Mona is smelly and filthy, but she's still a woman
" Instead of emphasizing the high-speed, thrill-seeking driving typical of American road movies, these films emphasize introspection and reflection; passage through the landscape becomes an allegory of a lost soul seeking the meaning of life" (Laderman 248).
The American and European road film portray the road very differently. The American road symbolizes freedom and escape from oppressive culture versus European road travel where "traveling outside of society becomes less important (and perhaps less possible) than traveling into the national culture, tracing the meaning of citizenship as a journey" (248). For example, Easy Rider and Thelma and Lousie are all about the escape and finding freedom on the raod, which is not so in Girl on a Motorcycle and particularly Vagabond; "non-American road movies tend toward the quest more than the flight" (248). While Wyatt, Billy and Mona are all outcasts, Mona slips into the cracks of society, while Wyatt and Billy are noticed wherever they go. Mona is so vastly different from Wyatt and Billy, simply meandering without purpose or intent. Gender also comes into play as well. billy and Wyatt are the dominant figures, they move the action along. Because they are male they are the lookers, despite the fact that they are outcasts, they have the virtue of the male gaze that cannot be taken from them, unlike Mona, a woman, who is passive because of her gender, she is looked at (although no one in the film truly sees her). She is objectified by the male gaze despite her filth on several occasions; phallocentrism continues to rule. This is seen in her sexual abuse and treatment by the men she meets. While she is not "sexified" like Rebecca, she is still an object, there is no escaping the male gaze even though she is dirty and smelly. From the moment she denies the truck drivers advances to her drug buddy at the end of the film who only sees her as a "good piece of ass," phallocentrism is at work. However notably in Vagabond the women are physically juxtaposed with Rebecca and those in Easy Rider. They're almost unrecognizable as women in their physical appearance if not for their passive roles and the male gaze. Mona is obviously no supermodel and the goatherd wife is beyond plain jane. I find it quite interesting that even though their appearance is not the epitome of a femininity they still cannot escape it. Despite the stark contrast between symbolism and the goal of the road in American and European road films, clearly phallocentrism is still present.