The unc*nsored version is already up on Patreon: www.patreon.com/verityritchie The Patreon version is what we consider the "true" version of the video without having to worry about youtube monetization rules!

I'm writing a lesbian love story at the moment. Someone told me "if your characters have to kiss to seem like they're in love, they're not in love." Trying to generate non-sexualised love and intimacy that isn't just 'gals being pals' is tricky.

Fun fact: The reason Jennifer's Body bombed- even tho it's fucking amazing and a classic- is because they decided to portray it in a feminine gaze *for the horror aspect to make the male viewers uncomfortable*. It succeeded. The boy was never important, it was a story of two girls- friendship, love, and betrayal.

"Um sir. You may wanna zip up, your male gaze is hanging out." This is gold

as a lesbian this topic makes me feel physically sick to the stomach and i just really appreciate how directly you talked about it in this video, it was very well done and you hit the nail on the head about the sort of turmoil that i and many others feel about this, thank you

that whole "invisible male spectator" concept is why i thought i was straight for so long despite being a woman who was relating to male POV characters being attracted to women

Listen - I do want to mention this. The Handmaiden is THE go to liked movie for all my bisexual and lesbian friends in Korea. Not defending it, just mentioning how it is seen in the country it was made. Also, I think it is important to understand how taboo homosexuality is in Korea still. There were people, who watched that movie, and were convinced thar the two main characters WEREN’T lesbians or bisexual. Yes, I know how impossible tjat sounds. They liked the movie, but are himophobic, and somehow convinced themselves of some insane thinfs about “they were just individuals who loved each other outside of sexual preference” or some crazed reasons like that. I just think comparing The Handmaiden to any other film in the West needs rhe context of how hard it is to make media with queer charactes in Korea. Maybe those sex scenese, as vulgar as they were, helped the movie get made. I don’t know, I just know queer women love that movie here. My partner’s favorite actress is Kim Tae-ri (my partner is a Pansexual Korean woman) and with the exception of the Nightmare Before Christmas (she loves Tim Burton), it is probabluy the movie we’ve watched rhe most. I feel like “The Handlaiden” being a landmark film in tbe country it was produced in…needs to be taken into account. Anyways, I am done lol.

For THE HANDMAIDEN, I feel like you could interpret the final sex scene as Hideko reclaiming the stage that she was forced onto by reenacting that scene with her lover on her terms. I feel like when you're forced to pander to the male gaze as a woman, it means something to take it for yourself.

Here is what Park Chan-wook said in an interview about the protagonists overwriting the memory of the abuse in the last scene of "The Handmaiden" and reclaiming power and pleasure for themselves, with which Sarah Waters, whose book the movie is based on, fully agreed: "And another sex scene is right at the end of the film in the cabin on the ferry. The act of using the bell, it is mentioned in one of the readings, right? In one of those pornography novels. Some people have pointed out to me why would they actually take cue from a pornography novel which she was forced to read. When we look at our real lives and how people live, even if somebody was able to escape oppression, it doesn’t mean that traces of the oppression somehow disappear altogether. It’s not as if you are formatting a hard drive. It’s not as if you are able to just with a click of a finger start from a blank page. Your new chapter in a new life away from oppression, it still has to start from somewhere and it starts from you who has that past experience. With that behind, even though she had been forced to take part in these readings, she’s able to use an element from that and use it for her own pleasure and her own way of taking care of her desires. And in doing so, I felt, my writing partner and I, that this is subversion. This is inspired by the Sarah Waters ending actually. When Sue and Maud are reunited, Maud is actually writing an erotica herself. And I couldn’t figure it out. Why would she be writing erotica? This is what her uncle’s been forcing her to do all her life. Why would she engage in that sort of activity? And then I realized well she would do it on her own terms. She would write it out of her own volition and this is coming from her. This idea that Hideko when she was reading erotica that deals with the silver bell and when she was forced to take part in those reading sessions, it was an unpleasant thing for her to do, but if she’s using the silver bells as part of giving herself pleasure then it takes on a completely different meaning. And the idea that this kind of subversion is something that Sarah Waters, in the recent conversation that I had with her, she found to be very interesting indeed and she really liked it and she had seen the film twice. She agreed with my take on the subversion aspect of it."

the male gaze is why i never accepted i'm sapphic until recent years. i always despised so much the way lesbians and women as a whole were and still are portrayed in media. this video made me feel so validated. thank you

How often I heard men openly COMPLAINING that lesbians dont usually look like and act like in the movies!! Its almost like sapphic people are still PEOPLE not just a liveaction porn genre Im a bisexual woman with a gay relationship and I dont owe any man to be the embodiment of his fetish, I JUST WANNA LIVE

I remember a scene in the Queen's Gambit where the main character was in a hotel room with the chess reporter and they were just discussing playing a game of chess. There was no overt innuendo, no nudity, they were fully clothed several feet apart but the tension in that conversation and the way the scene was filmed made me blush.

