The Unicorn Scale: Black Swan

Hey howdy hey Unicorns! I hope that as the days grow shorter, this little corner of the queer web is finding you happy, healthy, and well.

As we leave winter, I’m a big fan of diving into creepier, darker fare as the light wanes all around us. It just feels good to cozy up with a family drama or a psychological thriller with a cup of warm drink to keep me company. And so with that in mind, for this Scale, I thought we could take a look at Darren Aranofsky’s psychosexual drama, Black Swan.

Like many girls, I had a passing fancy with the idea of being a ballerina when I grew up. (This was, of course, before I moved on to wanting to become a giraffe — still holding on to this dream.) As I aged, I gained both a fascination with the transcendent but exacting art form (Baryshnikov’s performances still make me cry) as well as a deep respect for the pure athleticism and unseen preparation and costs. These pursuits of perfection — and the tolls they can take on a fragile mind — are what gets examined in this feature.

Before I get into the nitty-gritty of analysis, I should go over a few housekeeping things as well as a slew of disclaimers. First and foremost, there will be SPOILERS in this review about the movie. Also, I should let you know that Black Swan should come with a whole dumpster truck full of content warnings, including (but not limited to): sexual harassment in professional workspaces, eating disorders, self harm habits, catcalling, drug use, consent issues, and emotional and verbal abuse. (And that’s just what I wrote down.) Finally, if this is your first time around these parts and you’re wondering what the Scale is all about, you can find out all about the metric here.

Black Swan is a psychological drama exploring the descent of Nina (Natalie Portman), a dancer with the New York City Ballet who has been cast by her director, Thomas (Vincent Cassel) in the lead role of the Swan Queen — a high-pressure role that leads to both mental distress and paranoia that a fellow dancer, newcomer Lily (Mila Kunis) is trying to steal the role from her.

What I Liked:

I know, I’ve gotten this far without any mention of sexuality, bi or otherwise. So let’s get to it!

While Nina’s mental state is fragile at best throughout the course of the film, and the advances made on her in this pre-#MeToo flick are not respectful, I appreciated seeing her realize her attraction to more than one gender. Even though it’s majorly fucked up that Thomas is seducing her in order for her to access her darker side, she does show attraction to him as well as distress that her sexual fantasy with Lily was not, in fact, real. But it wasn’t just distress that it didn’t happen. Before she realized her mind was bending her own reality, she was upset that Lily was not there in the morning.

What I Didn't Like:

I know this is normally where I prattle on about how I wish someone had used the word “bisexual” to describe both behaviors and attractions of a character (though, to be clear, I was not a fan of Lily dismissively calling Nina’s description of her hallucination a “lezzy wet dream”). 

No, I’m much more concerned how Nina’s character can be characterized as a stereotypical bi villainess, both with showing evil capacities and particularly with her self-harm and particularly her attacking herself (though she thought she had murdered Lily.) While I know that the sex scenes/attractions added by the screenwriters were intended to give a queer twist to the All About Eve elements of the plot, it still rang hollow to me.

The Rating:

Black Swan definitely stayed with me long after my initial viewing of it during its original release. In fact, I was surprised how much of the plot I remembered before I watched it again, which is a testament to its durability. But despite the fact that Portman’s Odeline makeup made for one of the best palates for Halloween costumes of the 2010s (I remember counting over twenty Black Swans when I went to West Hollywood’s famed Halloween festival the year it came out), Nina does not serve as the most stable or layered depiction of bisexuality on screen I’ve seen.

Portman’s performance is still a revelation, and it’s clear how and why she nabbed the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal. And while the love scene has been part of the plot since early talks between director and actress, it may make for an interesting depiction of artistic narcissism in Nina’s descent but makes for a paltry endeavor into Nina’s attraction to more than one gender.

Still, despite my quibbling — Black Swan makes for a solid, disturbing fare. But in the meantime, I think I’ll stick with my lifelong desire to grow up and become a giraffe.