It’s difficult territory to negotiate without tripping into the voyeuristic or exploitative zone. There’s a kind of undefined fine line. I love a lot of Henson’s work but the photo which caused all the controversy triggered a memory for me of being invited, along with my father, to visit the house of a man we met at a BBQ. He wanted us to go there to see his paintings; which were of semi-nude women painted on black velvet. They were trashy rather than exploitative but the situation was weird and sleazy and our combined good manners (Dad’s and mine) had trapped us in this social situation which we both knew, in advance, was going to be sleazy and weird. I was angry with Dad that he didn‘t find a way of avoiding it and protecting me from what was an embarrassing but non-traumatic social encounter; I was about 16 at the time. So I think there are times when Henson crosses the line. And so does Towelhead.
I came to this film with a bit of a bias; I am part of the 2 % of the population who did not love American Beauty which was also written, but not directed by Alan Ball. His new film, Towelhead, aims to explore what happens to Jasira, a Lebanese-American teenager, in the first weeks of her stay with her father. I liked this description of it, by Roger Ebert:
"It tells the story of Jasira (Summer Bishil), a 13-year-old Lebanese-American girl with an obsession about her emerging sexuality. Well, all 13-year-olds feel such things. That's why so many of them stop talking to us. They don't know how to feel about themselves."
I thought part of Towelhead was brave. I can’t remember seeing a bloody tampon on screen before. Menstruation, and the embarrassments associated with menstruation, get a fair work-out. We experience this through the main character Jasira, a 13 year old girl, who, in the opening of the film, is sent to live with her father because her mother’s boyfriend is way too interested in her. The other brave part of the film is the scenes of Jasira maturbating. We are much more likely to see teenage boys jerking off than acknowledge the private sexual activity of teenage girls.
This is also the film’s downside because this is the extent of what we discover about Jasira and the other teenagers in the film; they are sexual creatures. I think the problem for the film is two-fold; the range of the actress (Summer Bishil) is quite limited and the script is solidly focussed on sex in a range of permutations. Even when she makes friend with a girl, the plot centres around them playing sexy dress-ups for a photographer. “Enough already!” I wanted to scream. I get it! We are surrounded by soft porn and so are our kids. During the Henson debate, I thought mostly about the large soft porn posters which adorn the DFO outlet in Spencer St; enormous images of young semi-clad girls lounging in poses as if they might just be about to give head. Advertising jeans or shoes. I hate them and hate the idea that my nieces might think that this is how women should be. I get it! Why are we banging on about Henson rather than these horrible advertisements?
However, if Jasira is objectified by the men in the film, I think that she is also objectified by the film maker. She never becomes more than a one dimensional character. We never really get to know what she is like. The film does not engage with her personality (and this is what I think it has in common with American Beauty - the women are one-dimensional). Terrible things happen to Jasira and we are no closer to knowing what she is like except that she is not a victim. Alan Ball describes the sexual assault as “A profound moment in two lives devoid of profound moments”. Calling it profound is just the wrong word and indicates something about his view of women and sex that is astray, even if I agree with his assertion that it’s “so important to see that it was a complicated issue, that as a character, Jasira was curious, that she was experiencing some sensations that were pleasurable, that she was getting the kind of attention where she was feeling intimate with somebody which was sorely lacking in the rest of her life.”
And is it interesting that both artists interested in the exploring the implications of the emerging sexuality of young girls are men? Possibly. Henson photographs pre-pubescent and teenage boys and girls. American Beauty and Towelhead both left me feeling uncomfortable. What would a woman film director make of the theme of emerging adolescent sexuality? I can’t think of any films in this category - some suggestions would be good.
Not everyone agrees with me - this opinion from Paul Byrnes in the SMH is interesting, but I think he misses the limited chracter devlopment of Jasira:
Alan Ball is careful to film the sexual sequences for maximum dramatic effect and minimal exposure of the actress's body - but that isn't going to save him from the stockade. One of his big crimes here is to show Jasira as active, rather than a victim. I suspect her progress towards self-awareness is part of what attracted the likes of Collette to the cast. Jasira becomes stronger through her ordeal; it doesn't destroy her, as it might in a movie-of-the-week. As confronting as the movie is, I saw it as hopeful and a caution, but I admit I'm biased towards freedom of expression.
And finally, plumbing. In a film where a lot of the action seems unconvincing, two parts of the plot hinge on bad plumbing in two houses. It might be a new housing estate but come on!
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