What frustrates me as a lesbian is that while I understand representation is important, it’s really annoying that some media I enjoy, and is admittedly sometimes horny and smutty is seen as being bad on it’s face value because it’s not high art and might also pander to other people. I think sometimes we worry so much about good representation we can’t just enjoy our garbage sometimes. Straight people can enjoy absolute garbage all the time, but for some reason it feels like we aren’t able to.

As a bi cis woman, for so long i was worried I was just fetishising other women, just like men did, because that was all I could see in media around me ( pg or not pg) It took me forever to feel like I belonged, that I wasn't stealing other people's space, and that it was just who i've always been ( not someone else's fetish) Thank you so much for your videos, you always manage to articulate with so much precision the turmoil I've felt my whole life.

Abdellatif Kechice and Park Chan-Wook really said: "Lesbians are so cool. If only there were lesbians, but for men."

They are different when you consider that this is a Korean film where nudity and especially same-sex nudity are never portrayed. It’s not like the west where you see sexualization of characters constantly. That’s much rarer in Korean films, especially Korean period pieces. Showing full body nudity of same-sex individuals is a huge step in normalization. Especially because it shows it happening in the past.

We should also talk about the Gay Gaze. That is "male homossexuality for women". It is very interesting how much gay-centered media can be divided into "gay media for women" and "gay media for gay men". Think the difference between yaoi and bara, lol

as a bisexual, I can now identify the reason why I didn't watch or partake in Sapphic media because it always seems like I was objectifying them by watching, like I felt dirty even though I did want to see what WLW looked like because I was afraid of approaching women in the real world, and now I realize it was because even though I was a woman, a queer woman, I was assumed to be apart of this male gaze as part of the audience. So many WLW live action uses a male gaze camera view that it felt dissonant from the way I viewed women in real life, with their faces and their spirit and other things that made them women, and not just lesbian pornstars.

i really like the handmaiden but this is a great video that helps me understand why some parts of the movie make me uncomfortable

this is so important to bring awareness to, I hate how sexualized we are as lesbians. we are human beings, not just a fetish or fantasy. i can’t wait to see more realistic representation, not entertaining the male gaze.

I remember "Blue is the warmest color" making me and my then gf actually feel uncomfortable watching it. The explicitly of sexual scenes felt really forced and unnatural and I was not surprised when I learned that director put both actresses through hell during filming. I own hard copy of the original graphic novel and I actually read it before watching the film and the way they twisted it still makes me cringe :^) What was a devastating story about first love, exploring sexuality, regret and loss of a loved one turned into basic 2 hour soft porn for men (as a bi woman i did not enjoy it at all)

I always found sex scenes between women in films utterly inaccurate, the only exception was the movie "Bound" by the Wachowski sisters. Everything was relatable in that one, the flirting, the relationship between the two women, and the sex (hot!). I'm a pansexual trans man, and in general I find extremely boring the fixation on penetrative sex in all media (het, straight, gay, lesbian). There's so much more to do! Movie directors obviously lack imagination or counselling by people who do have sex 😝.

I have had discussions with friends about similar issues in wlw romance novels/erotica. There's a lot of them that just always seem to be like "What thing can I replace the male anatomy with?" As just.... the only way to have sex. You have to stick something in there. And I'm just like "....there are other ways."

As an asexual lesbian I find it hard to not only find media with good representation but media without such a focus on sex. I’m not grossed out by sex but I don’t particularly like watching it, so when I see it so often it can be quite annoying since I either have to sit there absentmindedly or skip ahead and break the flow. I don’t want for shows to have no sexual actives at all because it’s a natural part of many relationships and just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean I take displeasure in watching it, but when you’re not someone actively consuming it it brings into question more often than not why they’re having sex in the first place

I feel like the male gaze has corrupted me. I can't stop viewing myself and other women through the same lens. Even in my efforts to train myself out of it or to subvert it, I'm still policing my pov and positions with the gaze in mind. In a weird way, I want to somehow erase my relationship to my body and my sexuality and start again.

