f.g.agard@gmail.com Claus van Amsbergstraat 77 1102 AZ Amsterdam NL (+31) 0612888573
Women
Road
An MA-Thesis in Film
University of Amsterdam Date: 27th of January 2017 Supervisor: mw. dr. C.M. (Catherine Office Adress: Turfdraagsterpad 9, Second Reader: dhr. dr. E. (Eric Office Adress: Turfdraagsterpad 9, Assignment: MA-Thesis Film Studiesomen and the
Movie genre
Thesis in Film studies by FeargalAgard
Catherine) Lord
Turfdraagsterpad 9, (BG1, Room?) 1012 XT Amsterdam, NL Eric) Laeven
Office Adress: Turfdraagsterpad 9, (BG1, Room?) 1012 XT Amsterdam, NL Thesis Film Studies (I’ve got exactly 21.805 words)
he
Movie genre.
1 Foreword
Women and the Road Movie genre is a thesis dissertation which seeks to investigate the Road Movie genre through ecological concepts in relation to women to an extend that goes even further than it has ever been done before. The Road Movie genre was from the dawn of its age a man’s genre. Lonesome men or buddies on the road, enjoying total freedom. Back in the 50’s and before, women were just background characters who only provided support, companionship and sex. Although later movies such as Russ Meyer’s exploitation classic Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) and Steven Spielbergs The Sugarland Express (1974), slowly move women to the
foreground, allowing them to sit in the driver’s seat and taking more control. And even though Ridley Scott’s Thelma & Louise (1991) moves women even further to the foreground, which could be seen as significant emancipation, it is still not enough. Considering the frequency that these particular emancipating films are produced, it becomes clear that these productions are not in the same abundance as road films with men in the lead roles (not even in percentages). Next to that the narratives in road films with women in a lead role tend to often be about escaping oppression that is implemented by men. This issue makes it paramount to address the need for radical changes which have to take place in the fields of scholarly and academic discussion. The aim in this discussion is to provide clear, well-illustrated analyses of a variety of contemporary film case studies and to research how women (with their companions or buddies, whether straight or LGBTQI) in these Road Movies make use of ecological notions to advance themselves during their trip and master insight of their own full potential. The Road Movie genre is about escaping the urban landscape to travel through nature and its wilderness. The time spend in nature possibly frees a person, maybe even to the extent that they will encounter a solution to the burdens of their urban life.
This thesis volume will thoroughly discuss the experiences of women and the effects of their experiences, combining literature about ecological scholarly fields and their concepts and notions with textual film analyses. Each chapter will contain as part of its apparatus some indication of the direction in which the definition of particular notions is likely to move, as well as expanding the disciplinary boundaries within this discourse. This will involve the investigation of these notions within the larger field of ecological representation, and will introduce examples from the area of film in addition to examples from a variety of literary texts.
Notes!
- This paper is written according to MLA academic writing style.
- The word count (21.805) shown on the front page only counts the words of the paragraphs, it does not include the table of contents, the chapter and paragraph titles, works cited, etc.
- There are endnotes and no footnotes. - Chapter titles partially appear in italics.
2 Abstract
This thesis is interested in the potential of ‘Road Movies’, in regard of women. It is the mission to describe the thematical dimensions of a relationship between the politics of gender, nature and sexuality, and to articulate the complicated display of ideas that come from these relationships. In this thesis, a selection of films are investigated that actively deconstruct specific constructions of nature, oppression, gender and sexuality (whether straight or lgbtqi). These deconstructions can show expressive modes, such as distrust, rebellion, escape, retaliation, solace, and by referencing certain literary forms, such as patriarchal self/other dualism (men oppressing women), self-discovery in the wilderness and feminist and queer theory concepts of inclusion and naturalizing as a solution.
To assist this thesis’s research, I have chosen to investigate three films which enable the possibility to move contextually from an emblematic film from the nineties to contemporary films in the 2000’s. I read these films alongside of a selection of academic literary texts that inform each filmic text and analysis. The first film is Ridley Scott’s Thelma & Louise (1991). This is where Greg Garrard’s, Steve Cohan’s and Patrick Brereton’s Ecocriticism theories come in. The second is George Miller’s post-apocalyptic film, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), which I analyze alongside of Greta Gaard’s and Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands Ecofeminist theories. And finally for my third chapter I turn to Abe Sylvia’s work Dirty Girl (2010). This final filmic text prompts questions of both gender (men and women) and sexuality (straight and lgbtqi). This is where Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands and Greta Gaard’s Queer ecology and Ecofeminism can shed light on the subject. The following specific notions from the academic areas mentioned above will be discussed; ‘self/other dualism’, ‘first and second spaces’, ‘third space’, ‘otherness’, so-called ‘unnatural’ or ‘degenerate’ sexuality, ecoqueer sensibility, global democratic community, biotic community, a sense of place/planet and of course ‘Road Movie’ genre theory.
Key terms: Nature, Wilderness, Feminism, Gender, Sexuality, Ecology, Ecocriticism, Ecofeminism, Masculinity, Femininity, Queer, Cinema, Queer ecology, Patriarchy, dualism, self/other, first space, second space, third space, Matriarchy, ecoqueer sensibility, global democratic community, biotic community, inclusion, Male, Female, heteronormativity, Homosexuality, Miller, Scott, Sylvia.
3 Table of contents
Front (Title) Page 0
Foreword/notes 1
Summary/abstract 2
Keywords (research areas) 2
Table of Contents 3
Introduction 4
Theoretical framework: Fields of study 5
Methodology: Case studies and chapters and utilizations of notions 12
Chapter 1: The ‘Road Movie’ genre 18
Space: The Female gender oppressed 20
Third Space: Wilderness and self-discovery in the ‘Road Movie’ 24 Sense of place/planet interrogates male myths about women 27
Chapter 2: Ecofeminism 32
Ecofeminism’s undesired vision 34
A matriarchic self-discovery 36
Ecofeminism’s ultimate vision 41
Chapter 3: Queer Ecology 47
Both oppressed: ‘Unnatural’ and ‘other’ 50
A queer ecological self-discovery in the form of sensibility 54 Biotic community as solution: Allies, wholeness, and inclusion 56
Conclusion 62
End notes 65
Works cited/Bibliography 68
Filmography 71
4
Introduction
I. The concept of Wilderness in female regard: the ‘Road Movie’ genre, Ecocriticism, Ecofeminism, Queer Ecology. There is an ecological association between masculinity,i the road trip with a mythological odyssey, self-discoveryii and escapism. The ‘Road Movie’ genre portrays a vast amount of landscape, nature and wilderness. Nature’siii omnipresence in ‘Road Movies’ cannot be denied, it has the affect to romanticize the environment in which a character’s journey eventuates. This ‘journey’ -traditionally made by men- romanticizes them as challengers of nature and its wilderness. As from the 90’s –for example Ridley Scott’s Thelma & Louise (1991)-, with a few exceptions,iv have women acquired their own ‘Road Movies’ that concerned their experiences in the ‘wilderness’, their gender, sexualities and ‘womanhood’.v
A profuse amount of motivations compelled the decision to write this thesis that regards ecologyvi and the ‘Road Movie’ genre. The incentive originates from a statement posited by Katie Mills, a professor of English “that the road genre features men and marginalizes women” (Mills 2006, 10). Her observation confirms this marginalization, because men are overtly featured in these films and women not. The fields of Ecocriticism, Ecofeminism and Queer ecology convey a vision in which naturevii functions as a mechanism that advocates a space of equality for both men and women and their (Queer) sexualities, free from dominant oppressive constructs. However dominant groups often rhetorize on a ‘nature-based’ opposition that justifies their dominance over others. Next to that there are scholars who believe that Ecofeminists and Queer ecologists maintain essentialistviii erroneous theoretical findings. This leaves Ecofeminism and Queer ecology vulnerable to invalidation or a facetious treatment. They problematize these academic fields that could have a remedial effect in equalizing all normativities (man, women, straight and lgbtqi).ix These Scholarly fields together with Ecocriticism and ‘Road Movie’ genre theory hold the key to researching how the ‘wilderness’ benefits women. ‘Wilderness’ provided men with adventure, discovery and ‘masculine’ challenges. This is equally possible for women.
