GWSS Spring 2008 Section B

"Girl On a Motorcycle" started out being one of the most unusual movies I have ever seen, yet as I watched teh story unfold, I realized that I was a lot like Rebecca. She was free. She was liberated. It makes no difference if her wedding present was a bike from another man or not- either way it was hers and it was her ticket to freedom. The make gaze in this movie was more than obvious with the silly sounds she made and the close-up of her zipping up her black, leather, tight motorcycle suit. Also, with the security guards smacking her on the butt and army men hooting and hollering at her. Yes, there was much male gaze, BUT it does not mean in the least bit that she has no freedom or liberation or power while being a woman. I think that all the attention gave her more power than an average woman just because her looks could and did get her to places that some other females might not be able to get to. She took advantage of the men's smaller brain's and went with it, which makes her not only smart, but creative, and for that I give her mad props. Even though she was "battling" in her mind between which man she wanted, deep down she didn't want any of them. She wanted a mix of the two and if she couldn't have it, she didn't want it. Rebecca was a free, strong, spicy, nympho who knew how to shift a bike.

Posted by ZoraMonkey at 02:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I seem to have trouble getting my entries in on time...this time my computer was in the shop since Friday. Oh well, glad to finally have it back...

"Girl on a Motorcycle" failed to prove liberating from male constrictions at the beginning. Rebecca is tied down by two men, her husband and her lover, and cannot break free from either, bouncing back and forth between them until she meets her tragic end. The opening dream of her being denuded by the ringleader, as she sits atop a horse, a method of transport remarkably similar to a motorcycle, starts the cycle of phallocentrism continued throughout the film. The shots of her zipping into her leather suit, her animal-like skin, are obviously through the eyes of a male, perpetuating the male gaze. Shots similar to these continue and keep her an object of male affection, nearly always viewed as a sexual object. While on her motorcycle, a "gift" from her lover (more like a leash if you ask me), she may feel free and rebellious, but she is always travelling between men, never free to ride where she desires. It is this whip that she travels back and forth on that ultimately leads to her death, finally thrown from the phallus that kept her bound by men, her motorcycle.

Posted by Pumpkin at 09:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Its quite clear that the sexuality and liberation of Rebecca in the movie can create an issue among men and more conservative women. From a woman's perspective, there were things in the movie that made me feel uncomfortable. Ironically, it wasn't Rebecca's sadomasochism fantasies or even her subtle observations of George upon their first interactions. It was the the camera shots of her body, or the

male gaze

male gaze

Posted by will1612 at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It seems to me that Girl on a Motorcycle did more than fall short of liberation. From the very title-- using the diminutive instead of "woman"-- it failed.

The strongest parts of the film are wrapped in contradiction. A woman, Rebecca, leaves an unhappy marriage in the stifling complacency of the suburbs to seek sexual freedom, but she finds it in the hands of a rapist. Indeed, her sexuality betrays her all along, becoming an overwhelming obsession with a man who shows her neither love nor respect. The literal vehicle of her sexuality, her motorcycle, is a thing that is traditionally male-- a phallic vehicle that pierces even into her mind, listing her thoughts and imaginings and splattering them across the page.

Her constant sexualization is another, more dominant form of penetration. The writhings of Rebecca's body are as animalistic as the fur she wears. The power of the motorcycle and the intensity of pleasure take her over and own her. Even her daydreams hold men in the position of power, as when the border guards assault her. No statement of her enslavement could be more obvious than the moments just before her death, when she loses herself in her dream and gyrates over the motorcycle, never noticing a second of the pain.

Instead of setting Rebecca free, Girl on a Motorcycle looks into her mind and lingers on her body, and goes to the other extreme of domination.

Posted by SuperTree at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The movie is supposed to be about a "girl" who rebels and takes to the road. It is quite amazing that she actually does that. She is a woman who takes a lover, does drugs and has the freedom, of some kind, to travel around. Yet the movie is about as liberating, and positive, for women as most movies are today; which is to say not very. The movie, though having some positive moments, mostly uses the female as a object to stare at, from the moment the movie begins and throughout everything she does. Though there are moments of female gaze, where the spectator views the world through the protaganists eyes, the spectator is quickly taken away from that view, back to a male gaze, by consistent photographic and narrative elements that place the protagonist as an object to gaze at.

Continue reading "a little liberating?" »

Posted by whoa at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This film had potential of being very liberating for women, but it fell short of this female freedom with the ever present male gaze and phallocentrism. From the very being of the film, Rebecca is made to be a sexual object to be enjoyed by men. Starting with her dream where her clothes are ripped off, and continuing with her repeated sexual harassment by men throughout the movie (such as the men at the borderline) she becomes an object rather than a woman. The "liberating road" loses all of its potential freedom since it is simply a means of carrying her from one man to another, more dominant, man. Daniel is the personification of the male gaze and phallocentrism. When his character is introduced, he is watching Rebecca from across the room with his eyes obscured by darkness. He has no respect for her, and treats her as his inferior. It is this powerful male figure that takes away Rebecca's liberation and makes this film just another movie which objectifies women.

