The Politics of Sexual Identity in a Movie-Showgirls (Essay Sample)

The Politics of Sexual Identity in movie - Showgirls
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The Politics of Sexual Identity in movie - Showgirls
3. When read backwards and upside down, NOMI becomes I WON. Did she? What did she win and how? Describe her process.
Joe Eszterhas in his film ‘showgirls,’ depicts a scenario of a drifter “street-smart” who wonders her way to Las Vegas, from just being a stripper, she climbed the ladder of life to become one of the best showgirls in the region. The film revolves around a major theme of sexuality, the theme therefore prompted the writer to develop the character Nomi. Nomi plays the lead role in the film, that is why the writer concentrated on her mostly to the extent of mentioning her past history like for instance when he used Zack to tell us how her parents died: the reason she went to prostitution. The writer expressed his prowess through various use of techniques for instance the use of language. Language accredited to the various characters by the writer can be attributed to the setting and the theme of the film. The conversation in most of the acts includes the use of vague words and obscene statements that are otherwise unethical to the general public. Language as we came to understand in this film is a very strong tool to enhance communication (Sedgwick & Frank, 2003). It can also be observed that language can do harm to the people because intentions which might have seemed harmless when spoken can cause a lot of harm. However, opponents of harmful words consider ‘the magical theory of language’, which in its sense means that when a harmful word is thrown at someone trying to compromise your feelings, for instance, the counter measure to it is to use the technique that it makes sure it does not succeed. Through the several humiliation that Nomi, the lead character used in this film went through, mostly involved word abuse, she was able to bounce back by the use of the ‘the magical theory of language.’ This essay seeks to dwell on the critical analysis of character naming that the writer of the film used, especially the name Nomi. It also seeks to classify Nomi’s achievements by highlighting on her steps from being a stripper to being a showgirl.
It has been analyzed and found that the character name Nomi means I won when read backwards and upside down. Was this a deliberate effort by the writer to use the name of her lead role to justify her achievement in the end? Well, this can be figured out from the several incidences that Nomi went through and indeed emerged a conqueror. All the events can be culminated to the last point when she was heading to Los Angeles and coincidentally he boarded a car with the same driver who had in the initial stages stolen her belongings when she was coming to Las Vegas (Nash & Grant, 2015).
Within the synopsis of the film however, there were several instances when she had to face obstacles and was able to emerge out victorious. For instance, the first time when Molly introduced her to the Goddess, and she introduced her to Cristal Connors who was the star diva at the event, in their conversation, Nomi told her that she was a dancer at a club known as cheetah’s which is also a topless club. Cristal told her that working there was like being a prostitute. She was so furious and upset that she was not able to go back to the club that night. During that particular time also while still at the Goddess club, Nomi was approached by James, trying to lure her in to sex, she was aggravated and was involved in a fight that saw her being arrested and reprimanded (Pels, 2002). At this juncture, the sexuality did not played a role in masculinity, it is always considered that the male counterparts are responsible in fights always but this incidence saw James being beaten by Nomi a she. It is also absurd to note that it was James again who went discharge her from the cells. Despite this, she did not seemed to recognize the efforts of James. In this context alone, Nomi went through two situations but she emerged the winner. When the diva associated her topless dance with prostitution, she was furious to the extent that she absconded the job, she emptied her hunger on James who saw the intervention of the police who arrested her and in the end, the same person who could have been the prosecutor released her.
The other incidence that saw her victorious behavior was on the same first night when at cheetah’s, Cristal who happens to be a bisexual as we came to know requested her for a lap dance. Bisexuals are those people who have both male and female sex organs. These people cannot be identified as male or female. The only way that they can become male or female is through medical suppression of particular sex genes. When suppressed, one can fully identify themselves one particular gender of their choice. Deciding to be a male or a female when you are a bisexual is an individual decision. Even though there are those who are and have strong genes of one sex, to them they automatically align themselves to that sex that contains more genes pigmentation in their body (Waites, 2005). The act of Cristal can be well concluded that she was more dominated with male genes due to his interest in Nomi. However, we can refute that claims because he had a boyfriend, Zack Carey. In that event, Nomi was so reluctant to offer the Lap dance until when she was offered $500 by Cristal. This was not however, the sole intention of Cristal, she wanted to affirm to the rest of the people that Nomi was not Just a prostitute but was likely to be something else. Here she was referring to the fact that she might be a lesbian. The intimate act of a lap dance signified a mutual relationship majorly from a man to a woman and for this fact, it was for two perceived women. Despite that Nomi go the $500 and was fine.
The other humiliation came from the show director of the Goddess, he compelled Nomi to place some ice cubes on the tits of her breast so that they become hard. This was a form of gender inequality and sexual harassment, Nomi was not about to do that and instead he managed to seek refuge in James by abandoning the auditions (McElroy, 2015). On arrival at James’ place, she found James had designed a dance number for her, James was oblivious that Nomi was much endowed with talent and was never good for neither a showgirl nor a stripper. The action bow fruits and she left cheetahs for the better job. In another bizarre incident of humiliation to Nomi, caused by Cristal again, she hinted her to make a goodwill appearance at one of her fun drives at a boat trade fare which in real sense it was an event of prostitution (Dimen & Goldner,2005). This is like a form of human trafficking...