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An Exploration Of How Feminism Is Portrayed in Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s ‘Killing Eve’

An Exploration Of How Feminism Is Portrayed in Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s ‘Killing Eve’

I believe feminism is a key theory heavily denoted in TV show Killing Eve, not only by the characters but occurring in the genre and storyline itself. I aim to explore these themes within this essay and reveal any other relevant theories applicable too, as I feel there are a few different theories or aspects connoted in this media text.

The thriller/ comedy genre series follows Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), a British intelligence investigator tasked with capturing psychopathic assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer).

Killing Eve’s series 1 showrunner, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, is best known for her hit series Fleabag & Crashing which she both wrote & stared in. Most of her previous work contains feminist themes, denoting the female characters as strong and represented as equal compared to the male characters, while questioning gender roles and what it means to be a feminist. She is quoted saying “…As women, we get the message about how to be a good girl — how to be a good, pretty girl — from such an early age. Then, at the same time, we’re told that well-behaved girls won’t change the world or ever make a splash. So it’s sort of like, well, what the fuck am I supposed to be? I’m supposed to be a really polite revolutionary?” — Aitkenhead, D. (2017). Phoebe Waller-Bridge: the Guardian.

Waller-Bridge’s own interest around assassins and murder actually fueled her inspiration for writing the show, based on the books by Luke Jennings. “I fell into a Google hole around female assassins” — Phoebe Waller-Bridge Nytimes.com. (2019). The Wild Inspirations for ‘Killing Eve’. She also turned to ‘My Favorite Murder’, an all-female true-crime podcast, for understanding Eve’s growing fascination with murder.

Throughout the female-led dual narrative, both the protagonist and antagonist are represented as strong, independent and successful women in their own careers, actions and lives- although they couldn’t be more opposite. Eve & Villanelle are drawn towards each other, offering an interesting juxtaposition of personalities to intrigue the audience. The representation of women within this story goes against the stereotypical portrayal of women in media, providing a much stronger, equal and even dangerous depiction. I think the creators of this show intended to showcase that there isn’t just one kind of woman in society- which is usually stereotyped as a sexual object seen through the male gaze. Laura Mulvey theorised the voyeuristic approach to film denoting that women are seen as sexual objects through the eyes of a male perspective. “The spectator thus takes on the role of the male voyeur who imitates the voyeurism of the camera and the male actor within the film. This gaze causes the woman to be fetishised as a passive object to be looked at, while the man is the active subject who looks at the woman.” — Wan Yahya, Wan Roselezam, Abd Rahman, Emily and Zainal, Zainor Izat (2010) ‘Male Gaze, Pornography and the Fetishised Female’

However, I don’t believe the male gaze is prominently featured in Killing Eve itself, I think the oppositional female gaze takes it’s place instead. The female gaze takes on the point of view of a female perspective, forcing the audience to see the narrative through female eyes, rather than the usual objectifying male gaze. I can see the female gaze being used by both villanelle & Eve within this story as they are shown to be attracted to each other, not just through physical appearance or sexuality but also emotionally and intellectually. I think villanelle takes on a masculine approach to the female gaze, maybe paying homage to the male gaze, as she is seeing Eve in more of a scopophilic way- taking pleasure in watching Eve. We are then subjected to Eve’s viewpoint, providing a much more analytical, emotional & intellectual attraction. “It’s emotional and intimate. It sees people as people. It seeks to empathize rather than to objectify” — Telfer, T. (2018). How Do We Define the Female Gaze in 2018? Within this genre, I believe Villanelle represents an alternative to the typical femme fatale we are used to seeing. Femme Fatale’s have been a notable part of film history, creating the ideology that women can be dangerous and use their sexuality to get what they want- usually in an empowering way rather than being objectified. “When you think of a female assassin, you always think of the femme fatale, or overtly sexual, always using their sexuality to gain something or further themselves,” Comer tells Bustle. “Whereas I thought Villanelle had a lot of humanity and wit, and she was just really good at her job. I felt there was a lot more depth to her than what we see. She’s so quirky and she has a very particular sense of humour.” — Jodie Comer. Bustle. (2018). This TV Show Is Turning The Sexist Femme Fatale Stereotype On Its Head.