5 To substantiate the issues that this thesis addresses, it is paramount to explore women’s experiences through gender and sexuality perspectives in the ‘Road Movie’ genre.x Do they manifest femininity, masculinity or a mix of both? Do their sexual desires, comfortability, orientation, sensuality and forms of powers benefit or impact them? Which specific patriarchal notions cause these women to escape? What do their ‘Road Movie’ experiences in the ‘wilderness’ mean and gain them and how do they utilize notional solutions to confront and solve their problems? In short, this thesis argues that ‘Road Movie’ women (and lgbtqi persons), who attempt to escape oppression based on notions such as ‘first and second space’, ‘self/other dualism’ and so-called ‘sexual unnaturalness’, but are able to gain ecological insight through the notions of a ‘third space’, ‘earth others’ and an ‘ecoqueer sensibility’ that eventually leads them to face their oppressive obstacles thanks to solutionary notions such as a ‘sense of place/planet’, a ‘global democratic community’ and a ‘biotic community’.
Theoretical framework: Fields of study.
The theoretical framework of this thesis brings four scholarly fields of study to the fore;
Ecocriticism, Queer ecology, Ecofeminism and ‘Road Movie’ genre theory. They each have their own relevance and coherency for particular reasons as these fields posit the notions that will be examined in this thesis. The pertinence of these fields, its scholars and notions will be established in the following paragraphs.
Ecocriticism is specifically useful to elucidate the role of the wilderness and its notion of self-discovery. With that it helps investigating how three different notions of space can host oppressive situations, but also places that progress people to a higher insight. For that it is important to know what ecocriticism is. Ecocritical scholar Greg Garrard defines ecocriticism in his book Ecocriticism: The New Critical Idiom (2004) as a literary or cultural analysis based on the pastoral and apocalyptic. As he defines ecocriticism he refers to Cheryll Glotfelty an
6 in which she states: “What then is ecocriticism? Simply put, ecocriticism is the study of the
relationship between literature and the physical environment…ecocriticism takes an earth-centred approach to literary studies” (Glotfelty 1996, xix). Thus, ecocriticism as a scholarly field is based on the analysis of all sorts of texts (literature, films, media) in regard of an ecological and critique-based approach.
Garrard defines a multitude of conceptual terms, but most relevant to this thesis is the concept of wilderness, which signifies “nature in a state uncontaminated by civilization…it is a construction mobilized to protect particular habitats and species, and is seen as a place for the reinvigoration of those tired of the moral and material pollution of the city” (Garrard 2004, 59). Clearly Garrard sees ‘wilderness’ as the primal catalyst that men and women are able to use as a space for escape. Besides that, ‘wilderness’ is basically the antithesis of human society.
Environmental theorist Patrick Brereton describes the notion of self-discovery as a fructiferous experience on the wilderness road. In Hollywood Utopia: Ecology in Contemporary American Cinema (2004),xi Brereton refers to film theorist Michael Ryan, who states that “this ‘ride into nature’ as a metaphor for the escape from urban oppression into the ‘freedom’ of self-discovery” (1988). Brereton sees this as a narrative notion that is common in the ‘Road Movie’ genre that regards the desire to run away from society’s burdens in hopes of being free and gain more insight about one’s character.
Ecofeminism is an advantageous field for the exploration of oppressions against women, nature and the ‘others’. It assists in scrutinizing the justifications of patriarchal and dualistic notions that oppress, but to also in comprehending the solutions that ecofeminists envision. Ecofeminism is a scholarly field that focuses on a philosophical and political consolidation of feminism and ecology. Ecofeminist scholar, Greta Gaard, explicates in her publication Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature (1993) what ecofeminism signifies to her.
7 Ecofeminism is a theory that has evolved from various fields of feminist inquiry and activism: peace movements, labor movements, women’s healthcare, and the anti-nuclear, environmental, and animal liberation movements. Drawing on the insights of ecology, feminism, and socialism, ecofeminism’s basic premise is that the ideology which authorizes oppressions such as those based on race, class, gender, sexuality, physical abilities, and species is the same ideology which sanctions the oppression of nature. Ecofeminism calls for an end to all oppressions, arguing that no attempt to liberate women (or any other oppressed group) will be successful without an equal attempt to liberate nature. Its theoretical base is a sense of self most commonly expressed by women and various other nondominant groups, a self that is interconnected with all life (Gaard 1993, 1).
As a combination of ecology and various fields of feminism, ecofeminism is argued to focus on liberating women through nature, the root where the oppression of all nondominant oppressed groups (based on gender, class, species, sexual orientation, etc) started. As nature began to be oppressed so did these groups fall under the oppression of dominant groups who began to view everything from a hierarchical perspective. Val Plumwood, an ecofeminist
philosopher who authored Feminism and the Mastery of Nature (1993) addresses ecological feminism as being a response to the earlier indicated complications. In her introduction she says “forms of oppression from both the present and the past have left their traces in western culture as a network of dualisms, and the logical structure of dualism forms a major basis for the connection between forms of oppression” (Plumwood 1993, 2). Her explication signifies that oppression is a deep-rooted feature that is bound to culture. Oppression takes form in dualism.xii Plumwood conveys that this has existed so long and continues to exist even today. What is very interesting to understand is that she calls it a logical structure because it seems logical to us to have these dualisms in life; for example, man and woman, gay and straight, rich and poor, old and young,
8 etc. Another statement of Plumwood elucidates that the effect of, “Dualism is the process by which contrasting concepts (for example, masculine and feminine gender identities) are formed by domination and subordination and constructed as oppositional and exclusive” (Plumwood 1993, 32). Although it seems logical to have these opposites it does not mean that the two should duel each other in a struggle for power. It also does not justify that one may dominate ‘others’, simply because everyone is equal to one another and if ‘nature’ designated specific ‘others’ as naturally subordinate to another. These ‘others’ would not feel suppressed and dissatisfied. On the contrary, the unhappiness of the oppressed proves the point that they are not subordinates but rather equals.
