Rethinking Binaries by Recovering Bianca in "10 Things I Hate About You" and

Zeffirelli's "The Taming of the Shrew"

Author(s): Christopher Bertucci
Source: Literature/Film Quarterly , 2014, Vol. 42, No. 2 (2014), pp. 414-426
Published by: Salisbury University

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43798976

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 Rethinking Binaries by Recovering Bianca in
10 Things I Hate About You and
Zeffirelli's The Taming of the Shrew

Much of the scholarship regarding film and television productions of The Taming
of the Shrew fixates on the Kate-Petruchio plot, especially on the delivery and
antifeminist implications of Kate s final lines. Discussions frequently address how
various performance strategies - such as abbreviating the final speech, delivering it
ironically (sometimes with a wink), or minimizing Petruchios abuse - attempt (and
often fail) to deflect some of the misogyny of the final speech and of the play in
general. I have two objections to this trend. First, little critical attention has focused
on the Bianca subplot, likely because popular screen versions often trim and thereby
marginalize its importance; however, I would contend that the Bianca plot and
the Kate and Bianca relationship remain essential to understanding the feminist
dynamics of all productions. Second, scholarship that focuses on the Katherine
figure s portrayal often labels screen productions in binary terms as either repressive or
progressive. This limiting critical discourse is even more common in the scholarship
on gender and identity politics in Gil Junger s teen-Shakespeare adaptation 10 Things
I Hate About You (1999), where critics such as Richard Burt dismiss teen Shakespeare
movies as exploitative. Even scholars with mostly opposing interpretations of the
film, such as Michael D. Friedman and Elizabeth A. Deitchman, share a respect for
binaries: 10 Things shows subversion or containment, Kat is a feminist or not, and
so on.1 Such polarization, though, forecloses the option for a middle ground where
gender and identity politics remain in negotiation.
I argue that the major screen adaptations of Shrew show a sisterly bond between
Kate and Bianca that, even if strained at times, helps create a space for feminist
resistance. I am not denying that these films often offer conservative and repressive
views of gender and identity; however, they also show moments of female dissent
and solidarity that register the plays complexity more fully than has often been
recognized.2 In particular, I focus on the two most commercially successful film
versions, Franco Zeffirellis The Taming of the Shrew (1967) and 10 Things I Hate
About You , to illustrate a range of approaches to the Kate and Bianca relationship.3
Zeffirelli s film shows that even in a production where the relationship between Bianca
and Kate is strained and openly confrontational, thereby seeming to prevent any
unified effort at resisting patriarchal control, the sisters still share in some moments
of resistance against the control of men. 10 Things recasts a potentially antagonistic
relationship in a more complicated light. The sisters quarrel, but never physically
attack each other. They even show indications of caring for each other. Kat Stratford
(Julia Stiles) ostensibly agrees to date so that her sister (Larisa Oleynik) can, and part
of Biancas retaliation against Joey Donner (Andrew Keegan) is revenge for her sister
having been wronged. 10 Things takes the most liberties of these popular versions

414

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 Rethinking Binaries by Recovering Bianca/ 415

by modernizing the play, transplanting the sixteenth-century Italianate setting into a

contemporary American high school (filmed in Seattle and Tacoma, Washington).
As part of this modernization, it develops Biancas motives for standing up for herself,
eliminates the abusive aspects of Kate s "taming," and even suggests that Patrick
Verona (Heath Ledger, the films Petruchio figure) might be tamed. The film also
adds a scene, with no parallel in the play, where Kat tells Bianca why she started to
resist conventions, which allows the sisters to bond in a way that is only hinted at in
earlier versions.
Biancas expanded role in 10 Things asks us to reconsider her connection with Kat/
Kate in all Shrew versions. By recovering Bianca, we can reexamine the relationships
between women in these films, instead of only treating the women in isolation, and,
as a result, we can rethink binary interpretations that label these works as either
repressive or progressive based to a large extent on Kat/Kate and her eventual
capitulation to patriarchal and heteronormative standards. Instead, using Stuart
Hall s notion of "the dialectic of cultural struggle" for a theoretical framework, where
consumers are neither passive "cultural dopes" nor practitioners of an autonomous
alternative culture (232-33), I consider Kat/Kate and Biancas relationship as part of
an ongoing struggle against repressive gender and identity norms.

