You Re Not You Character Analysis

Kate is a heterosexual, college-educated, affluent, white woman with a successful husband, and vast talent as a pianist. However, the film, You’re Not You, focuses on Kate’s growing disability due to ALS. Opposite Kate is her new caretaker, Bec; a lower-class, non-disabled, white woman with a seemingly heterosexual, but free-spirited, sexuality (Wolfe). Despite the intersectionalities of both Kate and Bec’s lives being evident in the film, You’re Not You focuses heavily on disability and sexuality. Due to their differing abilities, Kate is depicted as sexually undesirable while Bec is seemingly the dominant figure in her sexual relationships. However, why are Kate and Bec depicited in this way? What does this domination also say about Bec as a caregiver? According to Laura Mulvey in Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, there is the need for an active and passive character in film. Historically, the passive character was female and the dominant character was male, positioning the two in an erotic relationship. However, due to the necessity of the active and …show more content…
As Mulvey states, sexual imbalance requires both an active and a passive role (367). In You’re Not You, filming techniques set up Kate and Bec in passive and active roles. Additionally, the connection of sexuality to each character’s degree of ability set them up in such roles. Thus, instead of following the narrative of the male gaze, the film, You’re Not You, follows the narrative of the ability gaze. Just as it is assumed that film designed around the narrative of an active male role and passive female role is made for the male spectator, it can be assumed that a film with an active able-bodied character and a passive character with disabilities is made for the able-bodied spectator. Thus, though Bec is female, she is able to be the active character when positioned beside