Liberation Does Not Equal Star
Just because a female was the lead character and the only person traveling on the road does not make this movie liberating for women. First of all, the film is still very phallocentric in that her life revolves around a male and literally his phallus. Also, her body is always being exploited in sexual ways, which inhabits the male gaze. This occurs before on even begins watching the movie.The front cover is basically of her chest and it looks as though she is unzipping her leather suit, incinuating sex. Another way in which her body is exploited is while she is riding her motor cycle laughing, and then it will be a shot of her pelivic area rising up and down along with the vibrations from the motorcycle, or it will be a shot of her butt or again of her chest. Besdies being phallocentric and pertaining to the male gaze, the film uses voyeuristic cues to arouse the audience. For example, when she first leaves her home to go visit her lover she stops at a gas station and there is a shot of the attendant who takes the hose and slowly places it inside of her gas tank, foreshadowing to the act of sexual relations and also his desire to sleep with her. Basically, this film is just eye candy for straight men.