Feature 08

b e l o w Clem waves at Joel at the train station

Gender politics in mainstream Mainstream Mulvey: Hollywood films have been at the center of cinematic debates at least since 1975 when Laura Mulvey wrote “Visual Pleasure and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Narrative Cinema.” In the essay, Mulvey criticizes film for its subjectification of women Mind and (500) Days of Summer as and affirmation of dominant patriarchal constructs and ideals. Mulvey posits that Alternatives to the Feminist the only place where these values can be eradicated is in radical avant-garde cinema, Avant-Garde which “provides a space for cinema to be By Brenna Claire Williams born which is radical in both a political and aesthetic sense” (Mulvey 716). However, since / Mulvey first wrote her essay, and especially k e y w o r d s : Laura Mulvey, female gaze, gender in film, in the last decade, Hollywood films have created a new kind of female character that scopophilia, romantic comedy, independent film is able to hold the narrative and visual power that Mulvey said wasn’t possible. As seen in the films Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Gondry, 2004) and (500) Days of Summer (Webb, 2009), the female love interest in romantic comedies can not only be equal, but can also hold more power than her male counterpart. While these films were not widely released blockbusters, they were each distributed by the independent branches of major studios and earned decent box- office revenue, over $72 million and $60 million respectively (Box Office Mojo “‘Eternal Sunshine’”; “‘(500) Days’”), providing a compromise between the mainstream cinema that Mulvey loathed and the avant-garde cinema that wider audiences overlook.

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a b o v e Joel waits for Clem to come home a b o v e Clem and Joel on icy lake

As seen in the films Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and (500) Days of Summer, the female love interest in romantic comedies can not only be equal, but can also hold more power than her male counterpart.

Nontraditional narrative styles,1 self-awareness relationships. Clementine (Clem) in Eternal on an icy lake where she is able to push him and play with visual coding, and disregard Sunshine takes control in almost every aspect around because he is also physically passive. for and inversion of patriarchal gender of her and Joel’s relationship and, similarly, Additionally, Clem ends her relationship roles make these films realizations of what Summer is the one who begins, defines, and by walking out on Joel and ignoring his Mulvey said film could be in a format that can ends her relationship with Tom. attempts to get her back. Clem is anything communicate positive depictions of women to Throughout Eternal Sunshine, Clem but the “passive/female” character Mulvey a wider audience than the avant-garde allows. dominates her relationship with her strong attributes to Hollywood films. One of Mulvey’s most scathing criticisms will and opinions. Both times she and Joel Similarly, Summer is in complete of mainstream cinema is the divide “between meet – first on the train from Montauk control of her relationship with Tom from active/male and passive/female” (Mulvey and later on the beach – Clem speaks first, beginning to end. Like Clem in Eternal 719) with a woman’s “presence [tending] to pursuing Joel while he only looks at her from Sunshine, Summer follows her whims, even work against the development of a storyline” afar. Clem’s desires drive the beginning of moving across the country because she (Mulvey 719). Eternal Sunshine and (500) their relationship both times: initially when wants excitement, while Tom, like Joel, Days work against this trend by making she invites him to her apartment and later leads a relatively static, passionless, and their female characters the ones whose when they meet again and she leads Joel on disappointing life. Tom doesn’t admit that desires and actions further the plot while their excursion into the beach house. Joel he has feelings for Summer, even after she men take reactionary roles, particularly blindly follows her lead, listening to her when straightforwardly asks him. She is the driving when considering the directions of their she tells him to call her and risking his life force behind their kiss in the copy room

The most interesting parallel between these two films is the fact that they are both nonlinear, a characteristic that signals a denial of male power (Silvey 139). While both films follow male protagonists, the nonlinear narratives make it difficult for audience members to situate themselves within their lives and the world of the film, which foregrounds the women’s importance in them.

a b o v e Joel alone on ice a b o v e Joel and Clem on TV

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a b o v e Clem and Joel at the flea market a b o v e Joel and Clem at the movies

The films are able to create a safer screen space for their main female characters by noting visual and narrative elements like fetishism, scopophilia, and the gender constructs to which those in a patriarchal society are accustomed.

