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Metzger’s Women: Gender Representations and Visual Abstraction in ’60s Sexploitation

&NewLine;<p>In the years following the 1948 Paramount Case&comma; independent cinema gained a competitive edge in the United States&period; As the importation of more lurid European films increased&comma; the Production Code loosened its requirements restricting violence and overt sexuality&period; These changes paved the way for the rise of the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;sexploitation” genre of the 1960’s&period; Films of this genre were produced on small budgets&comma; but exploited erotic narratives and nudity to attract &lpar;heterosexual male&rpar; audiences&period; One director who specialized in this genre was Radley Metzger&period; However&comma; while Radley Metzger exploited sexual themes to attract male audiences&comma; his films created a hybrid of art cinema and sexploitation by emphasizing more progressive concepts of gender and sexuality through the narrative representations of women and the visual abstraction of the female body&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Before becoming a director of feature films&comma; Radley Metzger helped edit and distribute European art films for US exhibition&period; His distribution company&comma; Audubon&comma; even distributed the highly controversial and influential film <em>I&comma; A Woman <&sol;em>&lpar;1965&rpar; to US markets&period; As Radley Metzger transitioned from distribution to production&comma; his style reflected American interest in the European art cinema&period; The cinematographic approach and sexual themes that Metzger implemented helped his small-budget films attract an audience that was becoming increasingly interested in film art and sexuality&period; Since heterosexual men comprised the majority of the target audience&comma; films of the sexploitation genre put particular emphasis on the female body&period; This emphasis&comma; and the genre’s appeal to male voyeurism&comma; put the new genre in direct opposition to the second wave of feminism in the late 1960’s&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The rise of second wave feminism&comma; combined with the social and industrial context of the 1960’s American film industry&comma; put Radley Metzger at a crossroads&period; The industry essentially required small-budget films to have sensational content in order to turn a profit&period; However&comma; this era was also characterized by drastic social change and a reevaluation of gender roles in the US&period; As a result&comma; Radley Metzger innovated a hybrid genre by combining the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;high culture status of the foreign art film and the rough-hewn&comma; low-cult material of the sexploitation feature” &lpar;Gorfinkel 27&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>While the overtly sexual content of Radley Metzger’s films drew in audiences&comma; it was the progressive themes and European art film aesthetic that elevated them above the level of mere &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;nudie pictures&period;” These themes were especially prevalent in three of Radley Metzger’s most notable sexploitation films&colon; <em>The Alley Cats<&sol;em> &lpar;1966&rpar;&comma; <em>Therese and Isabelle<&sol;em> &lpar;1968&rpar;&comma; and <em>The Lickerish Quartet <&sol;em>&lpar;1970&rpar;&period; Though these films differ in their graphic representations of nudity&comma; Metzger continually chose to imply sexuality and separate the act of sex from the female body by attracting attention to the sensuality of the films themselves&period; Radley Metzger also created narratives that centered on the plights of women trapped in patriarchal societies and portrayed them as victims of a larger social wrong&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>For example&comma; the female characters in <em>The Alley Cats <&sol;em>are portrayed as women who want to be free from the sexual constraints that men&comma; and society as a whole&comma; have imposed on them&period; These representations are in direct opposition to the depictions of women in most mainstream films of the 1960’s and 1970’s&period; Feminist film critic Molly Haskell writes that&comma; compared to the female stars of early Hollywood&comma; female stars of the 1960’s and 1970’s are portrayed as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;whores&comma; jilted mistresses&comma; emotional cripples&comma; and drunks” who are &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;less intelligent&comma; less sensual&comma; less humorous&comma; and altogether less extraordinary” &lpar;Haskell 329&rpar;&period; In the films of other sexploitation directors&comma; such as Russ Meyer&comma; women are either portrayed as dim-witted vixens or violent and sexualized she-devils who get what is coming to