I. Zeffirelli's Shrewi A Less-Noticed Wink

Instead of the induction, Zeffirelli's Shrew begins with a street carnival as the guiding
interpretive frame, about which Jack J. Jorgens says, "the comedy is not primarily
about a taming, but about a release of Dionysian energies" (74). Continuing the
energy throughout, Zeffirelli eschews roughly two-thirds of the lines (Pilkington
165) and plays up the slapstick battle-of-the-sexes between Kate (Elizabeth Taylor)
and Petruchio (Richard Burton). Zeffirelli only shows snippets of Biancas (Natasha
Pyne) courtship during the ten-minute Kate-Petruchio chase/wooing scene. Like
Sam Taylors The Taming of the Shrew (1929), with the famous couple Mary Pickford
and Douglas Fairbanks, Zeffirelli's Shrew scales back the Bianca plot to spotlight
the star-power couple playing Kate and Petruchio (Holderness 70). Despite Biancas
reduced part, her relationship to Kate still plays an important role in understanding
the film. In order to show the significance of this relationship, I focus on two sets of
scenes in particular: 1) Kate's initial appearance when she watches Bianca and later
when she attacks her and 2) the banquet at which Kate delivers her notorious speech
on wifely duty and then kisses Bianca before
running off.
The film often shows Kate as watchful and
contemplative, presenting a character that is
more complicated than what the more aggressive
and outspoken scenes would indicate. Diana E. BBBBBHPBBBBBBI
Henderson discusses the way that the camera not only lingers on Kate but frequently
"mimics her positionality" (159). She argues that "Zeffirelli allows these camera
shots to establish Kate as the movie's silent thinker," and that "the complexity of
camera play in the Zeffirelli film" has a "crucial effect upon the representation of
Katherine" (160). This complexity starts with Kate's initial appearance in the film.

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416 /Rethinking Binaries by Recovering Bianca

When Kate first appears, in an extreme close-up, one of her eyes looks out through
the shutters of a second-story window. Next a point-of-view shot, framed through
the shutters, shows Bianca running toward the house followed by Lucentio (Michael
York). Kate watches and judges what she sees. Her father Baptista, aware that Kate is
listening, takes in Bianca and turns away Biancas suitors, explaining that he will not
"bestow [his] youngest daughter [Bianca] / Before [he has] a husband for the elder
[indicating KateX (1.1.50-51). In the play Kate responds, "I pray you, sir, is it your
will / To make a stale of me amongst these mates ?" (1.1.57-58). "Stale" in this context
can mean laughingstock as well as prostitute, but Zeffirelli, likely in an attempt to
update the vocabulary, forces the prostitution interpretation by substituting "whore"
for "stale." In the film, Kate defiantly replies to her father, "I pray you, father, is it
your will to make a whore of me among these mates?" The shift from stale to whore,
though, clarifies the source of Kate s anger. She directs her fury at being sold to a
husband, not the potential embarrassment of the men mocking her. She delivers the
line vehemently, but it comes after carefully observing the situation. Consciously
or not, her choice of term indicts negotiated marriages as a form of prostitution.
When interpreted this way, Kate s aggression toward Bianca may have more to do
with resenting Biancas choice to acquiesce in their father s plans than with jealousy
over their father s affection or her genuine hatred of Bianca. Later when Kate sees
WÊ^ Bianca watching, from the same second-
story window, the approach of Petruchio,
Lucentio, and a group of men, Kate attacks
her sister. An extreme close-up shows Kates
glaring eyes before shifting to a point-of-view
shot as Kate lurches at Bianca and screeches,
"I'll mar thee no man dare look on
thee" - a line with no equivalent in the pl
The perspective then shifts to the men outside. They hear Bianca screamin
to stop attacking. Petruchio boasts that "a little din" will not deter h
From the men s point of view, the camera shows the shutters smashed
as part of the sisters' brawl. Bianca reaches her arm out another wind
screaming, before Kate drags her back inside. Henderson describes this
the attack as a "mock-horror sequence" (160). The term is highly app
opens up a way to interpret the scene. The "killer/monster," Kate in this c
horror film attacks the innocent young woman, Bianca, while she shrie
Kate does really attempt to kill Bianca -
seriously hurt her, I would argue -
the scene appears to be over-the-top, perhaps I
ridiculous. This levity fits with the
carnival aspects of the film where the serious
(here, horror-inspired camerawork) becomes
absurd. In other words, we are not meant to
take Kate's attack too seriously.
As Kate continues her attack, Bianca flees downstairs. Kate grabs a switch and flails
it at her. Importantly, the camera never shows Kate beating Bianca. In the play, Kate