This video explains so well the sentiments I have about 'blue is the warmest color'. I literally stopped watching the movie, because of the coldness, emotional distance and for me unnecessary focus on sex scenes, that felt stinted. I read the graphic novel before starting to watch the movie and was very dissapointed of the film. Thank you for putting the finger on the source of my icky feelings about the film.

I can't tell you how elated I am to finally see an analysis of Handmaiden that pays proper deference to Sarah Waters. It was a good film, but Fingersmith's story is so much stronger, and it's always kept me from raving about the film like everyone else. Also your analysis of the male gaze vs lesbian perspective was excellent, I hadn't looked at these films through that lens before

as a closeted lesbian teenager growing up in northern england, it’s so hard to feel sapphic and accept yourself as sapphic. i’ve had battle after battle trying to convince myself maybe i like men, i will, right? it’s still not ok to be gay here, and if i was, boys would just throw horrible abuse and derogatory terms at me. media i consume, or try to, is often lesbian or sapphic. 90 percent of the time, it’s either been cancelled, one of them dies or the lgbt representation is a side ship, some part of a love triangle or some side plot they throw off.

I think something viewers need to consider is that The Handmaiden is also a romance film, not just a commentary on lesbianism or coming of age/sexuality film. A realistic sex scene is not appealing for romance and erotica lovers. Even heterosexual sex scene are not realistic in romance films and novels. I get that people hate the male gaze, but I think the criticisms are too much sometimes. It's like they forget that it is not only men, but women who love passionate romance and erotica. Why do I want or need to watch or read a realistic (AKA plain and boring) sex scene for? Don't women have to deal with that type of sex enough in real life. Now we need to suffer with it in our romance films? And I'm sure many other women feel the same way. Sure, the male gaze doesn't want realistic "boring" sex scenes but neither do women who enjoy erotica or the passionate romance lover. The sex scenes in Handmaiden didn't turn me on, but they were romantic and sweet. It's clear the couple loves each other.

As a queer, trans woman who does want to write stories about sapphic intimacy, I do often worry that anything I create will inevitably be tainted by my socialization growing up being taught to be a man. That I will never truly be able to view women as being “like me.” That my attraction to them will always be in some way heterosexual. Videos like this help to ease my fears. Thank you very much. ❤

I have to say as a bi woman, I mostly liked "The Handmaiden" as a whole, but I felt really puzzled with the ending. I felt like the two characters recreating that scene as the first thing they do after escaping really cheapens the whole meaning behind their escape to begin with. It's like, now they're finally free to live as they please and love each other, so, you know, of course the first thing they want to do is to recreate a scene from creepy uncle's book. To me there was so much potential in this story: at its core it's a story about women liberating themselves using their own wit. This ending does not sit right with me but I think Verily is right here: the story was not really written for me, as the spectator is expected to be a straight man. It's like I'm seeing something I was never intended to see. "Portrait of a lady on Fire" is a much better exemple of an actual subversion of the male gaze (and also I love it so much omg).

As a lesbian I think realistically portraying sexuality and love is very important. Mainly for lesbian audiences. I was very scared in my first long term relationship because everything about it was so stigmatized

Came across this video essay somehow by accident/the algorithm. I'm a cis-het, Gen X man who has slowly been trying to deprogram a lot of the patriarchal programming that I have undergone as an unknown participant since...forever. I honestly don't have anything helpful to say, as I am obviously not a woman or a lesbian. But this was very educational to me and has definitely added another dimension to explore in my ongoing therapy. Thank you.

really love this video, i think it encapsulates a lot of why i feel alienated from a lot of lesbian romances in film and cinema. so much of the framing of these romances sacrifices authenticity and passionate intimacy for the aesthetics, to make sure it remains appealing to the male gaze. also, i think it's important to note the specific kinds of women who tend to get portrayed in lesbian romances intended for general audiences. they're typically white, thin, and attractive per male standards (as you rightly pointed out in the 'shaved pits' part). even if a character is butch, she won't be SO butch that she becomes too ugly for the male gaze. fat lesbians, hairy lesbians, lesbians with not one ounce of femininity, non-white lesbians who sidestep stereotypes linked to their race/ethnicity, i want to see more of THOSE kinds of lesbians in film and television.

