Girl On A Phallus
"...the female image as a castration threat constantly endangers the unity of the diegesis and bursts through the world of illusion as an intrusive, static, one-dimensional fetish" (Mulvey, 47). This quotation couldn't be more relevant to the way in which phalocentricism bursts through the film, "Girl On A Motorcycle" and creates not a liberation for women, but rather a prison of sexual fetish. The male gaze and phalocentricism dominate the entire film, making it ridiculous to think that it is at all liberating for women. In the film, Rebecca leaves her husband, Raymond, for her lover, Daniel, by way of her motorcycle, a giant phallic symbol in itself. Rebecca, throughout the film, drives on and relives her affair. Though driving and the road are often meant to be symbols of liberation, in this film they make it clear that a woman cannot escape a man's world.
On the road, Rebecca is the victim of endless voyeurism. From the gas station attendent who studies her body, to the bar/restaurant full of men who undress her with their eyes, she becomes the subject of unwanted attention. The male gaze on her sexually alive body helps to establish her character and femininity as a means of castration, as she is lacking a phallus. This lack becomes all too apparent when she turns her life over to Daniel.
It is very clear that Rebecca is only liberated sexually, and even in this sexual liberation she is more of an object that a person as she lacks a phallus. During her ski trip with Raymond, she clearly establishes herself as an object, "You ought to tell me to shut up and do what you want to do." Besides establishing herself as an object, this also establishes the castration of Raymond; he cannot take control of this object, and furthermore, because he has been castrated by Rebecca's affair with the dominant male, Daniel, he too comes to represent lack of a phallus. In the very beginning of the film, during the dream sequence phalocentricism was established as phallic Daniel rode his motorcycle around a castrated Daniel playing the violin. Raymond finalizes his castration when he allows Rebecca to keep the motorcycle. There he "had his chance" to regain his phallus and take hold of his object, which he failed to do.
Rebecca makes it clear that she cannot create her own identity, making it impossible for this film to be liberating for the female. Her identity is created through what the phallus (aka Daniel) has told her to be. Her love of motorcylces, her sexual drive, and her thought processes have all been derived from him. She may love the road and the freedom of a motorcycle, but he taught her to do so, and the phallic symbol of a giant machine between her legs is a constant reminder of this. She uses the road to be fullfilled sexually by the phallus, not to be liberated. As she drives, she hears in her head the way in which Daniel would correct her, and smiles. She has been defined by the male gaze as an object, and as such can be molded by the phallus, and by choosing the phallus, has the power to spread her lack to the castrated man. The unity of the film world is fetishized by phalocentricism and the male gaze, making this movie the exact oppostie of anything that might be liberating for women.