and defines their relationship when they within their lives and the world of the film, Clem’s haunting personality wouldn’t have kiss again at IKEA. Summer’s view of their which foregrounds the women’s importance been as effectively communicated if this relationship wins even after Tom is hurt in them. In Joel’s case, Clem permeates every scene had appeared at the end of the film, as at the bar and tries to assert himself. Like part of his mind and memory, and in Tom’s it would have had it played chronologically. Clem, Summer ends her relationship with case, Summer defines 500 Days of his life. Throughout the rest of the film, Clem Tom, operating as an active character from Eternal Sunshine opens on the morning not only does what she wants to do, but also the beginning to the end. following Joel’s procedure and situates him affects the narrative structure of the film This active/passive division, according and the audience in his bleak apartment by operating as the catalyst for most of the to Mulvey, goes beyond gender power plays and life, both devoid of the color Clem things that Joel does, both while conscious and is found even at the core of the narrative brings to them. Here, the film adds a visual and during his procedure. She is the first to structure of films, with men “forwarding component that works with the nonlinear get Joel erased from her mind, doing so in the narrative, making things happen” and narrative structure in order to signal to the an impulsive pursuit of her desires. In his serving as “main controlling [figures]” audience how important Clem is in the film. mind, he tells her that he is only erasing her around whom films are structured (Mulvey The colors are neutral until Joel sees Clem because she did it to him first. Within Joel’s 720). The most interesting parallel between in Montauk, which signals her as a strong mind during the procedure, it is his mental these two films is the fact that they are both visual and narrative element since she stands manifestation of Clem who has the idea nonlinear, a characteristic that signals a out from across a desolate beach. By the end of going “off the map” (Eternal Sunshine of denial of male power (Silvey 139). While of the nonlinear film, the audience knows the Spotless Mind) when Joel doesn’t have a both films follow male protagonists, the that it is Clem’s imagined last words to Joel plan. Clem’s hold on Joel’s life, while they’re nonlinear narratives make it difficult for that brought him to the beach, affecting him together, after they’ve split, and even while audience members to situate themselves and controlling the plot from the beginning. he is unconscious, continually reverses

Perhaps the thing the films communicate most strongly is the idea that strong, unique, and independent women are unforgettable. They are something to hold onto, something that, despite what Dr Mierzwiak tells Joel, you will miss, for better or for worse.

b e l o w Joel and Clem on the couch b e l o w Clem sticks up for Joel

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b e l o w Clem overpowers Joel on the beach

a b o v e Joel from afar at the beach

Mulvey’s assertion of male power Tom and his audience miss the warning signs Mulvey spends much of her article throughout the film. of Summer’s unhappiness, but this gives focused on the male gaze and accuses men Likewise, the nonlinear narrative style way to the realization and regret of missing of “taking people as objects, subjecting them of (500) Days serves to deconstruct male them when both Tom and the audience to a controlling and curious gaze” (Mulvey power, but in a different way than it does in replay memories more accurately during 717) and deriving pleasure from looking, Eternal Sunshine. From the opening credits, Tom’s healing process. The film poignantly which gives them power. Both Eternal Sunshine the focus on and importance of both Summer and self-consciously highlights this interplay and (500) Days consciously play with this and Tom is introduced by their parallel between reality and Tom’s expectations by “scopophilia” by sharing the gaze with their montage sequences, visual signals of the splitting the screen between them when female characters and by robbing the men fact that it is a story about both of them, Tom goes to Summer’s party. The Days of of the pleasure of looking. Mulvey assigns not just Tom. The audience’s position in Summer that the audience sees, like those erotic pleasure to the male gaze, which the the story is guided both by a narrator and in Eternal Sunshine, highlight the power that films also take up and critique in different title cards with the Day of Summer each Summer has not only over Tom’s memory, ways: Eternal Sunshine makes male pleasure sequence depicts. While Eternal Sunshine but also in reality. Like Clem in Joel’s life, something that Joel is ashamed of and (500) flows between present, reality, subconscious, Summer impacts Tom’s life even when Days has Summer’s desires trump Tom’s. and past without pausing, (500) Days always they are not together. Before she and Tom Unlike the films that Mulvey criticizes, these tells viewers where they will be in Tom and start seeing each other, her attendance of films punish their male characters instead of Summer’s relationship, with everything after the company karaoke party spurs Tom to their female characters (Mulvey 722). Day 290 depicting the aftermath with title attend, and after they split, her insistence on Clem actively looks both times she and cards in shades of gray. The human mind Tom’s ability as an architect pushes him to Joel meet, and the film draws attention to it. does not replay memories back accurately pursue it again. Summer, like Clem, serves When Joel and Clem are in the cafe at the or in order, something this film’s narrative as a counterexample to Mulvey’s points by beginning of the film, Joel looks over at her. reflects, which gives the audience insight into making things happen and controlling much However, she looks back, embarrassing him the way Tom sees the relationship. At first of the narrative. and forcing him to turn his gaze elsewhere.