Next to Gaard and Plumwood, there is also Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands an ecofeminist who authored The Good-Natured feminist: Ecofeminism and the Quest for Democracy (1999). In this publication she construes Plumwood’s notion of ‘otherness’, which is born from self/other dualism.xiii Another notion that Plumwood posited should be understood as an ‘otherness’ that pertains non-humans such as nature and animals. She mentions, “we can instead recognize in the myriad forms of nature other beings—earth others— whose needs, goals and purposes must, like our own, be acknowledged and respected (Plumwood 1993, 137). It is hinted here that we need to treat ‘earth others’as we like to be treated. Respecting and harmonizing with nature will gain us the respect and insight that we deserve so that we do something about patriarchal judgment, and basically fight back. Plumwood discusses that the doors will open when we as ‘others’ recognize ‘earth others’ and rediscover our ecological self in nature. The last notion to be summarized is the notion of a ‘global democratic community’. “It is in the notion of a global democratic
Community...[that one] is to foster the sentiment or practice that one is both a member of specific groups (bioregions, sexes, classes) and a member of…a “One-World Community” (Sandilands1999, 131). In short, oppressive systems that focus on differences and the lack of valued characteristics need to be reduced and vanquished. Instead, a new sense needs to develop
9 amongst all groups who were formerly divided; I am part of one group and at the same time part of all groups throughout the world.
Queer ecology deals with the politics of nature and sexuality, in particular ‘Queerness’ and it identifies injustice and the communal forms that naturalize both sexuality and gender
differences in a world with men who fear what they call unnatural. Together with Bruce Erickson, an environmental theorist, Mortimer-Sandilands examined nature and sexuality in their edited book Queer Ecologies: Sex Nature, Politics, Desire (2010). This book discusses in detail what ‘wilderness’ represents in correlation with sexualities, through nature assumed constructs and comparisons between urban and wilderness landscapes. It focuses on both men and women who are identified as ‘queer’. To explicate what the essential aim of this field is, I quote Mortimer-Sandilands:
“queer ecology”: there is an ongoing relationship between sex and nature that exists institutionally, discursively, scientifically, spatially, politically, poetically, and ethically, and it is our task to interrogate that relationship in order to arrive at a more nuanced and effective sexual and environmental understanding (Mortimer-Sandilands 2010, 5).
She clearly signifies that it is the aim to investigate the relationship between nature and sex. What does sexuality mean in respect of the urban landscape and the environmental landscape. How is the environment around it constructed? Then again the fact that she states that it is also the aim to arrive at a more nuanced understanding, indicates that she also discusses current
understandings of sexuality and the environment, but also dominant understandings, mainly that of people who cling to an heteronormative world-view, which means that they see heterosexuality as the standard and all other sexualities are unnatural, which is not true. The mere fact that homosexuality occurs amongst animals in nature, cogently confirms that sexualities other than
10 hetero are common in nature. The case of ‘unnatural’ sexualities actually guides this deliberation to the first specific queer ecological notion that will be employed in this thesis.
The notion of ‘unnaturalness’ is largely discussed by Mortimer-Sandilands. Interestingly it is also a form of dualism, meaning that it comes from the concept of natural versus unnatural, “specifically, as heterosexuality came to be understood as a natural state of being (with nature understood, here, as a biological imperative against which deviant sexualities could be condemned as unnatural),” (Mortimer-Sandilands 2010, 10). Thus a notion of ‘unnaturalness’ refers to being another term used by the ones that dominate and force so-called ‘unnaturals’ into subordination. Again it is all based on difference (being weaker, abnormal or ‘other’) or lacking a valued feature. So this is a reoccurring theme. Another queer ecological notion is that of an ‘ecoqueer sensibility’, which is first introduced by Mortimer-Sandilands in her publication Unnatural Passions?: Notes Toward a Queer Ecology (2005), but other than Mortimer-Sandilands, Katie Hogan, a gender, queer and environmental theorist, writes in her queer ecological essay Undoing Nature: Coalition Building as Queer Environmentalism (2010) similarly about an ‘ecoqueer sensibility’, she says “uncovering the ecoqueer sensibility…offers…alternative perspectives…an ecoqueer perspective brings into bold relief how resistance to “against nature” can take many forms” (Hogan 2010, 237). This indicates that this ‘ecoqueer sensibility’ is about not resisting nature, but also that one can learn from this resistance. In brief, it is about experiencing the struggles, and allowing yourself to connect with the natural part of oneself (essentially discovering that everyone is natural, no matter straight or lgbtqi) so that you attain this sensibility which leads a person to gain the necessary insight to continue to develop to the next stage. This next stage is posited by Timothy Morton, an English literature scholar, who wrote a column essay named Queer Ecology (2010). In this column essay he postulates ecologist Aldo Leopold’s notion of a ‘biotic community’ (symbiosis and ecological coexistence). “Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and esthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient. A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise” (Leopold 1949, 262).
11 Although it comes from an old source it is still discussed today in Morton’s essay but also in Queer Ecologies: Sex Nature, Politics, Desire. The main point here is that a ‘biotic community’ is in touch with its surroundings, all threats in nature are threats to our culture and social community as well.
‘Road Movie’ genre theory needs to be considered as it is the film in which these
ecological notions are examined. It throws light on the road experiences, such as how one gains insight, sensibility, ecological selfhood and development through its liminal (third) space. Film theorists Steve Cohan and Ina Rae Hark who both authored The Road Movie Book (1997) will play a primary role in this thesis’s discussion. “The ongoing popularity of the road for motion picture audiences in the United States owes much to its obvious potential for romanticizing alienation as well as for problematizing the uniform identity of the nation’s culture” (Cohan & Hark 1997, 1). To them, the ‘Road Movie’ genre especially, in regard of the United States has a deep historical foundation, which goes back to the days when the first Europeans set out to discover the lands of the ‘New World’. The genre is immensely romanticized. According to them in connection with notions of alienation, but there is much more romanticization going on in this genre. Esthetically one could notice how the landscapes are often depicted in very captivating ways. Imagine
beautiful master or long shots that show a tiny car on an endless asphalt road surrounded by green hills or a beautiful mountainous landscape, which conveys a feeling of wilderness grandeur, but also an infinitesimal sense that regards our human existence. Cohan and Hark also accurately address cultural problematizations. As it has been posited in the scholarly fields indicated before, there are many cultural and identity problematizations to be discussed in regard of women in this genre.
The theorizations of the theorists mentioned above will function as a backdrop in support of the ecological notions and conceptions observed earlier in this paragraph. Because notions such as notions first, second and third space are also discussed in these ‘Road Movie’ genre books, but it is more important to argue these notions from an ecological perspective with genre theory to back up the arguments discussed. It is of importance that the necessary genre
12 theory should be referred to as ‘Ecocritical Road Movie genre theory’ (a term never coined by its conceiver, Patrick Brereton), because solely standard ‘Road Movie’ genre theory would not be sufficient. Most likely every ‘Road Movie’ genre notion, aspect and concept need to be
approached from an ecological perspective.
Methodology: Case studies, chapters and utilizations of notions.
Methodologically this thesis examines a tripartite of filmic case studies parallel to the theoretic literature mentioned earlier. The following criteria were applied to the selection process: The case studies have to be films that display women (but also lgbtqi persons in regard of queer ecology) as main characters and protagonists. The films should regard the ‘Road Movie’ genre and must display characters who leave the city or an urban area and go onto the road into the wilderness. Preferably road trip films, where they utilize motorized vehicles, such as cars, trucks or
motorcycles. The films should convey themes and notions of oppression, mainly coming from men. Thematically, the films should discuss notional themes such as escape, self-discovery, wilderness, nature and ecology (either visually or through its narrative). Another feature of the criteria became the preference to select American films, whether Hollywood or independent, choosing between American films causes the context of their to be quite near each other, which might result in similarities.
