MAS 205: Gilda's Portrayal of Gender Roles in Classic Film Noir

This essay analyzes the film Gilda, focusing on the representation of gender, masculinity, and femininity within the film noir genre. The essay's thesis argues that Gilda reflects social constructs that portray masculinity and femininity as rigid. The discussion examines the film's exploration of marginality, sexuality, and the complexities of the femme fatale character. It delves into homoerotic subtexts, the portrayal of Johnny and Ballin, and the ways Gilda challenges traditional gender roles. The essay references academic sources to support its arguments, analyzing Gilda's actions, the impact of male characters on her character, and the film's exploration of male anxieties. The conclusion reinforces the idea of Gilda as a source of conflict stemming from male anxieties and the film's contribution to the film noir genre, highlighting the performance of Rita Hayworth. The essay examines how the film subverts traditional gender roles and explores the construction of the femme fatale.

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Introduction
In the 1940s, viewers of film noir gained knowledge to work more enthusiastically for
their cinematic pleasure since film became greatly opaque. The cinematic style recognized as
Film Noir chiefly captures ideological principles that break with the generic typology of women,
in contrast with explicit genres as the women’s Hollywood blockbusters hits (Butters Jr 2014).
According to Ilie-Prica (2014), the compilation of female characters portrayed in Film Noir
offers a sense of sexual mobility as a consequence of the artistic approach to the genre. The sub-
genre of film noir is highly complicate specifically when viewed through a gendered lens. Gilda
is recognized as an iconic within film movement often rated along with classics such as The
Maltese Falcon and the Third Man. Corneliussen, Seddighi and Dralega (2018) have noted that
Gilda also stands as one of the highly recognized and most remembered feminist fatales in the
film history. However, while watching the film it can observe that there are no signs of
malevolence in the film. On the other hand, the story articulates masculine views of femininity
on her character. The thesis statement of the essay is Gilda is a representation of the social
construct which explains masculinity and femininity as rigid and inflexible.
Discussion
The contrary facets of Film Noir particularly on the subject of marginal facets of society
which involves prohibit activities resulting to explicit contexts that facilitates mobility and
developments not only on the thematic that are taken into account although the sexual aspects
related to protagonists in the film. According to Dumit (2014), film noir has illustrated
marginality, social apprehensions, and conflicts in addition to severe personalities within an
arena which demands robust characterization to be regarded not as hegemonic and turn into

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accepted. The nature of the Film Noir has taken into account films like Gilda which refers to
critical forbidden spaces. Comprehensive study of Nichols (2010) has mentioned that regardless
of the genres principles and standards in Gilda, the way through which they have approached the
capacities of sexual mobility draws variance depending on the period when Gilda has been
released. Gilda reflects a thriving homoerotic triangle. According to Chin (2015), in the movie
Gilda, one of the main characters, Johnny had a voice-over pretend to direct the audience to take
into consideration Gilda as a femme fatal. The film portrayed that Johnny contravened the
conviction not due to his love and affection towards Gilda, but due to his infidelity which has
eventually brought him to financial affluence. In the opening scene, Johnny’s character was
almost being murdered, but to some extent was rescued by Ballin. According to Kein (2015), not
only Ballin rescued Johnny’s life but opened a new opportunities and prospects of living as an
economically prosperous man in Buenos Aires. However, during the period of Gilda’s release in
the 1940s, in 1946, the homoerotic associations had not been illustrated with utmost explicitness
in films. However, Johnny devotion to Ballin would not let him love Gilda. At this juncture of
the movie, the story showed an implication of the couple being together at the end of the movie,
with the demise of Ballin’s role in the movie (Scharff 2016).
Furthermore, Gilda has reflected aspects of gender considerations in relation to norms as
well as masculinity which tend to highlight an interesting aspect. In Gilda, the male protagonist,
Johnny did not comprise the fluidity of the story. On the other hand, the character has been
trapped within the femme fatale desires (Ponzanesi 2016). Moreover, the dichotomy which might
result to inaccurately take into consideration women as ‘passive’ and male as ‘dynamic’ has been
disproved in the film’s storyline. At this juncture, mobility has signified a female identity, as
they are the ones which direct action and constitutes an interesting as well as captivating plot of

