Picking a film for you to talk about "Joker" is undoubtedly a bloody fable of race, gender and class. (There are spoilers inside, read carefully)
Text: Womany Jiaqi
As women, many people's experience of watching "Joker" is complicated.
On the one hand, we feel uncomfortable for Arthur's situation, and the pain of not being understood by the world is heartbreaking; But on the other hand, we are uneasy about the situation of the female characters in the film.
Some people pointed out that the film is a deep indictment of this world dominated by elite white men through the mouth of Arthur, a low-level male. More directly, it points to a class food chain that oppresses each other. There is race after class, and gender is seen under race. It is only after bourgeois men, working-class men, African-American and disabled men that we see women: how social workers, female neighbors, and even Arthur's mother, Penny, become emotional workers who are expected to be given love and attention, lose their voices, and even suffer unprovoked violence in such an interlocking society. (Read more: Behind the madness of "Joker": homelessness, loss of love, and trauma are enough to make a heartbroken villain)
There are spoilers below, so please be careful.
"I've been the head of my family since I was a child": a man's coming-of-age story
The narrative logic of "Joker" is still a growth story, about how a man who was also ordinary and loving, experienced pain, was not understood, and became a villain in the eyes of society.
Arthur Fleck, the main character, who is mentally ill and can't help laughing, lives in a shabby apartment with his elderly and sickly mother, living on the meager income he earns as a clown.
Arthur is sick, but he can't get proper treatment because the government has cut the health budget. And the disease brought him poverty, and he suffered a lot of malice from society: ridiculed, beaten, cheated, betrayed. Poverty brings despair, and he feels that the rich not only bully the poor, but also treat them with indifference. He longs to be seen and valued, but he doesn't have enough ability and resources to turn his fate upside down.
As men, they are expected to be responsible for their families from an early age (as Arthur said on fantasy talk shows, "I've been the head of the family for as long as I can remember") and to be recognized for their commitments. He worked hard, took care of his sick mother, and tried to pursue his dream of being a comedian after work.
He's worked so hard, and the society has a round of applause. (Read more: The social psychology of "Joker": The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference)
What the film expects from a female character: a caregiver, or a betrayer
But the world was not as kind to him as he imagined. This is true for men, and it is true for women.
It's just that the way a man hurts him is physical: beating him, taunting him, betraying him. A woman's hurt is spiritual: indifference and rejection.
He likes women, but when he stalks his neighbor – a young single mother – he feels turned away by her. He can only rely on fantasy to satisfy his imagination of love and desire.
He has been assisted by social workers in the government system for a long time, but the social workers are always concerned about his suicidal thoughts and almost never listen to him what he wants to say. He complained about this many times, but it did not improve. Although she was the only one who had secured medical assistance for him.
His ailing mother was almost the only one who loved him. They watch TV together and eat together. He bathed his mother and sent letters. His mother cared for him, calling him "happy," and in her eyes he was a happy boy. Although in later episodes, Penny is implied that she may have even abused him as a child. In the end, this became the last straw that broke Arthur's back.
In Gotham City, men are violent and women are loveless.
Others are hell, and Arthur can only believe in himself. This kind of double harm inflicted by society, so that the man who still feels the feeling becomes the bottom of the bottom, is the tragic element of the clown becoming a villain. This also hints at and reinforces the legitimacy of Arthur's "revenge". These depictions not only create a kind of collective imagination of low-level men, but also summon a huge male fear.
It's just that what is disturbing is that when society ruined him, he took Arthur to stalk innocent women, and finally committed violence against female social workers. Women become the background in the movie, and their staged role function is only to become the victims behind the rise of the Joker.
But can you blame him?
When the crowd on the street put on clown masks and shouted "We are all clowns", we all saw the confusion and helplessness of the crowd. But the situation is too turbulent for no one to see the other victims of chaos and evil.
The clown is the latest symbol of rebellion, which is like a contemporary allegory: the egg and the wall, divided into binary oppositions, the moment we choose to be (or think we can only be) the egg, and further down the question, will we also simplify the discourse possibilities. If I were an egg that had hurt someone. If I had been trampled on before I chose to be an egg.
"Joker" is just such a heartbreaking movie. It raises complex questions, but leaves that complexity just a set-up. On the stage of the talk show, the clown said to the host, "I'm not political." Of course not.
As a clown, he has hatefulness and pity. This film is not intended to deal with social issues, but to see. The problem is not entirely that society is not entirely in him. Joaquin Phoenix, the actor who plays the Joker, also said, "When preparing for this role, I had mixed feelings about the Joker."
So do we.
The phrase "we are all clowns" may be too quick and too close, but if we are not clowns, who else can say about our long-term injuries. We feel happy and at the same time uneasy about it. It's not just about watching movies. This is actually the political life we are experiencing.
"It started as a tragedy, then it became a farce." （First as tragedy, then as farce. When the world is getting crazier, the stage is set, the teleprompter is waiting for you. And the truth is that no one can actually refuse to watch the show. There is race after class, and gender is seen under race.
In this regard, before fear, after anxiety, we can only hold back not laughing.