Since this thesis’s outset is to research a triad of films, it became principal to select case studies that apply best, which are the following: In light of a so-called ‘dawn’ of women’s road films, Ridley Scott’s Thelma & Louise (1990) was selected, even though it is an uncontemporary case study. Chiefly, because it is an emblematic film in the sense that this film is considered to be the first ‘Road Movie’ that displays two women as protagonists and as buddiesxiv in nature. The ecological presence could sometimes be seen as oblique, though it is more apparent towards the end, but it inexoribly will inspire a substantial discussion on the presence of feminist arguments and discussion. This film will shape an ecocritical and feminist foundation for the thesis’s
13 discussion as it is an homage to women in the ‘Road Movie’ genre. It also plays a comparative and influential role towards other more contemporary films.
The next film in this selection is George Miller’s film Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). This film overtly exemplifies both an ecological and feminist discussion. Next to the fact that all the aforementioned criteria apply to this film it goes even further into a world of extremes. In this film, men rule the world and women are displayed as subjects (tools) to men, but the women fight back and some alliances with men are formed. The discussion of this film will make it clear that it evokes an array of responses, both emotional and theoretically.
The last film that will be subjected to rigorous ecocritical analysis will be Abe Sylvia’s Dirty Girl (2010). This film will be regarded as a special case, because in this film there are two buddies who do not share the same gender, nor do they share the same sexuality. Therefore it becomes an interesting discourse that can be discussed side-by-side, through both perspectives, one Queer ecologist and the other ecofeminist. The film expresses an obvious presence of male dominancy. In both cases, fathers who oppress their families and especially their teenage kids who understandably feel the need to escape their environment.
These three case studies combined form the corpus of this thesis research. In all three films we notice forms of oppression that forces the characters to escape into the wilderness. There, they encounter a sense of self-discovery, meaning that they gain insight and discover capabilities that will only make them stronger. In the end, as in most films the characters have to confront their main issue and to surmount that they will first uncover the key to their solution. A solution that allows them to gain the societal status that they deserve. This will ultimately remedy the present concepts of oppression, inequality and complications away.
The first chapter will focus on building a foundation. The scholarly fields of ecocriticism and the ‘Road Movie’ genre and at times ecofeminism will intertwine. The introductory paragraph will inform about the case study which is Thelma & Louise and it will explicate the notions that
14 will be used for analysis in this chapter. The introduction will also make it clear that the principal research question will be, how do ‘first’, ‘second’ and ‘third space’, ‘sense of place’ and ‘planet’ aid as factors in defining the oppression that they leave behind, the development (changes) that they go through to the liberating insight that they gain, that allows them to shape their response as a sort of solution to oppression. What follows is a discussion in the form of three paragraphs that each investigates one or more scenes parallel to theoretical notions and their own subquestions. The first paragraph will discuss the problem that the protagonists are escaping from. By asking how ‘first’ and ‘second’ place are identifiable as oppressive places in the case of road movie women and in particular in the film Thelma and Louise. In the first case study it is about the oppressions caused by Thelma’s husband, Louise’s ex-boyfriend and an all man’s group of police authorities. Through the notion of space, specifically ‘first’ and ‘second space’ (using terms such as place, global, time and space), this paragraph will research where this oppression comes from, how it is distinguished, recognized and came to shape, and why the protagonist would want to escape it. This notion addresses that one’s home (first space) and one’s job (second space) are places where oppression can occur. The following paragraph asks how a third place propounds a sense of self-discovery to road movie women with an insight about oneself as result. The
paragraph discusses a form of self-discovery in the wilderness, specifically through the notion of a ‘third space’. Meaning a space where one can develop, by gaining insight, skills and realizing their full potential. The last paragraph investigates how a sense of place/planet can employ itself as a solutionary mechanism that helps these women face challenging and oppressive obstacles and problems. This paragraph discusses a form of solution –although it doesn’t have to be considered a legit solution as long as it helps the characters to confront their problem- through the notions of a ‘sense of place’, but also a ‘sense of planet’, as these notions are inextricably connected. They allude to a sense of change, that starts local and because of that allows you to connect with nature and because of that you gain a sense that pertains to globalization. As you can see this chapter has a clear outline similar to that of a film. There is a problem, the characters
15 go on an adventure in which they learn and grow, and finally they confront their problem with any form of solution.
Chapter two builds on chapter one implementing ecofeminism as predominant scholarly field and sometimes intertwining with the scholarly fields of ecocriticism and ‘Road Movie’ genre theory. This chapter will investigate this thesis’s second case study, George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). Which displays an overt display of extreme oppression upon women as this post-apocalyptic world portrays women as literal objects to men. The introduction of this chapter elucidates that the particular research question will be, how do notions of self/other dualism, specifically ‘otherness’, act as an inspiration for a destructive regime that needs to be brought down through a self-realization within the notions of becoming an ‘earth other’ (a concept of ecological selfhood) to liberate ‘others’ through an establishing notion of a ‘global democratic community’. To research this question the first paragraph will examine how self/other dualism (otherness) reasons its justifiability to oppress ‘others’ in the case of road movie women and in particular in the film Mad Max Fury road. This chapter will deconstruct the problem analyzing the main antagonists, men, through the concept of self/other dualism, primarily on the notion of ‘otherness’. In this film women are seen as weak, not fit to fight or rule, and are designated for procreation and sexual pleasures. In the second paragraph the protagonists and her allies go into the wilderness on a journey of their own self-discovery. The research will focus to find out how the protagonistic women went from being an ‘other’ to achieving the status of being an ‘earth other’ through their journey of self-discovery in Mad Max: Fury Road. The investigation, here, will mainly focus on ‘ecological selfhood’, specifically the notion of ‘earth others’. One could say that this is linked to a form of a self-realization. This signifies that ‘others’ need to recognize ‘earth others’ -in particular nature- through respect and harmonization before they can continue to a higher extricating stage. ‘Earth others’ deserve dignity and equality and ‘others’ can forge allies with the ‘earth others’, but also with the one’s that previously saw them as ‘other’ or they can also fight back and fight for their rights. The last paragraph observes how the notion of a
16 ‘global democratic community’ can be the panacea that is used to tear down inequality (in the form of self/other dualism) not only for these ‘Road Movie’ women, but to anyone. This will be done through an analysis of the characters actions towards the male dominated regime that they attempt to bring down, through the notion of a ‘global democratic community’. Meaning that liberation falls upon all subjects from an oppressive regime, which is exactly what the protagonist achieves in this film. This film brings the ongoing discussion in this thesis to its highest level because it is a discussion based on an extreme example of oppression.
