Feminism Fetishes In The Film Marnie
Fetishes according to Freud is all about the idea of substitution. He argued that it was a way of substituting the penis. In the paper “Fetishism,” he states that a boy recognizes his mother’s “lack” of a penis; which then in turn makes him think of his own castration, the mother’s privates create a “fright” (p. 154) which is said to be universal. There are times when the traditional man and woman just don’t go well together, and I believe that in the film Marnie is one of those times. In this film we see all the signs pointing to the fact that Marnie isn’t all what she seems to be, but we never assumed that one of those lies could be her sexuality.
In a Hitchcock film it might be hard to detect the feminine fetishes, considering all the male fetishes that are plain as day during the movies, but if you look deep into the film you will notice the little things that just might suggest a deeper meaning. Some of the masculine fetishes are Marks gathered items, animals, and the object that represents his dead wife. While some feminine objects might be the more in-home objects like a vase, flowers, or trinkets which can be seen in Marnie’s Mom’s house. It becomes a little clear the Hitchcock separates the masculine and feminine fetishes with different objects.
Fetishes seen in Marnie can be interpreted in many ways. When trying to get a pen-point on who Marnie is exactly, we can always identify what she isn’t but can never really identify who she is. The female fetish is more prominent in this film because with male fetishes the gazes between the man and woman are strong and stay together. In Marnie, however, she never really kept a man’s stare which leads to belief that the fetish is coming from not what she lacks but what she truly wants.
This statement is in no way saying there are no male fetishes in the movie whatsoever but there is a female fetish that is much more interesting to talk about. One example, The purse of the secretary. It can be a fetish of a gaze that can lead to the belief that Marnie is a lesbian. Mainly when the over the top music plays and the tight shot of Marnie’s face as she stares at the secretary putting the keys to the safe into her purse. With this logic that makes the gaze that Marine is doing the controller of the fetish. The purse in turn becomes the “escape route” to sneak gazes at each other.
Lil’s and Marnie’s relationship becomes a little more visible in The Hunt scene. Marnie has a break down after seeing the color red. Lil rides to her rescue. Marnie’s horse wasn’t able to jump over the stone wall and is ultimately injured. When Lil gets there Marnie is fighting for a gun, so she can shoot her horse. Lil offers to do the job for Marnie, but she refuses, they later briefly fight over the gun. Marnie must shoot her horse to defend what she loves, Lil is ready to step in and take that burden for her. She is willing to sacrifice herself and he well being to save the Marnie from the pain of having to shoot her beloved horse. In a way Lil is acting like Marnie’s mother in the way of protecting her from the pain from shooting the horse.
The last fetish example is showing Lil in the mother’s spotlight again and how it seems that they may have a relationship on the side. When Marnie has nightmares, Mark comes in and tries to wake Marnie up, but when he tells her to wake up the nightmare only gets worse. Mark also doesn’t want to touch her because she shudders away at any man’s touch. When Lil enters the room however, she quickly rushes to Marnie’s side and gently shakes her telling her to wake up. Marnie wakes up almost immediately and is comforted by Lil.
In the film Marnie there were a lot of feminism fetishes. I believe that is because when she was little she had a bad experience with a man and that changed her whole perspective on them forever; even if she couldn’t remember why. She always looked for the female touch and the caring nature of a mother that a man just could not give. Lil became the fetish that Marnie needed. In a way Lil was Marnie’s mothers castrated penis.
