The tendency to strive for perfection in art is not uncommon. While most of us accept that the goal to mold creative endeavors into something flawless is unrealistic, we remain enveloped in a world of self-scrutiny that rejects failure at any level. Natalie Portman’s brilliant performance as ballerina extraordinaire Nina in 2010’s Black Swan demonstrates this taste for impeccable performance while stressing the disproportionate pressures on and politicized positions of women at the same time. Darren Aronofsky’s intense portrait of a young woman lost in the heat of competition and confusion delicately unravels a complex tale of illusion, imperfection and insanity.
Black Swan introduces us to Nina as an athlete with emotional baggage. She is well-disciplined in ballet but lacks confidence and independence. Her mother disrobes her at night and tucks her into bed, reminding us that Nina seems trapped in a perpetual state of innocence and supervision. Her inaudible voice and nervous expressions reveal the extent to which Nina is incapable of articulating what her appetites in life call for.
Nina’s fragile conditions are challenged when she is asked to play the Swan Queen at her ballet studio – a time-consuming and backbreaking role that includes portraying both the Black Swan and White Swan, who respectively represent ideas of evil or good, seduction or submission. This stark dichotomy puts a great deal of pressure on Nina – one that could be conflated with gender binaries routinely followed in several Western societies: a female is both sexually empowered and therefore wicked, or remains virginal and morally commendable.
Breaking out of her comfort zone and into the antithetical part of the Black Swan proves to be more difficult than expected, especially after a new recruit at the ballet studio (Mila Kunis) displays her noticeable (and competitive) talent immediately. Nina’s journey is subsequently dictated by several unsuccessful attempts to leverage this pressure. She seeks sexual fulfillment, forgiveness from the woman whom she'll replace on the stage, detachment from her mother's commands. These intertwined experiences only intensify and result in an emotionally gripping finale that captures the climax of her self-demanding lifestyle as immaculately as Nina wants her ballet to appear.
The most fascinating aspect of this entire movie is, again, its ability to implement complicated notions based on feminist discourse remarkably well. Nina’s experiences tend to parallel what critics of patriarchal constructs have been documenting and dissecting for decades: self-mutilation as seen through Nina’s habitual scratching at night; the denial of female pleasure in the form of masturbation and satiable sexual appetites; the politicized role of motherhood in relation to childbirth and careers; the fight for power in a world of male-domination that pins girl against girl.
Nina’s inability to cope with such circumstances while being simultaneously expected to depict the contrast of purity and impurity on stage leads to tragic aftermath. She is victimized by the world around her and although it could be argued that this renders her weak, Nina’s life is the consequence of systematic disempowerment. She isn’t just crazy, as the previews might want us to believe. Sobering and enthralling, Black Swan illustrates the convoluted anxieties within women that stem from impossible standards of an oppressive nature. Nina isn’t the only female character to exhibit these attributes. In fact, the only person who seems self-assured and painfully unaware of what is going on throughout the film is Nina’s male ballet instructor who wields his influence through sexual and emotional exploitation of the women around him.
Black Swan may not need to be interpreted as a recognizable product of gender theory and feminist critique, but I would label it as such without question. Its immersive environment and explicit connections between female characters shows us something deeper than some “insane ballerina piece” or “psychosexual thriller;” it unearths an incredibly complex and important perspective of systemic issues involving the lives of women that the globalized community has yet to fully address.
