Aesthetic discipline and the absence of intersectionality
The acceptance of Ya-jing’s voice derives not only from her measured tone and emotional restraint but also from her adherence to prevailing beauty ideals. Her age and appearance align with mainstream Taiwanese standards of female attractiveness. The actress playing her, Gingle Wang, is a real-life ambassador for a well-known fashion brand. Within media culture, such a body is perceived as “normal,” which facilitates the attribution of legitimacy and credibility to her character. The body is seen as being “loaded with cultural symbolism (Synnot, 2002, p.1) The body images selected in media representations often signal which appearances are deemed acceptable, credible, and worthy of support. Such portrayals not only reinforce narrow definitions of victimhood but also marginalize survivors whose bodies fall outside these norms, including those with non-ideal body types, older individuals, non-cisgender people, and those who are non-heterosexual.
In contrast, Arabella presents both a body and a personality that stand in sharp opposition to the mainstream image of a victim. She has striking pink hair, enjoys partying, smokes, drinks, uses drugs, and is sexually active—characteristics that mainstream culture does not typically associate with a “morally upright” victim. Indriyana and Albab, in their study of the crime film M.F.A (2017), note that “Female victims of rape are usually introverted types. They are the types of people who are covered in their personal lives…. Women are shown as sexual objects of men. Women are represented as having to accept anything, including their fate when they are raped by men. They are not given the strength to resist and only accept it” (2020, p. 52). Arabella’s presence challenges the mainstream media’s fantasy of the “pure victim” and demonstrates a form of survivor agency that does not rely on aesthetic discipline.
Kwame, as a gay male survivor, further exposes the realities of intersectional exclusion. As a Black man, his dual identity of race and sexual orientation makes it even more difficult for him to receive institutional understanding or cultural empathy. His trauma is not only met with institutional indifference but also exists largely outside the mainstream cultural imagination of a “credible victim.” As Crenshaw reminds us, “This focus on the most privileged group members marginalizes those who are multiply-burdened and obscures claims that cannot be understood as resulting from discrete sources of discrimination. … this focus on otherwise-privileged group members creates a distorted analysis of racism and sexism because the operative conceptions of race and sex become grounded in experiences that actually represent only a subset of a much more complex phenomenon” (1998, p. 315). Kwame’s experience embodies this form of erasure.
Conclusion
“To designate a hell is not, of course, to tell us anything about how to extract people from that hell... Still, it seems a good in itself to acknowledge, to have enlarged, one’s sense of how much suffering caused by human wickedness there is in the world we share with others.”
Sontag, 2004, Regarding the pain of others
While this blog focuses on analyzing onscreen portrayals of sexual violence, I hope to remind viewers that these stories may echo real lives. Even if some remain critical or skeptical of their authenticity, for those who have lived them, the pain and struggles shown are not exaggerated plot devices, but realities woven into their existence. Acknowledging these experiences does not offer an immediate remedy, but if we can affirm that their presence and voices will not be forgotten, perhaps that is enough.
In the end, this blog came to life is to draw more attention to survivors of sexual violence. Beyond raising awareness, I hope to invite those who are able to extend tangible support to people who have endured such harm. The Garden of Hope Foundation is one of Taiwan’s most important organizations dedicated to supporting survivors—especially women—on their journey toward healing. Below, I’ve included a link for donations. Every contribution, no matter the size, can help light the path toward a better future for a survivor.
Reference:
- Synnot, A. (2002). The Body Social. London: Routledge.Indriyana, T., & Albab, C. U. (2020).
- Blaming the victim: Representation the victim of rape in M.F.A film. Informasi, 50(1), 46–57.
- Crenshaw, K., & Phillips, A. (1998). Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics. In Feminism And Politics. Oxford University Press.