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the film. Biesen (2015) has noted that Gilda exhibited a desire to get revenge at Johnny. At these
junctures, the spaces they have been strategically inserted, even if it has been an illegal Casino at
Buenos Aires, which facilitated the chief character to rupture with gender constructions around
femininity in addition to the norm. Meanwhile, Ilie-Prica (2014) has claimed that for Gilda's role,
she showed an inclination in proving the fact that Johnny had same level of affection and love
towards her. Thus, the narration of Gilda has depicted the way Gilda danced and flirted with
other men only to observe the reaction of Johnny. However, Gilda further indulged herself
influencing Johnny by rupturing on his protectiveness of Ballin when she failed to receive the
desired outcome (Biesen 2015). Thus, she positions him in the position of enclosing up her
theatrical infidelities. In such a sense, Gilda has utilized factors which Doane refers to as the
deception of femininity. Moreover, according to authors, in the movie, Gilda has been explicitly
corresponding to as an overstatement of femininity, with well-coifed hair and remarkably
feminine dress. According to Ilie-Prica (2014), Gilda has a fetishist association with clothing
when the story portrays that Gilda has been lying on the bed rolling her stockings down her legs
or in order to Ballin to close her into her dress. However, in these scenarios, Gilda has emitted a
fetishized sexuality which magnetizes men and she uses that attraction to capture them.
Moreover, as Doane has indicated that such an overindulgence of femininity has been essentially
been regarded by men as evil incarnate, which is precisely the way in which Johnny has
perceived Gilda’s actions. Furthermore, in the latter part of the film, Ballin further seeks to
castigate Gilda. Ballin’s role in the movie tends to enact as a form of Oedipal fantasy whereby he
seeks in order to win the love of Gilda away from Johnny, whom Ballin distrusts as the first and
true form of love. In many respects of the movie, Johnny has been viewed as a father-figure to
Ballin where he acts as Ballin's guardian as well as advisor and Ballin strategizes to kill him and

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escape with Gilda. Moreover, as in the primal scene, Ballin witnesses Johnny and Gilda together
and by the moment Ballin developed immense hatred toward Gilda, and has strategized to return
at a later date to punish her (Butters Jr 2014). According to Lindop (2014), the desire to penalize
is recognized as a significant part of dealing method that the unconscious male uses in order to
handle castration apprehension. Biesen (2015) has noted that as per the psychoanalytic theory,
part of the psychological progress of boys has been regarded as the understanding that women
lack a penis. Such a concept tends to invoke in men as a form of fear of castration along with the
existence of women constantly serves to reveal that fear. As a result, the sexual disparity has
been dependent on the source of male anxiety and such an apprehension and concern has been
consequential to Ballin for expressing such statements as "women and gambling don't mix”
(Smith 2001).
At this peak of discussion, it has been noted that Gilda chiefly stands as an iconic femme
fatale. Nevertheless her character is not a femme fatale in similar sense as Kathie in the movie
“Out of the Past’. Johnny and Ballin, the two protagonists of the film has efficiently imprinted a
remarkable amount on her character. During the initial stage of the film, Ballin perceives his
wife, “It amuses me to feed you beautiful things, because you eat with such a good appetite”.
However, while Gilda shows certain level of antagonism chiefly towards Johnny while much of
her behaviour has been merely in response to the treatment she receives (Corneliussen, Seddighi
and Dralega 2018). Such a theoretical aspect has been supported by the iconic “Put the Blame on
Mame” musical number. According to Smith (2001), the dynamic and sexy musical number has
been related to Gilda’s approach to take back certain level of authority within the narrative. This
is her response towards the management which she has attained not only from her better half, but
also from her ex- lover. On the contrary, Nichols (2010) has noted that although Gilda initially

