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Women In Catherine Breillat's Movies

1244 Words5 Pages

Society’s Expectations of Women One theme that seems consistent in Catherine Breillat’s films thus far is rape. In the film Romance, the protagonist, Marie is sexually frustrated. Marie’s partner, Paul, refuses to have sex with her and in an attempt to fulfill her sexual needs, Marie has several affairs with men, including her boss and a random man who solicited her on the street (Romance). As Simone de Beauvoir suggests, sex in virtually every setting is rape because the penis is invading a woman’s private space, with which a woman has little control and lacks choice and autonomy (Beauvoir). Men possess significant power and women lack control and power in our patriarchal society, so women cannot possibly consent to sex under their own free …show more content…

However, as we saw in A Real Young Girl, a man enjoys the chase of acquiring a woman to fulfill his sexual desires, but once he obtains her, most of his interest dissipates (A Real Young Girl). This seems to have happened between Marie and her boyfriend Paul. The fact that Marie is so promiscuous is also interesting because Marie seems to have a very pessimistic view of sex as she states, “I am just a pussy to be stuff” and “I don’t like the guys that screw me, I hate them” (Romance). In many ways, Marie states that she feels like a piece of meat, used to feed men’s desires (Romance). Therefore, if Marie has such pessimistic views of her sexual relationships and the role she plays in them, then why is she so promiscuous? Many critics hail that Marie was promiscuous to fulfill her sexual appetite, but if she felt so pessimistic and disappoint about her sexual experiences in her life, why would she continue to seek out other sexual adventures that also are not necessarily positive experiences? As Lauren Berlant writes in her paper, Cruel Optimism, women justify their existence based on ignoring the bad and continually hoping/expecting better and more fulfilling experiences (Berlant). As Beauvoir describes, women are comfortable putting themselves in this position because they make justification, such as expecting something bad to be better the next time (Beauvoir). Beauvoir further reinforces this statement as she

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