ESSAYS, ARTICLES, AND THEORIES ABOUT CINEMA: 300: Queers, Masculines, and Sades, Oh My!

There are many instances where Zack Snyder’s Hollywood action-packed film,300 (2006) contains scenes invoking “queerness,” however using Alexander Doty’s essay “There’s Something Queer Going On Here,” as a springboard to understand the ways in which queer theory works, that the film’s queerness is better explained. Doty makes it clear the distinction between queer theory and homosexual/lesbian theory is gender, however it has come to the point where even gender gives an ambiguous view, clouding the theories of queer theory by focusing on the singularity within separate genders. He states, “generally, lesbian- and gay-specified forms of queer identities involve some degree of same gender identification and desire or a cross-gender identification linked to same-gender desire. The understanding of what ‘gender’ is in these cases can range from accepting conventional straight forms, which naturalize ‘feminine’ and “masculine” by conflating them with sentializing, biology-based conceptions of ‘women’ and ‘men.’” It would not be made possible for society to fall into this trap, confusing how gender determines reception of homosexuals or lesbians, if it were not for the ways in which media portrays it altogether. In 300, the film equates men with a masculine identification and women with feminine. This structure is set in place by the Spartan order, one that favors strength, illustrated in the presentation of men and not weakness, seen in the presentation of women. According to Spartan order, men who are not given the physical appearance of strength are not attributed with the title: a man. This behavior is best exemplified when Doty says, “gay men who identify with some conception of ‘the feminine’ through processes that could stem from conscious to personal choice, or from internalizing longstanding straight imperatives that encourage gay men to think of themselves as ‘not men.’” In the case of 300, the men perceived as overly masculine, merely use the image as a persona to repress less-manly desires, such as homosexuality, and in doing so, repressing such vast emotions escalates the soldiers to partake in sadism with their actions on the battlefield.

First, the film presents King Leonidas having sexual intercourse with his wife and Queen, Gorgo. This is shown in a darkly-lit blue saturated image, and aside from Snyder’s grossly obnoxious slow motion technique, the scene successfully produces an erotic mood. The eroticness retains its mood when a cut is made, transitioning to Leonidas with his 300, barely clothed, brightly lit soldiers on the beach. The power of how these two scenes work relies heavily on Eisenstein’s montage and the notion of transference. The sex scene establishes the erotic mood, and the scene with Leonidas and his men establishes masculinity. According to Eisenstein, the clashing of images, creates a completely new meaning. Taking the erotic mood in the sex scene and clashing it with the masculinity with Leonidas and his men produces on terms of transference, or association. The viewer, transfers the erotic mood over into the next frame upon its clashing and associates Leonidas and his barely clothed soldiers with the very same mood, and thus creates the new meaning.

But what is it that this represents? The viewers who watch 300 are interested in nonstop action. Well, what better way to reflect satisfied action than to reflect the same feelings inside the viewer? There is an article written by a male entitled, “Why Women Should See 300,” where the author’s reasons include, “1) Gerard Butler, 2) Gerard Butler Naked, 3) Empowered Women, 4) Strong Relationships, and 5) 300 Nearly Naked Men with 8-Pack Abs.” While most of the reasons are poorly constructed arguments, it appears the reasons he lists for women to see the film, are just as prevalent for men (homosexual and heterosexual), especially the very men today whom repress the same homosexuality as the characters on the screen, are able to view the film and praise its overt masculinity for their own empathetic approach. This is not a “gay or straight,” “lesbian or gay,” “queer or not” issue, because if anything, lesbian women might find the overt masculinity attractive in comparison to their own strength, therefore breaking the ideas behind what actually constitutes masculinity.

The Spartans’ repression of desires such as homosexuality is what in term creates the need for overt masculinity, and evolves into hostility. This is best illustrated through the connection of violence and sadism. In this case, the battlefield scenes are just as sexual than the actual sex scenes in the film. The Spartans cling to their spears and shields as their primary weapons. The spear, obviously shaped in a phallic symbol, used to thrust, penetrate deep inside their opponents, while the shield is used to stop incoming penetration by their opponent’s spears and arrows. The act of thrusting the enemies with their spears, elicits the climax, consisting of the orgasmic rush of victory, specifically heard in their roaring chants. While battling, blood is slung everywhere, heightened by the detailed emphasis of it spurting from the body, leading into the comparison with that of another liquid spurted from the body upon immense physical contact. If this is not enough, Snyder goes a step even further, having the blood slung on the lens of the camera, probably hoping for a realistic effect, however comes off as the release of bodily liquid emitted into the viewer’s face.

While all of this overt masculinity leading to sadism, it is important to back up and connect it to queer theory and gender representation. 300 is an action movie, defined by its expectations, and with a history of tailoring towards men. It is arguable who the film targets, because more than one demographic presents itself, however, the themes of the film tend to sway towards men, and argued in here, the specific males repressing homosexual desires. They are the ones typically opposed to queer theory being applied to the film for the very reasons Doty notes, dismissing it as “‘alternative’ readings, wishful or willful misreadings, or ‘reading too much into things’ readings.” While Doty compares the reading of texts with queer theory, it is mainly applied to horror and melodrama, however the same could be applied to the action genre as well. With horror and melodrama, he mentions it is important to understand the conventions of these genres and how they “encourage queer positioning as they exploit the spectacle of heterosexual romance, straight domesticity, and traditional gender roles gone awry.” Another major example as far as inviting the action genre into the group would be the success of Kathryn Bigelow’sThe Hurt Locker (2009). That film alone attracted everyone from action film lovers, consisting of gay and straight, male and female audiences, lovers of female director’s, consisting of straight and lesbian feminists, as well as men. So, there seems to be a wide range of reception today than there ever has been. The ability to apply queer theory to films today is easier, however with reception in 300, and social-shifts in anti-gay movements tend to blur that possibility with the constant differentiation between straight and gay films, as well as films for men and for women.