Motherhood & Sex Work, A Disciplined Paradox: Reflection on Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels
Introduction
Chantal Akerman, a Belgium filmmaker born in 1950, has made films on femininity and queerness throughout her career. Among them, Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels (Jeanne Dielman) released in 1976 positioned as the most notable of all, which was credited to be one of the greatest examples of feminist filmmaking. In Jeanne Dielman’s over 3 hours of screen time, Akerman hyper-realistically depicted 3 days in the life of a widowed mother and sex worker in simple and static visual language. This essay will analyze the underlying factors that prompted Jeanne’s disciplined behaviors, and how they were translated across through the diegesis.
Jeanne’s repetitive daily routine consisted of events that could be categorized into two domains: household responsibilities that mostly comprised of taking care of her son Sylvain who appeared to be in mid-adolescence and taking clients in her bedroom as a sex worker. Very importantly, the film does not unveil the interior affairs of Jeanne’s trade as a sex worker in the first two days. The audience only saw Jeanne leading the clients to the bedroom and them exiting her home. Until the third day, the film finally showed Jeanne’s passivity and perplexity during sexual intercourse with a client. Then, following the trade, she used a pair of scissors to murder him.
Body Confinement of Gendered Identities
In the majority of the scenes, Jeanne was silent and alone, buried in the housework. It was intentional for Akerman to statically portray only Jeanne’s exterior life, according to Kinsman (2007), “Jeanne’s exteriority reveals the maintenance of routine, a drive toward stasis” (p.222). The domestic tasks were strictly performed with a schedule to resemble this exterior formality and order. For example, she always went out to buy groceries after Sylvain left for school, and consistently had a piece of bread for lunch alone in the kitchen. These sequences of events presented Jeanne with significant frigidity and discipline. By Foucault’s (1995) definition of discipline, they are methods to subject the body and control its operations with forces, in order to achieve “docility-utility” (p.137). Jeanne’s role as a single mother subjected her to perform domestic tasks with efficiency and compliance. She took care of Sylvain in every aspect, from preparing his clothes in the morning to helping him study at night. This caretaking restrained her in terms of time and space. Furthermore, without the support of a husband, she had to seek financial independence with jobs that could allow her the freedom for reproductive labor. This material condition drastically limited her options and led her to prostitution at home. She only had clients in the afternoon. It was a time before her son had returned home and she had some expendable time free of domestic labor. Therefore, her disciplined physical behaviors stemmed from her gendered social positions.
In addition, the enclosed domestic space reinforced this discipline of the body due to its monotonous functionality. For example, Jeanne cooked meals, washed dishes, and cleaned Sylvain’s shoes all in the kitchen. In this domestic space, the chores restricted her body motions. Further speaking, the camera was a manifestation of the panopticon, a prison function that surveilled the prisoners without exposing the identity of the authority (Foucault, 1995, p.200). Thus, the camera in Jeanne Dielman surveilled the domestic as Jeanne obediently conducted the operations that disciplined her body, even though she was alone in a private environment.
On Edge of a Cliff
Even with the confined bodily movements, Jeanne’s psychological activities were equivocal. The audience could interpret her emotional states by comparatively inferring the intricate conditions of her manners and clothes throughout the three days. On the second day, Jeanne started to exhibit anxiousness. It began when she was sending the client off. Jeanne stood in the dark with him by the door as he prepared the cash compensation. Then, she came to realize how dark it was and rushed to find the light. Later on, the agitation was revealed more in such forms as disheveled hair, unbuttoned shirt, and overcooking the potatoes. Contrary to these disarrays, Jeanne was noticeably composed and paced on the first day. Later, on the second day, Jeanne also appeared vacant as she was peeling a new batch of potatoes. She even missed the doorbell ringing as her son came home and became responsive only when Sylvain went into the kitchen to find her. This disconcertment then continued on the third day as we see more restlessness in her in the kitchen, contemplating between chores. However, throughout the first day, she performed the labor with rhythm and organization. She seemed contented and focused. With reasoning, something disturbing must have occurred with the client on the second day. It was disruptive to break the balance in Jeanne’s habitual disciplines.
Mother or “Whore”?
