Current Forum: Session 7: Ideology, Gender and Sex	Read 10 times 	
Date: 26-Feb-2001 21:49:00	
Author: CASHIN, KATHRYN K. <kkc2311@mailer.fsu.edu>	
Subject: Choosing Strawberry 	
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       Gender in Strawberry and Chocolate seems to depicted along the lines of typical movie archetypes. Of the four main male characters, the movie presents two as gay (Diego and Germain) and two as straight (David and Miguel). Subdividing these couples further, each type (gay or straight) has one more positive representative and one more negative.
       In the gay couple, Diego is presented as intellectual, patriotic, cultured, caring, brave and principled. His counterpart, Germain, is presented as gifted, but also more self-serving and weak. In the straight couple, David is presented similarly to David -- quasi-intellectual, patriotic, caring, brave and principled. Miguel, his counterpart more closely embodies typical machismo characteristics - he is intolerant, aggressive, homophobic, ultra patriotic and less intellectual. It is perhaps David's and Diego's similar qualities that allow them to be friends, despite their difference in sexuality.
       The women present a contrast, as well. Both women are heterosexual, but represent the whore/madonna dichotomy often associated with film. Nancy, despite her appeals to Santa Barbara for help, acts and dresses like a whore, while Vivian, in the beginning of the movie
represents the virgin/madonna. Of course, after the bliss of marriage has eroded Vivian seeks to David to rekindle their relationship. However, throughout the entire movie, Nancy dresses in a more provocative manner while Vivian dresses more matronly.
       Although class stratification is not supposed to exist in Cuba (at least officially), the movie shows otherwise. David is a peasant's son and appears less well educated than Diego. Diego has more material possessions and acquires banned/limited items through the black market. Diego seems to have more money/class/status, but his politics and sexual orientation force him
to leave his beloved country. Nancy also uses the black market to her advantage and appears
to live well, which calls into question her need to attempt suicide. Why she is so unhappy is never really clear. On the other hand, Vivian uses her madonna/virgin status to marry well and will soon leave the country for Italy.
       Drawing a comparision between Diego and Vivian, it appears that the characters with more class/money/status are leaving Cuba behind, however reluctantly. Race is less of an issue here than nationality or sexuality. Although we see examples of other races in the movie, the main characters are all Latin or Hispanic, heterosexual or homosexual. Within the context of this movie, discrimination occurs on the basis of sexuality, not race or class. Migue (the ultra heterosexual homophobic) thinks that people like Diego are subversive and should be ostracized. Diego counters "I'm part of this country, like it or not" and expresses great affection for his country, Cuba, and a desire to stay. This conflic supports Rubin's argument that "like gender, sexuality is political. It is organized into systems of power, which reward and encourage some individuals and activities, while punishing and surpressing others." (144)
       Finally, one feature of the filming of this movie particularly catches my attention. It is as if the camera is an observer and Havana/Cuba functions as a landscape in the tradition of the Western. Several times the camera remains still while characters or the background (landscape) are featured in front of it. This occurs in the scene where Nancy and David are on the ferry, when David is walking in front of the demolished building (with the partial staircase) and often
when David is ascending or descending staircases (sometimes with statements by Castro visible behind him.) Boats move in and out, people cross - and the camera remains neutral,
passive. Perhaps the camera is reminding us that the island of Cuba and its natural beauty will remain despite changes in regime and population.
       Strawberry and Chocolate may not be a movie so much about gender and sexuality as about ideology and politics, and the consequences or choices made.