After watching "Velvet Goldmine" I was not sure if I liked it or not. The more I thought about what I had seen, the more I grew to appreciate the movie. One of the most striking parts of the movie is the ability of the characters to move fluidly between genders and how androgyny is showcased. Brian Slade and Jack Fairy are the two characters who do this the most often. Brian Slade lives a life where he toys with gender and sexuality every day. In one scene during one of the flashbacks he is seen kissing a woman then having sexual relations with a younger boy. When he ages he has relationships simultaneously with his wife Mandy and Curt Wilde, a fellow performer. These relationships mess with the common conceptions of what sexuality is. Brian also performs in extremely tight clothes, a full face of makeup, and is very effeminate on stage. He does not dress in full drag however he is very androgynous in the way that a person may not be sure whether he is a man or a woman. This all allows him to float between sexuality easily and adds to his androgyny.
Jack Fairy is another character who lives an androgynous lifestyle. He is supposedly the "original" and is the person who inherited the pin from Oscar Wilde. He wears a full face of extremely heavy makeup every time we see him, not just when he is on stage. He also always dresses in extremely over the top, aristocratic inspired clothing in bright colors. Jack Fairy lives as an androgynous person, unlike Brian Slade who uses it mainly as part of his performance. These two characters are both examples of the androgyny that is displayed in "Velvet Goldmine".
2 comments:
I really like the idea of androgyny within the movie. It seems to show that there was equality through the characters and yet they could seem different. That is totally interesting to me. Although this may not hold true for Mandy or even Kurt, Brian and Jack truly represent the beauty that gender doesn't have to exist and that they could just let the music speak for them it seems.
Kylie, I think what you have noticed here is very interesting. I did not think of that when I was watching the film. The concept and juxtaposition of creating an androgynous identity and immersing yourself in it 24/7 as opposed to only falling back on it as an act makes quite and argument, which is actually one of the central arguments that this film is trying to make.
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