In Chapter three all scholarly fields intertwine, Ecofeminism, Ecocriticism and ‘Road Movie’ genre theory with Queer ecology. Queer ecology, will receive a primary status since it regards a special discussion. That of women and persons who are attracted to the same sex, as the main protagonists in Abe Sylvia’s Dirty Girl consist out of one young girl and a young gay man. The investigation here will be done side by side as it will compare, but also relate the two to each other. As they have to overcome similar complications and they both go through a similar self-realization towards their own specific insight. At first, the research question of this chapter will be expounded, which regards to how the notions of self/other dualism, specifically ‘otherness’ and the notion of ‘(un)naturalness’ (based on the polarization of natural versus ‘unnatural’ sexualities), comparatively are similar to each other. And how do the notions of an ‘ecoqueer sensibility’ and ‘biotic community’ serve as a catalyst that precipitates a naturalizing effect to the complication at hand. The first paragraph asks how self/other dualism (otherness and unnaturalness) unjustly causes oppression in the case of road movie women (queers) and in particular in the film Dirty Girl. The situation of the protagonist regards two fathers that do not accept their kids for who they are, but instead demand obedience to their patriarchal views. Next to that, a comparative examination of the young characters will explicate what causes the possibility for them to relate during their self-discovery. Though the young woman, Danielle is considered or treated as an ‘other’, the young gay man, Clarke poses as different to her as well. Thus, Danielle, is positioned as both ‘self’ (the one) and ‘other’, as Clarke is completely an ‘other’ considered to own
17 characteristics that are rendered as ‘unnaturalness’ to most men in their world. In the second paragraph the focus will turn to how is an ecoqueer sensibility gained through the self-discovery of road women (queers) in Dirty girl. The trip that they make through the wilderness allows the characters to bound very well, which is where the notion of an ‘ecoqueer sensibility’ comes in. This means that Danielle gains an insight of both herself and her new best friend. At the same time Clarke gains insight of himself, in regard of his sexuality. The third paragraph will investigate how the notion of a ‘biotic community’ naturalizes the environment that road women (queers) share with their oppressors and their allies. This pertains to a sense of community with all sorts of people. Interconnected with allies, friends, family and the rest of the world, what happens to others affects another. Although we will not discuss it in full, there is a sense of ‘holism’ present in this notion. This chapter will conclude the research that regarded women (lgbtqi persons) and their buddies who all escape from oppression, but seemingly already had the tools in themselves to face their problems and solve them. In the end, it is the aim to inspire an inclination amongst readers to act or further develop academic thought based on the discourse present in this thesis and in the scholarly world.
18
Chapter 1: The Ecocritical Film Genre theory of the ‘Road movie’
Case study: 1, Thelma & Louise (1991), theoretically an Ecocritical Film Genre?
Road genre theorists Ina Rae Hark and Steven Cohan mention in their publication The Road Movie Book (1997) that Ridley Scott’s film Thelma & Louise (1991),”marked an important turning point in the popular and academic reception of the road film” (Cohan & Hark 1997, 10). They state this, not only because the story regards a buddy film about two women from Arkansas who shoot a rapist and cause disastrous violence on their road trip while attempting to flee the country. In which they realize a temporary liberation from their oppressive, dissatisfying normalities at home, but also because it overturned the masculine bias that the road film enjoys. The critical
controversy that surrounds the film testifies to the film’s “impact in recodifying the genre…in identifying the genre’s complex history…and in generating a backlash to its feminist
appropriation of the masculinist road fantasy” (Cohan & Hark 1997, 11). Meaning that, the fact that it caused much discussion is a consequence of this entirely new and original approach of a genre that generally has not been about women. It also testifies to the fact that this change has been sought by many people for a long time throughout this genre’s history. Patrick Brereton, similarly expresses that the film is “a feminist reworking of a male genre” (Brereton 2005, 110). This confirms an same-minded alignment about the fact that this genre has been criticized for its biasxv and it has finally gone head over heels.
Brereton has posited many notions in his ecocritical analysis of the ‘Road Movie’ genre in the third chapter of Hollywood Utopia: Ecology in Contemporary American Cinema, such as notions of space, wilderness and self-discovery. These lead to the following earlier indicated specific notions.
Thus pure representation of idyllic nature and the creation of a ‘Third space’ also provides a powerful link which feeds off the roots of American transcendentalism, using the metaphoric potency of the sublime as a motor for the primary utopian impulse which needs an awesome natural eco-space for its fulfillment (Brereton 2005, 115).
19 Brereton explicates that ‘third space’ is set in nature in its wilderness as an area for development or change with utopic creation as result. This brings up the question to what the first and second spaces would be. In regard of the characters in the ensuing filmic texts, if the ‘third space’ is outside of civilization -this must sound dualistic, but not intended to be, it is only in regard of already established notions in this film- the first and the second would most likely be inside of civilization. The characters mostly reside at home or at work. ‘Home’ would be their ‘first’ and ‘work’ (Louise works) would be their ‘second space’ (Thelma is a housewive so her second space is also at home).
Brereton also talks about notions of space in his publication, which is presented as a broad field that involves words and terms such, time, space, place, local and global. These notional words are brought up, because in his discussion he explicates that a place, space or an area shares a different definition or situation in every age and part of the world. For example life for women was much more limited in the 50’s versus the 90’s and life for women who live in Iraq or India can still be different than life in Los Angeles, California. And at the same time life for women on the American country side –in the south or Mid-West- can be different compared to life in New York.
Cultural theorist Ursula Heise introduces us to the notion of ‘sense of place’, but also with ‘sense of planet’. In her publication Sense of Place and Sense of Planet (2008) she explains that the United States finally “invested much of its utopian capital into a return to the local and a celebration of a ‘sense of place” (2008), which leads to belief that a ‘sense of place’ celebrates a starting point, which is local. With as outset to create a ‘utopic’ place that is improved in many worldly aspects. Heise also posits a ‘sense of planet’ which grows forth from a ‘sense of place’, with that she means that “environmentalism needs to foster an understanding of how a wide variety of both natural and cultural places and processes are connected and shape each other around the world, and how human impact affects and changes this connectedness… [in] such a
20 ‘sense of planet” (Heise 2008, 21). Thus, we are to understand that a ‘sense of place’ is a starting point from which a change begins that can have a global effect that brings us to a ‘sense of planet’. This reminds of a phrase that has been attributed to social activist Patrick Geddes, “think globally, act locally”, which translates to changing the world starts when you begin with yourself in your own local (place). Interestingly so, she mentions that a ‘sense of planet’ analyses the notion of “deterritorialization”,xvi which will not be a focused part of this thesis, but it is important to understand in this discussion that a ‘sense of planet’ should lead to a
deterritorialization of the planet, because borders and territories obstruct this ‘sense of planet’, because the actions that develop a better world cannot be done when you’re limited in world cooperation.
This chapter argues that ‘first’ and ‘second space’ are the notions for spaces that advocate oppression and that ‘third space’, is situated in the wilderness as space for self-development that gains them a liberating insight which overturns into an notional ‘sense of place/planet’ that shapes their response as a sort of solution against oppression. ‘First’ and ‘second space’ need to be indentified through the investigation of the kinds of oppressions that fit the description of these notions. After that it becomes of importance to discover how a ‘third space’ propounds a sense of self-discovery and how any insight is gained and what it is. Lastly, it is necessary to find out how the characters get to a sense of place/planet and how it can employ itself as a solutionary mechanism that helps Thelma and Louise face their oppressive obstacles
Space: The Female gender oppressed.
Thelma & Louise displays how locations (spaces) play a role in gender oppression. Brereton addresses the ‘notions of space’ and refers to Grossberg who states, “Space has become the new metaphor for the same old historical processes and ideological struggles, with the local apparently equated with place and the global with space” (Grossberg in Chambers et al. 1996: 174). The ‘notion of space’ can be understood as historical processes –so this also includes ‘time’– and
21 ideological struggles experienced either in a ‘space’ or ‘place’, depending on when and where you are, in what setting and in regard of wealth, race, class, sexuality and gender.