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has appeared as a feminist film as it chiefly featured a ‘central film character’ and where Gilda’s
initial opacity afforded her intricacies. Moreover, by taking into consideration confidential
moments and true responses which exposed Gilda’s emotions, it has been noted that the creators
of the movie have significantly rendered Gilda as a flawed and complex individual. According to
Chin (2015), such an individual comprises the illusion of power and being there for her own sake
which typically reserved for men in film. Moreover, in the symptomatic criticism of film noir,
the femme fatale has been extensively comprehended as a manifestation of male apprehensions
regarding a perceived insecurity and flux of established gender roles as well as ‘normality’.
Number of writings which have been derived from Laura Mulvey’s renowned ‘ Visual Pleasure
and Narrative Cinema’ has shed light on a cinematic custom of representing women whose
authority primarily lied on the idea of ‘unknowability’ and women who in due course constitute
the authority to be ‘psychologized away’ by men (White 2015). Drawing relevance to these
aspects, it has been opined that a depiction of a strong women has been nothing but a weak
women in disguise which has predated the films during that period. In the view of Ponzanesi
(2016), such a description has draw relevance to the character of Gilda, whose strength and
independence could be understood as boldness designed to cover her feminine yearning for love.
Moreover, the eminence of the analytical theme has endangered to render the film as
misogynistic regardless of the power of Gilda's character and femininity.
Conclusion
On a concluding note, the title character in Gilda has been codified in the film itself as the
source of conflict. It has been noted that such a conflict has been related to male castration
anxiety as well as as an outcome; the male characters seek to invalidate that apprehension and
angst by punishing Gilda. Moreover, the disobedience which justifies Gilda's punishment has

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been related to her expression of sexual difference of her exaggerated femininity. Further to this,
several have considered Gilda as a classical piece of film noir. However, as significant part of
Gilda’s achievements has been because of the extraordinary performance of Hayworth. Thus, the
role of Gilda as a femme fatale fails to simply result from the construction of her character.
Furthermore, it has been owing to the projections from the men who have been around her. As a
result, Gilda developed significant knowledge of the way Ballin and Johnny perceived her.
Moreover, Gilda portrayed a subliminal message thus depicting that unsteadiness of tradition.

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References
Biesen, S.C., 2015. Censoring and Selling Film Noir. Between, 5(9).
Butters Jr, G., 2014. Masculinity in Film: The Emergence of a New Literature. Bibliographic
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Chin, C., 2015. The Homme Fatale: Transgressing Normative Behavior and the Loss of
Masculinity. Aleph, UCLA Undergraduate Research Journal for the Humanities and Social
Sciences, 12.
Corneliussen, H.G., Seddighi, G. and Dralega, C.A., 18. Women’s Experience of Role Models in
IT: Landmark women, substitutes and supporters. In Modeller (pp. 375-395).
Dumit, J., 2014. Writing the implosion: teaching the world one thing at a time. Cultural
Anthropology, 29(2), pp.344-362.
Ilie-Prica, M., 2014. Film Noir and Femme Fatale. A Contemporary
Perspective. Cinematographic Art & Documentation, (09 (13)), pp.18-23.
Kein, K., 2015. Recovering Our Sense of Humor: New Directions in Feminist Humor
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Lindop, S.J., 2014. Carmilla, Camilla: The Influence of the Gothic on David Lynch's Mulholland
Drive. M/C Journal, 17(4).
Nichols, Bill. 2010. “Introduction: Some Basic Issues and Concepts.” In Engaging Cinema: An
Introduction to Film Studies, 3–25. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

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Ponzanesi, S., 2016. Postcolonial and transnational approaches to film and feminism. In The
Routledge Companion to Cinema & Gender (pp. 45-55). Routledge.
Scharff, C., 2016. Repudiating feminism: Young women in a neoliberal world. Routledge.
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White, P., 2015. Sketchy lesbians: Carol as history and fantasy. FILM QUART, 69(2), pp.8-18.