Where Are the Women? Room

BASIC REPRESENTATION SCORE: +10

FEMALE AGENCY/POWER/AUTHORITY SCORE: +6

THE MALE GAZE SCORE: 0

[no issues]

GENDER/SEXUALITY SCORE: 0

WILDCARD SCORE: +5

Is there anything either positive or negative in the film’s representation of women not already accounted for here? (points will vary)

While most movies that feature women as mothers do not actually explore issues of motherhood as they affect women — its ups and downs, its rewards and its stings — this one does, and in the case of the female coprotagonist, without ever reducing her life to being defined solely by motherhood. The film also examines how a woman survives a horrendously abusive situation that, in another film, would reduce her to a mere “victim.”

TOTAL SCORE: +21

IS THE FILM’S DIRECTOR FEMALE? No (does not impact scoring)

IS THE FILM’S SCREENWRITER FEMALE? Yes (Emma Donoghue) (does not impact scoring)

BOTTOM LINE: Though it casts its female coprotagonist in roles that are “traditional” for women onscreen — as a mother and as a target for male hatred — the film is very much about the strong inner resources she marshals in order to not only survive but to retain her humanity in the face of someone who would take it from her. This is a great example of how a movie with a male protagonist can still represent women in a powerful way as fully human people.