Six, Sadism, and Scopophilia

“The Look, pleasurable in form, can be threatening in content, and it is woman as representation/image that crystallizes this paradox.” (Mulvey) In patriarchal cinema, women are set up as the most visually appealing and threatening characters. Psychoanalytically, the image of the woman can be both a symbol of male dominance and male deficiency. The female form as object is the heart of Western scopophilia in film. When the female character is given personality and identity, the objective pleasure of the body is threatened. Indeed, the female, reasserting her own sexuality beyond that of the male gaze, is often so powerful that she will disrupt the plot. To escape this anxiety of the sexualized female figure, film and the male subconscious must rely on sadism or fetishistic scopophilia. These duel avenues of escape are exemplified during the introduction of tortured Cylon Six in the Battlestar Gallatica episode “Pegasus.”

The scene is a collection of shots from the point of view of the three characters present in the set. A low angle shot of the beaten and raped Cylon Six. A rotating series of roaming shots from the the point of view of the human scientist (and viewers). High angle, over the shoulder shots representative of the ephemeral Six which exists in the scientists mind. In this scene, the two polar depictions of the woman can be seen. The Cylon Six is a blond bombshell that “literalizes the fears associated with sexually assertive women.” (Kustritz) In this role, she is one of the most disruptive characters for the scopophillic viewer. Her assertive nature strongly clashes with the over sexualized objectivity of her body. In order to deal with this paradox, the scene shows symbolically the two escapist views used by the male subconscious.

Sadistically, to re-achieve masculinity, there is the raped and beaten woman (gender is his hierarchically portrayed as above race/Cylon here) on the floor. This character has been physically and mentally brutalized to the point of catatonic submissiveness. Her beauty has been punished by males against her will. This domination of the castrated in sad irony allows for the decastration of the male crew of the Battlestar Pegasus (who have been castrated by the powerful woman captain of the ship). In this, the male subconscious is also placated. The terrifying personality and beauty of the Six has been contained, controlled, and dominated, thus she can no longer threaten male phallic power.

Alternatively, the ephemeral Six is the embodiment of undiluted perfection. Her body, emphasized in closeup shots, is unapologetic in its sexuality. “She is... a perfect product, whose body, stylized and fragmented by closeups, is the content of the film and the direct recipient of the spectator’s look.” (Mulvey) The Six character returns in this to one dimensional objectivity. She become a fetish symbol of goddess-like feminine sexuality. The camera moves with the viewers eye, unconnected to the action on the film. The male, therefore, is allowed the subconscious pleasure of the flesh without having to deal directly with the character anymore. Thus, the threat is removed for the time being and scopophilliac entertainment can take place outside the narrative.