The degree which you have to censor this work depresses and infuriates me. Great work

I can't even find lesbian corn that doesn't feel like it was made for men

Don't get me started on this topic in regards to anime. Lesbians have been used as bait in idol anime and slice of life anime just to get their mostly male audience even hornier for the characters.

tbh my opinion of those scenes in the hand maiden is that the scenes themselves are very graphic and almost pornographic, but it's not meaningless, like I think that depiction was an artistic choice, further characterizing hideko in her tortured relationship with men and their sexualizing of her. the "naughty stories" she eads for them have desensitized her to those things, and shaped her perception of sex. So in the last scene, I feel like its hideko and sookhee reclaiming what has been pushed upon them. i really appreciate how the director would have closed shoots during these naughty scenes, so that the actresses could be more comfortable.

I've always found suddenly becoming aware of the male gaze kinda sickening as an AMAB trans person. It feels like being assumed to hold an identity that is so fundamentally antithetical to how I want to be seen and how I want to treat people. Like I'm being assumed to be the exact sort of person I fear people will imagine me as when trying to be myself in women's spaces. It's so yuck.

When I was in my mid teens, I bought Fingersmith at a book sale for $1, with ZERO knowledge of any lesbian content (nothing on the blurb alludes to it, I swear!). My Baby Queer mind was blown. I simply couldn't comprehend reading historical fiction (my favourite genre at the time) written by a woman (who is a lesbian) about lesbians. I'd still say it's one of my all time favourite books.

I do agree about the involuntary male gaze in Park Chan Wook's, I do believe he wanted to be as less male gazey as possible but it still ended up seeping through, almost as if, as a man, he couldn't help it. And I even remembered feeling this when I first watched the movie. However, regarding the final s*x scene, I do believe you might have brushed a bit quickly over one point: there was a choice on the director's part in setting the story in this era with these protagonists. The relationship between Korea and Japan throughout history, especially at that time, adds another layer of separation between the two women, and I do believe their union in that scene, the fact that they're seen as equals, butt naked and without disguise, without class prejudice AND without the cultural abuse that Japan had over Korea is what Park wanted to portray. You'll notice that the choice of background is a very European-like decor, neither traditionally Japanese nor Korean, an 'elsewhere space' where none of them is at an advantage, and so both of them are. But I still agree that it felt very 'posed' and thus a bit male gazey, and even as a woman - and not a creepy uncle - I felt like I was looking at a private moment I wasn't supposed to be watching.

I relate to this title omfg- like I see myself as bi- but it’s so annoying to see women x women relationships made for men.

This was amazing. Totally great. I really appreciate this being free for everyone. That said, the patreon version is even better.

The fact that a majority of men (sadly) only connect intimacy with overt sexual actions is something that jumps out with this too. And that's so sad, I wish the whole "men don't show emotions" bullshit would've never happened, they get deprived of so many meaningful and amazing experiences because they are emotionally stunted in a way, where they have to learn to see intimate moments in things other than sex, like a freaking newborn.

One of the things I really fiercely love about Fingersmith is how Sarah Waters shows that abuse victims are just as deserving of love and happiness and a future regardless of their own sexualities. She could have made Maude uninterested in sex or porn, but instead Maude becomes a porn writer and is rather kinky. This subverts the victim-blaming idea that only "pure, innocent" victims are deserving of compassion, and that if they were "deviant," they must have deserved their abuse in some way. It shows how the problem with sexual abuse is the abuse part, not the sexual part. Haven't seen the Handmaiden but it sounds like it doesn't go into this as much, which is unfortunate because I think this is a really important theme of the novel. Also, because people online love to make assumptions: of course asexual, sex repulsed, vanilla, etc people who have survived abuse are just as valid and their stories deserve to be told.

I enjoyed Handmaiden a whole lot, and then when the last scene came up, I felt so... cheated. Like "I thought you were on my side, movie. And here it is, the scene for men to gaze upon'.

I really love how the comments are an assortment of people sharing that they've had their feelings validated by this video, and of people explaining how different the context of The Handmaiden is for viewers familiar with the culture of the film's country of origin. There are even some great suggestions about tangential "gaze" concepts to consider. Good discourse in comment sections is so important for adding value to any social media post, and in this case, it's like getting a whole extra video essay for the price of just a few minutes of browsing.

Huh, as a lesbian I've always liked the handmaidens tale but hated the ending, thank you for helping me collect my thoughts on why.