Three keywords are interconnected with the ‘notion of space’, these are ‘space’, ‘place’ and ‘time’. These keywords are significant, because that is what will define the sorts and forms of abuse against women and where it comes from. The ‘ghetto’ space, the city space (downtown and uptown) and suburban space are places and spaces that at a certain time in history are associated with manifestations of inequality, acceptance, abuse, civil rights movements and discrimination. Just as whites and non-whites, higher class and lower class, hetero and non-hetero people have their own spaces. Men and women also have their own spaces where they are safe or threatened. Think of places such as bars, clubs, societies, a particular street or a neighborhood. It is therefore the aim to identify these safe and threatening spaces, as our focal point will be on women in spaces dominated by men.
In the following scenes it is important to examine how they thoroughly convey this ‘notion of space’ in regard of women. The first exemplary scene takes place in the beginning of the film. It is morning and while Louise is working as a waitress at a diner, Thelma is cleaning the table after she and her husband apparently had breakfast. Louise calls Thelma attempting to discuss their trip, but Thelma hasn’t had the guts to tell her husband about the trip. “Is he your husband or your father?,” posits Louise, indicating that Thelma as a totally sedate and
domesticated housewive has a dilemma going on in her relationship. Thelma hangs up and ‘hollers’ at her husband Darryl. When Darryl, noticeably irritated, walks into the kitchen, he authoritatively expresses, accompanied with a cursing word, that she should not ‘holler’ at him. Thelma apologetically tones down and assists him by putting his watch around his wrist. She then apologizes. At Thelma’s ‘place’ her husband has a reign of control over her. This is a well-known form of oppression against women. This film is displaying reality, as it was in the 90’s (and sometimes still is today). Women have been delegated by men to take on the task of housewive through most of human history. So much to the point that the term ‘housewive’ is a natural given
22 in our language, and the term ‘househusband’ or ‘houseman’ does not really exist. Eventhough it has been changing in the past decades. This is when ‘place’, ‘space’ and ‘time’ come in. The ‘place’ is Thelma’s household, in a suburb in Arkansas, the ‘time’ is the early 90’s when housewives were still very common and ‘space’ would be on a global level, that things do not traditionally change that fast in rural, suburban, conservative and in not so densely populated areas. This happens to be the fact in most parts of the world. Then again, the situation conveyed here is very American Mid-West and particular to the the 90’s. J. Nicholas Entrikin, a theorist and scholar states the following in his book The Betweenness of Place: Towards a Geography of Modernity (1991):
Place presents itself to us as a condition of human experience. As agents in the world we are always ‘in place’, much as we are always ‘in culture’. For this reason our relation to place and culture become elements in the construction of our individual and
collective identities (Entrikin 1991: 1).
With this he means to say that ‘place’ and ‘culture’ are connected and influence each other. Which is why in certain cultures it is accepted to treat a woman as a housewive and the housewive accepts it as well. As does Thelma, she accepts it, but luckily in this film she will dismiss this cultural construction that derived from her ‘place’, ‘space’ and ‘time’.
Another theme in the film is sexual abuse. Not only is there a scene where Harlan rapes Thelma. There are also indications that Louise has experienced rape before. The film is very subtle about it through Louise’s dialogue, but it is easy to fill in the blanks. Louise has been raped in the state of Texas. That is why she refuses to drive through that state and now they have to go all around the state of Texas to get to the Mexican border. This clarifies why she does not trust men and she does her best to avoid them. This could also explain why Louise shot Harlan after she had already saved Thelma and after having enough of his insults. This distrust comes from an even deeper space. The fact that she was raped probably was not taken serious by the authorities
23 or any man for that matter. A common thought amongst conservatives in the USA is that women probably provoked being raped or that there was consent and they often do not take rape cases serious. What they do is wrong and situations like these need to be taken serious. These facts exemplify that this could happen to women at any deserted place at night out in a deserted area urban or along side of the road.
Interestingly, Delia Falconer writes how “this new sense of space, represented by the road, represents a threat to the settlement values of a dominant white car-centered ‘lifestyle” (Falconer in Cohan, Hark et al. 1997, 257). Falconer refers to the road film containing a spatial organization that accomodates characterizations that realistically address undesirable
circumstances such as men raping women. In essence this is the kind of space where a
protagonist is to “experience the vulnerability of bodies and cars to outside . . . forces” (Falconer in Cohan, Hark et al. 1997, 257). Theorist Gillian Rose on her turn in Feminism and Geography (1993) asserts that she wants: “to explore the possibility of a space which does not replicate the exclusions of the same and the other . . . feminism through its awareness of the politics of the everyday, has always had a very keen awareness of the intersection of Space and Power” (Rose 1993, 137). In the respect of women she declares that ‘space’ and ‘power’ intersect each other in that they exclude and divide gender, race and class. Thus, space is used as an environmental system that oppresses.
These scenes epitomize that ‘first’ and ‘second’ places are environments that cogently represent oppression to women such as Thelma and Louise. A controlling husband, an unpleasant marriage, rape and a distrust in men moved this women to leave these repugnant situations. They embark on their road trip that will lead them to nature where they do not know what they will encounter. At least they can be assured that they will not run into the same oppressive problems that they have at home and at work, their first and second places.
24 The Ecocritical construction: self-discovery in the ‘Third Place.
It is commonly known that a ‘Road Movie’ involves a form of self-discovery, but in regard of the ‘first’ and ‘second’ places that were posited in the previous paragraph, the wilderness that the characters travel through in Thelma & Louise would be considered as a ‘third place’. Brereton defines the ‘Road Movie’ genre as a foregrounded travel adventure “across the continent involving a journey of self-discovery” (Brereton 2005, 101). This means that the protagonists travel outside of the urban landscape, discovering a new insight that provides them with self-fullfillment. Insight which they could not get in their ‘first’ place (home) and their ‘second’ place (work), but which they can gain in Brereton’s ‘third space’. The places in their hometown provided them with oppression, stagnation and no new form of self-development.
The self-discovery in Thelma & Louise’s ‘third space’ comes early on to the fore when the protagonists decided to go away for a weekend without informing Thelma’s husband Darryl of it. This could be considered as part of their rebellion against male domination, which is a paramount aspect that they explore throughout the film. As the film progresses, we slowly but surely see less of urban space within the film shots and more wilderness. This change of scenery – from urban to nature- could be seen as some kind of barometer. It is a cinematic language told through the shots. It tells us how far they have immersed into nature and how far their change has gone. Throughout the film Thelma seems to be the one who grows the most, because Louise seems to be at a point where she already discovered that she needs to be freed from the domination by men. “The protagonists move from the supposedly female space of domesticity and home to the freedom of ‘male’ space that is the great outdoors” (Brereton 2005, 111). What does happen is that Louise leads their adventure. She decides not to trust in the system and attempts to leave the country after she shot Harlan (Timothy Carhart) who raped Thelma at a Country music bar parking lot. Louise’s actions confirm that “the road is about escape and freedom and a questioning attitude to such dominant social values” (Brereton 2005, 112).
