Reception By Male Viewers

But enough about the responses of women and my equivocating; the typical action movie audience or afternoon crowd at the arena is definitely not all-girl. The guys in the crowd find that the excitement generated by girl-on-girl violence goes beyond the appeal of the usual shoot-‘em-up, an exotic venatio or other Colosseum novelties. The source of this thrill is a role-reversal of a very deep-seated nature. When women fight, our stereotypical understanding of the female as supportive, cooperative and nurturing is stripped away, leaving a battleground which is unfamiliar to combatants and spectators alike. Added to this inversion is the attraction of two other elements, both with strong appeal to much of the male audience: latent lesbianism and the male spectator’s fantasy that the women are fighting over him. Although the film The Arena doesn’t play up the lesbian element of the equation, this potential is evoked beautifully in many other places, such as a scene in Aeon Flux (which I have a link to on the website) where Aeon is fighting another Monican assassin and, while they’re grappling, she leans over and licks the other woman’s earring - but only as a means to get it between her teeth and rip it out. Very nice. There’s also a great quote from Jerry Seinfeld on the subject of girl fights: "Men think if women are grabbing and clawing at each other there’s a chance they might somehow, you know… kiss."

The second possible source of viewing pleasure, appealing most to the hetero male portion of the audience imagining that the women are fighting over him, is played out more fully in the animé sub-genre of the harem comedy. I am not going to stand here and pretend that I have anything more than the vaguest hint of an inkling about animé, it is a huge genre and not one that I have a ton of interest in, but I have a weeaboo boyfriend who informs me that this is a valid point. Basically, as you would guess from the name, in a harem comedy - the one I watched was Tenchi Muyo - you have a single male main character who is the object of desire for an ever-increasing number of cute animé chicks who duke it out over him. Even without making the element of female rivalry this explicit, you can easily see where this fantasy might come into play in any girl-on-girl fight scene.