Let's Get Sexy!
In Laura Mulvey's essay, she writes how the average cinematic woman is "isolated, glamorous, on display, sexualised." She continues on to discuss how the "show-girl connotations" in the beginning of a typical linear-plot film morph and are refocused onto the singular entity of the male protagonist. This focus enables him and hands him the power. After watching The Girl on a Motorcycle, it became apparent that this theory was tweaked but still upheld in order to keep the male spectator's role intact. Chronologically speaking, Rebecca starts off as a young, bow-in-the-hair Daddy's girl. We see a prime example of this when she does not share a room with her boyfriend Raymond as they holiday together in the mountains. However, as her affair with Daniel blossoms, so does her glamorous sexuality. She loses her modest skirts and high-necked sweaters for skin-tight leather. By containing yet giving the world a sneak peak at her womanly figure, she is fulfilling the male spectator's fantasy. This is taken even further by inserting a very masculine/testosterone associated piece of machinery between her thighs. As our "liberated heroine" rides off to her eventual death, she makes us feel that her identity is completed by Daniel. She fancies herself as his slave and thus brands herself with that individuality. Her husband Raymond, on the other hand, gives her personal choice on a number of different topics. She dismisses this opportunity to create her identity by becoming, in her own words, "a bitch." Instead she extends herself into the role of sex-slave Goddess and eventually ends up with a lot less than she began with.