Gender in Orlando

A detailed Summary of Gender in Orlando

The character of Orlando stands in front of a mirror and we see her obviously female form reflected back. But the film Orlando, named after its main character, is more than half over, and up till now Orlando has not just portrayed a man, but has been a man. And as she, for Orlando is undoubtedly she, looks at her own reflection in the glass, she quips, "Same person - no difference at all. Just a different sex." This fantastical film is based on the book of the same name written in 1928 by Virginia Woolf, and it follows Orlando over four centuries. Never aging a day, Orlando is a man for the 17th and most of the 18th century. After almost two hundred years, in the mid 18th century, an aversion to war and violence, and a mans duty to partake of the two, lead Orlando to make a choice to change genders, and she continues as female into the present day. Throughout this amazing life and miraculous transformation the film shows us that there are unwritten rules for what makes a man, or woman, and that these rules generally lie only on the surface. When she claims that she is the same person, regardless of sex, Orlando "highlights [the] instability of gender" and the "signifiers of fashion for gender . . . are exposed and

Sally Potter brings these gender and cultural issues to life on the big screen in a beautifully stylized way. Many changes to the original text more poignantly demonstrate the liberation of the main character. For example, Orlando loses her country estate when she transforms into a woman, and by giving birth to a boy in the original text she is able to regain the house. Potter allows Orlando to "[emerge] from the shackles of the property-owning classes" (qtd. in Dowell 18) by having a daughter and losing the house in the film version. The narrator comments on the androgynous look of the little girl, and so we are given a glimpse of the future, where we are judged on our words and actions, not our sex.

As Orlando enters the 1990's at the end of the film, we do see a change in the categorizing of what is feminine, and what is masculine, and experience a sense of true freedom for the character that we did not feel earlier in the film. Orlando is now dressed in pants and a leather jacket, and the narrator comments on her "slightly androgynous appearance." Potter seems to use Woolf's story to echo many of the changes in cultural views of women, and the shift in women in film. In the article "Hasta la Vista, Arnold" Margaret Talbot talks about the new role of women in action movies. Within these movies we see women in traditionally male roles, performing traditionally male feats, and yet they retain their femininity. The women who "were the sacrificial lambs" are now "almost as likely to play the avenger as the avenged" (213). Does this portray a sense of androgyny? A character is not viewed for their manliness or womanliness, but by their heroism and moral fibre. Orlando, now riding a motorcycle and publishing a book of her life, is no longer at the mercy of her sex; as a present day woman she is free to explore any option for lifestyle she desires.

subverted" (Ferriss & Waites 110). The film Orlando illustrates the idea that gender identity is dictated by cultural conditioning, and that there is a kind of freedom in androgyny.

However, Orlando discovers that when living as one extreme or the other you are bound by the rules of culture conditioning, and forced to live according t

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1498
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Arts