them&period; In one of Meyer’s most notable sexploitation films&comma; <em>Faster Pussycat&excl; Kill&excl; Kill&excl;<&sol;em> &lpar;1965&rpar;&comma; the central female character&comma; Varla&comma; is an ultra-violent&comma; man-hating sadist&comma; whose exploits can only be stopped with her death at the end of the film&period; Alternatively&comma; a bikini-clad teenage girl that Varla kidnaps is portrayed as unintelligent&comma; helpless&comma; and completely reliant on men for her salvation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image wp-image-575"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;04&sol;288c1d9c5653d03d787657bd31fa86dd&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Radley Metzger Faster Pussycat Kill Kill" class&equals;"wp-image-575" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"600"&sol;><figcaption>21Varla acting out her hatred for men in <em>Faster Pussycat&excl; Kill&excl; Kill&excl;<&sol;em> &lpar;Radley Metzger&comma; 1965&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>However&comma; the women of Metzger’s films do not fit into these negative representations&period; Instead of the narratives characterizing women as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;whores&comma;” Radley Metzger’s films most often portray them as sexually liberated women in sexually repressive societies&period; For example&comma; the protagonist in <em>The Alley Cats<&sol;em>&comma; Leslie&comma; is trapped in an unhappy marriage with Logan&period; It is clear that Leslie is unhappy&comma; and even confused about her sexuality&comma; but this goes unnoticed by her husband&period; Meanwhile&comma; Logan begins an affair behind Leslie’s back&period; In turn&comma; Leslie meets a charming man with whom she has a one-night stand&comma; only to find the bed empty the next morning&period; As Leslie’s unhappiness reaches a breaking point and she considers suicide&comma; an attractive and mysterious woman&comma; Irena&comma; takes her in&period; The two have a brief sexual encounter&comma; only to be interrupted by Logan&comma; who is enraged to discover that his wife would cheat on him&comma; especially with another woman&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Logan’s disgust with Leslie’s affair &lpar;despite his own infidelity&rpar; is one example of the hypocrisy regarding sexual promiscuity between men and women&comma; and emblematic of the struggle of feminists to gain the right to &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;extramarital sexual relations free from the atrocious label of &OpenCurlyQuote;adultery’” &lpar;<em>Radical <&sol;em>52&rpar;&period; <em>The Radical Women Manifesto&colon; Socialist Feminist Theory&comma; Program and Organizational Structure<&sol;em>&comma; published in 1973&comma; traces the origins and history of the subordination of women and supplies a list of demands to overcome patriarchal control&period; It puts particular emphasis on the negative representations of women in media&comma; and the institution of US capitalism as one that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;degrades and dehumanizes women by the stereotypes it fosters&comma; but proceeds to profit from the stereotypes themselves…&lbrack;I&rsqb;t is also stock in trade to exploit women’s bodies to sell everything from toothpaste to computers” &lpar;<em>Radical<&sol;em> 33&rpar;&period; These institutions of patriarchal control form the central conflict in <em>The Alley Cats<&sol;em>&comma; as Leslie feels trapped by the role society has chosen for her and her husband’s attempts to control her sexuality&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image wp-image-576"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;04&sol;The-Alley-Cats-04&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Radley Metzger The Alley Cats" class&equals;"wp-image-576" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"340"&sol;><figcaption>Leslie and Irena share a meaningful glance &lpar;<em>The Alley Cats<&sol;em>&comma; Radley Metzger&comma; 1966&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The film ends with Logan attacking both Irena and Leslie&comma; only to have Leslie gratefully return to him as the credits roll&period; While the story arc seems to promote a more conventional&comma; patriarchal reflection on relationships and sexuality &lpar;woman is unhappy with man&comma; woman explores her sexuality&comma; man beats woman&comma; woman learns her lesson and returns to man&rpar;&comma; a closer analysis of the representations of gender and power relations in the narrative reveals subversive themes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The men and women portrayed in the film &lpar;both central and peripheral characters&rpar; serve varying&comma; non-conventional roles in the narrative&period; Leslie is portrayed as a sympathetic character&comma; with her anguish stemming from the tension