I was never one for being completely explicit in the papers I used to write in high school and college. I liked the reader to have all the facts at their fingertips, my take on it, other people's views and the opportunity to make their own decisions. I was chastised time and again for not dumbing down my work so that A + B = C was spelt out twelve times in terms that even a second grader can understand. I liked subtle better.
But sometimes you have to clue in the reader a little. I know that American filmmakers tend to spell things out in big bold letters that myopic morons in the back row could read loud and clear—see Quiz Show for this "beat them over the head" technique employed to its fullest. But I don't appreciate not "getting" the joke until the filmmaker lets it out in an interview. And in the case of Catfight, I get the feeling that Christine Martin might not have figured out what the joke was until after her film was made.
I know I shouldn't let you in on the joke so you can be as "what's the point?" as I was, but I'll tell you—Catfight is a documentary about the dissension among feminists, especially regarding pornography. Martin and her co-director, Glenn Belverio, only let this slip, kind of, in the very beginning of the video, when a very poorly lit and miced sex worker relates a story of how she was confronted by an anti-porn feminist while images from a modern catfight video are being played underneath. This is also one of the rare instances where Martin and Belverio use good filmmaking sense to have a voice-over going with video that is not simply another talking head—something they apparently forget as the video goes on.
I certainly don't disagree with her theory but I have a lot of problems with her competence as a videographer. Cuts are glitchy and the clips are overlong and often completely over my head. Call me stupid but I've watched this video three times in an attempt to draw some sort of framework to which all the clips might apply. However, there seems to be as much dissension among the clips and segments as there supposedly is between feminists—perhaps a result of having two directors, as those interviewed are decidedly from just about the same school of thought if not the same social circles.
Readers of CdC #1 might remember that some people on staff have personal problems with Richard Kern and I for one certainly have problems with a video that presents Kern as a woman-friendly filmmaker and uses clips from Fingered, where Lydia Lunch is violently raped and violated with a pistol, to defend his respect for women. Huh?
The anti-porn feminists are never given an opportunity to speak and the pro-porn feminists don't do a very good job in presenting their case, leaving the film even more jumbled than if both sides were represented fairly and viewers were forced to think, "I agree with her point, but I also agree with her point, this is really something I need to think about more and can't be solved with a simple knee-jerk reaction." Instead I kept thinking, "gosh, this is a poor quality video, what did that have to do with anything, where the hell did this come from, will this prove relevant later, buy this videographer a VCR with a flying erase head!" All in all, I'd much rather be watching some of the films from which the clips were taken (especially Coffy and Still Killing Us Softly—which is a much better documentary). SKUS may be from the anti-porn view-point but at least it's cohesive and has a consistent voice.
What Catfight never addresses—and what I really was hoping it would—is the appeal of catfights.
I have a great respect for a lot of fetishes but I have never gotten off or gotten into women dukeing it out with one another. I have never seen an actual catfight video—they're not as readily available for rent at my local adult video store—but I believe that the formula would probably be something like Provocation, Fighting, Submission, Gratification. "Now that I have beaten you, eat me out, bitch!" says the winner. Or perhaps there's no sex to them at all and they're a grade down of snuff films—where a woman is severely beaten but not killed.
I know that in pop culture classes the episode of Star Trek where Spock goes through the Vulcan horny-stage of Pon Farr (sic) and has to fight Kirk is thought of as a substitute for them finally consummating their homosexual desires—in the fight they get all sweaty and roll over one another (to that really cool music—ed.) and the blood from Kirk being cut is meant to symbolize the big O. Yeah, yeah, all very far-fetched but I think pop culture professors have a lot of time on their hands.
I also think that the big turn-on for catfight aficionados might just be seeing two girls really (pretty) just getting all hot and sweaty like Kirk and Spock. Also, guys usually never have a problem seeing two women together—lesbianism is a big part of porn despite the incongruity that homophobia is still rampant in our society. Is this because the women are non-threatening as they are objectified by the camera and that they are usually highly attractive lipstick lesbians and not "butch dykes"?
Also, there's nothing better than seeing women going at it—if they're fighting each other, they don't have time to fight patriarchal oppression. This is another thing that Christine Martin and Glenn Belverio might have wanted to put in their video but managed to neglect. Catfights are misogynistic but twisted logic says that's okay since it's women doing the hitting. The women are serving as a stand-in for men's desire for violence. Sex and violence—it's fantastic.
Don't think that catfights are limited to readers of Nugget—catfights are as American as apple pie and as prevalent as they ever were in mainstream Hollywood cinema. Just watch Judge Dredd—as soon as I saw Joan Chen sizing up Diane Lane I knew that hair was going to be pulled and eyes were bound to be scratched out.
Catfights are kind of toned down when they come out of Hollywood these days and usually occur only in action films where the male lead needs to be coupled with a strong woman (Total Recall—not "toned down" at all!) or when there is a woman villainess who it would be impolite to punch (Superman II). Dear readers, can you think of some more good Hollywood catfights? Send 'em on in!
A Catfight To Remember
Back in the glory days of the Cheese Metal/Hair bands there were catfights aplenty! It gave the nubile young women something to do before they were hosed down. Just this very evening I was fondly remembering those ridiculously long and over-budget ego-centric Guns N' Roses videos when I remembered the big catfight in "Don't Cry" that Izzy (or was it Dizzy or Conway?) and Slash were ogling (Slash attempting to ogle from underneath his hair).
I hope I have confessed my ignorance to the appeal of catfights—they still bear no fetishistic turn-on to me but if they do to our readers, please let us know!
Personally, if I was into them, my nomination for a good match between young Hollywood starlets would be between Alicia Silverstone and Drew Barrymore. I think they'd make a good non-threatening lesbian tryst but I wouldn't mind seeing them wrestle around a bit before the fun began.
Now, have I made myself clear about everything or do I need to simplify things for the slow people out there? Do I need to state and restate my points or have you all managed to keep up with me?
As far as Catfight goes, according to an article in Film Threat Video Guide there is supposed to be a PG-13 rated sequel in the works that concentrates on female boxing. I hope Christine Martin knows what the point of her film is before she starts the camera rolling this time, or at least starts with some sort of thesis statement upon which to build and prove or disprove.
Catfight is available from Video Search of Miami but really isn't worth the dough.
Whoa! The next part of this article is even more graphic than the pictures we chose to use in the layout. The following is reprinted from Nugget magazine's "Fight Time" section as an example of a catfight fantasy. We do not apologize for the content but want to give you fair warning!
Fantasy Fight Pits Skater Tonya Harding vs. Nancy Kerrigan
[The original issue reprinted a reader-submitted letter from Nugget magazine here. It is not reproduced on this site.]