Vegabond- disrupting the male gaze
Mona is te ultimate hippie/punk waif: she shows little emotion, has no direction, does not care what happens to her, nor where or how she goes. Laderman 266
Vegabond is the first film that we've watched so far that was willing to give not just the lead role to a woman, but not overly sexualize her at the same time. Unlike Rebecca in Girl on a Motorcycle it is not a man that is pushing the story along or guiding the woman. Mona was challenging the role of women in film. She was not shown as a piece of meat all pretty for the men to look at, but she was grungy, smelly, rough, and had many manly characteristics. It was very clear to see that the male gaze was disrupted in a big way in this film. Mona was the one "using" the men for drugs and food and then leaving whenever she chose. This is very different than what we have previously seen, with the women being under the control of a man. Many times throughout the movie Mona could have almost passed for a man. She sat with her legs wide open, spit, smoked, didn't bathe, this was unheard of for a woman to do. She really broke the barrier's that had been on women in films prior to her role. She also showed that she wasn't jealous of the freedom of a man, because she just took that power and freedom. She didn't wait for it to be offered to her.