Female directors in Hollywood are reshaping film narratives through the female gaze, but the industry remains resistant to change, molded by patriarchal norms that continue to hinder true progress.
In genres like horror and thriller, female filmmakers have transformed portrayals of female rage and body horror, empowering viewers by dismantling victimhood tropes. Despite progress, many audiences—particularly men—still misinterpret or oversimplify these portrayals, leaving us divided on whether depictions of female sexuality challenge stereotypes or perpetuate objectification.
The Substance (2024) and Anora (2024) stand out as contrasting yet significant reclamations of power and sharp social commentaries on the destructive rhetorics embedded in society.
Since its release in September, The Substance has shaken audiences, leaving the Internet torn on how to view it. Some focus on the sexualization of Margaret Qualley’s character, interpreting the film as a commentary on how appearances dictate success. Meanwhile, Anora has sparked discussions not about its themes but its numerous nude and sexual scenes. Both films use the female body to critique the horrors of the male gaze, albeit in markedly different ways.
From a directorial and gaze-creating standpoint, both films feature considerable nudity, with long close-ups of female bodies. Yet, there’s a striking difference between them—Anora, directed by a man, presents the female body as more sexualized and glamorized, whereas in The Substance, directed by Coralie Fargeat, the female body is allowed to exist without sexualization—simply as a body.
This is how I interpret it; however, many men, or viewers in general, still seem to sexualize it. Perhaps the world isn’t ready for this barrier-breaking shift in how we view the female form.
The reception of these films highlights their layered social commentary. The Substance uses gory body horror. However, I found those moments to be less terrifying than the disturbingly crafted scenes of Dennis Quaid devouring shrimp or forcing the protagonist to smile. As a film major, I’m impressed by how Fargeat manipulates camera work, sound, and angles to critique the male gaze.
While some feel Anora misrepresents female sexualization and sex workers, I believe its glamourized, Pretty Woman-esque romantic-comedy approach to draw in the audience, only to sharply shift to the harsh realities, followed by Anora’s vengeance, offer a powerful message of resilience. While it was important to set up the narrative this way to create a stark contrast when the story flips, a film about the female experience can never fully resonate when directed by a man.
Both The Substance and Anora feature female leads and subvert expectations around the male and female gaze, but The Substance uniquely manipulates the male gaze as a form of subversion—something I believe could only be authentically achieved through a female perspective.
I see these developments in the film industry not just as a victory for gender equality, but as an opportunity to challenge the very structure of storytelling in cinema—to question whose voices have been dominant, and to explore how these new narratives reshape our cultural understanding of power, identity, and the body.
Cassidy is a third-year Media and Performance Production student and The Journal’s Senior Video Editor.
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