Posted by orour078 at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

During the film, the female body is used as a source of weakness and vulnerability. Daniel uses exploitation and manipulation to use the woman's body for his own purposes. Unlike Raymond, Daniel is able to violate the female body into submission, ultimately making him more attractive to Rebecca. The motorcyle, instead of being liberating, acts as Daniel's tool for Rebecca's complete surrender. Rebecca, rather than being frightening of submission and exploitation, gladly travels through the countryside to receive it. She is neither liberated nor made independent through her time on the road. Raymond is castrated by his inability to control any situation. Rebecca, desiring control, is attracted the man that takes what he wants, even if it means climbing in her room and sexually exploiting her. Rebecca, though aware of the fact that Daniel has complete control over her, laughs and smiles crazily at her reflections of her exploitation. She is trapped in an abusive, adulterous relationship that is the opposite of liberating. And yet, the relationship is represented as the most attractive, the most learned of the female body, the most desirable.

Posted by Miss Blog at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is very obvious that this movie wasn't liberating to anyone. From the very beginning of the film, the camera shoots Rebecca as an object. First, in that tripped out circus ring. Then, through her putting on "skin", which was supposed to be liberating for her, maybe symbolized freedom and a sense of adventure out on her motorcycle. However, with the shot that panned up her whole body and showed her clevage, it is hard to take her seriously. That shot to me was an accurate picture of was yet to come, and it was also the perfect example of the male gaze. For the rest of the film, her actions are always driven by a man. She is contained by men for the whole movie; by the obvious male gaze and even through being killed at the end. She is also completely fetished. When she visits her lover, and end up cutting each other with the rose thorns. Anyway, it is pretty clear that this was not supposed to be a movie to make women feel liberated. It was probably made so men could go see marianne faithfull riding a motorcycle in a leather jumpsuit.

Posted by magatron at 09:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.

Posted by tris0020 at 09:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...and you are Daniel's.

From the outside, if a viewer is simply reading the synopsis of the film, I'm sure that Girl on a Motorcycle seems a fresh new lierating take on how a female can simply leave her hum-drum life for the thrill and passion of her lover. However, once you view the actual film, it is quite simply, a female trying to fool herself into thinking she is the dominant male of her life. We are pulled into Rebecca's past as she reminisces about her past, and as she compares the cowardly lion of a boyfriend in Raymond with the overly masculine, active Daniel. Even when Rebecca and Daniel meet, there is a sense of extreme power on behalf of Daniel, and Rebecca is content to be his passive, fetishized, play thing. While she is dominating over her boyfriend the entire time at the ski chalet, you see that she is content to become the willing subject of Daniel's voyeuristic gazes at her from across the room. She likes to think she has absolute power over men, Raymond in particular, yet she completely reliquishes any control over herself and her body as Daniel simply takes her for himself. As we are pulled back to her present time, she reminisces more about her past travels on her bike, all the while making us very aware that, as free and strong as she might think she is, she still succumbs to becoming a victim of the male gaze everywhere she goes. She allows not only Daniel to entrance her, but also strangers with whom she openly lets take control over her, like the border patrol or the gas station attendant. She willingly lets men in her life hold the phallic power over her and is content to be submissive and a sexual object to be glowered at. We as the audience are constantly viewing her from a male standpoint, as well; immediately in the beginning of the movie, we are given a voyweuristic point of view as she gets dressed in the morning, showing us that she has nothing on undeneath her "second skin".

She might feel that her journey is liberating her from a caged life, but she is deathly mistaken. She even refers to her motorcycle, her key to freedom and liberation, as a male. Liberating as it may seem, the only person even more a victim of castration in this film is Raymond himself.

