I love El Angel so much that I decided to write another blog about it.
After watching it, I read a reviews by a blogger I followed online. One thing he mentioned really interests me is that the protagonist of the film was shot in the way that often use to shoot women, you might know it as Male Gaze. For example, we can often see the close-up to lips, the body curve, wave of the hair of a girl, but they are seldom used on male characters. That’s because even until today, most of the directors are male, and many of them tend to shoot female characters from their perspective, seeing them as a sexual object instead of a independent being with personality. (I’m not saying that these female characters have no personality at all, but the way they’ve been seen and shot.)
But the gaze in on a boy this time. The scene I can remember clearest is when the mother of the boy’s friend was flirting with him, she put her fingers on the boy’s lips, and we see a close-up of the lips, plump and pinky like strawberry. The whole atmosphere suddenly became delicate, I can’t really describe how I feel then. I mean, I love this scene, but this is not sexual attraction for me at all. Which is quite weird, because the situation is perfectly in reverse compared to the Male Gaze. And I can say that most man feel flipped when seeing a close-up to a girl’s plump pinky lips.
My explanations is, this kind of shot is feminized, which means the subject is also feminized under the shot. (If that make any sense.)
(Before starting more detailed talking about this, I want to say that this is all my personal feeling. I don’t know if I’m the only girl who felt nothing seeing this scene. But anyway this is my blog so I’m gonna keep talking about why I felt NOTHING.)
What I meant feminized is that the shot is mostly used on female, so when it’s used on male character, we’ll feel like we are using the way we look at female to look at a male, and that somehow makes the image of him in our minds have more feminized features.
Which means, it’s not just the problem of male directors, the audience(me) also play a part of not treating male and female characters in the same way. Even if I’m a girl, I still expect to see red lips and body curve of a girl instead of boy. Which is sad.
I mean, people have been talking about that problem about girls for a long time. But what do we expect to see on the boys? Muscle, wide shoulder, firm jaw line?
Speaking of, I’d like to mention something interesting that happened not long ago. There’s a show called The First Lesson in China, and it’s only played once a year on 1st September, when a new school year starts. So this quite important show would usually invite some famous young people to perform or give speech. This year, a group of young singers was invited and these young boys gave a nice performance. However, the performance was criticised by many people because the boys wore heavy make up and out fits that make them look girly. “Boys should dress like boy!” “The country has no future with boys dress up like girls!” People said.
These saying sounds really humiliating for girls, because they approve that boys are better than girls, so boys shouldn’t be like girls. Actually we can hear this kind of word all the time. Don’t be like a girl! And we always think that it’s not fair for girls. I mean, of course that it’s not fair for girls, but it’s not just about girls from the beginning.
You gotta be tough, don’t you know you’re a man?
Boys don’t cry!
Don’t be like a girl!
What kind of pressure are given to boys? People cry, people break down, that’s not just a girl thing, it’s a human thing! And they are telling boys not to do it, how? And why can girls wear pink and blue, being girly shiny or dark and cool, but boys can’t wear what they want? Why can’t boys wear makeup that makes them look better?
And even if I’ve realised the different expectation on boys and girls, I’m still couldn’t get used to the gaze shot being used on a boy. Lips, body curve, hair, they’re so soft, too soft to be seen as a boy. Part of me is still saying that.
But boys can be soft, just like girls can be strong.