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Mace’s character in this film really surprised me in a pleasant way. Her dominant character went against the normal stereotype where gaze on women, presumably white, made female characters sexualized or “eye candy”. I really loved how she had her role on lock and kicked butt.

Mace > Faith

In the reading for this week, Jane Gaines’s essay White Privilege and Looking Relations: Race and Gender in Feminist Film Theory disputes different feminist theories, which she makes a point to state how some do not fully recognize the discrimination against women of color. Her reading also touches on women in film are made subject to the male gaze and how they play a bigger role in more than just “eye candy”. She states, “…women’s sexuality evokes an unconscious terror in men, then black women’s sexuality represents a special threat to white patriarchy; the possibility of its eruption stands for the aspirations of the black race as a whole” (p. 303) In the film Strange Days (1995), the audience gets to see and appreciate a powerful women of color. There were countless times when Mace came to Lenny’s rescue but one that stands out the most is when Philo sent him to the basement of his home and Lenny starts getting beat by three of his people. Mace comes in and single handedly fights off the three attackers and saves Lenny. Not at a single point was her character made to be sexualized by the male gaze. She just exuded raw strength and power. She exuded the “heteronormative” character we usually see played by men. She kept saving Lenny’s life, she had her emotions on lock, and she was the rational thinker. Mace embodied the idea Gaines had for a black women’s sexuality representing a special threat to white patriarchy.

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Mace played the role of a strong black woman, and only until the end of the film did they portray her as sexy or a love interest. In the last scene I did not expect her to whoop the two cops, and especially when she was beaten by 5 or 6 riot control officers. Just like you said, when Mace and Lenny get together its an awkward fit according to Gaines’ piece.

Strange Days(1995)

Jane Gaines believes that when most film discusses female sexuality the attention is on white women. She goes even further to assert that the gaze is only on white female heterosexual women. This isolates a large portion of the audience who is not white nor heterosexual. By withholding characters that society can universally identify with a film narrows its reach. Gaines states “black women’s sexuality represents a special threat to white patriarchy; the possibility of its eruption stands for the aspirations of the black race as a whole” (p. 303) she is claiming that black women’s underrepresentation in film is due to the looming threat of their powerful presence and filmmakers resistance toward giving them a fair share of screen time. In Strange Days(1995)  Mace’s character was not seen as a romantic love interest until the very last scene. Lenny was preoccupied with Faith and was not able to realize his feelings for Mace. The final scene shows Mace as a strong character and refrains from hypersexualization by giving her a heroic role that a man would normally take on. The image of the police officers beaten Mace shows that she gets no advantage for being a woman and is seen as an equal. In the end Lenny and Mace end up together which is unusual according to Gaines’ essay.

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Viewing Response 14: Strange days (1995)

In this week’s text, “ White Privilege and Looking Relations: Race and Gender in Feminist Film Theory” by Jane Gaines, discusses multiple feminist theories.The text also describes how the oppression of women of color is not fully grasped in some theories. For example, “In Marxist feminist analysis, the factors of race and sexual preference have remained loose ends; as categories of oppression they fit somewhat awkwardly into a model based on class relations in capitalist society” (page 294). In the Marxist theory it identifies racial conflict as class struggle, but this does not explain how exactly gender intersects with race. This theory fails to include females of color, such as Lornette “Mace” Mason from the film Strange Days (1995). This theory does not include instances such as the last scene where Mace was on the ground getting beaten to death by police officers weilding batons. Lornette Mason was awkwardly fit into this film where she worked as a bodyguard and drove a bullet-resistant car, while still having feelings for Lenny Nero. This awkward fit worked wonders for the film, however, by promoting a more accurate “gaze” of strong women of color.

#cinematicstyle #swampfilmanalysis

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