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Sexualities
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‘If You’ve Got a Vagina and an Attitude, that’s a Deadly Combination’: Sex and Heterosexuality in Basic Instinct, Body of Evidence and Disclosure

Sara-Jane Finlay

University of Toronto at Mississauga, Canada, sarajane.finlay{at}utoronto.ca

Natalie Fenton

Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK, N.Fenton{at}gold.ac.uk

A large body of work exists on women’s sexuality and its construction and misrepresentation in media texts, yet little research analyses explicit sex scenes in mainstream film. Drawing on textual analyses of the sex scenes in Basic Instinct (P. Verhoeven, 1992), Body of Evidence (U. Edel, 1993) and Disclosure (B. Levinson, 1994), the article addresses these issues more specifically. We argue that a consideration of the heterosexual identities and the heterosexual sexual practice (heterosex) displayed in the films can offer opportunities for the disruption of hegemonic heteronormativity. Two of the films discussed - Body of Evidence and Disclosure - offer powerful, although stereotyped forms of feminine heterosexual identity and subversive sexual practice. The final film considered - Basic Instinct - displays alternative forms of feminine sexuality, but ultimately returns to a publicly sanctioned form of heterosexual identity. Within all three films the coding of heterosex, heterosexuality and feminism incompletely conforms to a heteronormative framing, offering space for the viewer to possibly reassess sex and heterosexuality.

Key Words: feminism • heterosexual identity • heterosexual practice • mediated sex

Sexualities, Vol. 8, No. 1, 49-74 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/1363460705049574
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