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 Rethinking Binaries by Recovering Bianca/417

binds Biancas hands and strikes her (2.1). Zeffirelli s film, on the other hand, only
alludes to the violence. Kate switches at Biancas feet. Despite Kate s claim that she
will mar Bianca, her advance scares but does not hurt her sister. The true animosity
seems aimed at the men. One might argue that Kate s onslaught stems from jealousy
of Bianca or frustration at not having a man, but, although perhaps true to a point,
neither explanation deals fully with the complexity of the scene. Zeffirelli undermines
the seriousness of the violence in Kate s assailment, which also downplays the sisters'
hatred and rivalry. While Kate s assault is certainly not a ringing endorsement of
friendship, she does not resent Bianca enough to truly harm her.

In Zeffirelli s Shrew , Kate also has moments of tenderness, or at least friendly

neutrality, with her sister. First, at her wedding, she gives her sister a brief kiss and a
smile. Second, she does the same at the final banquet scene. Critics overlook these
moments. They rightly point out that after Kate delivers, with an apparent sincerity,
her long speech on wifely duty, she quickly flees through the crowd, and her running
away "problematizes the event," undercutting the sincerity of her speech (Rothwell
132-33; Henderson 160). But scholars do not spend time explaining the importance
of Kate s brief moment of bonding with Bianca. Following the speech, in a deep
focus shot, Petruchio in the foreground boasts of winning the bet, while over his left
shoulder Kate helps the widow and Bianca up, leans in to kiss Bianca on the cheek,
and smiles at her (and Bianca returns the smile) with a momentary pause, before
sneaking away. Bianca keeps the smile for a second while ruminatively looking down,
thinking through what Kate just did and why. Then Bianca steps in Petruchio s path
while staring intensely at him, intimating that Bianca will side with her sister against
Petruchio.
This quick exchange between sisters, no more than a few seconds, becomes a
less-obvious revision of Pickfords very direct wink in Sam Taylors Shrew (1929).
It suggests that the conflict is less against each other and more against their male
oppressors. The sisters momentarily connect, showing that they share in their
struggle. I am not claiming that the sisters systematically organize their resistance
against a patriarchal system that they fully recognize as a system. However, the sisters
do identify and act upon an us-versus-them dynamic, where women have to resist

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41 8 /Rethinking Binaries by Recovering Bianca

the control of fathers, suitors, and husbands in their lives. This resistance, even if
limited, potentially connects with women in the audience and draws parallels to
sexist situations in our own world.

