Day of the Woman?

【文/王Chanson】

First of all, how to understand social construction? I would like to point out that social constructionism is a term that is used exclusively by psychologists. And, why I adopt the term in this short essay? A more radical example of this theory is that of gender and sex. Our observations of the world suggest to us that there are two categories of human being, men and women. Social constructionism bids us to seriously question whether the categories – 『men』 and 『women』 – are simply a reflection of natural role and position in the societies. The film 『I Spit on Your Grave』 (Meir Zarchi, 1978) may be considered as a feminist work, but also can be understood as the 『aboriginal』 fighting between maternity and paternity, or even a wild atrocious game among the human beings. It is still banded in some countries. However, this story has been adopted into new versions in 1985 and 2010 respectively.

      It’s noted, the director Zarchi said that he was inspired to make the film after helping a young woman who had been raped in 紐約. He pointed out that the violent nature of the movie was necessary to tell the story and even described the actress Camille Keaton as 『brave』 for taking on the role.

      In someone』 eyes, it is not seriously a horror film. Conceptually, horror films center on the dark side of life, the forbidden, and strange and alarming events; they deal with the viewer’s nightmares, vulnerability, hidden worst fears, alienation, revulsions, terror of the unknown, fear of death and dismemberment. Definitely, almost these elements had been presented on the screen, but it is on the surface level. At that moment, feminism issue was another serious point. Take a simple scene for instance, Johnny’s wife shouted at Stanley and Andy at the poor petrol station while she realized her husband’s disappearance, and the way she dropped on the two guys indicated her dominating; moreover, only their son circled her mother not their daughter. Although this scene is not an important part in the whole film, it owns its particular implications. Obviously, the confrontation and resolution of the film tell more ideas on this specific issue.
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