Vagabond
"Perhaps the ultimate road movie outcast, Mona does not cruise the highways on a sleek mortorbike, sporting a sexy leather jacket, wreaking subversive havoc." (Laderman 267)
While reading Laderman's Driving Divisions, there is a part where he refers to Mona as possibly the genre's fisrt serious "Queen of the Road." Mona was a different looking woman compared to all the women we have seen in previous road films. In my opinion, it didn't seem as if she was portrayed as a sex object and I didn't feel there was a lot of phallocentrism, if any, in this film. Mona did not act like a "predictable" woman would act. She never showered, didn't really care what others thought about her, and she didn't know where she was ever going to end up and she was alright with that. She received a lot of criticism about how she lived her life and even though she let it get to her sometimes, she usually just brushed it off and became a passenger in someone else's car. She didn't stay in one place for long and maybe that was her way of avoiding any male gazing or phallocentrism. This film was definately different from the other women road films we have seen because it was not revolved around the male gaze. Instead it was revolved around where Mona would end up next. Mona was the one in charge of herself, very independent, and that was extremely clear throughout the movie.