V For Vendetta Feminism
Formal Feminism You step out of your house onto the sidewalk and begin your morning journey to work. You pull your collar up around your neck and as you are doing so, you see on every lamp post and stop light a set of CCTV cameras snatching up your privacy as if it’s theirs to take. You shake it off, why are they still bothering you? They’ve been there for months now! You get to work early and as you begin to sit down into your horrible smelling non-lumbar supporting office chair, Fate comes on giving you, and the rest of London, the daily news. In Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s comic, V for Vendetta, the reader is quickly lured into fascist dictatorship London, where cameras are on every corner “for [their] protection”. The CCTV cameras, and
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other fascist tools like Fate, are used to control the population in London and nobody really seems to mind. . . Except for V. While V carries out his vendetta, he is training his “new V”, the creator, how to get people of London to rebel against their government, and to end the oppression they undergo by living in a fascist dictatorship society. Using a formalist and feminist analysis of the text, I will demonstrate the way Moore and Lloyd distinctively explore the relationship betwixt the feminist theory and formal elements of the text. With these two schools of literary theory as a basis for examining V for Vendetta, I anticipate to show how gender is socially constructed and how Evey’s actions and ideas symbolize how gender politics and power relations have successfully oppressed not only her, but other women in the comic.
Evey is one of the first female characters we meet in V for Vendetta, as she prepares herself for her first night of prostitution.
She puts on her eye shadows, blushes, and lipsticks, slips on a sleazy dress, one strap sliding down over her bare shoulders, looks herself over one last time and tramps out in the camera occupied city streets. “Mister. . .Uh. . .Would. . . Would you like to. . .Uh. . . sleep with me or anything? . . . I mean . . .Uh. . . for money” (Moore & Lloyd 10). Here Evey is expecting this man to desire her as she depends greatly on her socially constructed gender role. She is extremely nervous as she asks him if he desires to have sex with her in exchange for payment, primarily because she expects him to say “yes”. Not only does Evey appear as extremely susceptible in this predicament, she also seems to be caged by her position in a masculine, patriarchal society. Her character is initially set up to embody a stereotypical, socially constructed women. With Evey being so dependent on her femininity, Moore and Lloyd lead us on another path where we can pick apart a process she goes through to fit her specified gender role: Primping. Evey has blonde hair, which “had been considered attractive and desirable in various European cultures” and is even “preferred by ‘gentlemen’ ” (Blonde Stereotype). Beyond the blonde hair we have the excessive makeup Evey applies before she goes out looking for “work”. The pink blush is primarily the most noticeable thing besides her blonde hair. If you ask anyone, male or female, no matter what their sexual orientation is, what the “girliest” color is they're most likely going to reply “[t]here’s nothing girlier than the color pink!” (Pink Pop) as if you should have already know that. In the article, “Pink Pop” from beautyblender.com “Pink is. . .the color that represents femininity”. The appearance of Evey in this way creates a character that must deal with an inner conflict and determine whether or not she will
allow the role society has provided for her to hold her back.
Shortly after our stereotypical blonde women is introduced, we get a look into how gender and power relations effect Evey in society. V rescues Evey from the situation she was placed into by the need to fulfill exactly that, her needs. On page 13, V shows up like a bad ass, takes out the Norsefire agents and saves Evey; “ You. . .You rescued me! Like in a story!! I don’t believe it. Wh-who are you?” (Moore & Lloyd) Examining the word choice of this frame from a feministic view point allows the reader to see that Evey automatically assumes she is meant to be powerless, that she needs rescuing. The word “story”, infers that Evey has been socially practiced around the idea that women are damsels in distress waiting to be rescued by a cookie cutter masculine figure.
other fascist tools like Fate, are used to control the population in London and nobody really seems to mind. . . Except for V. While V carries out his vendetta, he is training his “new V”, the creator, how to get people of London to rebel against their government, and to end the oppression they undergo by living in a fascist dictatorship society. Using a formalist and feminist analysis of the text, I will demonstrate the way Moore and Lloyd distinctively explore the relationship betwixt the feminist theory and formal elements of the text. With these two schools of literary theory as a basis for examining V for Vendetta, I anticipate to show how gender is socially constructed and how Evey’s actions and ideas symbolize how gender politics and power relations have successfully oppressed not only her, but other women in the comic.
Evey is one of the first female characters we meet in V for Vendetta, as she prepares herself for her first night of prostitution.
She puts on her eye shadows, blushes, and lipsticks, slips on a sleazy dress, one strap sliding down over her bare shoulders, looks herself over one last time and tramps out in the camera occupied city streets. “Mister. . .Uh. . .Would. . . Would you like to. . .Uh. . . sleep with me or anything? . . . I mean . . .Uh. . . for money” (Moore & Lloyd 10). Here Evey is expecting this man to desire her as she depends greatly on her socially constructed gender role. She is extremely nervous as she asks him if he desires to have sex with her in exchange for payment, primarily because she expects him to say “yes”. Not only does Evey appear as extremely susceptible in this predicament, she also seems to be caged by her position in a masculine, patriarchal society. Her character is initially set up to embody a stereotypical, socially constructed women. With Evey being so dependent on her femininity, Moore and Lloyd lead us on another path where we can pick apart a process she goes through to fit her specified gender role: Primping. Evey has blonde hair, which “had been considered attractive and desirable in various European cultures” and is even “preferred by ‘gentlemen’ ” (Blonde Stereotype). Beyond the blonde hair we have the excessive makeup Evey applies before she goes out looking for “work”. The pink blush is primarily the most noticeable thing besides her blonde hair. If you ask anyone, male or female, no matter what their sexual orientation is, what the “girliest” color is they're most likely going to reply “[t]here’s nothing girlier than the color pink!” (Pink Pop) as if you should have already know that. In the article, “Pink Pop” from beautyblender.com “Pink is. . .the color that represents femininity”. The appearance of Evey in this way creates a character that must deal with an inner conflict and determine whether or not she will
allow the role society has provided for her to hold her back.
Shortly after our stereotypical blonde women is introduced, we get a look into how gender and power relations effect Evey in society. V rescues Evey from the situation she was placed into by the need to fulfill exactly that, her needs. On page 13, V shows up like a bad ass, takes out the Norsefire agents and saves Evey; “ You. . .You rescued me! Like in a story!! I don’t believe it. Wh-who are you?” (Moore & Lloyd) Examining the word choice of this frame from a feministic view point allows the reader to see that Evey automatically assumes she is meant to be powerless, that she needs rescuing. The word “story”, infers that Evey has been socially practiced around the idea that women are damsels in distress waiting to be rescued by a cookie cutter masculine figure.