between oppressive conventions of society and her own sexual desires&period; The society of the 1960’s imposes conflicting regulations on women&colon; women must be sexually appealing to men&comma; but they also must not flaunt or explore their sexuality&period; In such a society&comma; women are seen as the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;property of men&comma;” with little control over their &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;minds and bodies” &lpar;<em>Radical <&sol;em>51&rpar;&period; This conflict becomes apparent early in the film when Logan asks Leslie&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Honey&comma; how many times have I told you to wear pants&quest;” only to complain later that Leslie has no sex appeal&period; Logan wants to have complete control over Leslie&comma; attempting to make her both sexual and asexual&period; In this respect&comma; he represents the oppressive society and the quintessential male of Radley Metzger’s films&period; Logan is unintelligent&comma; violent&comma; and an overbearing force in Leslie’s life&period; Until the final moments of the film&comma; when Leslie gratefully returns to Logan&comma; he is portrayed as the antagonist and a barrier to Leslie’s happiness&period; The ending&comma; which contradicts the themes established in the first 80 minutes of the film&comma; seems to be tacked on to compensate for the arguably emasculating storyline&comma; and to give male audiences a sense of sexual satisfaction&period; Since the narrative does not elicit any male-identification with Leslie&comma; the ending allows for the male spectator to identify with Logan and provides a satisfying conclusion&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image wp-image-581"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;04&sol;0018c1eb&period;png" alt&equals;"The Alley Cats" class&equals;"wp-image-581" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"325"&sol;><figcaption>Leslie and Irena have a brief moment of passion before Logan discovers them &lpar;<em>The Alley Cats<&sol;em>&comma; Radley Metzger&comma; 1966&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The character of Irena represents the ideal woman in the film&colon; sexually liberated and free of men&period; She also serves as a counterbalance to Leslie’s character through her &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;rejection of the passive &OpenCurlyQuote;feminine’ role” &lpar;<em>Radical <&sol;em>63&rpar;&period; Early in the film&comma; Leslie and Logan attend a party and meet Irena for the first time&period; During the party&comma; Irena retreats to a backroom where she has a young&comma; anxious man waiting for her&period; As she enters the room&comma; she sees that he has brought a whip with him&period; She takes the whip from him&comma; while an anonymous female partygoer enters the room&period; Irena begins whipping the man off-screen as the third female smiles&period; This scene shows the female character&comma; Irena&comma; as one who is capable of being dominant over the male character &lpar;who becomes the passive &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;victim” of sexual aggression&rpar;&comma; while also allowing for the implied objectification of the male body through the gaze of the anonymous female voyeur&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Later&comma; after Logan attacks Leslie and Irena for sleeping together&comma; he pursues Irena out to the street&period; As he comes toward her&comma; she turns and begins to mock him&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;go ahead&comma; you’re strong enough for me but you’re not man enough for her&period;” Logan immediately stops and looks humiliated&period; She implies that even though he is strong enough to beat up women&comma; he is not able to please his wife sexually&period; Thus&comma; while Leslie represents the female that is a victim of patriarchal society&comma; Irena represents the female who resists convention and is dominant over men&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Similar to <em>The Alley Cats<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Therese and Isabelle<&sol;em> is critical of the society that imposes oppressive gender roles on women&period; In the film&comma; the narrative unfolds as a series of flashbacks&period; As an adult&comma; Therese visits the all-girls school that she attended as a teenager&comma; recalling memories of her time there&period; During her first days at the school&comma; Therese meets a young man from another school who tries to seduce her&period; When his attempts fail&comma; he rapes her&period; While Therese tries to deal with this trauma&comma; she meets Isabelle&period; The two girls quickly fall in love and find themselves in an affair that they must keep from the puritanical school authorities and their overbearing parents&period; However&comma; due