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The Queens Next Move
The Queens Next Move
Conner Wise
1 February 2021
History was made earlier this year with the NCAA football organization having the first
women step onto the gridiron. Sarah Fuller, a 21-year-old goalkeeper for the Vanderbilt women’s
soccer team, had the opportunity to tackle two sports in her college career. Fuller received the
call and immediately contacted her parents asking them what she should do. Her parents were in
full support of it and later called back Coach Mason stating, “I’ll be there in 30 minutes” (NCAA
2020). On November 28th, Fuller stepped onto the field only having a couple days of practice
against the 2-5 Tennessee Volunteers (ESPN 2020). With two minutes left of the first quarter,
Fuller finally got a chance to show the world why she was on the field. After a short yard running
touchdown, fuller kicked the extra point dead center through the uprights leaving everybody
cheering in the stands. She later came on the field to kickoff, kicking it 27 yards.
While some recognized the historical event and congratulated her for the
accomplishments, not everyone was supportive. Within minutes of hearing about the “publicity
stunt” Vanderbilt was doing, the Twitter world does what it does best and scrutinized her for the
27-yard kickoff. Twitter feed was buzzing with insulting comments such as, “Can we get an Only
fans instead?” and “Someone better tackle the fk outta her. Make her realize it’s 2020, but you
shouldn’t be on the mfkn field.” (Emily Spada 2020). Insulting her purely based on the fact that
there was a girl on the football field. The stigma that society has on gender conformity in the
sports world has completely been obscured by social media. People will always find the
negatives out of a situation and do anything to keep women out of men sports. Fuller responded
to the slander with a very professional statement; “I know there are probably people out there
who are like 'She doesn't even play football,’” Fuller said. “But I was the right person for the
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job... I think I had all the right skills and everything to be myself, to represent my family well, to
represent the school well, and I think that was enough.” (Cash M. 2020).
Unfortunately, we can see that still to this day there is an opinionated viewpoint when it
comes to sports where women cannot participate in the same games that men do. While there is a
stigma for men being “better” at physical sports, where is the line drawn when the game is not
Historically, there has always been a stigma surrounding sports culture. Too often sports
are perceived as being male dominated leaving females unable to gain the same acceptance and
prestige as male athletes. Depending on the sport, women are seen as not strong enough or not
smart enough. Fuller’s story is just one in a long line of narratives of women being
underestimated in the sporting arena. Thus, this paper will dig into another example of an
overlooked woman in sports by examining the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit and how
women are looked at when getting involved in a male dominated game, chess.
Background (5)
Based on a best-selling novel by Walter Tevis in 1983, The Queen’s Gambit takes place
in the 1950’s telling the story of a young prodigy named Beth Harmon in the game of chess.
Being raised in an orphanage, Harmon did not have the best memories growing up after her mom
died in a car crash at only the age of nine. Not having a parent figure in the picture, Harmon does
not have the best decision-making skills and falls into a deep hole with abusing prescription
drugs that the orphanage supplied to the kids to make them sleep. Soon enough, Beth figured out
that if you fought off the first 30 minutes after taking the tranquilizer, she could do some
interesting things in her head such as visualizing chess pieces and thinking out every move
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without even being next to a chess board. She was introduced to the game of chess by the janitor
at the facility who played by himself when he had some free time. Beth being the nosey person
she is, begged Mr. Shaibel (custodian) countless times to play and to teach her how to play,
while Mr. Shaibel consistently turned her down. He eventually lets her play one game and
realizes how talented she is at the game leading to them playing every day. Mr. Schaibel
introduces Beth to the high school chess club coach, and he offers her to start coming to the
practices at the high school. She takes this offer to get out of the orphanage facility and is
shocked by how bad these teens were. Little did she know that these players were actually some
of the best players in the state, she was just a lot better (White 2020).