25 Later on in the film, Louise assesses her relationship with Jimmy Lennox (Michael
Madsen) and takes a stand, because she does not want to marry him and she feels that they should not be together. Something she had avoided before. She also realizes that she has weaknesses, like she cannot always control the situations. Interestingly Thelma goes from obedient housewife to husband despising outlaw, “Thelma discovers that she is more adept at being an outlaw than a housewife” (Cohan, Hark et al. 1997, 10). She becomes sexually liberated as she has intercourse with a young guy, J.D. (Brad Pitt), who is not her husband and whom she hardly knows. She robs a convenient store, holds up a gun against an officer and locks him up in his police car’s backtrunk. She toughned up, started to express authority in comparison to the beginning of the film where she was portrayed as flirty, not that smart and easy to manipulate. This form of ‘third place’ self-discovery occurs, because, that is what happens when you are on your own travelling with just one other person in confined solitude, in the middle of their ‘third space’. Far away from the urban landscapes, free from housewifery and her controlling husband. They got endless seas of time to think, to get to know their limits (in extreme situations), which makes the possibility of self-discovery self-evident. Road movie theorist Julian Stringer states that “the myths of escape and self-discovery are chimerical” (Stringer in Cohan et al.1997, 165). Which exemplifies of the relevance of these notions and the concern of the need of something like a ‘mythical creature’, as a chimera demonstrates to be, but in this case a need of something untouchable such as new and higher insight of one’s own character.
Next to that the genre suggests a “favor for outlaws over lawmen” (Brereton 2005, 101). Thelma and Louise are these romanticised outlawed women with a defiance against societal restrictions and oppressions, in particular men. Even though the law is also in effect on the road and in non-urban places like the ‘wilderness’. It all does not matter in nature and in the
‘wilderness’ everything is possible. As it appears to be a spacious expanse where nobody will see and judge you. It does not mean that everything that could happen there is ethical, but that has to do with the urges that people get in nature. Brereton mentions nature to be a place for
26 “narcissistic self-fulfilment or, . . . , a site of paranoia or even destruction with regard to
everything that curtails male desire” (Brereton 2005, 105). Remarkably, Brereton seems to equate these nagtive possibilities with masculinity. Then again, you could say that nature reveals a person’s true colors, not because of nature, but because of a person’s individual being. Thelma and Louise essentially abused nature like men have done before, because the experience only helped them to escape their oppression and they did not do anything for nature’s well-being. Their utilization of gasoline, their car’s exhaustion and a gasoline truck that they made explodes emmiting gases and smoke. This cannot be considered beneficial for the environment. People, on the road, are not confined by the roles that they had or have at home. Eventually “the road defines the space” (Cohan 1997, 1). Thus, a housewive can finally take matters in her own hands, free herself and rebel and escape a patriarchal life, but it does not mean that they are perfect.
All and all, Thelma & Louise puts forward that nature’s wilderness as a ‘third place’ provides growth. Because the second act of this film -where most of their self-discovery takes place- verifies that the ‘third place’ allowed them to escape the skewed view forced upon them by society and change their attitudes and thoughts towards the oppression that made them unhappy. More importantly ‘third place’ made them contemplate their lives and develop new skills, but it also allowed them to grow their own individuality and it taught them what total freedom is. The car played a major role in that, as it is a “conventional symbol of pleasure and escape” (Brereton 2005, 115). It gave them the opportunity to enjoy a freedom that they have not known before. Freedom is an agent that stimulates individuality, but also self-confidence. Within a well-focused close-up shot you can feel the ‘air’ of self-confidence when Thelma and Louise drive off, comfortable, self-assured holding their chins up with often a beautifully blurred green landscape scenery as background. A car creates immense power and it showed as the film progresses. All these changes were inspired by the ‘third space’, and happened as well as for the better as for the worse.
27 Sense of place/planet interrogates male myths about women.
Towards the end of Thelma & Louise a ‘new myth’ about women has been created. Both women developed new skills out in the wilderness, their ‘third space’. The fact that two women have taken the place of male buddies in a genre that is ussually dominated by men, causes the occurrence of “an interrogation of male myths about female[s]”, about their gender in general (Brereton 2005, 110). ‘Male myths’ regard that women, in particular in film, are submissive, gentle, and not on the foreground, while men are foregrounded, exploring and challenging nature using their ‘masculinity powers’. In the ‘Road Movie’ genre “cars (or bikes) and guns are
traditional symbols of power and bound up with images of the masculine” (Brereton2004, 110). Thelma and Louise discredited all these so-called ‘male myths’ without necessarily conveying masculinity. Thelma and Louise have become “frontiersman [better said ‘frontierswomen’], wanting to go where no other man has gone before” (Brereton 2005, 102) as they attempt to escape the authorities. The skills and the insight, which are results form their self-development, advance them to a new stage, Heise’s ‘sense of place/planet’. Heise elucidates in her publication that a ‘sense of place’ estimates a starting point within humanity or a person that is local.
Principly an operation to make things better or utopic as stated in the introduction of this chapter. To elucidate on the local she states “[L]ocalization can strengthen that sense of place…An understanding of local surroundings permits many people to gain awareness of the ecosystem services upon which their lives depend” (Ehrlich 2004, 324–25). This leads to belief that to be able to better things one must have gained an awereness of one’s surroundings. So you could say that such a person needs to observe his/her surroundings from a distance, gain a particular insight about the systems in these surroundings. This is in order to survive and to fight back, which could solve these issues.
In the second part of act two about ten minutes from the midpoint, Thelma and Louise encounter a guy who drives a truck. The guy urges with the use of hand gestures that they may pass him since his truck with its slower pace is in their way. Very gallant, one would think. As
28 they pass him, they first notice a sign that is shown close-up within the film frame, of a chrome image of a bigbrested lady next to his license plate. When they drive next to his window, trying to thank him, he waves and then begins to stick out his tongue and moves it around in a very sexual manner. It is a disrespectful gesture that displays how he thinks of women, as sexual objects that you can only communicate with in a sexual way. The second time when they meet, it is night. In a series of confronting close-up shots we see the same guy who honks his horn at Thelma and Louise, he loudly utters vulgar words and obscene jokes, rubs his crotch area as he displays wild sexual movements. The third time they all meet up at a field, ask him to apologize, but he keeps demanding sex. This is where Their ‘sense of place’ comes in. At the film’s beginning they would have tolerated this and most likely have thought “oh they’re just men”, as if it is normal, but know they face their issues. As punishment they shoot at the gasoline container on the truck. The truck explodes and he lost his ride. Living on the road as a truck driver, all alone, from time to time hanging with the wrong people, copying their behavior, caused this man to belief that his behavior is either normal or acceptable. It is these circumstances that have created a culture of demeaning attitudes against women, which started a long time ago. Again ‘place’, ‘space’ and ‘time’ play a major role here, but luckily these characters learned that they do not have to accept this any longer.
