The Concealed Politics of Fetishes in Entertainment
Trigger warning: sexual assault
Uma Thurman struggles in the back seat of the Pussy Wagon, willing herself to wiggle her big toes. For a full minute, her size 11 feet are the stars of the scene as the shot moves from Thurman’s face to a closeup of her toes. Accusations of Quentin Tarantino’s foot fetish began with this scene in 2003’s Kill Bill: Vol. 1, and led Thurman to later remark that Tarantino was more interested in shooting an entire scene of her feet than wrapping up scenes. Thurman’s feet in Kill Bill are more than just a representation of Tarantino’s alleged foot fetish. The representation of his fetish reveals the underlying politics of Tarantino — the power dynamic between the director and the star — and does the same for the politics of various other television shows and films that portray a fetish. Fetishism is not simply an unusual sexual interest in an object, act, body part, or sensation. The presence of a fetish opens up discussion about the meaning the fetish provides in the context of the work.
Quentin Tarantino, Oscar-winning writer and acclaimed director, is perceived negatively in the politics of Hollywood. Thurman says in a New York Times exposé that Tarantino initially dismissed her claims about Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulting her — Weinstein’s company produced Pulp Fiction and the two Kill Bill films — and persuaded her to perform a stunt in Kill Bill that Thurman did not feel comfortable with. The stunt, recorded 16 years ago and released by Thurman in February 2018, shows Thurman driving the blue convertible until she loses control and crashes into a tree. Tarantino says about the crash, “Beyond one of the biggest regrets of my career, it is one of the biggest regrets of my life.” Regarding Weinstein, Tarantino contends with his complacency, as he has known about Weinstein’s behavior for decades. Tarantino has also been accused of inappropriate behavior in his own right relating to his foot fetish. Rose McGowan, one of Weinstein’s victims and one of the faces of the #MeToo movement, wrote in her 2018 novel Brave, “Tarantino paid extra money to jerk off to my young feet and he told me about it loudly, over and over, for years in front of numerous people.” This alleged behavior makes Tarantino not only complacent but guilty of sexual harassment. McGowan’s accusation presents a link between Tarantino degrading women and his alleged foot fetish. Tarantino’s behavior towards both Thurman and McGowan places him on the wrong side of the #MeToo movement.
As a director, Quentin Tarantino allegedly abused his power on set. Besides the nearly fatal car crash, the New York Times article mentions Tarantino spitting in Thurman’s face and choking her for a scene. Though Tarantino claims in his Deadline interview that those acts were consensual and respectful, this raises more questions about Tarantino’s misogyny. In the same interview, Tarantino claims that he would insist upon this behavior with a man, but only provides an example with another woman. Tarantino choked Diane Kruegar for his film Inglourious Basterds in order for Kruegar to present the real panic of strangulation. While the physical aspect of his misogyny is uncertain, it is unquestionable that there are no prolonged male foot scenes in Tarantino’s films. Film after film, Tarantino makes space for an entire scene of women’s feet, including in his most recent film Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood. Tarantino reduces Sharon Tate, portrayed by Margot Robbie, to a barefooted angel, a portrayal that was criticized at the Cannes Film Festival press conference for giving Tate’s character so few lines. Tarantino’s initial response was “I reject your hypothesis,” but went on to comment in an interview with Indiewire that her scenes strove to capture Tate’s true nature. Does one’s true nature align with their tendency to prop their bare feet on the seat in front of them in the movie theater? Tarantino’s fetish is not in and of itself wrong, but it signifies a larger problem of his misogyny in the unbalanced power dynamics of Hollywood. Through Tarantino’s lens, the presentation of his foot fetish silences women as she is sexualized by his own desires.
Power dynamics extend beyond the role of a director and play a part in both sex and politics. The two sects cross over in the third season of Sex and the City. The sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw dates a candidate for New York City comptroller Bill Kelley, but their relationship becomes rocky once he asks Carrie to pee on him. The sexual fetish is called urophilia, or “a golden shower,” and research suggests that 9 percent of men have this interest. Carrie is understanding, but ultimately rejects it. Kelley’s two episode arc ends with him dumping Carrie not because of her qualms; instead, he dumps Carrie because his campaign managers do not find it appropriate to date a sex columnist so close to the election. The pen proves mightier than the sword, as Carrie exacts her revenge by writing about his fetish, albeit without his name, in her column in the newspaper. She leaves it to the public to connect the dots for themselves. A white male politician’s career is put in turmoil by a female writer — Kelley’s sexual fetish switches the power dynamic of their relationship, ultimately giving Carrie the power to destroy his reputation. Entertainment portrays the fetish as something that can ruin a person, especially those in positions in power. This theme is a fairly common thread, most recently portrayed in Netflix’s series The Politician. An experienced New York state senator’s campaign is threatened by a young newcomer who knows she is in a ‘thrupple,’ slang for a romantic relationship between three people. The power dynamic between the experienced and the novice shifts with the introduction of her fetish. Fetish is represented as a moral weakness that positions the individual to be unsuited for any authority they possess. Much like a sex scandal can derail any campaign, fetish is used to exaggerate the vulnerability the powerful face once their inner life is exposed to the public.
The Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy is a prominent example of films about a sexual fetish, specifically bondage and discipline, dominance and submission (BDSM), that also explores the power dynamic of the couple in the context of their sexual lives. The three films grossed a combined $1.145 billion, making it one of the most profitable franchises in Universal’s history. The film features Anastasia Steele, a college student, who falls for the rich and mysterious Christian Grey. The catch? Christian Grey is a dominant, and Anastasia has to reconcile with that fact. The pleasures and risks of BDSM are highly debated in the psychiatric community, especially with the continued issues with research studies having small samples and mainly volunteer subjects. Dr. Richard Krueger, associate professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center, says people who practice BDSM tend to have a higher level of socioeconomic functioning compared to control groups and that they are “healthy or healthier,” though Krueger says that the literature is limited on the subject and the conclusions are more like open-ended questions. A study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine said that couples who take part in BDSM might be emotionally healthier than those with vanilla sex lives. The study says BDSM couples have better communication, less neurosis, and are more sensitive to their partner’s needs. However, the key point of the article is that the research is not representative of the general population as the participants volunteered for the study. Other research disputes the positives of BDSM, and one study reports that sadomasochistic relationships disguise abusive relationships and are a specific type of intimate partner violence. BDSM research provides nuanced conclusions that are unable to definitively reveal the nature of the fetish.
Fifty Shades of Grey works with issues in discussion with BDSM: Anastasia does not grant consent, the power dynamics of the relationship work against her, and their communication is flawed. The BDSM community criticizes Fifty Shades not only for its inaccurate depictions, but for Christian using his power to manipulate and coerce Anastasia into a sexual relationship to his preference without questioning his own influence. The franchise’s purpose is to entertain, but it also muddles the reality of BDSM relationships and emphasizes the flawed politics of this type of sexual fetish. If the Fifty Shades franchise is so flawed, why are the novels and films such a success? The plot is formulaic: a wealthy man seduces a young, innocent woman. The success of the franchise relates to the success of erotic literature, and Jaclyn Friedman, author of What You Really Really Want: The Smart Girl’s Shame-Free Guide to Sex & Safety, says Fifty Shades speaks to women’s lust for erotica-lite. Friedman says, “These stories focus on female desire and what’s in it for the woman,” which she notes is not common in mainstream culture. Fifty Shades provides a facade of a woman’s agency over a man’s sexual desires and works as a kinky fairy tale. Anastasia is able to “heal” Christian of his fetish, and their story ends with marriage, a baby, and true love. Fifty Shades of Grey is neither about the BDSM community nor the complications that come with the specific fetish. The focus is on the entertainment: the sexual fantasy of dominance over a powerful man while subordinating to please him and oneself. The portrayal of fetish in the franchise indicates the lack of care entrusted to ensure a realistic and healthy representation of BDSM, which leads to misunderstandings about the culture as indicated by the BDSM community’s criticisms. In Fifty Shades of Grey, fetish is a sexual fantasy rather than a realistic sexual relationship.
A realistic portrayal of a fetish is hard to come by because the experience is highly varied for each individual who has an interest in a certain fetish. In 2012, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-V) depathologized paraphilia, the psychiatric term for fetish. The DSM-V makes a distinction between paraphilia and a paraphilic disorder, the latter of which causes distress or impairment to another. The distinction is important because the psychiatric community informs that those with paraphilic disorders have a higher risk of committing sex offenses. A notable character linked to both mental illness and a paraphilic disorder is Tate Langdon in the series American Horror Story: Murder House, who is a school shooter, murderer, and rapist. Langdon wears a gimp suit — an outfit commonly associated with BDSM and is used in the series to illustrate deviant and disturbing behavior. In this suit, Langdon rapes the female occupant of the home and conceives the literal antichrist. The posters for season one of American Horror Story features this character in a gimp suit — the face of fright. The horror of the gimp suit speaks to his role as a murderer, but the horror relies on the unsettling image of a faceless villain whose atrocities are sexually violent. Even in season two, American Horror Story: Asylum, the serial killer who uses the flesh and bones of his victims for furniture has a mother fetish, specifically with breastfeeding. The correlation between evil and fetish blurs in American Horror Story, and the portrayal begs the question if anyone is safe from the sexual fantasies of the mentally ill. These malignant and frightening portrayals of fetishes derive from a sexual anxiety of fetishes, proven by the continuously transforming categorization of paraphilia. Dr. Kruegar mentions that those who practice fetishes may be mentally ill or have suffered trauma, but concludes this is not necessarily a predictor. Less than a decade ago, all paraphilia was a mental illness, and now only some qualify for the disorder. The portrayal of fetish in American Horror Story suggests a lingering discomfort with paraphilia or, at the very least, a strong correlation between disturbed mental health and fetishism.
A fetish is rarely just a fetish in entertainment. The spanking in the 2011 film A Dangerous Method alludes to the perpetuated abuse of a vulnerable woman. The Reverend’s foot fetish in the television series Poldark suggests religious deviance in the religiously rigid 18th century England. The biting in Raw connects her cannibalistic and sexual desire to reclaiming her body as a woman by consuming others. A fetish’s portrayal in entertainment is a consequence of the climate’s political factors rather than a comment on the fetish itself. Behind a sexualized scene of a specific part of the body or kinky behavior are political motivations at work, whether or not it was intended, rather than a display of a specific sexual desire. On the screen, a fetish is reduced to the perspective of that work and is limited to the political agenda and context of its portrayal rather than being a full examination of the fetish itself. Entertainment plays a heavy hand in shaping the perception of fetishes.