with, Chasing Amy’s female lead, Alyssa phobia on the part of both heterosexual- and Jones (Joey Lauren Adams), noticeably homosexual-identified individuals (“Another contemporary cinema, she maintains, has embodies a trope that I explore at length: one bites the dust,” Alyssa’s lesbian friends say become ever more present yet is rendered bisexual (in)visibility. In choosing to cast a upon hearing she is dating a man), combating petite blonde with a Minnie Mouse voice the stereotype of the promiscuous bisexual, invisible and thereby nullified by specific nar- and decidedly femme stylings, Chasing Amy’s and so on. rative mechanisms, even in films as ostensi- creators could be accused of complicity in As a film aimed at and embraced by dominant cinema’s reliance on safely gender- straight and queer audiences, Chasing Amy bly destabilizing (regarding sexual identities) conforming depictions of queer women. But represents a clear instance of the contem- as Brokeback Mountain or Mulholland Alyssa’s femme appearance also serves to porary industry trend that I term crossover contradict cultural assumptions about what cinema: films that are strategically designed Drive. Maria has already established a queer women look like. Indeed, it is the fact to cross demographic boundaries in order strong record of interdisciplinary research that Alyssa is not “visibly queer” (whatever to appeal to multiple niche audiences. As that means) that allows for the film’s first act the third installment in Kevin Smith’s “New and teaching of the highest quality, personal revelation on the part of lovelorn Holden Jersey Trilogy”—albeit considerably more commitment, and integrity. I am fortunate to (Ben Affleck), his sidekick Banky ( Jason Lee), intelligent than its predecessors Clerks (1994) and presumably a substantial number of spec- and Mallrats (1995)—Chasing Amy owes more have been able to work with her in seminars, tators who would not have surmised Alyssa’s to Richard Linklater and Quentin Tarantino as her dissertation director, and now as a sexual preference from the fairly vague hints than to New Queer Cinema. Its hyperarticu- given in the film’s trailer (“She just needs the late, endlessly referential dialogue and slacker colleague at UCLA. right guy”) and tagline (“It’s not who you love. mien aims itself at, and flatters, an alterna- - Janet Bergstrom It’s how”). Whatever the filmmakers’ inten- tive subculture of clever-yet-disillusioned Professor, UCLA Department of FILM, tion, this casting decision serves to foreground (and primarily heterosexual) young adults TELEVISION AND DIGitaL MEDIA FEB08 4 CSupdateW much like the ones that people Smith’s films. young straight male a guided tour through means of titillation for straight viewers, Chas- But in departing from the heternormativity “gay New York,” promoting empathy and ing Amy lightheartedly addresses how female of Smith’s world (suburban New Jersey) for tolerance for a subculture not so very differ- same-sex desire occupies a starring role in the big city of Manhattan and a boy-meets- ent from that to which the film’s comic artist heterosexual male fantasy but largely abstains lesbian plotline, Chasing Amy includes refer- heroes and their fans (diegetic and non- from playing into prurient desire for “girl- 1 ences presumably lost on its core audience but diegetic) belong. The film’s opening scene, on-girl action.” In the one instance in which recognizable to in-the-know queer specta- set at a comics convention, establishes the Alyssa is seen making out with another girl tors (one sequence in particular takes place similarities—and yet frequent incompatibili- (see photo on page 1), the shot is framed so as to at the Lower East Side girl bar Meow Mix ty—of these two worlds, in which the elabo- include the uncomfortable Holden (downcast and includes a cameo by Go Fish scribe and rate bondage-style getups and idiosyncratic at having realized his crush is unrequited) prominent lesbian Guinevere Turner). This factions mirror similar subdividing based and the leering Banky, thus hindering our inclination of crossover cinema to touristically on self-presentation and preference within accustomed visual pleasure in femme lesbian venture into queer subcultures is a topic I queer communities. Afrocentric comic artist eroticism. explore in depth. Hooper (Dwight Ewell) delivers an enraged Like its metaphorical linking of respective In addition to literally peering into this diatribe about racist subtext in Star Wars, only subcultures for the education of straight male alternative lesbian space (seen through the to then reveal privately that his militant image viewers, Chasing Amy continues providing perspective of two heterosexual males, Holden is designed to sell books. Actually, Hooper is sensitivity training via the “lessons” Holden and Banky), Chasing Amy refers to this sub- a gay black man (“notoriously the swishiest learns from Alyssa, who justifies her active culture by also setting its story in the figura- of the bunch,” he points out) who attempts sexual past and her queer identity by saying, tively “queer” world of comic book artists and at length to convince Banky that Archie and “I was an experimental girl—I wasn’t given a aficionados, one presumably more familiar to Jughead are lovers (more subtext, this time of fucking map at birth.” Disabusing Holden of its core audience. This metaphorical means of the queer variety). Providing an immediate his notion that lesbian sex is “not real sex,” Al- negotiating unfamiliar terrain (queer fe- reminder that queerness is not always vis- yssa describes (with suggestive hand gestures, male subcultures) by way of a familiar route ible, this opening scene foreshadows Alyssa’s and much to Holden’s bemusement) what it (a primarily heterosexual male subculture) own invisibility by depicting Hooper “pass- is that women actually do together in bed (see constitutes one instance of a crossover cin- ing” (a concept I discuss at length) as black photos on page 6). ematic trope that I call bi-textuality, in which and proud—rather than gay and proud—for Concurrently, the homophobic perspec- bisexual discourse is articulated through professional respect. tive is voiced by the uncensoring Banky, who analogous—but safer—transgressions of social Unlike the strategy that many crossover delivers an ongoing tirade against “faggots” norms. Chasing Amy essentially gives the films employ of using homoerotic content as a and “man-hating lesbians” yet otherwise is FEB08 5 CSupdateW Alyssa gestures at what women do in bed, much to Holden’s bemusement. FEB08 6 CSupdateW The romantic/erotic triangle, a cinematic mainstay of representing bisexuality without overtly appearing to do so, constitutes the film’s narrative infrastructure. From the opening credits’ chronicling, via comic book narration, of Holden and Banky’s rising success in the comics world, Chasing Amy also recalls the male buddy film especially in its persistent references to the homoerotic dynamic between the male duo, who share a close professional and personal partnership as comic artists and roommates–until Alyssa threatens “Partners” Holden and Banky. to come between them. FEB08 7 CSupdateW Interloper in the men’s world. FEB08 8 CSupdateW not presented as the stereotypical gay-bashing ignoramus but rather as the voice of reason to Holden’s love-struck sap, naïve enough to fall in love with someone so clearly unsuitable. In articulating the common-sense perspective, Banky serves as Holden’s foil—smart enough to see through politically correct platitudes and comic relief, to boot—at the same time as he offers homophobically inclined male viewers a not unsavory role model with whom to identify. In these and other ways, Chasing Amy serves as a meta-commentary not just on gay identity but on gay identity films. The romantic/erotic triangle, a cinematic mainstay of representing bisexuality without overtly appearing to do so, constitutes the film’s narrative infrastruc- ture.