Gender Inversion and Spectator Identity in Silence of the Lambs
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document in english
arts and art history
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published 09/02/2008
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SummaryJonathan Demme's 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs centers on a young FBI trainee’s attempts to catch a deranged serial killer before he kills again. Clarice Starling is a young woman determined to rise through the ranks of the male FBI. Already at a social disadvantage due to her sex, she must push against the glass ceiling while simultaneously searching for an elusive serial killer who steals the skin of his victims. Jame Gumb, the serial killer Buffalo Bill, is a sexually confused male who appropriates the skins of women so that he can wear them, in essence becoming a woman. Not surprisingly given these thematics, the film brings gender roles heavily into question. In order for Clarice to be taken seriously as an FBI agent, and for that matter to catch Gumb, she must exude masculine professionalism and toughness. This creates a degree of confusion within the male gaze. It is usual for the woman in film to be the object of the male spectator’s gaze: it is also standard for men to identify with a male protagonist. But in this film the audience is given neither a solid male role to identify with nor a solid female role to gaze at. What we are presented with instead are two theoretical transvestites, and a consequent confusion of whom the subject is and who is the object of the film. By the end of the film, Jame Gumb and Clarice Starling have both been sexually inverted, and the audience identifies with the female-turned-male role of Clarice over the male-turned-female role of Gumb. The true confusion lies within the character of Jame Gumb and his own literal grapple with sexuality.
Table of Contents
- The first thing the audience sees of the elusive Buffalo Bill killer is his eyes.
- In a typical slasher film, scenes of the actual act of murders are represented.
- The opening credits of the film feature Clarice Starling running an obstacle course at the FBI training center.
- In the course of the film, Clarice Starling's sexual identity is not only concealed.
- It is also a shared masculinity, materialized in ‘all those phallic symbols?.
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