Black Swan and the post feminist masquerade
This text will employ the topic of female individualisation and the post feminist masquerade using the film ‘Black Swan’ as example. The lead character and dedicated ballet-dancer Nina’s fatal struggle to achieve her career goal, and the obstacles she faces on her way, will act as example for this contemporary phenomenon. Young women’s role in society and in the media has radically changed the last decade — the spotlight aimed at girls and young women and the pressure to succeed to is radically different to the attention aimed at young men. In what ways is this mirrored in young women, physically and mentally, and how does it affect their everyday life? The work of McRobbie and Harris will be applied to further develop and support the arguments.
The notion of self-governing and scrutinising of self can be closely linked to the neo-liberalist notion of everyone being responsible for their own accomplishments which puts enormous pressure on anyone trying to pursue a successful career. The traits required to fulfil this ideal can sometimes be very contradictive; almost inhuman. Harris comments on the individualisation of young girls and the pressure to succeed: ‘The ideas about choice and freedom are central to contemporary notions of individuality. In today’s risk society individuals are expected to be flexible, adaptable, resilient, and ultimately responsible for their own ability to manage their lives successfully. One’s own life becomes a personal project much like a do-it-yourself assemblage.’
‘Black Swan’ is a very interesting, if not perfect, example of how occupation and self-identity goes hand in hand. Luminosity or ‘the spotlight of power’ is an interesting concept which easily can be applied to Nina’s case. McRobbie writes on the luminosity around young women: ‘Within this cloud of light, young women are taken to be actively engaged in the production of self. They must become harsh judges of themselves.’ Although Nina feels great pressure from her mother, her teacher and colleagues it is ultimately Nina that continuously keeps pushing herself regardless of all the warning signs, going through extreme efforts to prove that she is ‘good enough’. The price for this seems irrelevant. In the film, Nina’s ‘good girl’ side is reflected through the White Swan while the ‘bad girl’ side is portrayed in the Black Swan, the side that eventually comes to consume and destroy her whole being.
When all the prerequisites have been handed to an individual, it is he or she that ultimately is to be blamed unless capable of coping with the anxiety and stress this might induce. Hallucinations, paranoia and sleep-trouble are only some of the dysfunctions that Nina suffers through, never once considering abandoning her gruelling schedule. ‘The primary focus of this concern about girls’ self-esteem is white, middle-class young women who are supposed to succeed, or who are perceived to have everything and yet cannot overcome psychological obstacles to their own guaranteed success.’[4] Through the film, Nina deals with her problems through punishing herself and at one occasion through drugs and sex. For Nina, herself and her mother are the only ones to be blamed for everything that goes wrong in her life; the mother who through Nina hopes to recuperate her own youth.
There is an interesting story which is parallel to the narrative of the film; that of Natalie Portman’s own extreme dedication to perfect her portrayal as Nina. At the time of the film’s press release, it was hard to escape articles celebrating the physical transformation and commitment Portman had gone through during the shooting of the film; starvation and hours of ballet-training every day for a year was written about celebratory and was ultimately rewarded with the highest honour of the film industry; an Academy Award. The media-narrative of the super-achieving, beautiful and successful young woman works as a sort of double-edged sword; on one hand it can work as inspiration for other young women but on the other hand it can trigger the performance anxiety in young women producing a sense of never being able to measure up to this discourse of ‘having it all’.
Aesthetic notions are often discussed when it comes to demands on women; the beauty and fashion history make extreme profits every year, playing upon insecurities and self-governing. In ‘Black Swan’ it becomes clear just how painful and ugly beauty can be; the constant measuring up and physical comparisons in the ballet world are here portrayed harshly. McRobbie writes regarding this seemingly eternal measuring-stick:´Patriarchal authority is subsumed within a regime of self-policing whose strict criteria form the benchmark against which women must endlessly and repeatedly measure themselves, from the earliest years right through to old age.
Ultimately, the stream of opportunities and options aimed at young women, which in many aspects can be seen as very positive developments can also be destructive forces producing impossible demands making it very hard to ever feel satisfied at work as well as socially.
‘The meanings which converge around the figure of the girl or young women, are more weighted towards capacity, success, attainment, enjoyment, entitlement, social mobility and participation. The dynamics of regulation and control are less about what young women ought not to do, and more about what they can do.’ Black Swan truly conveys the potential downsides of female anxiety, intensely mirroring the mental anguish and physical distress that young women put them selves through in order to match society’s and their own ideal and expectations. Although women’s position in many aspects have increased since the 1970’s, this continuous increase and mood of self-governing and surveillance seems a far cry from the feminist ideal.