As a bi woman I remember feeling insecure and worried about being so turned off by the depiction of intimacy in the handmaiden. There is so little sapphic media out there that I feel pressured to enjoy and feel represented by even the smallest crumbs we get. I do remember feeling a sort of fetishization in those posed scenes stated in this essay. That those depicted moments were very far from feelings I could identify with and were even low key triggering. I think there used to be a phase in my life when I would happily allow men to fetishize my attraction to women, because back then it was the only positive response I ever got to my sexuality and after being discriminated against, made to feel dirty and wrong for same sex attraction, having someone happily lust over you seemed like somewhat of an improvement, because it often came with the so sought after ✨male validation ✨ I think it's also part of why I sometimes felt uncomfortable in pursuing my authentic desires for women, because there was this very subconscious idea of engaging in this performance. To follow the script invented by men, as the characters end up doing in the movie. So to go for conventionally attractive women. The main way I learned to desire women was modelled after examples I've seen that were reeking for the male gaze, so I initially tried to reproduce it. After some actual exploration and consuming more media made by and for LGBT people I'm realizing that it's completely different dynamics and things that make sapphic relationships joyful and attractive to me. I find myself much more attracted to unconventional looking people and I found that intimacy has been much more rewarding as an act of mutual exploration instead of the idea of each person trying to consume the other in some way. It was really interesting and helpful to see some of these feelings explored in this video!

That was my issue with The Handmaiden, I love the movie, but definitely the sex scenes in a second rewatch (and a few years later) hit very different and not in a positive way, without the original story this would've been the scenes that I would've change, the sex scenes feel like many lesbian sex scenes feel, like a show and not a very personal and intimate moment between this two characters. I love how you take things that are very loved and respected and tare them to pieces to see a different, and sometimes obvious, perspective.

“Oh you thought I was just going to enjoy a thing for a second there, didn’t you? You thought I was capable of joy? No, I’m sorry-” 😭🤣

Do I agree with the Handmaiden analysis? No. Do I think it’s valid? Absolutely. But first off I just wanted to tell people to not be ashamed of liking the movie just because different opinions/interpretations exist. It’s my absolute favorite film and definitely my favorite romantic movie as an asexual cis girl. Himikos aversion to sexuality really got to me and I honestly found the physical aspects of the romance to feel so incredibly hopeful for a future of love however she wants to live it. But I also understand how things you see as harmful to a community you are a part of being praised to high heavens sucks. I feel that way about The Secretary when it comes to the way the main characters self harm is portrayed in that film. Feeling misunderstood and invalidated by media really sucks. So long story short: thank you so much for sharing your point of view because I’ve already seen so many comments by sapphic people feeling validated by this video and I think that’s amazing.❤

I read the Fingersmith late last year and oh my god it was such a ride to read. I loved pretty much every second of it and I had no idea there was so many films based off of it. I read Tipping the Velvet (by the same author) before that and I 100% recommend it to any one who liked Fingersmith. It was these books that reignited my love for reading again

I was screaming when you were talking about "The Handmaiden" so positively initially. Loved the flip midway through! Amazing video essay.

At least in Pride's text, it is understood that the "lesbian gauze" would necessarily be a romantic asexual gaze... I cannot understand this, because this whole discourse is based on the premise of the existence of a feminine essence where women are incapable of have sexual desire for other women. This all seems to be based on that sexist idea that "men are visual and women are romantic". This completely erases the potential positive impact that the sexually desiring female gaze could have (and has) on feminist artistic production, on the one hand, and on the other hand, it all silences the victims of sexual abuse committed by women, because all of this is part of an essentialist vision. where women never look at someone with sexual desire, let alone dehumanize and abuse other people, especially other women. The problem with male gauze is not the man's sexual desire, it's the narcissistic desire for dominance that men possess because they feel they need to dominate women in order to rise in the patriarchal hierarchy. This desire is actually less sexual than power. For men, sex is a tool for displaying their power and it is because of this that women are reified, who become a commodity or an asset to be negotiated, disputed and displayed by men in competition. Male gauze is not the result of simple sexual desire, this desire itself is actually natural and innocent. Misrepresentation occurs because the man is not desiring the woman herself and also that she desires him. He wants other men to desire his dominance, demonstrating that he is capable of subjugating women, so much so that besides homosexuality, the most despised trait within men's circles is the submission of a man to his female partner. When a man does this, he loses his status in the men's group. Ignoring that there is a whole structure of male competition that causes this gauze is essentializing the phenomenon and thinking that "the female gaze is always pure and chaste". This is basically returning to the patriarchal Christian view that women can only be virtuous (not forgetting the etymology of the term here) if they are chaste. In this way, the lesbian woman herself appears in the discourse as a pure and chaste Diana who does not sexually desire her partners, but only platonically admires them. Amazing how sex is still demonized. The result of this is that sexuality is more repressed in society and men become increasingly competitive and aggressive. This is the great blind alley that contemporary feminism has entered. We need to liberate sexuality from the dehumanizing sexist logic of competition and the pursuit of power. As long as this exists at a more fundamental level, nothing will change, and considerations that reinforce the essence of one gaze or another will only reinforce the underlying logic.