Posted by KoreanPrincss at 09:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Girl on a Motorcycle does a fabulous job of giving the impression it is a film showing a liberated woman, as Rebecca seems to independently take to the road with her motorcycle, on a journey of her choosing. However, as her past is revealed, we see that her journey and her motivations for it are tied to a male presence—even her motorcycle is tied to her lover—and the film is anything but liberating, particularly as Rebecca is subjected to the male gaze throughout the film. From her dream of being stripped by ringmaster Daniel in a circus ring to the glances she receives at the bar, the audience is frequently put in the position of watching men watch Rebecca—or even watching Rebecca through the men’s eyes—the persistent shots of men looking at her body and seeing her as a sexual object subjugate her rather than liberate her. Indeed, Rebecca’s life revolves around her desire to be with Daniel, much as the film centers on men’s views of her, and the pleasure they gain from watching her. The scopophilic behavior is indicative of the phallocentrism in the film—while men enjoy watching Rebecca, she is surrounded by phallic symbols that remind her and us of the power men have in her life as she is torn between her husband and her lover. Her motorcycle is the most obvious phallic stand-in, as several shots throughout the driving montage suggest. The gas station attendant’s very deliberate insertion of nozzle into gas tank is a ridiculously overt suggestion of intercourse, and only serves to reinforce what the rest of the film tells us—Daniel possesses the phallus, the power, and Rebecca is subject to his power, recklessly abandoning her married life for the less-than-guaranteed future with a man who shows little interest in anything but using her body.

Posted by ristee at 09:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Within the first few minutes of the film Marianne is controlled my phallocentrism when being completely exposed while riding a horse. Although the film does put a woman in the driver's seat on the road, it is anything but liberating for women. When reflecting on the plot, narrative, and cinematic techniques it is quite easy to recognize that it was created through a male gaze. The entire story line is focused around a woman having no say or control of what she wants. With almost all of Marianne’s dialogue being thoughts in her head centered on what the men in her life think it makes me wonder if she knows who she is or what she wants out of life.

Marianne is not s strong independent women that viewers look up to. She marries who husband out of fear of being alone and lets the man she is having an affair with control her every thought. In almost all of the scenes, even when she is riding and supposedly taking control, Marianne is only seen as a sex object and is fetishized by men and appears to like it. Through Marianne’s flashbacks it almost seems like she will gain some type of control over her life when she gets married, but out of fear of losing her, or "castration" as theory shows, her lover gives her a motorcycle as a wedding gift and again regains all control.

Girl on a Motorcycle could never be viewed as liberating with Marianne wanting a man to control her, just as she tells her husband on their ski trip. Even when Marianne rebels and leaves her husband to go after what she wants she lets another man control her thoughts and eventually end her life. Girl on a Motorcycle does not portray a women taking on the road, but instead shows a women losing all control due to the power of phallocentrism while on the road.

Posted by Gertrude at 08:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I won't repeat what others have said beyond stating that this movie was very phallocentric and not liberating to women at all. Instead I want to focus on the often repeated images of birds throughout the film. I feel the birds tie into the idea of liberation, especially freedom. Birds are free to fly around or away whenever they feel like it, in the way that Rebecca clearly wasn't. She thought the motorcycle gave her that freedom she clearly craved, but it didn't. Instead, it tied her to Daniel and the road. Therefore, the constant bird images in the film represent the ultimate freedom Rebecca thought she could find, however; like the birds, it was uncatchable.

Posted by goldie at 01:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.

Posted by Courtney at 11:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.

Posted by Courtney at 11:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It becomes obvious in the first few scenes of Girl on a Motorcycle that this film is phallocentric and not female liberating. In Rebecca's inital dream sequence she is on a horse at the circus, being controlled by the ringmaster (who we later find out is Daniel) and eventually has all of her clothes whipped off, much to her delight. Rebecca comes to rely on men to give her an identity and make her life exciting. This is evidenced by her phrases "I only come to life when he touches me," and "He never gives me any identity." Throughout the film, Rebecca is seen as a castrated women, who is contained by the male gaze. Dispite her solo journey, she is surrounded by men who treat her only as a sexual object, as noted by their gaze. The gas station attendent, boarder control men, old men at the restaurant, and her lover Daniel all look at Rebecca scopophilicly. Rebecca rejects the men in her life that don't excerise this control over her - namely, Raymond. Even the motorcycle is a "him" and gives Rebecca pleasure on her way to meet Daniel. Viewing Rebecca as castrated in the film even appears in her dreams, where she is subjected to the gaze of pulsating male eyes on more then one occasion. In the end, Rebecca is punished for her adulterous sins by being killed on the highway at exactly the time she was supposed to meet with Daniel.

Posted by Rita Racine at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rebecca specifically calls her motorcycle “he”: “There he is”. Girl on a Motorcycle presents a story about a woman and her journey, but a story where the men of the plot control all the actions. This woman sets to the road because she is unhappy in her marriage to Raymond, but only to seek refuge in the arms of another man, Daniel. I believe that this is restricting women in their ability to be on their own, to be independent of men. Phallocentrism is central in this the plot of this movie, in which case, I don’t believe that it is liberating to women, much less Rebecca. The police officers at the country borders that she crosses refer to her as merchandise, Rebecca saying “I only come to life when he touches me”, and the view that Rebecca enjoys being Daniel’s sex slave represents the theme of phallocentrism. Rebecca thrives on Daniel’s scopophilia. She enjoys his gaze and his attention.