II. Junger's 10 Things: The Limitations of Closure

Almost all critics deprecate 10 Things I Hate About You for its conservative and
repressive views of gender and identity (see Deitchman; Clement; Lamm; Jones;
Pittman; and Burt). At the films beginning, Kat is an outspoken feminist who
embraces women writers and music, and questions male privilege and the patriarchal
values of her education. In an early classroom scene, for example, she asks why the
students have to read books by men such as Ernest Hemingway, who she describes
as "an abusive alcoholic misogynist who squandered half his life hanging around
Picasso trying to nail his leftovers," instead of women such as Sylvia Plath, Charlotte
Brontë, or Simone de Beauvoir. But the film treats her feminism and resistance to
social assimilation as "shrewish" behavior that she needs to overcome. The film shows
Kat as not only vocal, but openly hostile to men. In Kat s first visit to the guidance
counselor, Ms. Perky (Allison Janney), we find out that she kicked a boy "in the balls."
Her peers call her "a bitter, self-righteous hag" and a "heinous bitch." Deitchman
contends that "in Kat 1 0 Things conflates Riot Grrrl imagery with a simplified version
of second-wave feminism, creating a shrew who closely resembles the stereotype of
the angry, man-hating 'femi-nazi,' the cartoon icon of 19805' antifeminist backlash"
(482).
Worse, the film provides a convenient excuse for Kat s hostility to men: she
felt pressured to have sex (in the ninth grade) before she was ready and regrets her
decision to lose her virginity. Such an excuse downgrades Kat s feminism from a
social concern to a personal problem. And unlike Zeffirelli s Shrew , which leaves
open the possibility of a homosexual gaze (see Watson), 10 Things actively shuts
down suggestions of homoerotic desire. Bianca clarifies that Kat is not a "K. D. Lang
fan" (which would imply lesbianism), and Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and
Michael (David Krumhoìtz) assert that they are not friends in a "prison-movie type of
way." As Kat begins dating Patrick, she is tamed (I intentionally use the passive voice
because Patrick only plays a part in her taming, unlike Petruchio s quite active role in
taming Kate in the play) when she distances herself from her unreserved feminism,
becomes more congenial to men, and conforms to heteronormative standards.
Friedman is a rare exception to 10 Things' negative critical reception. Instead of
seeing Kat s conformity and eschewal of rigid feminism as abandoning feminism, or
at least promoting a conservative brand of feminism (Burt 214), Friedman argues that
she transitions from second-wave feminism to the more fluid third-wave feminism
that embraces contradiction (54-55). Jennifer Clement counters Friedman arguing
that he vilifies second-wave feminism, over-simplifies the distinctions between second
and third wave, and focuses too much on the screenplay when the final film form
is what millions of teenagers actually see. However, although Friedmans argument
has some limitations,* he rightfully pays careful attention to a number of moments
of feminine resistance in the film - especially in his attention to Bianca - that most
critics overlook or quickly dismiss. Friedman considers not just Kat s shift to third-

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 Rethinking Binaries by Recovering Bianca/419

wave feminism, but Biancas as well. Bianca learns to stand up for herself "and fight
back violently against men who would take advantage of her sexually" (Friedman
62). Although Friedman begins to outline Biancas individual moments of resistance,
such as her resisting Joeys advances, more needs to be said about Bianca, especially
her relationship with Kat.
Frankly, most scholars marginalize Biancas importance. They commonly write her
off as one dimensional. Ariane M. Balizet, for example, describes Bianca as "preppy
and vacuous," Kat s "shallow, pretty sister," whereas "the audience immediately
identifies with [Kat] as the sole character of substance in the film" (129). 10
Things certainly portrays Bianca as shallow and preoccupied with assimilation and
consumerism for most of the film; however, at times she does question these views

