Riding in cars as girls: discourses of victimhood, power and agency in Beneath Clouds and American Honey

Abstract

ABSTRACT While cars have long been associated with masculinity and youth within cinema – through a now long established tradition of the road movie – the representation of girls and/with cars is less common and often problematic. Here, I argue that an analysis of the ways in which girls are shown to interact with cars within two independent road movies can reveal much about discourses of victimhood, power and agency. In these films, girls are rarely shown to be at the wheel themselves, instead they are driven by men; these experiences as passengers are shown to be complex and fraught with danger. However, through these representations the audience are invited to recognise and acknowledge pervasive discourses of victimhood and, in so doing, a new space is created. This new discourse is one which both acknowledges victimhood, but at the same time recognises the resilience and agency of young women.