남자 때리는 여자 - namja ttaelineun yeoja

1국민대학교

초록 열기/닫기 버튼

Karyn Kusama’s debut film, Girlfight (2000), follows a touching coming-of-age story of Diana Guzman (Michelle Rodriquez) who transforms from a rebellious highschool senior in the underdeveloped Brooklyn into a coed amateur boxing featherweight champion in New York City. An ‘independent’ film whose success is indebted to the cinematic ‘tough girl’ syndrome and female sport celebrities at the turn of the twenty-first century, Girlfight has invited divided criticism on its masculine heroine. On the one hand, Diana’s achievement in the traditionally masculine field of boxing is celebrated as liberatory and is called “Amazon feminism.” On the other hand, Diana is dismissed as a victim of a postfeminist glorification of mindlessly violent women. This essay examines masculinities in Girlfight in relation to violence, gender ideology, and the representation of women athletes in film. My essay argues that the feminist liberation invoked by Diana’s violence remains a problem as it amounts to no more than a simplistic mimicry of dominant masculinity. In the latter part of the essay, I argue that the ‘loser’ Adrian, Diana’s boyfriend who is defeated by Diana in the championship match, provides an alternate masculinity that may sever the pernicious link between dominant masculinity, power and success, and the denigration of the weak and the feminine. This is because Adrian fights Diana with respect and wins her heart despite the loss, thus creating a new type of romantic relationship not founded upon the male protector/female protege binary. In contemporary society where only winners are considered masculine and respectable, Adrian’s defeat embodies what Judith Halberstam terms a “queer failure” through which to uncover the gender ideology embedded in the opposition between the masculine winner and the feminine loser.