party, "she becomes disenchanted with

Joeys self-involvement (which, to this
point, paral els her own)" (Friedman
60). Joeys obses ion with his modeling
and his ap earance mir ors her own
vanity and shal ownes , and she starts to
se s how absurd focusing exclusively on
Mand Joeys vanity point, party, lo ks se s 60). and how Joeys his values. can "she self-involvement and paral els ap earance absurd be. obses ion shal ownes , becomes At At focusing her the Bologkesycandbies. eAtntchhe paanrtty,esdhewise sthherparty, own)" mir ors and (which, exclusively his Lowensteins she she (Friedman modeling her starts se s to with own this her on to
sister bowing to social pres ures, dancing drunk on the table. A low- angle shot shows
Bianca edging up to a second-story railing to se Kat dancing on the table below. The
camera shifts to a high- angle shot lo king down (both literal y and metaphorical y)
on Kat dancing, showing us what Bianca se s. When the camera returns to Bianca,
she lo ks shocked and disgusted at her sister s behavior, and she runs away. Biancas
distaste for Kat acting out could be interpreted as go d-girl behavior, as Burt would
likely point out4; however, the scene also shows Bianca at empting to come to terms
with the tension betwe n caring for her sister and doing what would be social y
expected to remain "co l."
At the start of 10 Things , Bianca conforms to consumer culture, especial y its
emphasis on becoming an object of admiration, to the point of parody. Her entrance
also is a textbo k example of the male gaze theorized by Laura Mulvey. As Cameron
and Michael walk toward the camera,
Cameron looks intently at something off
screen and says, "Oh my God." The scene cuts
to what he is looking at: Bianca in a sundress
walking toward them. The music swells as - ł
Bianca approaches slightly in slow motion ÉÉ£*
to emphasize Cameron's fixation on her. She
walks past them, without acknowledging HH
their presence, to meet up with her friend Chastity. The two women
frame, leaving Cameron to stare at her. He is smitten. Echoing L
in the play to Biancas beauty, he proclaims, "I burn, I pine, I pe
Michael sarcastically replies, "Of course you do. You know, sh
deep, I'm sure." Her beauty is unquestioned, but she immediately

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420/Rethinking Binaries by Recovering Bianca

shallowness. She tells Chastity, "There s a difference between like and love. Because,
I like my Sketchers, but I love my Prada backpack." She articulates love in terms of
commodities. Although Camerons Shakespearean expression of love at first sight
seems equally inauthentic, Biancas exaggerated attention to her appearance and
accessories makes her more of a live-action Barbie doll than a person.
Bianca, however, transitions from a passive object of admiration to a young
woman who begins to question her selfishness and conformity. I do not claim that
she transcends social pressures. Her doing so would be a fantasy of independence.
Instead she enacts small moments of resistance. As I mention above, she starts to
question the centrality of appearances when she gets bored with Joey s posturing
at Lowensteins party. She turns down a ride from Joey to an after party and gets
a ride home with Cameron instead. As they pull up to Biancas house, Cameron
decides to confront her. He quickly finds out that she never wanted to go sailing
with him; she just said she did to be nice. Annoyed, he asks, "Have you always been
this selfish?" After a pause she slightly nods and weakly voices, "Yes." Her meek yes
speaks volumes. It registers the guilt of her using Cameron and all her observations
at the party from Joey s ostentatious vanity to Kat s suffering. The scene cuts to a
shot that shows Biancas head in the left foreground out of focus and Cameron's
toward the center of the frame in focus. She
seems lost in thought - the camera's lack of
focus visually expressing her confusion and
discomfort. He follows up, "You know,
just because you're beautiful, doesn't mean
you can treat people like they don't matter.
I defended you when people called you
conceited. I helped you when you asked me
to. I learned French for you ! And then you just blow me off - ." Interrupting him, she
leans in and gives him a kiss. She regains control by kissing him. As she walks to the
house, she seems surprised and oddly pleased with her sudden boldness. From this
point on she is more assertive and even more reflective.
Biancas moments of resistance dramatize the complicated ways consumers
negotiate meaning in popular culture. Hall argues that even works of popular culture
allow some room for popular political resistance. He denies both the idea of ordinary
people as "purely passive" "cultural dopes" who consume the debased popular culture
that the culture industry feeds them (cf. Horkheimer and Adorno) and the idea of
a privileged point outside of cultural domination: "there is no whole, authentic,
autonomous popular culture' which lies outside the field of force of the relations
of cultural power and domination" (231-32). Instead, Hall concedes that cultural
industries have dominating power, to a point, while arguing for the possibility of
limited resistance from within: "Cultural domination has real effects - even if these
are neither all-powerful nor all-inclusive. . . . There are points of resistance ; there are also
moments of supersession. This is the dialectic of cultural struggle" (233). Dominant
culture continually repackages and re-presents popular forms, so that co-optation is
inevitable. But, for Hall, ordinary people can resist the manipulative aspects of these
representations. Cultural forms are neither "wholly corrupt [n]or wholly authentic,"