b e l o w The use of split-screen highlights the interplay between reality and Tom’s expectations

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a b o v e The film breaks Summer down into each part that Tom loves about her. Here, Tom talks about her smile a b o v e Tom talks about how much he loves Summer’s laugh

She is able to look at him even though he is through Summer’s eyes and share in her gaze Eternal Sunshine presents Clem, through her aware of it while he cannot look once robbed while Tom makes a spectacle of himself. emotions, as a caricature of more typical of his voyeuristic pleasure, which suggests Additionally, the film makes Tom the object female characters, revealing the ridiculous in that her gaze is more powerful than his or, of a female audience’s gaze by having his those characterizations. Clem complains to at the very least, that she is less ashamed of sister’s friends stare at him. While it isn’t a Patrick that she feels and looks old, a concern it. At the train station, Clem is once again fully realized erotic gaze, this example serves real and fictional women share. One of Joel’s aware that Joel has noticed her and waves at as another acknowledgement of the gaze and favorite memories of Clem is one in which him, effectively acknowledging his role as a gives it to women. Later, when Tom gives she asks if she is ugly and tells him about a voyeur and her role as a gazing and aware Summer an architectural tour of Los Angeles, preoccupation she had as a child with being woman. On the train, Clem approaches Joel the audience shares in another point-of-view pretty. While Clem is an extremely strong and says, “I’ve seen you,” a sentiment that is shot. However, it isn’t clear whose point female character, these instances show that echoed when they meet for the second time of view they are given, implying a shared even the strongest woman cannot escape and she sits down next to him at the beach ownership of the gaze and situating the the always damaging and traumatizing and says almost the exact same thing. (500) couple, once again, in a gazing relationship effects of patriarchy’s demands, and the film Days reflects this assertion of the female gaze that is equal. demonizes those demands by imposing them over the male gaze precisely when, at the end In the same vein as the scopophilic on an otherwise relatable and admirable of the film, Autumn tells Tom that she has gaze, Mulvey asserts that, “conventions of female character. By vilifying patriarchy in seen him before even though he hasn’t seen mainstream film focus attention on human this way, instead of ignoring and escaping her. Both times Clem and Joel meet, the film form” (Mulvey 718). Both films directly it the way the avant-garde would try to highlights her agency, her gaze, and its power reference fetishistic scopophilia, which do, Eternal Sunshine draws the audience’s while diminishing his. Mulvey defines as the breaking down of the attention to the evils that Mulvey sees in Summer’s gaze in (500) Days is much female form to overvalued parts (Mulvey patriarchy, which does more to educate it more equal to Tom’s and goes a step beyond 720). In Eternal Sunshine, Joel muses about about the problems of conventional film in a Clem’s gaze by allowing the audience to Clem’s sweatshirt and wonders how he palatable form. share in it. Mulvey says that women are, could be “drawn to someone’s back.” Joel (500) Days also deliberately parodies the “indispensible [elements] of spectacle in also draws Clem in his sketchbook almost breaking down of women into parts and normal narrative film” (Mulvey 719), but as a hobby, pulling attention to the male’s desires. When introducing Summer, the (500) Days takes the opportunity to make attention to the female form as well as the narrator breaks Summer down by discussing both Summer and Tom elements of spectacle way he constructs his own view of it. Joel her height, weight, and shoe size and and the gaze of the other when they sing doesn’t photograph Clem, but draws her whether each is average. Later, Tom talks karaoke. When Summer goes to sing, the from his mind’s construction. The majority about the things he loves about Summer, audience gets a shot of Tom looking at her of what the audience sees of Clem is within including her smile, hair, knees, lips, and with pleasure followed by a point of view Joel’s mind, exposing them even further to birthmark. The film breaks her down into shot from his perspective. Similarly, when this construction. those parts by both visually depicting them Tom sings, the film follows the same shot On top of parodying the visual and through voice-over while noting almost progression and allows the audience to see construction of women in Hollywood films, nothing about her personality. This echoes

a b o v e Summer is the driving force behind their kiss in the copy room a b o v e Summer initiates the first conversation with Tom

