Opengender

A structural disposition for the gaze to be masculinised within the heterosexual ordering of visual space in cinema has formed a central problematic for feminist film theory. At the same time, 'masculinisation,' 'mannishness,' or 'butch' identifications have been a perennial focus of lesbian politics. Of course, both problematics derive from the effective 'masculinisation' of all representations of control, authority or any kind of pro-activity in the discursive production of heterosexual gender. More recently, in the discursive field of queer discourse, crossdressing practices and metaphors have again constituted a major focus. Although these three discourses deal with the trope of 'the phallus' in very different ways, I shall be treating feminist and lesbian deployments of these tropes as citing the same basic problem in the discursive struggle for female autonomy — that is, the "phallic" over-determination of all representation of pro-activity, including "desire," in heterosexist discourse.