Continue reading "Give me road or give me death." »

Posted by believer. at 11:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

“At this point he associated scopophilia with taking other people as objects, subjecting them to a controlling and curious gaze” (Kaplan 37). This is referring to Freud’s explanation of the gaze. People are compelled to gaze out of curiosity and it takes over them. Some are controlled by the object of interest and some are the controller of their object. Women tend to be controlled by their gaze objects and men being in control of the phallus are the ones controlling their gaze objects: majority of the time are women. In the movie Woman on a Motorcycle, it is all about the male gaze. This movie reiterates the saying that the male is the action subject and the female is acted upon. When Rebecca knows that she was raped by a man she throws herself at him even more, she asks to be acted upon. She seeks freedom so therefore she rebels and starts to ride, but I question what the definition of freedom is to her when she wants to be controlled by a man in the end of her journey. In her narrative when she arrives at Daniel’s place she throws herself onto him and lets him take over. When she was sitting at the restaurant/bar she says that Daniel never gave her a role, never confirming his feelings or the status of their relationship. All Daniel wanted was her body. It bothers me that knowing all this she still yearns for him. She speaks out about how she is sicken by all the attention she gets from all the men, but her facial expression and body language tells another story. Even when Daniel tells her that he never asked her to come, she does not seem phase by the comment but moves even closer to him. I do not think she was searching for freedom but instead searching for someone to control her. I find this movie completely unliberating to women. Rebecca demonstrates that women are lacking and seen as castrated. This movie was entirely for the male audience, there was no part of the movie did I feel it was for women viewers.

Posted by Lulu at 10:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

“In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The male gaze projects it fantasy into the female figure, which is styled accordingly” (39 Mulvey).

Girl on a Motorcycle seems like it should be a liberating film about women, however, it still puts women on a lower standard than men. As Rebecca travels, others (mainly men) are skeptical that she is traveling by herself without her husband. Her first stop, as she is filling her gas, the attendant says that her husband is “a generous man” implying that she needs a man’s permission in order to go out. Phallocentrism plays a huge role in this movie. It is shown in Rebecca’s father when he says that daughters are of no use because they get married and leave, and it is especially shown through Daniel. One would think that Daniel would be her freedom because he is the one who gave her the motorcycle, but it is the opposite. You see that Rebecca is dependent on him. She can’t do anything without worrying about what he may think. He is the one that initiates everything, and she’s just along for the ride.

Posted by Goong at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness." Mulvey 39-40

In the film, Girl on a Motorcycle, this idea of exhibitionist and passive female was an incredibly transparent reality. Despite the fact that Rebecca is “taking” control and leaving on her motorcycle, she is repeatedly put in the passive, gawked position of woman. A notable part of the movie where Rebecca is experienced as a sexual object is when she first puts on her full-body leather motorcycle suit. Rebecca, who maintains a seemingly naked body throughout the film, puts on this layer of skin that proceeds to just barely fit her breasts, leaving them out for an easy glace and sexual arousal. The suit is also created perfectly for “woman,” having a glitzy (and easily accessed) zipper and a yet glitzier belt, presumably purchased by her lover.

Continue reading "They Promised Liberation and They Provided Fetishized Female" »

Posted by cici at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While The Girl on the Motorcycle is an early female-centric road-trip movie, it is far from liberating. On the contrary, it plays into the very theme of male domination that a feminist film should rail against. From the very beginning of the film, it is clear that the manner in which Rebecca is presented is to be viewed as nothing more than an object of desire. She is continually sexualized by the camera, with many shots (especially in the opening dream sequence & the fantasy sequence with the border patrol) of her separated into various body parts (rather than seeing her as a complete whole). Additionally, the shot when she zips up into the leather catsuit again puts her in the place of being objectified by the male gaze of the camera. The sequence in the bar demonstrates Rebecca's scopophilia, as she dreamily imagines all the men at the bar looking at and objectifying her.

In terms of phallocentrism, the film is chocked full of examples of male dominance. Rebecca may have the free will to leave her husband and ride her motorcycle across Europe, but she is depicted as being completely dominated and controlled by her male lover. Daniel tells her exactly what to do and to "shut up," quite frequently -- exercising his dominance over her with ease. Rebecca likens herself to being a self-destructive whore who needs to be hurt in order to feel like she is loved. She even goes so far as to tell her husband, Raymond, "you ought to tell me to shut up and do what you want," plainly indicating her desire to be subservient to her male master.

