西班牙導演派多˙阿莫多瓦的電影以呈現女人、扮裝皇后、變性人、同志及其他邊緣族群的生活聞名。身為一位同志導演，阿莫多瓦擅於在電影中運用敢曝策略來嘲諷性別，並挑戰陰性／陽性、男性／女性、異性戀／同性戀等嚴苛的二元界線。同時在他的電影裏，女人常常扮演重要角色且是電影中的主要焦點。本論文主要從女性主義的觀點來探討阿莫多瓦三部電影裏的敢曝表現中如何呈現女性氣質。這三部電影為1987年的《慾望法則》(Law of Desire)、1991年的《高跟鞋》(High Heels)及1999年《我的母親》(All About My Mother)。論文中主要探討的問題為：藉由挪用女性美學及風格於敢曝表現中，阿莫多瓦的電影裏到底呈現出什麼樣的女性形象？而在敢曝表現中所呈現的女性氣質是否顛覆了父權意識型態下對於女性的定義？或者只是重複並強化了父權社會中對於女性的刻板印象？另一個延伸的問題則為：既然女人在阿莫多瓦的電影中扮演重要角色，她們在阿莫多瓦電影中的敢曝表現下裏居於什麼樣的位置？女人在敢曝行徑中是被呈現的客體，還是具有主體意識？
本論文的討論分成三大章，第一章是敢曝及茱蒂絲˙巴特勒的性別操演理論回顧。第二章則是用電影分析的方法來探討阿莫多瓦三部電影中的敢曝表演呈現出什麼樣的女性氣質。我特別針對男性的敢曝表演中的扮裝女性者和變性人，以及女性的敢曝表演中的女人是如何呈現女性氣質作比較探討。在女性敢曝的表演中，母職及女性特質都是一種扮裝。此外，在阿莫多瓦電影中的女人常呈現出如敢曝女神般具有陰陽特質的形象，但在她們矯揉造作地突顯其自身的女性特質時，反而表現出女性氣質如一種扮裝。如果在男性敢曝表演中及女性敢曝表演中都呈現出女性氣質是一種扮裝的話，那兩者之間到底有何不同？阿莫多瓦在電影中只是複製了父權下的刻板女性氣質還是挑戰了傳統的性別意識。再者，女性形象在阿莫多瓦電影的敢曝表演中常擺盪於主／客體之間，那女性觀者是如何看待這樣的女性形象？因此在第三章我用女性觀者論的角度來探討女性觀者是如何看待阿莫多瓦電影中的敢曝表現下所呈現的女性形象。我發現阿莫多瓦在他電影的敢曝表演中呈現出多樣面貌的女性形象，這讓女性觀者可以有不同觀看位置的選擇，無論這些女性形象呈現出刻板或者是積極的樣貌。事實上，阿莫多瓦作為一個同志導演，仍無法避免藉由男同志敢曝表演行徑呈現女性形象，但在阿莫多瓦的敢曝影像世界中，母性力量被電影中試圖扮演／變成女人、女演員和母親等角色所頌揚，這樣的母性力量也促使女性、男同志以及其他被邊緣化的社群能夠抗拒父權／霸權所主導的社會。

This thesis discusses the representation of femininity in camp performance in Pedro Almodóvar’s three films from a feminist perspective. Almodóvar’s films are famous for his representation of lives of women, drag queens, transsexuals, gays and lesbians, and those of other marginalized groups. As a gay director, Almodóvar likes to employ the strategy of camp to parody gender and to challenge the binary distinctions between masculinity/femininity, male/female, straight/homosexual, etc.. In his films, women often play important roles and are usually the focus of his works. In this thesis, I focus on three films by Pedro Almodóvar, including Law of Desire (1987), High Heels (1991), and All About My Mother (1999). I want to use the perspective of the feminist camp to examine how Almodóvar presents the feminine images in camp performance by appropriating feminine aesthetics and styles in his three films. Does his representation of femininity in camp performance subvert the patriarchal perception of femininity or does it only accentuate and repeat the stereotypical images of women in the patriarchal society? A further question is that since women play important roles in his films, how does he posit them in camp performance? Are they only the objects of camp or the camp subjects?
This thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter One is an overview of camp theory and Butler’s theory of gender performativity. Chapter Two is a detailed film analysis of how female impersonators and female characters represent femininity in male camp and female camp in Almodóvar’s three films. Concerning the male camp, I focus on how female impersonators and transsexuals represent femininity. As for the female camp, both femininity and motherhood are like a masquerade. Besides, female characters are often presented as camp goddesses with feminine and masculine attributes. They often excessively perform their femininity and make it look like a masquerade. If womanliness is a masquerade in female and male camp in Almodóvar’s films, what is the difference between them? Does Almodóvar’s representation of femininity repeat the patriarchal notion of femininity or does it challenge the traditional perception of gender roles? These issues are explored in this chapter. Moreover, I find that the feminine images in camp performance are often oscillating between subjectivity and objectivity. How do female spectators respond to them? Thus, Chapter Three is a discussion of female spectators’ reception of the camp performance in Almodóvar’s films. Almodóvar displays the multiple feminine images in camp performance, which enables female spectators to have different positions in looking no matter whether these feminine images are exhibited as stereotypical ones or positive ones. As a gay male director, Almodóvar cannot escape representing femininity by means of the gay male camp. Nevertheless, in Almodóvar’s world of camp, the maternal power, celebrated by all the people who act and become women, actresses, and mothers, enables women, gay men, and other marginalized people to stand against patriarchy and the hegemonic society.

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