Bravo, Blog 2: Gender, Disability, and The Shape of Water

Gender and Disability ~ The Shape of Water

(The Shape of water 1:23:59)

This movie was something I did not expect especially when it came to this scene that is shown above. Elisa is known to be disabled as she is mute and cannot speak but is often dehumanized by society (societal norm) where the disabled are portrayed of not being able to find love because of their disability. Within the movie, from 1:23:59 to 1:25:58, Elisa tells Zelda about how she had slept with the creature, but Zelda was more shocked with whom she slept with than Elisa sleeping with anyone at all. Additionally, her relationship with the creature is portrayed as different in potential disabling in the context of relationships. The lack of cultural expectation for speech among fish and sea creatures reduces the barrier for Elisa, which grows that love for it. In the film we see how Elisa sexually advances and reinforces her deviation from asexual stereotypes. Moreover, the emotional connection with the creature that she has is deviant from the norm with typical heterosexual men. This connects to Garland-Thompsons chapter, “This failure to approximate the norm…is not the same as the subversion of the norm. There is no promise that subversion will follow from the reiteration of constitutive norms; there is no guarantee that exposing the naturalized status…will lead to its subversion," (Garland, 238.) Garland was able to explain that someone who is heterosexual or one that had not fallen in love with someone who is not human, does not mean the norm of “romance” will be changed. When one ignores that norm, it does not change the fact it will go away. As mentioned in class, Elisa’s love choice also is impacted with how she is able to communicate. At the end of the movie, 1:56:47, she is given gills as the creature did not “fix” her but was able to allow her to communicate and adjust a way to spend more time with one another. Overall, their love for one another began with Elisa giving eggs, which symbolizes ‘singularity’ as Elisa is independent and is on her own for the majority of the movie, we see this form of solidary. However, it can also represent the rejuvenation of a new cycle in life. Elissa breaks that cycle of waking up in the morning, masturbating, making breakfast, and going to work when she falls in love with the creature and tries to save it.

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