The theme of liberation is surface level at best. Sure, Rebecca becomes liberated from her marriage and rides solo across the countryside, but her intent (as shown by one of the many fantasy sequences in the film) is to fall straight into the arms of her male lover, who immediately objectifies her, has his way with her, and then discards her as he philosophizes about desire without love. Nothing more than pure objectification. At the end of the film when she has decided to free herself of the bonds of her marriage and liaison (true liberation), she dies in a crash.
Rebecca (and womankind, as represented by her) can have a certain degree of liberation, but still must be put back into her place in the end. This sentiment is far from the liberation that women had hoped for....

Posted by Sweeper887 at 09:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.

Posted by Susie Q at 08:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The potentially liberating aspects of The Girl on a Motorcycle's road trip narrative (featuring a "free" female protagonist) are undermined by the film's blatant adherence to both phallocentrism and scopophilia. The most pervasive and overt manifestation of the active feminine being rendered passive by a heterosexual masculine force is the motorcycle itself. Not only is Rebecca's motorcycle a gift, but she must also be meticulously instructed in its usage--all under the oppressive gaze of Daniel. The motorcycle, in a metaphorical sense, is completely aligned with the phallus. For example, the final scene of the film features Rebecca not only simulating sexual intercourse with the motorcycle, but also reminiscing about Daniel-themed lovemaking and fetishistic domination fantasies while doing so. The film reinforces the importance of phallic power by portraying Rebecca's husband Raymond as absolutely pathetic, castrated even, in the face of his students after her allegiance to, for all intents and purposes, Daniel's motorcycle/phallus. Rebecca, despite her resilience, is under the effects of masculine power throughout the entire film. In the diner scene, the penetrating gazes of other men force her into daydreaming and unreality. Her tryst with Daniel (which could be more accurately described as his raping of her) is visually stylized much like her (apparently) drug-induced euphorias. Her eventual annihilation is framed as punishment in that her entire journey is under the pretense of Daniel's phallus. The film essentially argues for her death in that she is a castrated being only capable of succeeding through the giant phallic symbol she just happens to possess. In other words, The Girl on a Motorcycle is not liberating for women because none of Rebecca's achievements are really her own and she is killed for her, in the view of the film, foolishness.

Posted by pete5676 at 08:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Phallocentrism & the male gaze are maintained through the discourses of our ideas of women as the erotic/exotic, and by reinforcing these ideas through presenting women in these films as objects to look at. I do not feel this movie was liberating to women at all actually. I found it insulting. She plays off of her sexuality the entire time. I understand that she isn't happy in her marriage, but I feel her way of dealing with it is insulting to not only women but people in general- in the sense that she could've handled the situation a lot better. She wants Daniel to control her, and she feels that she needs a man who will boss her around, yell at her, and treat her with complete disrespect- only seeing her as a sex object, not a human being. The fact that she reinforces this frustrates me because she is allowing people to view her not as a human being, but as an object for the male gaze.

Posted by nels5199 at 07:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"The man controls the film fantasy and also emerges as the representative of power" (Kaplan). The male holds the power and controls the gaze of the audience, even in Girl On A Motorcycle, a film about a woman breaking free of the traditional female role by riding her motorcyle. The motorcycle, her mode of transportation, was controlled by a man. Her lover bought the motorcyle for her to come visit him. He maintained his control over her through his gift of the motorcycle.

Phallocentrism is characteristic of patriarchical systems which regard men as central and normal. This film embodies phallocentrism. The very fact that a woman is riding a motorcycle is regarded as abnormal in the film. A motorcycle is powerful and fast, which is normal for a man to use. Throughout the film, the camera focuses in on different parts of her body, causing the audience to focus on her body. Another way the male gaze is maintained is by having the audience look at a man, looking at her body. For example, the man at the gas station stares at her backside and we are staring at the man. The scene when Daniel squeezes her neck is a clear example of male dominance and power in the film. It showed that he was stronger and could hurt her. I think her comment near the end of the film sums the theme up well. She says, "I have no identity". Women are not liberated through this film. Women are shown that they remain in control of men, even when under the illusion of having freedom while on the road.

Posted by felicia at 07:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Girl on a motor cycle uses the concepts of male gaze and phallocentrism throughout this movie. it is a story about woman who is not so happy with her marriage. She is constantly watched by this stranger which relates to the male gaze and eventually gets raped by this man one night and falls for him so much that she decides to ride her bike, and leave her husband to be with this rapist male gazer. Usually the concept of motor cycle is very much related with independence. At least, that's how the motor cycles are used when males are riding it. However, in this movie because a woman is riding the motorcycle- I don't perceive her as an independent women. Instead- her riding off her motorcyle to be with this stranger shows that she is very dependent upon the male- which is related to the phallocentrism concept. She is not independent because she left one phallus to be with another phallus. In a way, you could say that she is a hypocrite.

