| What is the movie “Black Swan” really about?
Well, sadly, it's about one in three women, and one in five men.
Nina wakes up in a little girl's room, surrounded by teddy bears and pink bows. She's a workaholic, stretching before breakfast, served by her creepy mother, whose hair is tied back in a tight black bun (this will be important later). Nina’s habit of self mutilation has carved deep wounds on her back.
On the subway to work, Nina gazes at her own reflection in the glass, and then through more glass sees another dancer named Lily, whose hair is also in a tight bun, just like Nina's mother. Lily tucks her hair behind her ear - and we see Nina making exactly the same gesture, indicating that Lily is to some degree a part or side of Nina’s mind, strongly associated with – or directly derived from – her own mother.
After being turned down for the role of Swan Queen because the director thinks she is sexually frigid, Nina decides to become even a little bit assertive, and we see her putting on lipstick. This is the action of a woman, not that of the little girl her mother desperately wants her to remain.
This timid foray into adult sexuality turns violent when Nina viciously bites the director who kisses her. This aggression lands Nina the role of “Swan Queen” – sexual, intense, and predatory.
Nina’s mother constantly infantilizes her, as in the scene where Nina goes home and sees her mother's creepy shrine to her, and her mother's youthful portrayal mixed up with her own pictures – this no-boundary ego-blurring causes Nina to self-mutilate even more viciously.
The infantilization occurs again when Nina refuses a too-large piece of cake; her mother threatens to throw the entire dessert into the garbage, breaking down Nina's resistance. The mother then feeds her like an infant, causing Nina to run to the bathroom and start ripping pieces of her fingers off.
Her director asks Nina if she has a boyfriend, and she says she’s had boyfriends, but nothing serious; he then asks if she is a virgin, and she says, “No.” This is also important.
Nina reluctantly takes her brutish director’s suggestion to loosen up and be less puritanical. She tries to masturbate, but is interrupted when she sees her mother sleeping in a chair by her bedside; her budding sexuality is once more crushed by maternal intrusion.
Later, Nina tries to masturbate again in the bathtub, but is interrupted by the image of dripping blood, and suddenly sees Lily leaning over her bath. Lily's hair is now down, just like Nina's mother in the previous scene. Nina realizes that the blood in the water is coming from her own self-mutilation, which has been occurring unconsciously during her sexual arousal. One hand masturbating, the other hand gouging her own flesh, neither aware of what the other is up to - a terrifying manifestation of psychological dissociation.
Nina’s interrupted – and dissociated – masturbating once again leads to violent self-mutilation - and shortly afterwards, on the subway, an older man fondles his genitals while leering at her. This represents the awakening memories of childhood sexual abuse that accompanies growing sexual desire as an adult.
Nina flees from her mother with Lily, ending up at a bar where she gets drunk and drugged – a typical Dionysian/Apollonian split between frigid sexlessness and squalid promiscuity.
When her mother claustrophobic demands to know where she has been, Nina claims to have been with two men and “fucked them both.” This scene is eerie because Nina's mother is completely unaware that Lily is in the room, and Nina and Lily both whisper “and back” at the same time, indicating that Lily did not in fact come home with Nina – which Lily later confirms.
Nina and “Lily” then have sex – but this is impossible, since Lily is not there. Thus if Nina did have sex that night with a woman, it must have been with the only other woman in the apartment – her mother.
So – what is really going on in this movie?
Well, the movie continually points towards Nina’s early sexual abuse, most likely at her mother’s hands.
As a result of this abuse, her mother desperately needs to keep Nina in a state of arrested development – a prepubescent child – because she is instinctively aware that when Nina becomes a mature sexual being, the memories of sexual abuse will come flooding back. Controlling the victim through infantilization is a common tactic of abusers.
Although this abuse is constantly hinted at – and the character of Nina is a textbook case of an adult survivor of childhood sexual abuse – it is never explicitly revealed. The abuse is only evident in the pathology, not in a confession, revelation or confrontation.
This silence seals Nina’s fate, be it madness or death. Knowledge is repressed out of guilt, the blame is never placed on the abuser, and the true self is drowned in shame.
“Black Swan” describes the descent into madness that can occur when childhood sexual abuse remains unacknowledged and untreated – much like the director’s previous film “Requiem for a Dream.”
How can a woman have never had a serious boyfriend and yet not be a virgin? Well, if she was sexually abused as a child of course.
The evidence and symptomology is clear – Nina has an eating disorder, constantly mutilates herself, has dissociative or “black out” episodes, low self-esteem, sexual dysfunction – all of which conform to commonly reported symptoms in adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, which include:
• Depression and anxiety
• Low self-esteem
• Psychotic symptoms (e.g. delusions and hallucinations)
• Dissociative states
• Repeated self-injury
• Suicide attempts
• Compulsive sexual behaviors
• Fractures
• Sexual dysfunction
• Eating disorders
• Poor adherence to medical recommendations
• Intolerance of or constant search for intimacy
And…
• Expectation of early death. |
