Viewing Poor Things Through the Eyes of the Feminist Canon

This paper explores the relationship between the film Poor Things directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, the original novel by Alisdair Gray, and the views of the feminist canon. The film has been both praised as a feminist manifesto and condemned as perpetuating the male gaze in cinema. However, viewing the film through the lens of the feminist canon will show that Poor Things is a revolutionary vision of feminism, autonomy, and power explored through film. Viewers of Poor Things see the annihilation of sexual modesty in favor of the erotic, the powerful, and the free. Analyzing this film, as well as Gray’s novel, through the lens of the feminist canon allows for a modern interpretation of social and cultural matters which theorists such as Simone de Beauvoir, Adrienne Rich, Judith Butler, and Audre Lorde have long advocated. By inserting a modern perspective on the issues of gender expectations and female empowerment within a fantastical Victorian Era, the filmmakers create a world which questions what actual changes have occurred regarding gender equality and power dynamics and how many ideals of the feminist canon have yet to be realized. This reimagination of Gray’s novel calls on its viewers to examine the conditions of women today and understand how oppressive patriarchal norms still act as a barrier to women’s complete sovereignty over their own bodies and desires.