The film did not explicitly remark on what caused this sudden change in her behavior. However, her conversations with Sylvain during the first two nights provided critical information. On the first night, Sylvain asked how and why Jeanne had married his father. Jeanne replied succinctly with her life story and explained the reason behind her marriage as it was “the thing to do.” Sylvain then commented, “If I were a woman, I would never make love with someone I don't love.” Jeanne expressed “Making love is only a detail” (Akerman, 1976, 0:42:31). Jeanne was reserved and prudent during these sensitive conversations that signaled socially conventional and repressed views on marriage and sex. On the second night, Sylvain continued on the topic of sex. He confessed that he found sexual intercourse to be atrocious and painful where “daddy was using his penis like a sword, to set mommy on fire.” In these comments, he indicated obsessions and protectiveness over Jeanne. Again, Jeanne tried to diminish Sylvain’s emphasis on sex and defuse his Oedipus complex by saying that it was pointless to discuss these topics and he shouldn’t have worried (Akerman, 1976, 2:04:15). Jeanne’s reactions toward Sylvain’s views on sexuality were detached and reticent, with a slightly lowered spirit on the second night after the uneasiness had emerged. Furthermore, her conservativeness was also conveyed through her clothing. Before bed, she always put on a thick coat over her nightgown whenever she needed to go to the living room where Sylvain slept. On the morning of the third day, Jeanne was visibly more distressed. She even missed a button as she put on this coat to make breakfast for Sylvain. Surprisingly, it was noticed by him instantly. He then reminded Jeanne with a distanced yet ordinary tone as if a proper dress code was always agreed upon between them. These were constant indications of a discreet and cautious relationship between Jeanne and Sylvain. Jeanne was aware of Sylvain’s compulsive preoccupation with her, and she tried to maintain a distance through verbally and physically embodying disengagement in marriage and sex. At the same time, she was constantly reminded of this forced separation from any erotic desires through her occupation and maternal responsibilities. However, the film contained sequences of Jeanne putting on lipsticks before the clients arrived. In this case, she declared acceptance to utilize her sexual attractiveness as a means of production. These two rival views regarding sexuality constantly collided in her mind, persistently causing affliction and confusion.
This misery in carrying contradicting social expectations as a dignified mother and a sex worker had been described as “living out of a deep, inescapable paradox” by participants in Montgomery’s (2015) ethnographical research of sex workers in Morocco (p.34). In coping with this incongruous pain, Jeanne practiced discretion in daily activities to disconnect the two opposing sides. According to Montgomery (2015), “Discretion…offered a way for women in transactional sex to behave morally and respectfully, regardless of private activities” (p.29). Jeanne bathed herself every day after her clients had left. She also carefully dressed around her son to avoid any exposure to her sexuality. These practices could be seen as “moral endeavors: acts deserving respect, expression of love, and even cultivation of the moral communities” (Montgomery, 2015, p.30). She was constantly being disciplined morally to perform her social role as a mother. Jeanne also helped a woman neighbor babysit daily. And during their short encounter, they chatted about caretaking responsibilities. This social interaction could be interpreted as another performance to be a virtuous mother in her local community. Even though Jeanne practiced distancing and discretion, she still suffered significantly. Montgomery’s (2015) interlocutors could empathize with Jeanne as they understood that the “moral boundary” established between their public and private life would not make them “morally pure” (p.34). However isolated, the identities of being a mother and a sex worker were not compatible under patriarchal definitions, making Jeanne’s pain seem unreconcilable.
Chain Reactions of Disrupted Disciplines
The specific trigger of Jeanne’s change in behavior was not available in the film’s diegesis. Still, many argued it to be an “eruptive jouissance” that occurred on the second day with the client (Kinsman, 2007, p.218). However, regardless of the actual incident, this break signified a loss in direction. To have implemented a ritual for so long as a socially disciplined woman in many aspects of her identity and suddenly experience an uncontrollable impulse was brutal and bewildering for Jeanne. As Akerman commented in a 1977 interview,
“First the ritual is imposed on you. And after that, it’s the ritual that keeps you going because otherwise . . . So, in fact, it’s having that orgasm that’s the first failure. And then it’s a series of failures after that because she is not strong enough to keep up those barriers between herself and her unconscious anymore” (Martin, 1979, p.42-43).
It broke her pattern, which she had been tentatively maintaining. It was comparable to Jeanne being given a pair of glasses abruptly; the confusion that had been boiling finally floated to the top to confront her. In the end, Jeanne’s unsettling turmoil had to be resolved by avenging the source of her suffering. However, it was the invisible patriarchy that inflicted the discipline upon her in the first place. Therefore, by murdering the client on the third day, Jeanne murdered a physical embodiment of the untouchable social order.
Conclusion
Jeanne Dielman meticulously and truthfully documented the domestic life of women. Although the femininity prescribed was specific within its own geographic and socio-economic context, it centered around an urban Caucasian woman living in downtown Brussels. It is still a precious specimen that subverted the traditional male gaze in the portrayals of women. Through the mise en-scène, the multi-layered gestures of disciplines enforced upon gendered roles transpired thoroughly. Overall, it mesmerizingly surveilled the order, disorder, and revolt experienced by a woman in the domestic space.
Works Cited
Akerman, C. (Director). (1976). Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels [Film]. France : Janus Films.
Foucault, Michel. (1995). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books.
Kinsman, R. Patrick. (2007). She’s Come Undone: Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) and Countercinema. Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 24(3), 217–224.
Martin, Angela. (1979). Chantal Akerman’s Films : A Dossier. Feminist Review, 3, 24–45.
Montgomery, Anne. (2015). Voice, Boundary Work, and Visibility in Research on Sex Work in Morocco, Medical Anthropology, 34(1), 24-38.
