Girl on a Motorcycle
The most frequent example of the male gaze in Girl on a Motorcycle is the audience watching the men in the movie looking at Marianne Faithful.
Even in the shots expressing her point of view in flashbacks were centered around men looking at Rebecca - in the bar at the ski lodge, at the border. This relates to the idea in the readings that women's sexuality is defined by wanting to be looked at. “If she [any woman] is to have sexual pleasure, it can only be constructed around her objectification; it cannot be a pleasure that comes from desire for the other (a subject position)- that is, her desire is to be desired"(Kaplan 126). This clearly, isn't a very liberating position for a woman in cinema to inhabit. Rebecca is completely defined by all the men in the movie. All her decisions are based on Daniel's desire for her and her desire to please him. The relationship with Daniel is slightly more complicated than him treating her as a sex object. Because Daniel had been in love and hurt before Rebecca he was unwilling to be involved emotionally in their 'relationship'. Because he had been hurt by a woman, as a woman Rebecca represents castration to him. This is why she had to die in the end- because she was a threat to masculinity... even though she was the object of the movie, controlled by the men in her life.