The
Twilight Zone: The Hitchhiker
In this episode of the Twilight
Zone, a woman is being followed by a strange man everywhere she goes,
foreshadowing her death. The writers of
this scene were expert in casting a woman as the protagonist. The use of a woman heightens the thrill of
the story, and serves to further perpetuate stereotypes of women.
A young, attractive, 27 year-old
woman, seeming to take charge of her life is driving alone on a difficult
journey from New York to California. The
casting of this feature shows gender bias.
The only other characters in the episode are men. This delivers a message that it is a man’s
world and women are incidental in it.
The men facilitate her journey.
Whenever she runs into trouble, a man comes to her rescue. They change her car tire. They escort her on her trip and provide her
with advice, fortifying the convention that women need men to solve their
problems. The scene where the woman begs
the sailor to stay with her is an excellent illustration of this point.
Throughout the story, there is a
frightening acceptance of the objectification of a woman. The character of death is an unassuming older
man that leers, stalks and targets the woman, disturbing her peace of mind,
violating her right to privacy and ignoring all of her wishes to be left alone.
The woman is shown as a poor
decision maker. She decides to make an
ill-fated, poorly planned trip. She is
careless. She abandons her car in the
night and walks alone looking for gas.
She takes no safety precautions.
She foolishly stops on the rail road tracks and narrowly escapes her
demise.
The woman is also represented as
emotionally frail and irresponsible. She
cracks under pressure. She has no coping
skills and is unable to resolve her own problems. She falls apart emotionally when the
character of death talks to her. When
she runs into trouble, she calls her mother to hear a familiar reassuring
voice. She asks the sailor, whom she
doesn’t know, to accompany her on her journey, again carelessly putting herself
in a potentially dangerous situation.
This feature leaves the viewer,
particularly the female viewer with a considerable message that it is perilous
for women to venture out alone.
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