Queen of the Road
…�the effect is to unfix the gaze, to render it inoperable. Because there are so many points of view, Mona cannot be caught in any of them. In this criss-crossing of gazes, Mona has already moved on or has not yet arrived.�
Our Vagabond, Mona, has taken over the road as her own. She embraces an “I don’t need anybody,� sort of attitude as she makes her way. Although she does use people (for rides and food handouts) they do not own her, she will move on the second she wants to. This film does a good job of keeping Mona dirty and unkept, however her face remains pretty. Even though she is rarely the subject of the male gaze, she is not intolerable to look at.
Mona is on her own and happy to be. Vagabond is able to disrupt the power of the male gaze by reinstating the power of the woman. The people carrying the narrative and reminiscing about Mona are most intrigued by the fact that she a woman vagrant, not by her beauty or feminine wilds. She, of course, encounters men on her journeys, but is never overpowered by them – she is the leading role and she carries the story. I also think it is important to look at some of the most influential relationships that Mona creates are with women, which is very unlike Girl on a Motorcycle. The woman who picks Mona up in her car begins to care a lot about Mona and her well-being. They create a friendship, and this woman takes better care of her than any of the men she encounters. This friendship, again, reinstates the power Mona has and the power of women in general.