to forces beyond their control&comma; namely the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;intolerance” of society&comma; Therese and Isabelle are eventually torn apart&comma; never to see each other again &lpar;Mellen 74&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image wp-image-577"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;04&sol;thereseandisabellovers&period;png" alt&equals;"Therese and Isabelle" class&equals;"wp-image-577" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"380"&sol;><figcaption>A rare instance of nudity as Therese and Isabelle contemplate the future of their relationship &lpar;<em>Therese and Isabelle<&sol;em>&comma; Radley Metzger&comma; 1968&rpar;&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The narrative itself emphasizes the distinction between the two girls &lpar;as prisoners&rpar; and the rest of society &lpar;as the prison&rpar;&period; Radley Metzger is careful not to trivialize their plight&comma; deciding instead to portray them as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;strong young women whose relationship resonates with transgressive power” &lpar;Morris&rpar;&period; The narrative is seen through the eyes of Therese&comma; encouraging the audience to sympathize with her struggle&period; She is portrayed as a victim&comma; with her greatest antagonists being rape&comma; sexual repression&comma; and homophobia&period; The use of a female protagonist opposes the general trend of the 1960’s&comma; a period in which the focus is &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;generally on the male protagonist&comma; often the director’s alter ego…That a woman might not be entirely satisfied with her lot in life&comma; or might want to let go with a little insanity of her own&comma; never occurs to these protagonists&comma; or to their creators” &lpar;Haskell 335&rpar;&period; In <em>Therese and Isabelle<&sol;em>&comma; Therese is the hero&period; She is the alienated spirit who must cope with a male society that exercises its power on her mind&comma; through forced gender roles&comma; and body&comma; through rape&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Though the film still portrays nude female bodies &lpar;albeit sparingly&rpar;&comma; the narrative focuses on the plight of both Therese and Isabelle to be together despite the overwhelming odds&period; Thus&comma; the spectator is made to see the psychological strain that a patriarchal society can put on women&comma; while the film deemphasizes the women’s bodies as objects of visual pleasure&period; During a scene in which both girls discuss their situation on the way to class&comma; Isabelle states that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;we can’t run away&period; This is where we have to be&period;” Later&comma; they flee to a nearby hotel that also serves as a brothel to have a moment alone with each other&period; When the girls enter the lobby they see dozens of birds locked in cages&period; Both of these narrative elements refer back to the sense of helplessness that the girls experience&period; Therese and Isabelle realize that they have to be there&comma; as they are metaphorically locked in a cage&period; They must serve certain male-defined roles in a society that they cannot escape&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The film also illuminates subtle ways in which patriarchal societies have an oppressive hold over women’s bodies&period; During a scene portraying intercourse between Therese and Isabelle&comma; the narrator &lpar;adult Therese&rpar; refers to the clitoris as the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;pearl&comma;” which was the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;little male organ all of us had&period;” Even with her own body&comma; Therese cannot identify her sexual organs in gender-specific ways&period; Rather than being a uniquely female organ&comma; it is simply a smaller version of a male organ&period; In an oppressive&comma; male-dominated society&comma; female identity and sexuality can only be defined in relation to masculine terms&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Though <em>The Lickerish Quartet<&sol;em> has the most nudity of all three films and focuses less on the negative effects of a patriarchal society&comma; the narrative does make a self-reflexive attempt to condemn the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;low-brow” spectator of the sexploitation film&period; The film embodies the duality of Metzger’s &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;hybrid” genre&comma; which makes a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;claim for the &OpenCurlyQuote;average’ audience and purportedly deflects the more &OpenCurlyQuote;prurient’ viewer who is out to see flesh regardless of the finer points of story&comma; sentiment&comma; and ambience” &lpar;Gorfinkel 30&rpar;&period; <em>The