There is nothing more inspiring to a little girl (eventually a teenager and a young woman) than the favorite cartoon, movie, or TV show with a powerful female lead. Good news is, feminist film – which is supposed to feature precisely such characters – has finally conquered Hollywood. Or not.

Publication of Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” in the film theory journal Screen almost 50 years ago has undoubtedly revolutionized the way women are perceived and represented in the media. Relying heavily on psychoanalysis, and Jacque Lacan in particular, Mulvey argued that, compared to her male companion, a woman in the majority of Hollywood productions was more of a shadow than a proper character – “bearer, not maker, of meaning.” In other words, she possessed no agency, serving as an object that a man loved, feared, took care of, admired, etc.

The way a woman was portrayed in film, then, was not at all accidental. Her beauty was subject to what came to be known as the male gaze – aestheticization and sexualization of everything that was female. Watching and hearing a woman was a pleasing experience: her perfect hairdo and make-up, a dress that accentuates her figure, the tone of her voice and the sound of her laughter. Modern-day Hoffmann’s Olympia — mesmerizing, but artificial.

The inherent, and not necessarily conscious, goal of populating films with such female characters was to re-affirm and re-establish the patriarchal system in which women were subservient to men. It was precisely the proliferation of male-centric narratives that implicitly told a female viewer: “Your only role is to help, inspire, and entertain. Your only place is by your man’s side. Without him, you do not exist.” “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World,” as James Brown put it.

One of the first feminist films: *Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles* (1975).
Copyright: The Criterion Collection / Photo: IMDb

When a flesh-and-blood woman watched such films, she was subconsciously appropriating the male gaze, gradually becoming filled with unrealistic expectations about her own behavior and appearance. Showed anger or sorrow? Hysterical. Decided to start her own business? Crossed the line, would fail. Chose career over love and family? Cold-hearted. Not thin and pretty? Will die alone with twelve cats.

Feminist film came as a logical, and a long-overdue, reaction to these dated and nonsensical notions. Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), is one of the first films to expose how commonplace the male gaze and is, and what it takes to break free from it. Directed by Chantal Akerman, it is a contemplative picture with no apparent plot – focused on the mundane and boring, it scrutinized and reinvented the female on the screen.

Ridley Scott’s Thelma & Louise (1991) is another iconic feminist film. Framed as road movie (a male genre originally), it follows two best friends – a housewife and a waitress – who go on the craziest vacation of their lives. They laugh loudly, they dance and drink, they drive dangerously and shoot – no authority exists for them, and they will never, ever submit. Imperfect, with messy hair and clothes, full of energy and excitement, Thelma and Louise are very much the essence of what the female gaze came to be.

Elsa (Frozen, 2013), Wanda Maximoff (The Avengers: Age Of Ultron, 2015), Imperator Furiosa (Mad Max: Fury Road, 2015), Diana Prince (Wonder Woman, 2017), Galadriel (Rings of Power, 2022-)… The list of strong and powerful female leads of the contemporary popular culture is virtually endless. Some of them have longer tradition of representation in various media – Wanda and Diana are originally comic books heroines, Galadriel was featured on a silver screen by Peter Jackson in the early 2000s and in the late 1970s by Ralph Bakshi – some, as Elsa and Furiosa, have been designed from scratch. And they are certainly far from Mulvey’s characterless dolls.

Imperfect but beautiful Morfydd Clark as Galadriel in the *Rings of Power* (2022-…).
Copyright: Amazon Prime Video / Photo: IMDb

Take Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel. Driven by vengeance, persistent and willful, she is far from the Cate Blanchett’s ethereal motherly figure from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. And she is not ideal: her blonde hair is as riotous as her personality, and bags under her eyes and wrinkles on the forehead indicate that she is, in fact, alive – and as everyone who is alive, she gets tired. Do fans love the new Galadriel? Ha! Their opinions of her are so familiar that it is eerie: “ugly,” “annoying,” “irrational,” and my personal favorite – “insufferable bitch.”

Of course, no TV show alone can erase decades of sexism and misogyny (there are girls’ opinions above, too!) that have severely affected our thinking. The change comes from within, and external representation is nothing but a small, albeit necessary, push. And being called a bitch, it’s okay, really. We love and cherish this part of us – oh, how many toxic exes are in the past thanks to it, right?

The problem is that the industry has not yet fully committed to feminism in film — it seems like the male gaze is very much alive and kicking. Did you know that Wanda was the only female character with a cleavage in the multi-billion Marvel franchise, and for absolutely no reason at all? Elizabeth Olsen brought it up several times, and producers paid attention only when WandaVision (2021) was being filmed. The actress finally had a say in her outfit, and oh, girl, how much better it is now!

Hollywood listens, it’s true. But as long as their first choice is the sexualization of women and not the redefining of what female attractiveness is, the attempts to make mainstream film feminist will continue to resemble an elaborate farce rather than be an actual revolution.

Mainstream film vs. feminism