the effort that goes into being effortless
the feminine urge to not appear urgent?
Recently, I watched Black Swan (dir. Darren Aronofsky, 2010). (Is the fact that it’s a horror movie common knowledge? I didn’t know this when I was looking for a movie, alone in bed, in the middle of the night. Fortunately it’s not that scary.)
It’s obviously a masterpiece (although Karsten Runquist — half-jokingly — calls it ‘the best student film’ on his podcast) that has so much going on and triggers a huge amount of commentary — to clarify, Natalie Portman’s Oscar was deserved— but the scene from it that has stuck with me the most ironically provokes a discussion that has relatively little to do with the movie’s subject matter.
In case you haven’t seen the movie, Black Swan follows Portman’s character, Nina, whose life’s dream is to play the lead dual roles of White Swan and Black Swan in the ballet Swan Lake. She wins the part but becomes increasingly paranoid throughout the film that another ballerina, Lily (played by the wonderfully sexy Mila Kunis), wants to take her place.
The scene in question features Nina watching Lily rehearse when Thomas Leroy, the artistic director of the ballet, comes up behind her. Watch the way she moves, he says. Imprecise, but effortless. And he’s right. There is a carefree energy about Kunis’ dancing that is magnetic. In addition to this, we as the viewer understand that despite the painstaking attention we see Nina give to ballet (which is felt even more strongly thanks to some of Aronofsky’s stylistic choices — for better or for worse), she will never have the same quality.
I’m also currently rewatching Gossip Girl for the third time (duality of man, I know). So when I saw this scene something I registered was a parallel between the relationship between Nina and Lily and none other but our beloved Blair and Serena. Anyone who’s seen an episode of Gossip Girl knows that the rivalry between the iconic brunette and blonde is the cornerstone of the series. In my opinion, what makes the series so popular is the fact that they are polar opposites in a very specific regard; while Blair is constantly trying her absolute hardest to succeed (à la Nina Sayers), Serena seems to glide through life and practically everything she could ask for is handed to her (and I literally could not care less about whatever so-called ‘hardship’ she endures so save your tears).
The scene in which this dynamic is most prevalent (and which is the most direct parallel to the Black Swan scene — if you ask me the Gossip Girl writers could legitimately claim that they were the artistic inspiration behind it) for me is the photo shoot scene in S1E4 (‘Bad News Blair’). Blair’s mother Eleanor asks her to model her new line and Serena agrees to come with Blair to the photo shoot for moral support (they’ve just recently resolved one of their infamous feuds). However, while Serena is trying to ‘help’ Blair loosen up in front of the camera, the photographer is enraptured by her spirited presence; in a later scene in conversation with Eleanor he tells her: ‘This girl… This girl has it. She is warm like sunshine, she has fun!’
As opposed to Blair, who he describes as unapproachable, controlled, perfect and ‘rigid like a twig.’ This results in Eleanor deciding to replace her own daughter (?!) with Serena to model her line.
This girl… This girl has it. She is warm like sunshine, she has fun!
I think both of these scenes made an impression on me because there is a universality to both Nina and Blair’s experiences. We all knew a girl in school who was perfect without really trying to be; her Instagram feed is flawless despite being made up of photos taken ‘in the moment’, she’s liked by everyone and genuinely seems to cruise through school. However, even as I’m writing this I want to be careful not to fixate too heavily on the ‘Serena’ character because it’s almost impossible to pin them down; the nature of self comparison means that each person’s perception of who this individual is exactly will vary. Consequently, the ‘it’ girl herself, whoever she is, has nothing to do with anyone’s insecurities. This for me signifies that the dichotomy between ‘those who try’ and ‘those who don’t’ needs to be examined in a wider societal context.
The ultimate irony is that although both Nina and Blair are made to feel bad for being uptight perfectionists by authority figures in their lives, the ‘way they are’ (which isn’t meant to sound critical!) can be attributed to these individuals in the first place; Nina works herself to insanity in response to the overwhelming pressure she feels from Leroy at the ballet company and Blair is perpetually striving to be good enough for her mother. And this is definitely reflected in the real world; there’s an unspoken expectation that women in general have to be perfect in order to be liked and successful — however once we are as close to this ideal of perfection as we can get, as soon as it seems like we are trying too hard we can be criticised once again. Finally, this may even suggest that the ‘it’ girl doesn’t exist in the first place — I am convinced that this phenomenon is so broad that it would be impossible for the Serenas and Lilys of the world to be unaware of it, meaning that they themselves see other women or a general ideal as an example to strive towards — they’re just better at appearing careless.
So we try to appear like we’re not trying. Who doesn’t want to be the girl who has ‘it’ (whatever ‘it’ is), after all? We see this manifest itself in so many ways; nonchalantly-named ‘photo dumps’ on Instagram come to mind in particular. ‘No Makeup’ makeup, street style… the list could go on. It’s important to note that this isn’t to say that any of these things are objectively bad (to my core I am a photo dump enthusiast)— it’s just interesting to look at how certain trends are framed. Because some people (myself included) try hard their entire lives. And while ‘trying’ itself can’t be simply categorised as a good or bad thing, I want to start examining the contexts in which women feel that they have put so much effort in — even to just be effortless themselves.
omg hey you made it to the end that’s sick! but seriously thank you for reading the whole thing it means the absolute wooorld <3
blogpost soundtrack: mirrorball — Taylor Swift