Lickerish Quartet<&sol;em> begins with the image of a black and white soft-core pornographic film&comma; or &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;stag” film&comma; accompanied by the sounds of a man breathing heavily and giggling off screen&period; The shot changes to reveal that this character is a man projecting the film in his home&comma; accompanied by his wife and son&period; After discussing the film&comma; the family goes to a carnival where they see a woman who looks exactly like one of the actresses in the film&period; The father convinces her to come back to their mansion&period; As the night continues&comma; the woman has sexual encounters with all three family members&period; With each subsequent encounter&comma; it becomes harder to distinguish between what is &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;real” and what is fictional&period; The characters become the actors in the stag film&comma; switching in and out of the roles&period; By the end of the narrative&comma; the people who were originally in the stag film now sit in the living room&comma; watching the film with the father&comma; wife&comma; and son occupying the images on screen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>By showing the act of watching a stag film&comma; during which the male voyeur pants and ogles the naked women&comma; the opening scene draws the spectator’s attention to his own participation in the film&period; As feminist theorist Laura Mulvey puts it&comma; the male voyeur finds pleasure through &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;scopophilia” in which &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;looking itself is a source of pleasure” &lpar;713&rpar;&period; The spectator looks at the women on screen &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;as objects&comma; subjecting them to a controlling and curious gaze” &lpar;Mulvey 713&rpar;&period; By showing the spectator an image of a man finding pleasure through scopophilia&comma; the film holds up a mirror to male spectators that desire to be &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;entertained and aroused” rather than &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;educated and edified” &lpar;Gorfinkel 30&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>During the viewing of the stag film&comma; the family enters into a discussion about the actors and actresses having sex on screen&period; The wife wonders aloud if &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;they’re enjoying it&comma; or just faking…it must be distracting knowing people are watching&period; Knowing people are going to watch&period;” While the sex of the stag film is more explicit than what is usually portrayed in Radley Metzger’s films&comma; it still directly addresses the problem that his films serve as objects for sexual voyeurism&period; The son&comma; incredulous that his parents are enjoying the film&comma; states that he &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;doesn’t know what &lbrack;they&rsqb; get out of all this&period;” The film simultaneously provides sexual gratification for the spectator and condemns the act of watching for the sake of sexual gratification&period; The son continues this condemnation&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It must be a comfort to know that you can control things with nothing more than the quick flip of a switch&period;” This reflects the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;controlling gaze” that creates an uneven power dynamic between the male spectator and the woman being viewed on screen &lpar;Mulvey 713&rpar;&period; Due to the nature of film as a medium&comma; the male viewers &lpar;indeed&comma; Metzger himself&rpar; suddenly have power over the female that is objectified&period; This fact is exemplified when the father watches the film again in reverse&comma; and a third time in high-speed&period; Later in the film&comma; this &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;need” to have control over women is explained through the father’s anxieties about his own impotence&period; He combats his insecurities through film&comma; which allows him to be both voyeur and puppet master to the women on screen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The switching between narrative &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;reality” and the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;fiction” of the stag film breaks down the barrier between spectator and film&period; While a spectator of Metzger’s films can enjoy the nudity and sexuality as a voyeur&comma; it suddenly becomes problematic when the film proposes that the actors on screen are actual people&comma; and that the spectator could just as easily be in the film as in the theater&period; By shortening the distance between spectator and film narrative&comma; it becomes