I don't think that all gazes are just males gaze. It can be a gaze of any one watching whoever. Yes, it is true that majority of the gazer might be a male. But, that doesn't necessarily mean that it is just male gaze. It can be a woman gaze. It can be a straight gaze or a gay gaze or whatever gaze.

In this movie, it was the male gaze.

Posted by Sakina at 07:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Girl on a Motorcycle did not present any new ideas as far as the male gaze and phallocentrism. Everything presented in this movie regarding these two ideas can be seen in more recently made movies. While this movie took place in the sixties, the ideas put forth by it have not changed or evolved as much as the cinematic special effects have. While watching this movie in class I kept being reminded of the Austin Powers movies. While the movies do not share much in common but the time period in which most of them were suppose to take place, the way the women are portrayed seemed blaringly similar. Not only because of the similar clothes and hair styles but in the way that these beautiful women in skin-tight leather, fawn over men who are nothing spectacular, physically, mentally or emotionally. Men that have done nothing to gain their love or even respect from the way that they treat them are revered as gods, people who will take care of them and protect them. The women in these films are treated purely as sex objects, to add something interesting to the films, maybe even to give men something that they really desire, something that is not available in real life, something that exists only to entertain men sexually, never mentally or emotionally. The women in these films appear to be lacking something; they lack the control that the men in the films have. This could represent the fear of castration, or the idea that because women lack a phallus, they also lack the ability to be in control of themselves and their emotions, which makes them weak and easy sexual prey.

Posted by Lady at 02:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In Girl on a Motorcycle the male gaze is maintained through the helplessness of the female who is torn between two men. Her road trip takes place not so much between two physical places as between two male protectors. Even on the road she is never free of the men in her life: her thoughts and internal monologue is always directed towards one or the other of them. She may be running away from her husband but she is running to another man which means she is never actually on her own. If anything the speed of her journey is indicative of the need for her new man and shows how she really is unable to cope with life on her own even during the short periods she is on the road alone. The introduction to the movie sets the stage for the male gaze that penetrates the entire movie. The dream montage depicts the internalized male gaze that haunts Rebecca's mind. Throughout the movie there are extended shots of this girl on her motorcycle speeding across the screen but no important shots of her view of the road. We are expected to admire her journey but not participate as if we were her, the rider, the woman. Rebecca is never without some sort of phallus dominating her journey. She leaves husband on a phallic motorcycle that is hers only through Daniel -- the man she is leaving her husband for. This movie is not a liberating film for women at all.

Posted by ludme002 at 02:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Rebellion is the only thing that keeps you alive" is the first sentence in the movie that caught my attention. This sets the tone for the film and it's liberation for women. Women have learned that it is okay to not be happy with the "best thing that's ever happened to you", to find a way to love something other than the leading man in your life. Sometimes, the best thing that happens to you, is the in some ways the worst, leaving you objectified and all of your energy focusing around the male (phallocentrism). The male gaze is introduced as she sets off on her motorcycle, stopping for gas and the camera pans around to her backside as the nozzle of the pump slides into the gas tank. This theme continues on throughout the movie with sometimes voyaristic taste as men look at her while she is seemingly helpless, stasis, and unreactive to any advancement. We also see this when Daniel meets her in the bookstore and grazes her legs and then dominates her as a slave of free love. This is a road trip film which paves the way for women to advance into their own ways of life despite their husband, lovers, or any male which tries to take power of them.

Posted by Alexandra Goldman at 01:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Rebellion is the only thing that keeps you alive" is the first sentence in the movie that caught my attention. This sets the tone for the film and it's liberation for women. Women have learned that it is okay to not be happy with the "best thing that's ever happened to you", to find a way to love something other than the leading man in your life. Sometimes, the best thing that happens to you, is the in some ways the worst, leaving you objectified and all of your energy focusing around the male (phallocentrism). The male gaze is introduced as she sets off on her motorcycle, stopping for gas and the camera pans around to her backside as the nozzle of the pump slides into the gas tank. This theme continues on throughout the movie with sometimes voyaristic taste as men look at her while she is seemingly helpless, stasis, and unreactive to any advancement. We also see this when Daniel meets her in the bookstore and grazes her legs and then dominates her as a slave of free love. This is a road trip film which paves the way for women to advance into their own ways of life despite their husband, lovers, or any male which tries to take power of them.

