"Gender": Constructable, or Contagious? ——Gender ideology in The Kennel

Margot 2022-03-27 08:01:01

Gender is not only socially constructed, it is also contagious.

Graham's setting in the film is subtle. The female zombies didn't treat him differently because of his sexual orientation. He and his straight boyfriends were called "beasts" by their other half at the beginning, and then they were chased and killed by zombies together. The film also places Graham in a position that needs to be "revolutionized". The subtext is nothing more than that male homosexuality and male-centrism stereotypes are not absent. At the same time, in addition to explaining his sexual orientation at the beginning of the film, it does not deliberately emphasize this point in the second half, perhaps to save the narrative effort, or to criticize this common male-dominant central idea. , or is saying: the concept of gender is not simply monolithic. It also contains rich and diverse aspects. How these different aspects are balanced is not an individual decision, but is always determined by the dominant type in the group.

At the same time, from the outbreak of this "plague", the men discovered the cause of the infection from the washing powder box, and the officers told them that this kind of thing was not entirely spread by washing powder. The seemingly ironic irony of the male-rejected laundry detergent becomes even more ironic as the military officer's interpretation - men are even "immune" to the airborne virus. However, the female government official in the video was not infected, so what does it mean? All the answers are in the short "last words" of the 62nd officer. However, the officer did not finish speaking. We can only speculate from his few words, why the female officer was not infected, and why this catastrophe started.

First, the virus was packed in laundry detergent as a preparation for the military's plans to conduct experiments in this remote town. Secondly, as representatives here, female officials are, on the one hand, the spiritual leaders of town women and puppets who are more helpful for the military to promote experiments; on the other hand, the traditional image of government officials in traditional patriarchy Social roles of masculinity. Therefore, female officials here actually assume the role of a kind of "media", that is, the role of "difference space" as Foucault calls it, a bridge between connected "reality" and "utopia". That is to say, female officials are the female voice of patriarchy. From this point of view, her immunity to the virus also becomes a kind of irony. Again, what is the purpose of the experiment here? The military infects women, and sets up equipment to control women and harmless to men. The purpose of the experiment is to find a way to control women. Therefore, in the film, the military's experiment may be interpreted as a male in a situation where the feminist movement is in high spirits, looking for a deformed display of his own identity. This deformity of seeking one's own identity not only points to the bloody and violent film narrative, but also points to the absent military, whose purpose of experiment is to find and regain control of women in the height of feminism, to regain control of women. The desire to restore the patriarchal center. This desire is not what the military is asking for, but also what Vince, who is in the middle of a midlife crisis, expects in the heartfelt words of Vince's final speech in the car: Women are tired of men who are obedient, why don't they use Rab Ladog to fill the loneliness. This is not only a portrayal of the mid-life crisis, but also a portrayal of the traditional male and female roles seeming to be interchanged amid the rising feminist sentiment. This is what the times have imposed on the film to confront, what Althusser calls "problematic" (or "problematic"). There is no reasonable solution given in the film, also because the male-dominated ideology that dominates the film cannot solve the problems he poses to himself.

At this point, we might say that because people are highly social and are always influenced by other factors in the group, then gender has become contagious and influenced. Gay men will copy the identity of other peers in the team, and female officials will copy the mainstream patriarchal "sanctuary" from the military. This mode of operation is very similar to that of ideology. It is inferred from this that the heterogeneity among different ideological types will always be disciplined and restricted by the mainstream ideology. For example, the setting in this film: on the one hand, the alternative expression of female consciousness is to use violence and blood to confront the ideology of the center of patriarchy, and use this method to show the different heterogeneity of women. From this point of view, this is where the film is influenced by patriarchy. The means by which women show their heterogeneity is through the way of bloodshed and war in the traditional concept. On the other hand, is this masculine way of speaking a dissolution of the relationship between narrative form and gender, or a subordination? I am more inclined to understand the treatment in this film as the latter. After all, the main energy of the whole film is still placed on the performance of confrontation with feminism, or the search for identity of men who seek equal dialogue. On the issue of women's resistance and women's construction of their own way of speaking.

Of course, we can't force a zombie and comedy film to take into account rigorous arguments and reasoning at the same time, but what we can't avoid is the rehearsal and rehearsal of social gender issues hidden in the playful tone and exaggerated narrative of this film. Reflect. In addition, one thing we cannot ignore is the dialectical way of thinking and thinking that the film adopts when it touches on questions it cannot answer.

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Extended Reading
  • Leone 2022-03-27 09:01:23

    Not your average horror or comedy. . Well, golf balls, soccer balls, RC cars... these men's toys have become their weapons against the zombies. . A movie suitable for most men

  • Felicia 2022-03-28 09:01:14

    Danny Dyer has been in so many movies of this type that he makes me want to laugh when I see it, not scary at all.

Doghouse quotes

  • Neil: When we get to the country, we are gonna piss up all the trees to mark our teritory, then we are gonna find a pub and get so drunk we can't remember how to speak, and we'll communicate in grunts like neanderthals, before passing out in the woods!

  • Mikey: Now you decide to shoot something, you fucking monkey's arse ring!

    Sergeant Gavin Wright: I had one bullet left. I was saving it for when I really needed it.

    Mikey: You're still a twat!