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the idea presented and simultaneously judged (500) Days contains a similar moment that the film is “not a love story” ((500) Days) in by Eternal Sunshine when Patrick falls in love functions almost as a parody of Mulvey’s the traditional sense by painting Tom as a with Clem’s unconscious body and not who ideal avant-garde in addition to the hopeless romantic – The Graduate’s (Nichols, she is. By using the same visuals of Summer’s acknowledgement of film as construction. 1967) fault, we’re told – and Summer as parts with a different voice-over of Tom Tom goes to the movie theater after he and unattached and guarded because of her saying that he hates them, the film highlights Summer split up and projects his feelings parents’ divorce. Tom falls for Summer the simultaneous adoration for and loathing onto the screen in the form of an art film. at first sight and overanalyzes everything of the female form that Mulvey discusses The scene displays the characters in (500) she says and does to him before they start in her essay (Mulvey 721). In an interesting Days as the movie characters they are while seeing each other, which feminizes him twist, (500) Days also alludes to female almost taking a jab at Mulvey’s elevation the same way Joel’s anxiety does in Eternal pleasure in looking by the breaking down of the avant-garde as the only cinema that Sunshine. Summer believes that love isn’t real of the male form when Tom’s sister talks can communicate truth. (500) Days itself and that it’s better to be guarded and safe, about “Brad Pitt’s face and Jesus’ abs,” which is certainly more enjoyable than the avant- traits usually assigned to male characters. consciously highlights female fetishism of the garde film within it. Summer and Tom want different things, and male form – something that Mulvey ignores. The final way that Eternal Sunshine and in the end Summer’s masculine desires for Eternal Sunshine and (500) Days also share (500) Days reinterpret their depictions of detachment dominate Tom’s stereotypical their acknowledgement of the idea of an gender is by inverting or calling attention to feminine desire for attachment and mutual ideal female form, but in different ways, the dominant patriarchal gender roles that dependence. with Eternal Sunshine deconstructing the ideal Mulvey sees in film (Mulvey 716). At times, The film also constantly discusses the and (500) Days presenting it as something each film switches the gender roles within its adoption and construction of gender roles. that every male holds in his mind. Eternal couple, emasculating and feminizing the men The narrator tells the audience that “there Sunshine presents an image of Clem that while empowering the women. Additionally, are only two types of people in the world: is anything but the idealized Hollywood the female characters themselves call women and men,” an idea that (500) Days construct of the female form. She often attention to the way films portray normal plays with continually. In the diner, Summer dresses in a baggy orange sweatshirt or in female characters by embodying two sides compares herself and Tom to Sid Vicious multiple heavy layers, drawing away from of the spectrum of contemporary female and Nancy Spungen, the rock star and her figure and intentionally playing down characters. the girlfriend he stabbed to death. Tom her beauty instead of accentuating it the way Eternal Sunshine invests Clem with multiple notes this and automatically assumes that most films would. The film draws attention to stereotypically masculine personality Summer is implying he, as the man, is Sid the purposeful construction of Clem’s look, traits, such as aggression, which she is and she, as the woman, is Nancy. However, changing her hair to unnatural hair colors able to play out upon a passive, quiet, and Summer says that she is Sid, a conscious and assigning her “personality in a paste.” femininely coded Joel. The first time they reversal of gender roles and an outing of Conversely, (500) Days presents its meet in the film, Clem makes jokes about the assumptions about them. In the first audience with a specimen of the perfectly seducing him, an idea that clearly makes karaoke bar scene, Summer discusses her beautiful and classic woman. The narrator Joel uncomfortable. Clem talks about living dating policy with Tom and McKenzie, tells the audience that Summer averages 18.4 her life to the fullest, aggressively taking saying that she doesn’t like attachment and double takes on her daily commute, a part advantage of the opportunities the way she is happy being independent. McKenzie of the phenomenon the narrator refers to as male characters often do, while Joel lets life responds by asking if she’s a lesbian, which The Summer Effect. The Summer Effect, happen to him. When Joel gets home, he communicates an awareness of the cultural the film claims, is something that every man anxiously waits by the phone trying to wait assumption that there is something Queer has encountered by falling under the spell an appropriate amount of time to call Clem about strong and independent women. When of a beautiful woman. Interestingly, the the way a teenage girl might do in another Summer says that she wants to save serious film then attempts to deconstruct the idea romantic comedy. This image is mirrored relationships for later, McKenzie goes a of the perfect woman, both when Tom and in Joel’s last memory of Clem, when he sits step further and drunkenly accuses her of Summer discuss each other’s imperfections in the same chair waiting for Clem to come being a man. Summer, who the film again and when each of the male characters are home, nagging her “like an old lady” (Eternal makes masculine through her ideological shown, as if on 35 mm film, talking about Sunshine) when she arrives. This interesting alignments with McKenzie, serves as a foil their ideal woman. Notably, Tom doesn’t juxtaposition between teenage excitement to Tom, who the film feminizes through his have a conclusion and Paul admits that the and elderly patience ties Joel to a range of ideological opposition to Summer and his perfect woman simply isn’t a reality. feminine traits. While Clem is at times used traditional male friend. Interestingly, when The films share a high degree of self- as a caricature of female emotions, Joel is Tom adopts Summer’s nonchalant, non- awareness, communicating a sense of anything but stoic throughout the film, often labeled view of relationships, McKenzie purpose in everything they do, especially getting upset and crying in his childhood tells him that he sounds gay, even though in their depictions of women. This self- memories, where Clem is notably collected he attributed the same traits to masculinity awareness in Eternal Sunshine is probably and in charge, all the way up to his present- when he saw them in Summer. By both best exemplified in Joel’s memory when day adulthood. making the audience aware of cultural he and Clem appear on the television in Similarly, (500) Days goes out of its way conceptions of inherent gender traits and by their apartment. At that moment, the film to consciously make Summer aggressive inverting those traits in its two protagonists, acknowledges an awareness seen throughout and self-assured, coding her as masculine, (500) Days is able to communicate the the film that Clem is a cinematic or, in this while making Tom idealistic and unsure, impermanence and hypocrisy of the gender case, televisual construction of femininity coding him as feminine. The beginning constructs of the patriarchal order that the like any other woman on film or television. narration makes the audience aware that audience has undoubtedly accepted, for the