Posted by Alexandra Goldman at 01:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Girl on a Motorcycle hypothetically sounds liberating. A defiant, rebel woman takes off in the night to reunite with her lover, strong and powerful on her motorcycle. Sadly this is not the case. This film is steeped in phallocentrism from the very beginning. Rebecca is fetishized by the male gaze from the moment she climbs out of bed naked (in stark contrast to Raymond who is sleeping cozily in his pajamas) and zips up her black leather suit. The camera, which coincides with the male gaze, take on a voyeuristic position, watching in the middle of the night, as they zoom in on her curvacious female parts being squeezed into her leather outfit. Phallocentrism is maintained soon after as she climbs atop her motorcycle that she is only capable of driving because Daniel has taught her, as well as bought for her. Without his instruction and gift she would be immobile. Thus the male figure, " is free to command the stage...of spatial illusion in which he articulates the look and creates the action" (Kaplan 128). The rest of her journey is continuously fraught with male oppression and reassertion of the female character as passive, unable to move the narrative along. In an almost anamalistic dominance, as if she is the prey, Rebecca instructs Daniel, "skin me." He possess the power, he provides the action, he takes away her identity. She recognizes this and to no avail, he treats me like a slave; he knows i'm not free." Nevertheless, "the sexualization and objectification of women is not simply for the purposes of eroticism; from a psychoanalytic point of view, it is designed to annihilate the threat that women (as castrated, and possessing a sinister genital organ) poses (Kaplan 121). By positioning the male gaze as dominant, the threat of the castrated woman, the "other", is removed. By allowing females, and particularly Rebecca, to have no identity, the fear of castration is no more.

Posted by sigmundfreud at 01:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

“Our culture is deeply committed to clearly demarcated sex differences, called masculine and feminine, that revolve on, first, a complex gaze-apparatus; and second, dominance-submission patterns.” (Kaplan, 129)

The film Girl on a Motorcycle is a highly phallocentric film, despite the fact that it follows a woman traveling alone on a motorcycle. One way in which this movie maintains a high level of phallocentrism is that Rebecca, the main character, is completely dominated by the men she is involved with. Her thoughts constantly revolve around what they say, what they do, and how it relates to her. For example, one of her thoughts is “I think I only come to life when he touches me”. This shows how the male characters move the story along; they control the action. The aspects of the movie that may lead some people to believe that it is liberating for women, such as the fact that she learns to ride motorcycle and then travels alone, are actually creating a false sense of liberation. Her lover, Daniel, teaches her to ride the motorcycle and then buys her one so that she is able to visit him, therefore he exerts a sort of control over her freedom. The structure of the film also maintains the male gaze. One example of this technique is found in the scene in which she zips up her body suit and the camera follows the zipper, and in a later scene when she unzips it. Scenes such as these further establish the high level of phallocentrism in this early road film.

Posted by Beyonce at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"The paradox of phallocentrism in all its manifestations is that it depends on the image of the castrated women to give order and meaning to its world. An idea of woman stands as a linchpin to the system. It is her lack that produces the phallus as a symbolic presence, it is her desire to make good the lack that the phallus signifies," (Mulvy 34). The Girl and the Mororcycle should be a somewhat empowering female film, with Rebecca being a rebelious and opinionated woman for her time, but it is not. It is a movie that rests on phallocentrism where the male is considered the superior being and the female is seen as the inferior being. Rebecca leaves the security of her home and her husband to hit the road to meet up with her lover on the motorcycle he purchased for her. Even the source of freedom she is riding on was given and provided to her by a man. Rebecca rides around Europe with a tight, black unitard on which shows that the movie is centered around what the man wants to see. Phallocentrism, the make gaze, and voyerism are all a part of this movie. When Rebecca is in the hotel restaurant with her boyfriend and friends, Daniel is constantly staring at her, even though it is not socially accepted. This film is not liberating for women. Rebecca is looking for validation from men to form her identity. She is not seen as a unique and strong woman, she is seen as a weak and dominated woman. She is dominated by her lover and even when she thinks she is free, she is not. She is portrayed as a sex symbol with no identity of her own.

Posted by bella at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Phallocentricism seems to be the star of Girl on a Motorcycle rather than the heroine herself or even the road or the motorcycle. This can be obviously seen in the attire of Rebecca while she is on the road: the black leather cat suit, perhaps the ancestor of Britney Spears' red one-piece ensemble in her "Oops..." music video. The fact that Rebecca elects to wear this (and only this) on a road journey where she is exposed to the elements is ridiculous; there is no way a real woman would have chosen to wear something like this (made completely of tight, black leather, thus causing a person to heat up and constricting one's movement) on a trip by herself, and so it seems as though the film's male creators picked something that they would have liked to see on a woman, particularly one with Marianne Faithfull's assets. It is obviously designed for a man's pleasure and not a woman's comfort, thereby prompting the viewer to view Rebecca through a man's eyes. The presence of black leather directly on nude flesh, complete with silver zipper and a ring-like zipper-pull that resembles a cock-ring, brings to mind bondage and S/M, thus fetishizing and objectifying Rebecca. (Continued...)