Despite the female gaze being a very noticeable theme within this media text, I have found the characters tend to use the male gaze to their own advantage and personal gain from an empowering and feminist standpoint, reaffirming their femme fatale attitudes. An example of this is when Eve agrees to go on a romantic date with a member of the Chinese government to seduce him and extract some important information about a suspicious death of a Chinese colonel she believes may be linked to Villanelle. There are also many instances where villanelle does a similar tactic to manipulate her victims or people for her own personal gain. This isn’t how audiences are used to seeing the male gaze on-screen. Instead of the male gaze denoting the males to be in power and control of the narrative, the females are. This allows us to question gender roles within in media and explore feminism in a different light, connoting that woman can use their sexuality to get what they want and be an empowered femme fatal rather than be a sexualised object there to satisfy the audiences need for the male gaze, as the uses and gratification theory would suggest.

Screenshot 2019-11-23 at 15.09.41.png

Male characters within this show are often portrayed as passive, like Eve’s husband Nico who hardly has any impact on the storyline- except playing the part of a nagging husband, instead of the expected nagging wife. I think this is done on purpose to emphasise how important the female roles are for this storyline. Many of the male characters in the first few episodes are represented as sexist towards Eve for her position of power in her career- I believe the creators of this show intended to portray this as it’s a very real issue many women face in their everyday lives. Sexism is a constant presence for many women that can become an obstacle, Killing eve presents this perfectly when Eve figures out a key part of the investigation stating that the killer is female, but is completely dismissed as her male co-workers don’t believe a woman would be capable of such violence. Little did they know at the time, Eve was right- proving the point that even in the most professional of environments like MI6, sexism still exists and is engraved in society. The only male character in this show to be shown in a positive light and to impact the narrative is Bill. Bill is quite the unique character as he reveals he is queer- despite being married to a woman- minds his baby daughter often bringing her to meetings and cares very much about his work partner Eve and her safety. Bill seems to have quite a maternal instinct, not only for his baby but for Eve as he is always trying his best to look out her, help and be there for her when she needs it. Ultimately, this costs Bill his life in a tragic twist of cat & mouse between him and Villanelle. Within similar genres, the woman is often the one to be sacrificed for the sake of the narrative but I can see killing eve decided to shake things up and have a male role sacrificed as an alternative. Many of Bills gender roles are stereotypically feminine, which is another example of how this show challenges gender roles.

Overarching elements of queer theory linger within in Killing Eve, expressing that there is not just one type of sexuality, meaning heterosexuality, and people can identify as they like such as homosexual, pansexual, bisexual, asexual, transgender, non-binary, gender-fluid or other subsets of the LGBTQ+ community. Eve and villanelle have a complicated relationship that seems to be mutually romantic but is built on a foundation of curiosity and fascination due to their work. As Eve is already in a relationship with her husband Nico, she goes through quite a confusing time, questioning her sexuality. I think the target demographic can relate to this issue as many people struggle themselves with sexuality, coming out and accepting themselves. Bill can also be seen as an important queer character in the show, as he reveals to Eve he has an ‘arrangement’ with his wife, where they are in an open relationship with any genders they like. Killing Eve highlights important issues regarding sexuality like homophobia, this is especially denoted when Villanelle is held in a Russian prison and beaten up by guards for being gay. I feel it’s important for the LBGTQ+ community to have better, bigger and more positive representations in media and killing eve has made a step in the right direction incorporating gay, bisexual and queer characters. “In recent years there has been some improvement in the representation of queer people on mainstream network television. The popularity of shows such as Will & Grace; La vie, la vie…; and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy demonstrates that networks are willing to feature queer characters as long as the shows draw high ratings and generate profits for advertisers.” — MediaSmarts. (2018). Queer Representation in Film and Television.

Killing Eve does a great job of creating important, equal and strong female characters- without it feeling forced or ‘man-hating’. Because of this, I feel strongly that the narrative passes The Bechdel Test. For a media text to pass The Bechdel Test, it must include the following:

  1. Have at least two female characters

  2. They must both have names

  3. & They must talk to each other about something other than a man

This ‘test’ isn’t meant to measure how ‘good’ or ‘feminist’ a film or TV show is, it’s aim is to reveal just how male-dominated the media can be. I think killing Eve surpasses this test as it includes all of these multiple times. An example of this is when Carolyn questions Eve about Villanelle.

