What do the movies Young Promising Woman by Emerald Fenell, Portrait of a Lady on Fire by Céline Sciamma, and The Love Witch by Anna Biller all have in common? They were made by incredible women who have proudly claimed the art of the female gaze. Now, what does this concept portray, you ask? According to the website The Female Gaze, “The female gaze is a term used to describe the way visual media (film, photography, art) can depict a female view of the world.” They explain how this is a concept in film that caters to the desires of the female audience. I started to ponder the meaning of this idea and the types of desires it deals with. I came to think about how these female directors achieve this outlook in cinema and how it expresses the complexity or, in this case, the simplicity of what women truly long for.
From studying the films of different female directors that have worked with this technique, I noticed how the point of the female gaze is to recognize women as people, and not so much as objects used to move the story along. Since visual media was first created, male characters have seemed to have many movies made about them and their experiences. With curated stories and complex male characters, men have dominated the entertainment industry for ages. Laura Malvey, a film theorist who focused on the concept of feminism, critiqued the fact that Hollywood cinema has been mainly centered on the male point of view, and has placed women in the uncomfortable spot of only being placeholders. There’s a vast difference in the portrayal of how women should behave or are placed to be, versus what men can be and how they have the liberty to behave. The sexual objectification of women is another characteristic constantly viewed in media, as if the ultimate desire of a woman should be to serve the man and be some sort of eye candy. Many female directors have taken notice of this and have slowly changed the narrative by portraying the inner workings of the female mind and by painting women as actual people with their own goals, dreams, and opinions.
Female directors that have focused on the female gaze have turned the tables on Hollywood stereotypes, and have brought forward what could be the new norm in cinema. An excellent example is a beloved female character, Harley Quinn. By comparing Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey (The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), you can clearly see a noticeable difference between the her characterizations. In Suicide Squad, Harley Quinn is depicted as an oversexualized woman and plot device used to keep the story moving along, she is solely “Joker’s abandoned little plaything.” Don’t get me wrong, there are many things about her character the film depicts accurately, but it was mostly overshadowed by the obvious oversexualization of the character. For example, her fighting outfit, which was a tiny white shirt and a pair of small, tight, blue underwear that is clearly an uncomfortable get-up for fighting, was clearly designed to cater to the male gaze along with the constant reminders on how Harley Quinn is no one without the Joker. However, in Cathy Yan’s Birds of Prey, even though she deals with her break-up with the Joker in the beginning of the film, the rest of the movie is about building and accepting herself in her own Harley Quinn way. Caty Yan portrays Harley Quinn’s character as her own person, instead of the object that she was seen as before. Her independence in Birds of Prey can be seen even in the smallest details, from her outfit change that shows who she truly is without the Joker and his abuse to the comforting breakfast sandwich, this film describes a very real female experience. And that’s why it’s a perfect example of what the female gaze stands for.
Greta Gerwig has also been a big pioneer in the female gaze movement when it comes to cinema. Barbie, Little Women, Lady Bird; she has mastered the gaze in its entirety. She focuses on the personal outlook of what it’s like to be a woman in a patriarchal world and critiques the female stereotypes. By using simple dialogue, adding female characters with goals and strong opinions, and by creating female characters with their own emotional and physical obstacles, Gerwig creates an incredible and realistic narrative. She uses the complexity of real relationships to create a conversation of the hardships and the struggles of the different aspects of a community that doesn’t feel heard, and she does so carefully.
All the female directors in this piece, along with other directors I couldn’t mention, add to the beauty that is the female gaze and make it simple to understand for everyone, especially women. The best way I can describe the female gaze and the placement of women in cinema is with this Greta Gerwig quote: “The goal is that everything in a movie has meaning. Nothing is just there because it’s there. We wanted every image to have integrity, so that it didn’t feel adorned, but that it felt placed.”