Female Pervert

Headnote

Abstract

This is a film review of Film Pervert (2014), directed by Jiyoung Lee.

(2014)

Directed by Jiyoung Lee

Jiyoung Lee's Female Pervert is a short reflection on social identities, collective expectations, and the lived consequences of transgressing norms. In the context of the study of religion the film could serve as an entry point into discussions of classification and the social construction of normative behaviors. The story follows a young digital designer, Phoebe, whose sexual desires fall outside what is usually prescribed for American women. While her erotic preferences frame the narrative the film largely follows her through a series of socially awkward encounters: a Haruki Murakami book group, professional massages, work meetings, therapy sessions, and evening hangouts. The film itself is uninspiring but several conversations help us think through the cultural subjectivity of defining what is 'normal.'

During a book group meeting one participant identifies the 'perversions' of Murakami's characters but Phoebe contests, "don't you think the moral boundaries in Japan might be different from what we are used to in the US?" In explaining her point, she refers to a scene in Hayao Miyazaki's film My Neighbor Totoro, in which a father bathes with his two daughters, one of whom is eleven years old. Overall she concludes that this scenario is "natural enough to be included in a children's movie" but would be condemned in the West. So, "what we think is perverted here may not be perverted at all in a different part of the world." These type of contemplative shorts are repeated in an exploration of Saartjie Baartman, an enslaved 19th century South African who was put on public display for her large labia and buttocks, and biblical assertions of proper womenhood, referencing Timothy 2:11-15 and Ephesians 5:22-33. Overall, the film displays how social boundaries and expectations are constructed within particular settings, especially in relation to contemporary female sexuality, but the flat narrative and unsophisticated humor may make it laborious to watch this 'long' sixty minute film.