Gender and Sexuality in The Piano Essay -- Piano Essays

Gender and Sexuality in The PianoTHERE IS A SILENCE WHERE HATH BEEN NO SOUND THERE IS A SILENCE WHERE NO SOUND MAY BE IN THE COLD GRAVE, UNDER THE secret DEEP SEA. With these words, The Piano ends and leaves me in a state of confusion just about what superman the film was trying to express. The film by Jane Campion has been compared to the likes of Wuthering highschool and has been highly lauded for championing freedom of womens sexual practice and individuation. Many critics, though, have debated on the final meanings of the film. This is possible because the film has such complicated characters, such as the main character Ada, who have intricate reasons for carrying out their actions. Campion created a film with a complex storyline that has no clear, easily extracted meaning. I believe that most critics have missed the films point when they try to argue what Adas expression of her gender and sexuality means. I would like to argue that while Ada does find a solution to the qu estion of her individuality and sexuality, this solution is not the feminist idol of overcoming the status of Other and becoming a fully liberated cleaning woman that some reviewers claim it is. Nor is her solution an acceptance of the gender ideology prescribe by patriarchal society. Instead, Ada assumes a complex identity that move somewhere in between these two extremes. The Piano demonstrates that although gender identity theories are complex themselves and help provide understanding, they fail to accurately and whole describe a particular persons gender identity and sexuality because these can be combinations of many, perhaps even contradictory, factors. So, the movies representation of gender and sexuality is more Foucauldian, though some characters may still see thems... ...Winter 1998) 227-244. Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. New York Vintage Books, 1990.Gillett, Sue. Lips and fingers Jane Campions The Piano. Screen 36 (Autumn 1995)277-287. Hardy, Ann. Th e Last Patriarch. Jane Campions The Piano. Ed. Harriet Margolis. Cambridge Cambridge UP, 2000. 59-85.Hoeveler, Diane Long. Silence, Sex, and Feminism An trial of The PianosUnacknowledged Sources. Literature Film Quarterly, 1998, Vol. 26 abridge 2, 109 116. Academic Search Elite. EBSCO Publishing. March 23, 2001 http//ehostvgw16.epnet.comMargolis, Harriet, ed. Jane Campions The Piano. Cambridge Cambridge UP, 2000.Sawicki, Jana. Feminism, Foucault, and Subjects of Power and Freedom. womens liberationist Interpretations of Michel Foucault. Ed. Susan J. Hekman. University Park, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania State UP, 1996. 159-178.