I rarely have the tears of excitement, but your video literally made me cry. I think it also can be considered as a work of art in a way, because of the ideas you're speaking of and the emotions it gave me. and it also seems to be a decent research work. Thank you so much dear verilybitchie! Now you've got another subscriber!

YES THANK YOU FOR ADDRESSING THIS, I STAN U VERILY

YOO i find this topic super fascinating - thanks for covering it! EDIT: the cameo of sickos guy is much appreciated

In defense of Director Park's "The Handmaiden": I'm a queer woman who was born, have grown up, and is living in South Korea, And I can SURE that if this movie hadn't ended up with that awkward sex scene, most of the viewers in my country could not recognize their relationship as that of lovers. (Even though there's another sex scene in the middle of that film!) S.K. has extremely conservative and patriarchal social standards, so a lot of people just can't even imagine the same-gender relationship is a possible thing-and just not a passing confusion. Thus you must push the hardest and farthest to make people latch on to a queer representation. You can argue that then it didn't have to be a form of reenacting, but I think it needed to be like that in this circumstance. Because the scene made it undeniable that they were doing sex in the context of the movie's own story, as self-referencing. I also agree that there were some better ways to do that, wholeheartedly, but it feels too harsh to portrait it as the result of a pure male-gaze.

"Portrait of a Lady on Fire" is S T U N N I N G.

How crazy! I just watched the handmaiden on Monday, so I’m excited for this video.

I've always found the fetishization of us queer folk incredibly odd. I'm a bisexual trans man, therefore I've seen this from both aspects, being creeped out by both men fetishising lesbians, trans women and masculine women but also women fetishizing gay men, trans men and feminine men. It seems a lot of them don't even realize what they're doing wrong, they genuinely believe they're allies.

THANK YOU so much for making this video, lots of love

as a person who watches a lot of video essays i've never seen anyone read all of their patrion's names. That truly gives you a connection to your subscribers and i think that's very nice

This is such a good video and helped me understand so much of my struggles with popular media

I don't know why, but this made me cry. Beautifully done video. I crave this sort of authenticity and depth, will check out more of your work, thank you! ☺

This just popped up in my recommended and I love it. Thanks for this thoughtful analysis.

this is such a good video!!! tysm for making it, perfectly encapsulated my thoughts (also feeling validated that i noticed the glove symbolism in the handmaiden despite it not being a focal point or utilised perfectly)

Portrait of a lady is the best lesbian movie I have ever seen and I'm a lesbian I'm obsessed

Never seen this channel before... I'm blown away! Thank you for stimulating my mind and making me think instead of react. New subscriber 😊👏

When working on The Handmaiden, Park did collaborate with a lesbian filmmaker though? I think a lot of the points in the video made are extremely valid, but, at the end of the day, who is deciding that just because the women are being shown sexually means that it is for men (in The Handmaiden in specific, not movies like Blue is the Warmest Color)? Why can't it be for women? I don't see any factor that goes into either of those scenes throughout the movie that suggests it was created for men. I'm also curious what people might have to say about the cultural difference. Taking into account that this was made in Korea in 2016, I wonder if any of the criticism changes. Watching this video was interesting and enjoyable, thanks for bringing light towards these sorts of topics.

Cool video! ♡ As a former art student, it was weird how loads of girls in my class really loved Blue is the warmest colour bc they felt it was "subversive" but i didnt really see how it was different from any other film.

