Silence of the lambs, The Masculine and Feminine Gaze

In the movie Silence of the Lambs, the director portrays Clarice Starling both as an object targeted by masculine gazes and as a source of feminine gaze. Under these masculine gazes, she shows her determination and strength. With her feminine gaze, she looks upon her object to solve the Buffalo Bill case through her sympathy for the victims and her ability.

Despite Clarice Starling’s intelligence as an FBI agent, few male characters in the movie treat her equally and with respect. Most of the males consider her as an object of interest. Although in many cases she is subjected to other males’ masculine gaze, she is able to use her intelligence to rebut their advances. For example, when she comes to check in with Chilton, Chilton’s first remark about her is, “We’ve had lot of detectives here, but I can’t remember one so attractive….It is Miss Sterling, isn’t it? …… Is there someplace I could call you in Washington for a follow-up, later on?” Instead of noticing her task, Chilton harasses Starling by commenting on her appearance. He calls her by the wrong name while stressing her title as Miss, indicating his lack of respect to her. He also teases her by stating her name in a rhetorical question. He advances even further by requesting to meet with her after she returns to Washington. Starling proves her ability as a FBI agent and shows her strength by first gaining respect from Dr.Lecter and then by deciphering the clues Dr.Lecter gives her. Chilton resents Sterling’s achievement because of her gender and her rejection to his sexual request.

Although Sterling is able to gain respect from Dr.Lecter, Dr.Lecter is very hostile to her at the beginning. There is a period of complete silence before Dr.Lecter first comments on her: “….. Do you know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well-scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste.” Unlike Chilton who teases Sterling about her femininity, Lecter tries to defeat her by sharply pointing out her weakness and her purpose for visiting him. Yet Sterling fights back by asking, “Are you strong enough to point that high-powered perception at yourself?” As the movie later shows, many other men try to secure their masculine gaze on her either by questioning her ability, such as when she orders a room of men to leave so they can examine the body of a victim, or by teasing her feminine beauty, such as when the insect researcher steadily stares at her face. Toward the end of the movie, the director figuratively illustrates that Sterling has won the battle against the masculine gaze by depicting Buffalo Bill using the infrared binocular to try to gain an advantage over her in the dark basement. However, Buffalo Bill eventually fails to harm Sterling before she kills him because what he seems is her reflection in a mirror, that is, he underestimates the strength and determination inside her and has only looked at her physical appearance in appraising her.

While she is an object of the masculine gaze, she is able to track down Buffalo Bill with a feminine gaze. When none of her male counterparts notice, she discovers the moth in the victim’s throat, which later serves as the key in identifying Buffalo Bill. With the clue provided by Lecter, Starling begins to see Buffalo Bill from the victim’s eyes. She visits the victim’s home and walks in her room, trying to experience the victim’s life and to see what the victim sees everyday. She also talks to the victim’s friend in order to see who the victim’s friends are, which eventually leads her to Buffalo Bill’s house. In the movie, the director juxtaposes the actions of Sterling with her male boss’s to show the difference between the investigation results done by Sterling’s sympathetic feminine gaze and by her boss’s masculine gaze. Although equipped with modern technologies and with suggestions from his fellow male FBI agent, her boss is unable to find Buffalo Bill, while Sterling, with nothing but her sympathies and her determination, is able to kill him at the end.

Although the movie portrays the masculine gaze imposed on her more dramatically than her feminine gaze, her feminine gaze plays an essential and subtle role in helping her gaining respect from Dr.Lecter and in eventually tracking down Buffalo Bill.