Continue reading "Bondage on a Motocycle?" »

Posted by Emma Zoch at 07:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the beginning of "The Girl on a Motorcycle" it may seem that Rebecca, as a female, is central to the film. But through the phallocentric examples that exist Rebecca is actually portrayed to have many limitations. Rebecca's motorbike is a symbol of freedom and escape which makes her seem in control and powerful, she is traveling alone at high speed and she narrates the film through her thoughts. The film begins with Rebecca dreaming in bed next to Raymond. The dream involves a sexy woman on a horse for all to see at a circus. The woman is crying which shows female vulnerability. While riding the horse and doing tricks, Daniel, as the ringmaster, whips her clothes off until she is topless infront of the crowd. Daniel is laughing as the woman is crying, showing that males are insensitive to woman in need of help. It also shows the male view of women as objects to show and control and there is no regard for female sexuality. Daniel (the ringmaster) is shown as a voyeur. Rebecca wakes dresses in her leather riding suit without undergarments and hops on her bike which she refers to as a male, seeming that she won't be free without a male. The second sign of female vulnerability is the fact that Rebecca has to keep reminding herself not to feel guilty, she almost has to convince herself that she is doing the right thing by leaving Raymond. She seems a bit defensive, as if she isn't allowed to have her own opinion. Continued....

Continue reading "Full of Phallocentrism" »

Posted by littlegreenapples at 06:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"In practice, this masochism is rarely reflected in more than a tendency for women to be passive in sexual relations; but in the realm of myth, masochism is often prominent." (Is the Gaze Male? Laura Kaplan) This feature is quite true in this movie.

A married woman who mounts her motorcycle and takes off on a road trip to see her lover is not a form of liberty. For example, in this particular movie, the woman is being a pet to be controlled by her man, offering her body as his cum dumpster, pardoning my language. Her adultery could be attributed to her stale husband and her filthy lust. Phallocentrism in this movie is simply grotesque and quite telling of the Western cultures of womens etiquette. The theme of phallocentrism is not as driven by the strange male lover in this movie as it is by the trashy female tramp. The woman in this movie is the willing participant in this example of male-over-female dominance as she keeps coming back for more. The female is like an animal who motivated by hunger and need, instead is motivated by sordid back-of-the-woods, ten-minute sexual innuendos. The male gaze in this movie is shown by the strange lover who stares at the woman when she is sleeping with little regard for her need for privacy. It is quite simply a grotesque combination of the themes of phallocentrism and the male gaze.

How can this be liberating for a female to watch? This movie is an insult to a female's sensibilities and her own sense of control over her body. A female should have liberty of her own body yet instead as portrayed in this movie, the female is noted to being completely dependent on the male for survival. She is infatuated by the thoughts of the man and eventually gets killed for it. In real life, some women are like this, just watch Dr. Phil or Jerry springer. The women who appear on many episodes of those shows are complete mindless individuals who kind of deserve to be treated like gum stuck to the bottom of a show as they keep coming back to their men who treat them badly.

It is quite obvious that these blogs are not really read by anyone as they are just an assignment. However, to the large majority of women in this class, find your power and only be with someone who will treat you with dignity, not just the first person who tells you that you look good.

You all should watch this movie clip instead as it shows what real feminism should represent. You have to watch the whole thing to understand it.

張惠妹

Posted by 張惠妹 at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

“Girl on a Motorcycle” was not liberating from the male gaze, nor was it liberating from traditional femininity. The film continued on a traditional phallocentric path, with male actions driving the plot forward and shaping the character’s life. The film also employed use of language and visual cues to reinforce normative ideas of feminity and what it means to be a woman. The main character’s thoughts that she was “like and animal”, “following her instincts”, and controlled by her sexual desires only served to reinforce the concept that women are hyper-sexual beings that must be controlled by men. Her death at the end is something of a punishment for her stupidity in following her sex drive, as the last words she utters relate to her need for sex. The frame of the film and the way she’s treated by the men around her (there are almost no other women in the film) are continually objectifying, as is the character’s view of herself. She almost entirely lacks agency, other than to follow her vagina to another country, adding insult to death as she passionately careens into traffic, insults from her lover ringing in her ears.

Additionally, the film’s characterization of men places them in an unfortunate binary in which they can either be weak and accommodating, not controlling and therefore not a viable sexual partner, or they can be strong, virile, rude, and cruel (the ultimate man).

On the whole, “Girl on a Motorcycle” may have placed a woman at the drivers seat, but it otherwise served the purpose of protecting the phallus in cinema. Also, it’s demeaning that she’s called a “girl” rather than “woman” considering that she is an adult.