Once you’ve reached that ‘sense of place’ we need to move forward to a ‘sense of planet’. Heise says that, “the challenge for environmentalist thinking, then, is to shift the core of its cultural imagination from a sense of place to a less territorial and more systemic sense of planet (Heise 2008, 56). Meaning something special that surpasses our local improvements and that constitutes of a change that is worldwide. In the last scene of the film, where Thelma and Louise are closed in by a dozen police cars and their only escape route appears to be driving of the edge of the Grand Canyon into oblivion. As friends they have always been ‘touchy’, but at the end of the film they intimately kiss each other on the lips and as they drive off the cliff they tightly hold their hands together. It is a well-known fact that they are heterosexual, but this just means that
29 they are just two affectionate buddies who are totally comfortable with their own sexuality. What is important to notice is that they are fine with death and they belief that this decision is the ultimate, maybe otherworldly way to face and confront their major issue, men. The statement that can be acquired from this is that men cannot win by getting them behind bars, which could determine to men that they are righteous within their acts against these so-called rebellious women. In The Road Movie Book, Ian Leong, Mike Sell, and Kelly Thomas discuss Joseph H. Lewis’s film Gun Crazy (1950) which is about two honeymooners who end up short of cash after their honeymoon trip and decide to embark unto a career of crime. As they describe Laurie’s (Peggy Cummins) and Bart’s (John Dall) ‘guntoting’ sexuality it is revealed that “they’re
honeymooners who don’t want the honeymoon to end” (Leong, Sell and Thomas in Cohan et al. 1997, 74). The same is evoked in Thelma & Louise. They do not want their adventure to end and they certainly won’t surrender. The only way to continue is in death, like marters.
Thelma and Louise’s may not have achieved the kind of ‘sense of place’ or ‘planet’ ecologically. Since their relationship with the surrounding wilderness was not personal. Only in the end of the film they ever mention how beautiful the Grand Canyon is. They did succeed at proving men that they can achieve the same and still teach men a lesson. Next to that they surpassed men, as they proved to be ungraspable to the authorities. They ultimately achieved a ‘sense of planet’ through suicide. Suicide is not a good thing, but cinematically it was presented as a beautiful and powerful option. As a wide shot that captures on the background a prepossessing sight of the Grand Canyon, we see Thelma and Louise driving off a cliff, slowly flying through the air, eternalized as the screen fades to white. Thelma and Louise came to a point where they would rather die and be free, then captured and locked up. Although, it might seem like death is their punishment for their rebellious femininity, from their viewpoint it could be that they considered this as dying for a good preternatural cause that exemplifies of their ‘sense of planet’.
30 Thelma’s and Louise’s conclusion.
This meticulous investigation provided a closer look at the environment and processes that the main characters traversed through. Analyzing the first act of Thelma & Louise brought their main oppression to the fore. Their particular ‘first’ and ‘second’ spaces cogently appeared to be problematic areas, because the environment that they live in is one where men are in control in combination with abuse and maltreatments. As spaces seem to define the configurations of law, societal standards, rules, regulation and in particular forms of abuse, disrespect and oppression. This opens the probabilities of public discourse, discussing subjects such as, wife abuse, rape and self-defense by women. It is understandable that they initially wanted to take a break from their daily life and have some girl-time, but after they shot Harlan they knew that the only way to escape was leaving the two familiar spaces that they live in behind to an unknown environment – Wilderness- which functions as their ‘third space’. Brereton states, “The seeds of ecological growth and awareness . . . have been most clearly articulated within the conventional constraints of this ‘philosophical’ genre” (Brereton 2005, 102). Meaning that the immense probability that the ‘wilderness’ in the ‘Road Movie’ genre offers, nourishes ecocritical thought and notions to the extent that it has become a territorial environment for philosophical, theoretical debate and exploration.
In the second act “[t]he protagonists move from the supposedly female space of
domesticity and home to the freedom of ‘male’ space that is the great outdoors” (Brereton 2005, 111). Spaces that generally are not considered to be a female space can serve the same function as it does for men, but now also for women. Then again, it can be ascertained that all spaces can have a form of oppression. Subjection, abuse and disrespect can still occur in such liberating ‘third’ spaces, because there is nobody who can stop them. It is everyone for themselves. The self-discovery that the ‘third space’ propounds became noticeable throughout the second act of the film. Thelma and Louise became two totally different, but stronger women, especially in comparison with their character in the beginning. “The movement of the car itself became a
31 symbol of hope” (Brereton 2005, 104) for them as it helped them to escape quickly and stay ahead. The car totally embodies escapism, it serves as “this ‘ride into nature’ as a metaphor for the escape from urban oppression into the ‘freedom’ of self-discovery” (Ryan et al. 1988: 23). In their self-discovey they gained a new insight about themselves. That they are equal to men and that they do not have to put up with oppression and that they can fight back.
Their new insight takes form in a ‘sense of place’ and ‘planet’, which refers to the fact that they start to take action in the third act and fight back, locally (sense of place) on the road against men that do not respect them. They eventually give their lives not because they do not want to live anymore, but they just do not want to surrender and let men win. It is essentially a statement, which moves their formidable cause to a higher sphere that is worth to die for. This film’s
mission seems to regard the desire to display real women from normal daily life who can escape society, challenge the male exertion of authority by liberating themselves from patriarchal constraints that human societies have created.
In essence, it is has been veritably established that ‘first’, ‘second’places are indeed oppressive territories for women and that a ‘third space’, gives them the same -just like men- opportunity for self-development to rethink life and look at their problems from an outside perspective which helps them to get to a ‘sense of place’ and ‘planet’, which presents the chance to fight back and solve their problems, not just for themselves, but for the sake of all women as they do not surrender to men even if it costs them their lives. Why? Because they are fighting for a cause greater than themselves, this might shock a man’s world and evoke change.
32
Chapter 2: Eco-feminism: A Contradictory Discourse
Case study: 2, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) an Ecofeminist film
Looking at the first three Mad Max films in which Mel Gibson starred as a macho character who rescues women from rape and other atrocities, which is quite patronizing towards women. This makes it seem that only men can rescue women and not women themselves, but that shifted with the fourth and newest film Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), a post-apocalyptic action film by George Miller. The main protagonists are survivalist Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy), and sole female lieutenant, Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron). Mad Max: Fury Road could also be regarded as “a feminist reworking of a male genre” (Brereton 2005, 110), because here too, women have had enough of patriarchal rule. Mad Max: Fury Road is a follow up of an already established road film trilogy (the Mad Max movies) that shows men ruling the world and with a man as protagonist. Although Mad Max: Fury Road takes place in that same wiorld, it marks a change since it presents a woman in the lead now. Within George Miller’s oeuvre, the Mad Max films, visibly demonstrate an environmentally unstable world.xvii A world struck by nuclear fall out. Mad Max: Fury Road addresses this environmentally unstable situation and gender inequality that takes form in
patriarchal oppression, which presents a ‘fertile’ field for feminist and ecological discussion. With all the ideas and arguments presented, here above, I find it reason enough to propose Mad Max: Fury Road as a case study for ecocritical analysis.
Theoretically, Ecofeminism is the most appropriate way to approach this film, because the world in it displays a post-apocalyptic and ecologically destroyed world where women are suppressed, but also because the main protagonist Imperator Furiosa seems to be an unconscious ecofeminist herself. Ecofeminism has its origins in radical feminism. As feminist theorist Robin Morgan mentions in her essay Light Bulbs, Radishes, and the Politics of the 21st Century we should understand the word “radical” as “going to the root” (Morgan 1996, 5), because ecofeminists are looking for the fundamental causes of humanity’s present direction towards a relentless ecological downfall. Although ecofeminists may disagree on their approaches and focuses, most