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 Rethinking Binaries by Recovering Bianca/421

but "deeply contradictory" (233). Halls emphasis is on the cultural struggle itself:
resistance is not only possible, but necessary. Popular culture "is the arena of consent
and resistance" (239). Individuals resist the power-bloc by not giving consent to
dominant ideologies. Resisting the power-bloc has "the capacity to constitute classes
and individuals as a popular force" (239). Such a resistance is a ground up movement,
constituting a mass by first constituting individuals.
10 Things , then, is neither completely debased and manipulative nor progressive
and liberatory. Instead it is a site of cultural struggle. On one level, Kat and Bianca
struggle between conformity and independence.5 On another level, the audience
struggles between consent and resistance. The film provides the expected closure of
heterosexual couples: Kat with Patrick, Bianca with Cameron, and Mandella with
Michael. But this closure does not contain all of the loose ends and tensions brought
up in the movie.6 For one, Kat and Patricks relationship will likely be short lived:
Kat is heading off to Sarah Lawrence College in New York. And while 10 Things can
be interpreted as an example of the backlash against feminism where the feminist is
seen as a man-hating threat, it still puts forward feminist ideas that can be taken up
by young women. For example, why must the students only read books by dead white
men? The appeals to Shakespeare as authority implicitly answer this question (dead
white men like Shakespeare are universal - "he knows his shit"), but the opposing
views are still registered and never completely silenced.
Biancas relationship with Kat remains
antagonistic through most of the movie,
but the scene in Biancas bedroom where
Kat reveals why she resists dating begins
to explore the possibility of a female
solidarity. In this extra- Shakespearean
scene, Kat explains that she dated Joey
for a month in ninth grade. She had sex
with him once, "right after mom left."
She continues, "Everyone was doing it, so WÊÊÊÊÊÊ^I^^SK
I did it. Afterwards, I told him I didn't want to anymore because I wasn't ready, and
he got pissed and dumped me. After that I swore I'd never do anything just because
everyone else' was doing it." Bianca asks why Kat did not tell her, and Kat answers,
"I wanted to let you make up your own mind about him." Bianca presses further,
"Then why did you help daddy hold me hostage?" Kat admits, "I guess I thought
I was protecting you." Bianca, upset that Kat does not trust her, signals for Kat to
leave and then pouts. Kat follows her father's lead in being overprotective; perhaps
she tries to fill in as a pseudo -mother figure for her sister. Kat clearly cares for Bianca.
It is Bianca who remains skeptically hostile toward Kat. The next scene shows Kat
looking out the window at Bianca sulking while Sister Hazel's "Your Winter" plays
on the soundtrack. The lyrics ask, "What else can I do? I said I'm sorry." And the
chorus, although not played in the film, declares, "I won't be your winter. I won't be
anyone's excuse to cry." It is clear, even before coming down the stairs in a prom dress,
that Kat will give in and go to the prom so that her sister can too. She acts, at least in
part, to reach out to her sister.

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422/Rethinking Binaries by Recovering Bianca

Despite Biancas initial distrustful response to Kat s confession, that moment of

bonding affects Bianca. Like her sister, she begins to outwardly resist the control
of men. She does not passively rely on men to take care of things for her. At the
prom Bianca retaliates against Joey for knocking down Cameron. She hits Joey three
times, each time accentuating who the blow is for: "Thats for making my date bleed,
that's for my sister, and that's for me." Not only does she dedicate one of the punches
to her sister, but she also follows Kat to check on her. At the top of the stairs Kat
confronts Patrick about receiving money to take her out. As Kat pulls away from
Patrick and runs down the stairs, Bianca runs in. A long shot shows both Patrick
and Bianca looking down at Kat fleeing. The camera pulls in to better show their
reactions: Patrick looks disappointed with himself, and Bianca keeps her eyes on Kat
until briefly looking up at Patrick. Her look, for that second, resembles Biancas glare
at Petruchio at the end of Zefflrelli 's Shrew . It shows a concern and protectiveness
for her sister. Whereas Zefflrelli 's Shrew leaves us with only a short moment of
connection, 10 Things reinforces Biancas newfound concern for her sister. In the
next scene, presumably the next morning, Kat sits on the porch sketching. Bianca
brings Kat a warm drink, invites Kat to go sailing with Cameron and her, and thanks
Kat for going to the prom (which allowed Bianca to go). One might argue that
Bianca is only nice to Kat because she got what she wanted, but there is tenderness in
her thank you that appears to go beyond selfish gratification. She begins to show an
interest in others beyond what it takes to maintain popularity.

