Cinesexuality
Encyclopedia
Cinesexuality is a concept developed by the feminist film theorist Patricia MacCormack. It emerges from the poststructuralist philosophy of desire found in the work of Gilles Deleuze
and Félix Guattari
.
MacCormack claims that cinema has an immense power to produce pleasure which is "in excess of the meaning of images and their deferral to established sexualities" (MacCormack, 2005/6, p. 341). This means that cinema can undermine stable units of narrative meaning such as the nuclear family and heterosexual romance which have frequently been criticized by feminists. Mainstream cinema, according to MacCormack, works with narrative building-blocks of meaning which reinforce the semiotic pathways of desire already established by, for instance, education. An example of this would be the relationship between how sex education
is delivered in school (which creates a pathway of desire in the children being taught) and how these established patterns later connect with film genres such as romantic comedies.
In contrast to mainstream cinema and its narrative, semiotic templates, MacCormack celebrates low-brow
genres such as the horror film
. Of particular interest to MacCormack are the zombie films of Italian director Lucio Fulci
, which encourage the spectator to give themselves over to the effects of pain and pleasure at the expense of narrative logic. These effects help create new pathways of desire, overturning the dominant family-oriented, heterosexual codes. Hence, MacCormack refers to this sort of audience experience as being "cinesexual". The submission to this sort of experience, which may require some initial discomfort on the spectator's part as they are moved out of their comfort zone
, MacCormack calls "cinemasochism".
Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Deleuze , was a French philosopher who, from the early 1960s until his death, wrote influentially on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volumes of Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus , both co-written with Félix...
and Félix Guattari
Félix Guattari
Pierre-Félix Guattari was a French militant, an institutional psychotherapist, philosopher, and semiotician; he founded both schizoanalysis and ecosophy...
.
MacCormack claims that cinema has an immense power to produce pleasure which is "in excess of the meaning of images and their deferral to established sexualities" (MacCormack, 2005/6, p. 341). This means that cinema can undermine stable units of narrative meaning such as the nuclear family and heterosexual romance which have frequently been criticized by feminists. Mainstream cinema, according to MacCormack, works with narrative building-blocks of meaning which reinforce the semiotic pathways of desire already established by, for instance, education. An example of this would be the relationship between how sex education
Sex education
Sex education refers to formal programs of instruction on a wide range of issues relating to human sexuality, including human sexual anatomy, sexual reproduction, sexual intercourse, reproductive health, emotional relations, reproductive rights and responsibilities, abstinence, contraception, and...
is delivered in school (which creates a pathway of desire in the children being taught) and how these established patterns later connect with film genres such as romantic comedies.
In contrast to mainstream cinema and its narrative, semiotic templates, MacCormack celebrates low-brow
Low culture
Low culture is a term for some forms of popular culture. Its opposite is high culture. It has been said by culture theorists that both high culture and low culture are subcultures....
genres such as the horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
. Of particular interest to MacCormack are the zombie films of Italian director Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his directorial work on gore films, including Zombie and The Beyond , although he made films in genres as diverse as giallo, western, and comedy...
, which encourage the spectator to give themselves over to the effects of pain and pleasure at the expense of narrative logic. These effects help create new pathways of desire, overturning the dominant family-oriented, heterosexual codes. Hence, MacCormack refers to this sort of audience experience as being "cinesexual". The submission to this sort of experience, which may require some initial discomfort on the spectator's part as they are moved out of their comfort zone
Comfort zone
The comfort zone is a behavioural state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviours to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk . A person's personality can be described by his or her comfort zones...
, MacCormack calls "cinemasochism".
Further reading
- Patricia MacCormack, "A Cinema of Desire: Cinesexuality and Guattari’s Asignifying Cinema" in Women: A Cultural Review, 16 (3), Winter 2005/6