Contemplating in a dream-like room: The Virgin Suicides and the aesthetic imagination of girlhood

Monden, M

Contemplating in a dream-like room: The Virgin Suicides and the aesthetic imagination of girlhood

Monden, M

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Publisher:: Intellect
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Film, Fashion & Consumption, 2013, 2 (2), pp. 139 - 158
Issue Date:: 2013-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Monden, M https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5672-5279	en_US
dc.date.issued	2013-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Film, Fashion & Consumption, 2013, 2 (2), pp. 139 - 158	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	2044-2823	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/26875
dc.description.abstract	Fully researched and fully peer-reviewed article that investigates the link between Sofia Coppola's film The Virgin Suicides, girlhood, and fashion, exploring the issue of gender and representations in popular cinema. Abstract: Sofia Coppolas film The Virgin Suicides (1999) can be viewed as visualizing the (re)negotiation process of the twinned aspects of girlish `autonomy and `restriction. Although the films references to more established images of girlhood are observable, its vague, narrative neutrality, supported by cinematic aesthetics with a dreamy and melancholic effect, leaves their meanings largely unexplained. Connected to our contemporary ideas about adolescence, femininity is generally linked to either pathological fragility or emphasized sexual assertiveness. I question the legitimacy of these binaries and instead read The Virgin Suicides as a depiction of female complexity where the subtle complexity of the heroines contradicts these stereotypes. Instead of situating on either polar of extreme assertiveness and fragility, Coppola presents her conception of adolescent girls as floating between these two. The films ethereal and maidenly aesthetics conveyed through the visual qualities of the Lisbon Sisters, including the dresses they wear, effectively layer the girls sense of autonomy and sexual maturity, signifying the negotiation of idealizing, suppressing and empowering adolescent girls. The tragic fate of the girls, on the other hand, limits the films capacity to offer an alternative to the monolithic idea of adolescent `girlhood and how it is visualized in our contemporary culture.	en_US
dc.publisher	Intellect	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Film, Fashion & Consumption	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1386/ffc.2.2.139_1	en_US
dc.title	Contemplating in a dream-like room: The Virgin Suicides and the aesthetic imagination of girlhood	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	2	en_US
utslib.for	1902 Film, Television and Digital Media	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building/School of Design
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.consider-herdc	true	en_US
pubs.issue	2	en_US
pubs.volume	2	en_US

Abstract:

Fully researched and fully peer-reviewed article that investigates the link between Sofia Coppola's film The Virgin Suicides, girlhood, and fashion, exploring the issue of gender and representations in popular cinema. Abstract: Sofia Coppolas film The Virgin Suicides (1999) can be viewed as visualizing the (re)negotiation process of the twinned aspects of girlish `autonomy and `restriction. Although the films references to more established images of girlhood are observable, its vague, narrative neutrality, supported by cinematic aesthetics with a dreamy and melancholic effect, leaves their meanings largely unexplained. Connected to our contemporary ideas about adolescence, femininity is generally linked to either pathological fragility or emphasized sexual assertiveness. I question the legitimacy of these binaries and instead read The Virgin Suicides as a depiction of female complexity where the subtle complexity of the heroines contradicts these stereotypes. Instead of situating on either polar of extreme assertiveness and fragility, Coppola presents her conception of adolescent girls as floating between these two. The films ethereal and maidenly aesthetics conveyed through the visual qualities of the Lisbon Sisters, including the dresses they wear, effectively layer the girls sense of autonomy and sexual maturity, signifying the negotiation of idealizing, suppressing and empowering adolescent girls. The tragic fate of the girls, on the other hand, limits the films capacity to offer an alternative to the monolithic idea of adolescent `girlhood and how it is visualized in our contemporary culture.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/26875