Clarice Starling Gender

Clarice Starling, the lead female character, struggles to stay afloat as she is constantly overwhelmed with gender danger. The film focuses on Clarice from the start of the movie with the scene of her running through the woods by herself, implying the essence of danger, reinforced by fog and suspenseful music. To replay the running scene, imagine a large man jogging through the woods: the whole feeling of the scene will change completely; however, because the film meditates on a small bodied female, the aura of danger arises. In another example, after her superior summons her, she walks into an elevator where she is engulfed by her surroundings — all tall men that tower over her. The elevator scene illustrates that men are the dominant gender in this world and the male dominance puts
women in danger of always being the subordinate gender. The elevator scene is not the only occurrence of taller men looking down to Clarice. Perhaps my favorite scene of gender danger is the small-town funeral scene, particularly the scene set in the embalming room because it is the first occurrence of Clarice standing up to men as a female character.
The embalming room scene can be split into three different parts: when Clarice first makes a statement, her second statement, and after her second announcement. When Clarice first talks while in the embalming room, she turns on her natural southern accent and says, “uh, excuse me…Gentlemen. You officers and gentlemen! Listen here a minute, please. There’s things I need to do for her…” Here she is definitely labeled as the subordinate in the room; however, she claims a sort of attention with her voice as it begins to raise and the men start to quiet down and look at her with puzzled expressions. The feminine character gains a small sense of power during the second part of her statement when she more confidently states “Y’all brought her this far, and I know her folks would thank you if they could. Now please — go on out and let me take care of her…Go on, now.” Telling the men to get out of the room not only catches their attention, but also makes them leave as they whisper to themselves — perhaps quietly wondering how a woman took the lead role. The third notable part of the scene is the new degree of respect Crawford has for Clarice when he looks at her after the men
finally leave. The new degree of respect for the female character lessens the gender danger from the point of the embalming scene to the end of the film; moreover, gender roles start to balance out afterwards in terms of gender equality. Therefore, when comparing gender danger and gender equality from the beginning to the end of the film, the running scene during the start of the movie encompassed a large sense of gender danger for females and the awards ceremony at the end has an essence of gender equality.