IB

The nascent relationship between Kat/Kate and Bianca in Sam Taylor's and
Zeffirelli's films is more fully expressed in 10 Things , which further develops the
problematic relationship as a struggling sisterly solidarity. The poignancy of this
relationship responds to its cultural moment in the late 1990s. 10 Things explores
whether there is still the potential for bonds and alliances between women that can
work against post-feminist disarticulation, where women no longer see the need
to work together for women's rights.7 Deitchman (among others) contends that
feminist solidarity has been co-opted and commodified: replaced with a watered-

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 Rethinking Binaries by Recovering Bianca/423

down version of feminism sold as the "chick solidarity" of Girl Power in bands
like the Spice Girls (480). She also argues that Kat s "taming occurs primarily as an
induction into the rites of heterosexual chick solidarity" (483). Yet Kat s relationship
with her sister seems to be something more than simply Girl Power. As much as she
conforms, she maintains a certain amount of resistance. Her (temporary) happy
ending with Patrick fits the demands of the genre (could one expect any less from a
romantic comedy made by Disney?), but it does not completely contain her struggle.
Again, I agree that 10 Things is conservative, even anti-feminist, in certain specific
ways, but what I suggest is that we do not let this blind us to the complexity of the
film and the ways that consumers might respond to it. Kat shifts from an outspoken
and antagonistic version of feminism to something more difficult to label, full of
contradiction; Bianca shifts from a self-centered avatar of consumer culture to a more
aware and assertive young woman. Whether we want to consider their endpoint
third-wave feminism (as Friedman does), post-feminism or some kind of consumer
substitute for feminism (as Deitchman and others do), or a conservative feminism
(as Burt does), the sisters' outlooks come together, and this convergence highlights
the similarities of their battles with conformity. Moreover, none of these labels
seem to exclusively describe their positions. They are neither completely dominated
by consumer culture nor free from its influence. Instead they remain involved in a
struggle against the pressures of gender and identity norms, negotiating the cultural
contradictions. While the sisters never formally organize their resistance against
dominant ideologies, they do have moments of dissent and they recognize, to some
degree, that they share in many of the same struggles. If nothing else, the awareness of
their shared struggle gives them both more strength to continue resisting. Ultimately,
such attention to moments of dissidence and solidarity can help us to move beyond
binary interpretations of Shrew productions. Even more importantly, moving beyond
these binaries may lead to more effective strategies for teaching such problematic
films and plays without completely ignoring or invalidating our students' initial and
often sympathetic readings.

Christopher Bertucci
University of Connecticut

Notes

1 Friedman offers more of an extended reading of Bianca than most scholars and he argues that Kat
and Bianca grow to embody a type of feminism that embraces contradiction; however, he still frames his
argument in terms of whether Kat is a second-wave or third-wave feminist.

2 On the subject of dissident reading, see Sinfields Faultines : Cultural Materialism and the Politics
of Dissident Reading . Sinfield speaks against the "entrapment model' of ideology and power," where
even attempts at subversion unavoidably end up maintaining the system (39). Instead of using the term
subversive , which implies results, he prefers the term dissident : "'Dissidence' I take to imply refusal of an
aspect of the dominant, without prejudging anoutcome. ... it posits a field necessarily open to continuing
contest, in which at some conjunctures the dominant will lose ground while at others the subordinate will
scarcely maintain its position" (49). Following Sinfields distinction, I focus on the dissident moments in
major Shrew films without necessarily arguing that the films are subversive.

