Sexual Conservatism vs. Feminism
I want to talk about something a little different. It is really important when looking at a film like Girl on a Motorcycle to distinguish between parts that are definitely not feminist in nature and parts that could just be seen as sexual liberation. We certainly see the pleasure that Marianne Faithful's character receives while being whipped by her sexually dominating partner, as well as her completely submissive side when she collapses on to him and begs the man to rip off her clothing. BDSM is a legitimate fetish that needs to be acknowledged here (this excludes the rape). I think it is particularly important to examine this movie carefully, because it would be very easy to castigate Marianne's character for simply being sexually liberated and indulging in a sexual desire/fantasy/fetish. Of course, this is not an excuse for the film. The sexual castration of her husband, being placed in the feminine/emasculated, in many scenes, especially the one where all of the prepubescent school children make fun of him. The placing of the male pronoun on her bicycle is also decidedly phallocentric in that no action of her own is in fact initiated by herself. When off of the motorcycles she is either laying down, or propelled by a male. And the male gaze saturates this film, where every man attempts to demystify her and control her with their sight. So I am not excusing the film, but making a point about some of the content that may be overlooked.