Detalhes do Documento

How does experimental cinema disassemble voyeurism? And what are its political implications when viewed from different gender positions? Yoko Ono's Fly (1970) questions the role of women as passive objects by means of a 'masculine' intruder in the form of a fly. Andy Warhol's Blowjob (1964) explores the vulnerability of a sexually aroused man and holds the viewer accountable for watching him. In Copies (1975), by Julião Sarmento, the director/voyeur reveals himself at the end, thus abandoning his space-shadow and showing himself to be an exhibitionist. This paper argues that though the dismantling of voyeurism by the experimental cinema of the 1960 and 70s is often associated with a feminist perspective, there are significant male counter examples, from both queer and heterosexual viewpoints. Warhol and Sarmento question an orthodox feminist theory bound to a binary analysis (male/female, activity/passivity, watching/being watched, voyeur/exhibitionist, subject/object) and show that the subject of voyeurism is far more ambivalent, heterodox and complex.