harder for the male audience to objectify the women on screen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>While it has already been established that the narrative themes of Radley Metzger’s films reflect progressive representations of women&comma; it is Metzger’s visual abstraction of sex that allows for his films to be sexploitation without putting emphasis on the female body&period; Instead&comma; they focus on &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the refined art of the tease&period;” &lpar;Gorfinkel 34&rpar;&period; This is most evident when compared to the films of fellow sexploitation director&comma; Doris Wishman&period; In her 1973 film <em>Love Toy<&sol;em>&comma; a down-on-his-luck father gambles away his daughter’s body to another man&period; The narrative focuses on the degrading sexual acts that the man forces the teenage girl to participate in&period; In one such scene&comma; the man makes her take off her clothes and lick milk out of a bowl like an animal&comma; while the camera lingers on her naked body and keeps the image at the center of the frame&period; In this way&comma; the film&comma; rather than criticizing the subjugation of women in patriarchal society&comma; capitalizes on the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;violent and inhumane exploitation of women to maintain dominance” &lpar;<em>Radical<&sol;em> 69&rpar;&period; While the nudity and highly graphic depictions of sex can be partially attributed to the shift from sexploitation to hardcore pornography in the mid-70’s&comma; they are also a reflection of Wishman’s style and adherence to patriarchal norms in film &lpar;Schaefer 5&rpar;&period; Even in her earlier works&comma; such as <em>Blaze Starr Goes Nudist<&sol;em> &lpar;1962&rpar; and <em>Bad Girls Go to Hell<&sol;em> &lpar;1965&rpar;&comma; Wishman uses the display of the female body and perverse sexual power relations to attract heterosexual male audiences&period; While these visual and narrative elements form the basis of the sexploitation genre&comma; Radley Metzger reworks the genre to shift the focus away from the female body&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image wp-image-580"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;04&sol;badgirls2&period;jpeg" alt&equals;"Radley Metzger Bad Girls Go to Hell" class&equals;"wp-image-580" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"580"&sol;><figcaption>The female body is on full display in Wishman&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Bad Girls Go to Hell<&sol;em> &lpar;1965&rpar;&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This practice of visual abstraction is an important point in regards to feminist theories of the late 1960’s&comma; in which feminists place the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;sexual objectification” of the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;female body at the center of their earliest manifestos” &lpar;Evans 344&rpar;&period; It is this use of the female body that forms the foundation of the sexploitation genre&period; In spite of this&comma; Metzger does not focus on the female form in his films&period; In scenes depicting intercourse&comma; the mise-en scene is used as a substitute for the female body&period; Radley Metzger uses &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;decorative objects such as sculptures&comma; glass bottles&comma; furniture and mirrors&comma; and creative attention to off-screen space” to imply sex and titillate the audience without relying on the female form &lpar;Gorfinkel 34&rpar;&period; For example&comma; in <em>The Alley Cats<&sol;em>&comma; Leslie’s first sexual encounter is implied mostly through point of view shots from her perspective&period; As she receives oral sex&comma; we catch glimpses of different parts of the room and ceiling&comma; occasionally seeing Leslie’s head as a reflection in a mirror&period; As Leslie nears climax&comma; the shots are edited together more rapidly and the room begins to spin&comma; ending with a close-up of Leslie’s face&period; In Radley Metzger’s films&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;it is the <em>style itself<&sol;em> that is being eroticized&comma;” rather than the female body &lpar;Gorfinkel 35&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>A later sex scene between Logan and his mistress&comma; Agnes&comma; is seen through distorted and disorienting imagery&period; The image of both bodies is blurry to the point of being unidentifiable&period; In this scene&comma; the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;images arrest the motion towards representational truthfulness of the sexed body in favor of presenting sex as aesthetically mediated or dematerializing” &lpar;Gorfinkel 34&rpar;&period; By either distorting the image of the body or bypassing the image entirely&comma; Radley Metzger directs the spectator to the sensuality