Abstract

ABSTRACT:

The essay examines the sexual politics of the U.S. independent film Hard Candy (2006) as an exemplary film in the problematic category of "€œfeminist films made by men. "  The essay situates the film in relation to exploitation genres, the tropes of classical feminist film theory (castration, the gaze) to which the film makes reference, and other contemporaneous Lions Gate releases--well as historically, in relation to the changing discourses of Second- and Third-Wave feminisms and the discourse of child sexual abuse.  The narrative of pedophilia in the film is interpreted rhetorically as a screening metaphor meant to inculcate a feminist predisposition in a hetero male spectator and serving to open up the interesting question of whether the hegemonic modality of male heterosexual desire (dominant/active, visually oriented, and genitally-driven) may be amenable to "queering"€ alterations.