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most part, without question. This once again that strong, unique, and independent women communicates something Mulvey would are unforgettable. They are something to likely agree with in a more palatable way hold onto, something that, despite what Dr than the radical avant-garde. Mierzwiak tells Joel, you will miss, for better Overall, the filmsEternal Sunshine of the or for worse. Spotless Mind and (500) Days of Summer are / e n d / able to formulate some of Laura Mulvey’s main critiques of mainstream film for an almost mainstream audience. The films Works Cited

are able to create a safer screen space for ➜ their main female characters by noting (500) Days of Summer. Dir. Marc Webb. Fox Author Biography visual and narrative elements like fetishism, Searchlight Pictures, 2009. DVD. Brenna Claire Williams is a 2012 scopophilia, and the gender constructs to / Television Studies graduate of the which those in a patriarchal society are Box Office Mojo. “‘(500) Days of Summer’ (2009).” 3 University of Notre Dame. Her research accustomed. Clementine and Summer are Dec. 2011. Web. focused on religion and the media, active, assertive, aggressive, and powerful, / culminating in her senior honors thesis about South Park’s treatment of which affects the narrative structure of Box Office Mojo. “‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless minority religions. She now resides in their stories and the lives and actions of the Mind’ (2004).” 3 Dec. 2011. Web. Washington, DC where she has written men who love them. Both films parody or / for NPR and works for NBC News. deny male pleasure and the male gaze by Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Dir. Michel sharing or completely handing power over Gondry. Focus Features, 2004. Film. to the women in many cases and depicting / them in a positive light that even Mulvey Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative might approve. While the films are not Cinema.” Critical Visions in Film Theory: Classic the perfect realization of feminist cinema, and Contemporary Readings. Ed. Timothy Corrigan. they are palatable to a large audience, and Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 713–25. Print. being able to get a feminist message to a / wider audience is a very large first step in a Silvey, Vivien. “Not Your Average Love Story: Film positive direction. I would much rather be techniques in ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Clementine or Summer than any Disney Mind.’” Screen Education 53 (2009): 139–144. ➜ princess or Marilyn Monroe character – and Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 Dec. 2011. let’s be honest, they get to wear some amazing / Mentor Biography Jim Collins is a professor of film and clothes – because they communicate that it Endnotes television and a concurrent professor is okay to have opinions, be different, and to in English. He specializes in media be whimsy incarnate. Perhaps the thing the 1 For this article, the circular plot of Eternal theory, contemporary narrative, and films communicate most strongly is the idea Sunshine will be considered in plot, not story, order. digital culture. His most recent book is Bring on the Books for Everybody: How Literary Culture Became Popular Culture (2010).

Department Overview Majors in film, television, and theatre at Notre Dame get more than an excellent liberal arts education – they also have the advantage of being in a department with a high degree of student-faculty interaction, a wide variety of hands-on courses, and state-of-the-art work and performance facilities.

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