of his own style&comma; rather than the desirability of the female body&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Similarly to <em>The Alley Cats<&sol;em>&comma; the sex scenes in <em>Therese and Isabelle<&sol;em> are always portrayed through suggestive mis-en-scene or descriptive narration&period; When Therese and Isabelle kiss for the first time&comma; they are only visible as shadows behind a curtain&period; Later&comma; when their relationship becomes more physical&comma; the narrator describes the events taking place while the camera pans away&period; In Richard Corliss’ review of the film&comma; even the rape scene is described as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;tame&comma;” with both characters being &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;fully clothed” &lpar;Corliss 64&rpar;&period; Although the girls’ breasts are shown at certain moments throughout the film&comma; the nudity is scarce and is most often distorted&period; The last time that the girls sleep together is only shown as a shaky reflection in the water of a nearby creek&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image wp-image-579"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;04&sol;409f9757e52f647382278790a60369c5&period;jpg-1&period;png" alt&equals;"Radley Metzger The Lickerish Quartet" class&equals;"wp-image-579" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"400"&sol;><figcaption>The library scene in <em>The Lickerish Quartet<&sol;em> &lpar;Radley Metzger&comma; 1970&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>While the sex scenes in <em>The Lickerish Quartet<&sol;em> are the most explicit of all three films&comma; the camera never lingers on the female body&period; When the mysterious woman from the stag film seduces the father in the library&comma; she is only seen naked for a moment&period; When they begin to have sex&comma; the camera focuses on the stylized set that the characters occupy&period; The library floor has thousands of words written on it referring to sex and genitalia&period; The camera pans to different words as we hear the two characters having sex in the background&period; Later&comma; when the woman and the son have sex&comma; it is seen through extreme long-shots&comma; in which the characters only appear as tiny figures&comma; or extreme close-ups&comma; in which both the male and female face occupy the entire screen&period; Similarly&comma; the stag film that is shown throughout the narrative uses extreme close-ups of the actors’ faces&period; The film uses the promise of sexuality to attract audiences&comma; but the display of the female body is always minimal and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;discreet” &lpar;Schaefer 5&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>While it cannot be ignored that the sexual themes of Radley Metzger’s films are used to attract and titillate heterosexual male audiences&comma; his representations of women and frequent abstraction of the female body reflect deference for the feminist ideals of the 60’s and 70’s&period; Metzger uses male characters to represent the misogynistic American society&comma; while the female characters represent the heroes of the narrative&comma; who try to find sexual liberation and freedom from oppression &lpar;both successfully and unsuccessfully&rpar;&period; The use of clever mise-en-scene allows visual style to be the source of pleasure for the spectator&comma; rather than the image of the nude female&period; In doing this&comma; the films dismiss the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;low-brow” sex film audience in favor of spectators seeking a combination of art and erotica&period; In the light of the feminist movement of the 1960’s and the changing conceptions of gender and sexuality&comma; Radley Metzger’s films exceed the classification of being mere sexploitation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>&ast;Originally Published in Film Matters Magazine &lpar;Issue 4&period;4&rpar;&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;intellectbooks&period;com&sol;film-matters"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;intellectbooks&period;com&sol;film-matters">https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;intellectbooks&period;com&sol;film-matters<&sol;a><&sol;a><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>&ast;Jones&comma; Matthew&period; &&num;8220&semi;Metzger&&num;8217&semi;s Women&colon; Gender Representations and Visual Abstraction in &&num;8217&semi;60s Sexploitation&period;&&num;8221&semi;&nbsp&semi;<i>Film Matters<&sol;i>&nbsp&semi;Dec&period; 2013&colon; 12-18&period; Print&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>Corliss&comma; Richard&period; &&num;8220&semi;Therese and Isabelle&period;&&num;8221&semi; Rev&period; of <em>Therese and Isabelle<&sol;em>&period; <em>Film Quarterly<&sol;em> 22&period;1&nbsp&semi;<&sol;strong><strong>&lpar;1968&rpar;&colon; 