As a lesbian: Thank you! People always wonder and ask me if I'm into any lesbian media/series on tv, etc. I just can't mention anything other than that I watch real authentic lesbian creators on youtube, because that seems to be my only source that gets it. I do watch some Asian lgbtq+ drama series for fun, but they are 100% straight gaze for sure. While it's funny once in a while I can't fully take it seriously most of the time. I def. hope queer media quickly gets serious, so I can finally watch some of it.

So happy to see your channel growing!!!

I was just slapped by the quality of this video. Didn't expect but I am here for it👏 Subbed 🥰🙌

Awesome video as always Verily!! 😊❤️

I knew nothing about Blue is the Warmest Colour when I watched it a few months ago: it started out so promising at first, but then it got worse and worse, by the end I was just left speechless and actually mad at what I just witnessed.

Listen you really got me in the first half, I was so happy and relieved once you pointed out that the handmaiden's sex scene at the end is not actually a good example for being freed from the male gaze, loved the video, great work!

Thank you so much for this video. I'm literally crying and laughing at the same time.

This seems like a good opportunity to ask for a video about MLM stories and how they are for the most part by straight women for straight women and there is very little space for stories for and by gay men which is very sad.

Thank you for this, it was extremely informative. I've been hearing/reading about the male gaze for ages, without anyone ever explaing what they meant.

This is the first video of yours I’ve come across and I’m well impressed. Wonderful video essay!

Thank you for talking about this, I was trying to figure out why the handmaiden just wasn’t sitting completely right with me, this was very liberating :)

Oh thank you so so much. As a lesbian watching movies with lesbian women, feeling weird and like a voyeur while doing so this video is like a diagnose. We need to heal from the male gaze. I mean the few movies like in your example 'portrait of a lady on fire' is actually making me feel like I am curing.

I've been watching a few of your videos now, and I find them so interesting in drawing my attention to all those things that are so easy to miss if you're a heterosexual man, simply because so much in the world is geared towards what I grew up conditioned to expect. My wife is a staunch feminist and has helped me understand a lot about what that actually is, but whenever I watch one of your videos, I learn something new and interesting about how I perceive things, and how I, as an artist, should endeavour to express things. I hadn't even heard of the concept of the male gaze until a few years ago, but I think it's such a highly useful one for describing the problem with a lot of cultural expressions.

I wrote my dissertation on the lesbian period drama in film and this has been such an interesting video to come back to and reiterate on my ideas!!! Thank you so much! (It was before portrait of a lady on fire and mostly focussed on The Favourite and Carol)

I feel like this video actually explains the male gaze well through its contrast with the female gaze. So many people are so used to the male gaze they don’t even realise there are other ways of depicting things.

this was genuinely a wonderful analysis

This was just great and it really motivated me with my bachelor thesis! I'm currently writing about the female and male gaze in love movies. Thanks a lot for your input! Keep up the great work!

This video is brilliant, thank you for delivering such valuable content c-:

The side by side of the BBC fingersmith adaptation with the Handmaiden is such a good way of illustrating the difference in how that scene is framed and shot.

This is really good, thank you. I remember watching the handmaiden in the cinema with my friend and the scissoring had us crack up in a way that slightly confused.some.of the people around us but it was just, such a moment of framing really kicking in. I've not seen portrait but it's higher up the list now

I remember that Blue Is The Warmest Color movie adaptation was so amazing to me as an early teen; I still identified as a cis female lesbian, trying to figure out my own sexuality, so that film made me feel heard. However, looking at this video made me realize that these films aren't perfect, which is ok. I'll probably read the movies more. But, even if I don't like them as much, I think it's still an experience to interpret and understand better within my now adulthood. I really appreciate your perspective :3

Just watched "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" because of this video and oh my god my heart was not prepared

Excited to hear the take ✨

Your analysis is always so nuanced and spot on ❤️❤️❤️

THANK YOU FOR ADDRESSING THIS!

I've never watched any of these shows but I was able to follow the commentary well and it was very good.

I had the same issue with Ammonite (2019). It’s meant to be “progressive” bc the two females are less ashamed of their relationship … but all of their love scenes are alone, their whole world is alone, and in the dark, and dirt. And the sex scenes lack intimacy and feel so rough. The sex scenes read like two people who haven’t seen another human in years and is relieved to just have sex with anyone … it doesn’t add to their relationship and feels separate from it. It was cool to learn about the history of paleontology though and that’s about it.

I actually enjoy both movies. I think they both have great acting and photography. But i Always find weird that no one talked about the intimate scenes in The handmaiden the same way they talked about Blue. I"m glad you pointed that out