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424/ Rethinking Binaries by Recovering Bianca

3 The portrayal of Kate and Biancas relationship in Sam Taylors The Taming of the Shrew (1929) and
Jonathan Millers BBC-Time Life television The Taming of the Shrew (1980) also opens up the potential
for feminist readings of these productions. While Sam Taylor s Shrew heavily abbreviates the Bianca plot,
Taylor also softens Kate s relationship with Bianca. Although Kate yells at Bianca and whips the men,
she does not actually touch Bianca, and her anger seems more focused on her father and men in general.
Similarly, Bianca does not have any harsh words for Kate. Even the lines that Bianca usually speaks after the
wedding, "Being mad herself, she is madly mated" (3.2.244), are spoken by Baptista instead. Despite Biancas
slim role and remarkable silence, she plays an important part in the banquet scene. Notably, during the
final speech, Kate directs her ironic wink at Bianca creating a sisterhood of silent resistance. Alternatively,
Miller s Shrew shows the full Bianca plot, while portraying a less rowdy Kate. The combination of a vocal
Bianca with a less physical Kate allows the audience to compare the sisters and more easily question which
one (if any) is the shrew.

4 Burt argues that "10 Things % feminism, such as it is, comes at the price of harnessing it to the
conservative idealization of the good girl. The film neuters Shakespeare s play, taking a Nancy Reagan-like
'Just say No' position on the problems said by conservatives and reactionaries to have been caused or at
least exacerbated by the high divorce rate in the U.S., namely, premarital teen sex, teen drinking, and teen
smoking" (214).

5 Pittman argues that 10 Things celebrates the teen fantasy of being both an individual and part of
a socially accepted collective: "10 Things imagines [the] romantic integration" of outsiders like Kat and
Michael "as a form of self- actualization and independence, thus papering over the logical divide between
independent and dependent selfhood" (106). I agree that this is an important ideological contradiction at
work in the film, but unlike Pittman who brings this up to ultimately emphasize the film s containment, I
argue that we should look further into the dissidence of these moments of cultural contradiction.

6 For more on the limitations of closure, see D. A. Miller s Narrative and its Discontents. Miller contends
that "the narratable inherently lacks finality. It may be suspended by moral or ideological expediency, but
it can never be properly brought to term" (xi). Although Miller is writing on nineteenth-century novels,
such as those of Jane Austen and George Eliot, his ideas can also apply to films with a traditional narrative
structure like 10 Things. There is, after all, a distinctive similarity between Jane Austens novels and the
romantic comedy movie genre, which both end in socially sanctioned heterosexual couplings. Miller warns
that we need to avoid closing off examinations of narrative disequilibrium: "Once we can rest assured that
all novels are completely legislated in advance, according to an identical general pattern, our serious interest
is virtually forced to turn elsewhere" (xiii). And yet, we continue to study Austens novels. Why shouldn't
we treat genre-driven films with the same respect? The formulaic, conservative endings of both these forms
should not overly control our interpretations. Even if we agree that 10 Things ultimately restricts notions of
gender identity, such a concession does not eliminate the consequence of moments of tension.

7 For more on post-feminist disarticulation, see British feminist McRobbie 's The Aftermath of Feminism:
Gender ; Culture and Social Change. By disarticulation, McRobbie means "a force which devalues, or negates
and makes unthinkable the very basis of coming-together (even if to take part in disputatious encounters),
on the assumption widely promoted that there is no longer any need for such action. ... Disarticulation
works then as a kind of dispersal strategy. It defuses the likelihood of cross-border solidarity" (26-27).
Disarticulation includes the backlash against feminism described by Susan Faludi and others that divides
young women from traditional feminism. It also includes the loosening of other alliances such as those
between hetero and homosexual women and between Western and non-Western women. It typecasts
feminism as "embittered, unfeminine and repugnant," and, worse, no longer necessary (McRobbie 26).
In feminism's place, consumer culture offers post-feminist substitutes that sell "personal choice" and
"empowerment" while reinscribing a limited range of freedom and disarming serious interest in many still-
pressing feminist concerns such as the pay-gap between men and women.

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