63-67&period; Print&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>Evans&comma; Sara&nbsp&semi;M&period; &&num;8220&semi;Sons&comma; Daughters&comma; and Patriarchy&colon; Gender and the 1968 Generation&period;&&num;8221&semi; <em>The <&sol;em><&sol;strong><strong><em>American Historical Review<&sol;em> 114&period;2 &lpar;2009&rpar;&colon; 331-47&period; Print&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>Gorfinkel&comma; Elena&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Radley Metzger’s &OpenCurlyQuote;Elegant Arousal’&colon; Taste&comma; Aesthetic Distinction and&nbsp&semi;<&sol;strong><strong>Sexploitation&period;” <em>Underground USA&colon; Filmmaking beyond the Hollywood Canon<&sol;em>&period; Ed&period; Xavier Mendik and Steven Jay&period; Schneider&period; London&colon; Wallflower&comma; 2002&period; 26-39&period; Print&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>Haskell&comma; Molly&period; &&num;8220&semi;The Last Decade&period;&&num;8221&semi; <em>From Reverence to Rape&colon; The Treatment of Women in the <&sol;em><&sol;strong><strong><em>Movies<&sol;em>&period; New York&colon; Holt&comma; Rinehart and Winston&comma; 1974&period; 323-71&period; Print&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>Henderson&comma; Eric&period; &&num;8220&semi;The Alley Cats&period;&&num;8221&semi; Rev&period; of <em>The Alley Cats<&sol;em>&period; <em>Slant Magazine<&sol;em> 30 Nov&period; 2004&colon; n&period; pag&period; <em>Slant Magazine<&sol;em>&period; Web&period; 10 Sept&period; 2012 &lt&semi;<a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;slantmagazine&period;com&sol;film&sol;review&sol;the-alley-cats&sol;1268" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" aria-label&equals;"undefined &lpar;opens in a new tab&rpar;" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener">http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;slantmagazine&period;com&sol;film&sol;review&sol;the-alley-cats&sol;1268<&sol;a>>&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>Kaplan&comma; Ann&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Feminist Perspective in Film Studies&period;” <em>Journal of the University Film <&sol;em><&sol;strong><strong><em>Association<&sol;em>&period; Vol&period; 26&period; Women In Film &lpar;1974&rpar;&period; 5&comma; 18-20&comma; 22&period; Print&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>Lucas&comma; Tim&period; &&num;8220&semi;Lickerish All-sorts&period;&&num;8221&semi; <em>Sight &amp&semi; Sound<&sol;em> Nov&period; 2011&colon; 86&period; Print&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>Mellen&comma; Joan&period; &&num;8220&semi;Lesbianism in the Movies&period;&&num;8221&semi; <em>Women and Their Sexuality in the New Film&period;<&sol;em> New&nbsp&semi;<&sol;strong><strong>York&colon; Horizon&comma; 1974&period; 74-105&period; Print&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>Morris&comma; Gary&period; &&num;8220&semi;Seduction Is Universal&colon; Thoughts on Radley Metzger&period;&&num;8221&semi; <em>Bright Lights Film Journal<&sol;em> 21 &lpar;1998&rpar;&colon; n&period; pag&period; <em>Bright Lights Film Journal<&sol;em>&period; Web&period; 10 Sept&period; 2012&period;&lt&semi;<a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;brightlightsfilm&period;com&sol;21&sol;21&lowbar;metzger&period;php" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" aria-label&equals;"undefined &lpar;opens in a new tab&rpar;" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener">http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;brightlightsfilm&period;com&sol;21&sol;21&lowbar;metzger&period;php<&sol;a>>&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>Mulvey&comma; Laura&period; &&num;8220&semi;Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema&period;&&num;8221&semi; <em>Film Theory and Criticism<&sol;em>&period; 7th ed&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;strong><strong>Oxford&colon; Oxford UP&comma; 2009&period; 711-22&period; Print&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong><em>The Radical Women Manifesto&colon; Socialist Feminist Theory&comma; Program and Organizational <&sol;em><&sol;strong><strong><em>Structure&period;<&sol;em> Seattle&comma; WA&colon; Red Letter&comma; 1973&period; Print&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>Schaefer&comma; Eric&period; &&num;8220&semi;Gauging a Revolution&colon; 16mm Film and the Rise of the Pornographic Feature&period;&&num;8221&semi; <em>Cinema Journal<&sol;em> 41&period;3 &lpar;2002&rpar;&colon; 3-26&period; Print&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you&&num;8217&semi;d like to read more film essays like this one&comma; consult the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;">Philosophy in Film Homepage<&sol;a>&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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