Characteristics of the Stag Film
Seeing Sex: Occasional observations regarding the representation of sex, sexuality and gender in film …
My research established the following as generic characteristics of the Stag Film:
- Social bonding of exclusively male audience;
- Heterosexual expression of the male group desire for the female body;
- Designed to arouse;
- Absence of sound, colour or professional actors;
- Short length;
- Rudimentary narrative coherence (worse during hard-core sequences);
- Instructive re hidden mechanisms of sexual function;
- Viewed from ‘the point of view of the phallus’;
- Clinical objectifying of female body;
- Addresses male viewer;
- Puerile reactions to visible sexual difference;
- Primitive texts;
- Remained ‘primitive’ after ‘legitimate’ films developed to full-length narratives due to official invisibility;
- Earlier stags have more sophisticated narratives than later examples;
- Obsessive/repetitive focus on sexual coupling;
- Ending via cessation of genital show;
- Genital ‘show’ rather than genital ‘event’;
- Incorporating voyeurism in narrative to arouse the viewer and link watching character with viewer;
- Failure to sustain voyeuristic penetration during hard-core sequences;
- Direct address to camera – audience encouraged to talk to/reach into the screen;
- Profound misogyny;
- Emphasis on ‘meat’ shots;
- Associated with brothels;
- Retains theatrical elements of striptease;
- Amateurish nature of performance/production reinforces ‘real’ nature of the genre;
- Male audience moving towards but never achieving identification with male protagonist;
- Shows more of the female body than any previous form of sexual show.
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