Clip- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGd102Ttw3U

Since the revolutionary #MeToo movement was founded in 2006, to help survivors of sexual violence, it has made a real change in workplace environments, especially media. This movement has impacted the film industry greatly and exposed the sexual assault and harassment allegations made about Harvey Weinstein from a number of female actors. These allegations were investigated and found to be mostly true, resulting in many cases being taken to court. Weinstein and his lawyers agreed to a settlement deal for the women who accuse him of sexual misconduct, amounting to $44m (£34.7m). While researching Killing Eve’s production, I found that the writers were actually inspired by Winestein himself to create Villanelle’s behaviour. “Scriptwriters Henrietta and Jessie Ashworth say the #MeToo movement was a hot topic in the all-female writers’ room back in 2017. When conversations turned to extreme and psychopathic behaviour, it was disgraced Hollywood movie boss Weinstein who formed part of Villanelle’s creation.” — Metro.co.uk. (2018). Killing Eve’s evil Villanelle was partly inspired by Harvey Weinstein. I believe if Winestein’s accusations never came to light this inspiration may never have happened, resulting in a different Villanelle than we know now. “#MeToo was in the news, so there were great conversations going on about psychopaths and Harvey Weinstein.” — Henrietta Ashworth. Metro.co.uk. (2018). Killing Eve’s evil Villanelle was partly inspired by Harvey Weinstein | Metro News.

Scene Analysis- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuQF__L62lA&t=28s

While re-watching Killing Eve, a particular scene stood out for me. The scene involves Eve & Villanelle meeting for the first time to have a very tense conversation. Throughout the clip, I noted a few narrative & audience theories that can be applied. I believe cultivation theory is a relevant theory to this scene as it suggests that repeated exposure to media influences your beliefs about the real world over time and can desensitize you to violence. I think this fits in well with Killing Eve as it showcases violence in every episode and shows the world to be more dangerous than it might be- thus creating the audiences ideology that violence is normal. Across the storyline and particularly this scene, I believe Levi Strauss’ binary opposites are denoted to aid in driving the narrative. The binary opposites that stood out most to me where; Good vs bad, protagonist vs antagonist, scared vs brave, sad vs happy, light vs dark, weak vs powerful & honest vs deceitful. All of these binary opposites occur between Villanelle and Eve within their meeting & conversation, representing Eve as ‘good’ and Villanelle as the oppositional ‘Bad’. Components of feminism can be seen here as it reinforces the statement that women can be strong, equal and empowered by showing Villanelle as a Femme Fatale and Eve as brave in this scary situation. I can also identify elements of queer theory connoted as Villanelle is obviously attracted to Eve, which we can see through her female gaze encouraging the audience to see Eve as desirable.

The Mise en scene of this clip connotes a dark, mysterious genre by having an ambient, dimly lit scene and dull colours. The antagonist, Villanelle, is wearing white- a colour usually associated with being ‘pure’ or ‘good’, I believe this is done to reflect how Villanelle is trying to portray herself to Eve. I think the use of extreme close-ups in this scene is done purposefully to emphasise and dramatise the scene to create tension for the demographic. In some aspects of the scene, Eve is positioned at a slightly lower angle to Villanelle, to me this connotes she is in a position of weakness, with Villanelle being in a position of power over her. This is confirmed in the scene through their conversation and body language as Villanelle has the upper hand. The use of diegetic sounds such as foley and sound effects in this clip really aids in creating a realistic film-world for the characters to live in, paying attention to small details like movements, cutlery and the fridge. The only non-diegetic sound I noticed was the anxiety-provoking thriller music, which began playing as soon as Eve attacked Villanelle. I think this was intentional as it had much more of a dramatic impact. Soon, the music drifts off when we hear Eve’s husband coming in, connoting it’s now safe.

The general critic consensus for Killing Eve is a preferred reading with 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and 8.3/10 on IMDB. There have been a few negotiated readings and oppositional but the majority of critic reviews have been very positive and enjoyed the feminist themes throughout. “Watching the slow-motion collision of these two women, trapped in male-dominated professions that continuously underestimate their abilities and their passions for their work is one of the most fun and feminized cat-and-mouse games of the last few years.” Bundel, A. (2019). Killing Eve: Season 1 — TV Reviews. [online] Rotten Tomatoes

Overall, in my opinion, Killing Eve is an exceptional feminist text representing women in a fair, strong portrayal tackling misogynistic stereotypes. “Watching the slow-motion collision of these two women, trapped in male-dominated professions that continuously underestimate their abilities and their passions for their work is one of the most fun and feminized cat-and-mouse games of the last few years.” Bundel, A. (2019). Killing Eve: Season 1 — TV Reviews. [online] Rotten Tomatoes. The creator’s aims have been to challenge many aspects of feminism and gender roles through an interesting and unpredictable narrative, allowing audiences to question their societal norms while enjoying a non-conventional form of escapism.









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