Beth was in the orphanage until she was 14 where she was adopted by a housewife and
an abusive cheater. While Beth continues her chess drive, she realizes that the tranquilizers
played a significant role within her playing capability and that she thought she needed them to
win. Her foster mom gets sick and needs the exact tranquilizers that she was originally taking at
the orphanage. Beth’s drug addiction problem leads her down a few bad roads that she does not
Regarding the gender role in the game of chess, men have dominantly been the better
players at the game with little to no women having an impact that Beth leaves. Ever since chess
officially became a competitive game, there was a time where there were no female winners at
these chess matches let alone any participants. A grandmaster title in the game of chess is
awarded to someone who is an expert at the game. It is the highest title you can receive above
world champion but to achieve this, you have to win multiple world championship tournaments
Queensland, only 37 out of the 1,600 total grand masters are women leaving the proportion
extremely one-sided. Looking at some of the statistics throughout the game of chess, women
have always been perceived as inferior as they represent less than 5% of registered tournament
players worldwide (Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 38). Tying this back, a critical problem to think about is
whether males are better at the game or did women never have the opportunity to achieve these
accomplishments. A hypothesis was done by two psychology scientists who measured the
number of hours played, hours allocated towards the game of chess, hours participated in chess
tournaments, and time with personal trainers/coaches. The previous studied concluded that
women were less mono-thematically to devote all their time to a board game such as chess,
however this was proven wrong by Chabris and Glickman who came to the conclusion that both
males and females had an equivalent drop-out rate (Chabris Glickman 2006).
The stereotyping does not stop there however as there were many contributing factors to
why women might have a disadvantage to the game of chess. When no females were
females. Looking at some of the terms in chess, there are certain words where the connotation
may seem a bit more aggressive such as attack, destroy, battle, and many more. These terms are
interpreted to put a bit of real-life war and competition into a simple board game to make it that
more competitive. In a 1996 study done by two neurologist, men and women’s aggressiveness
was studied by a series of test questions and compared to see which gender was predominately
more dominant and aggressive. Studies showed that men showed higher level of aggressiveness
by a vast amount leading to the conclusion that men are more willing to play offensively and
However, in one study done by a group of students in the chess club at University of
Connecticut, the results did not match up. Using an online database of 180,000 players,
researchers put males against females in a game without them knowing what gender they were
against. When the players did not know who they were playing, the results were completely
stagnant. When the players found out who they were going up against before the game, females
performed extraordinarily worse than when they did not know (Smerdon 2021). Even Nigel
Short, an English grandmaster stated that ‘Women just don’t have the killer instinct in them’
(Bettencourt & Miller 1996). As studies have shown that there is no psychological background
or evidence to prove that women have a disadvantage in the game of chess, the question still
lingers as to why the stigma on women being involved with the game of chess has not changed
Method
To look at this problem in a more broadened spectrum, we cannot just look at this from a
chess perspective, but sports in general. Like mentioned before with Sarah Fuller, the backlash
she got from making history in the NCAA (the sports world in general) was nothing that
represents equal opportunity, nor represents the movement of women empowerment over the last
two decades.
One way to examine stories such as Fullers or The Queen’s Gambit, is through Lacan’s
concept of Phallocentric Language which is the belief that all discourse is created to favor
masculine terms and social expression. Phallocentrism is the study of the dominant masculine
power and the lack of it shown through women (Rine 2010). Using this method, I will discuss
some of the key examples shown in The Queen’s Gambit where it is shown how women never
got the right opportunity that the men did in this TV series. I will also discuss the concept of the
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male gaze which is another ideology developed by film theorist Laura Mulvey and has been
prominent throughout media arts through the last few centuries. As stated in the Spectatorship,
Power, and Knowledge chapter of the Comm 308 reader written by Daniel Croucher, “The gaze
is not the act of looking itself, but the viewing relationship characteristic of a particular set of
social circumstances.” Using these two theories, I will break debrief The Queen’s Gambit and
Analysis
With the Queen’s Gambit taking place in the 1950’s to the 1960’s, something that must
be taken into consideration is how the director, Scott Frank, wanted to portray the role of women
in the competitive gaming world. Sixty to seventy years ago is not the same world we are living
in today with women having a lot more say and more acceptable to voice their opinion in today’s
society then back then. That being said, let’s look at one of the first examples shown of Lacan’s
In this episode, Beth Harmon just got adopted and has finally left the orphanage after six
years. Harmon finds an open tournament that is being held in her hometown that she really wants
to participate in. After finding the dates and times, Harmon goes up to the head desk managers at
the chess tournament and begins to fill out paperwork enrolling her into the tournament. Right
off the bat, the two male managers start to question her capability to do well in the tournament.
One of the managers, Matt, asks Harmon, “What’s your rating?” Harmon responds with, “I don’t
have a rating.” In the field of chess, if you are going to participate in a tournament, you need a
rating to see where you will start off and who you will first play (Bettencourt 1996). Matt later
goes on about how they do not have a women’s section which Harmon does not care about, so
she doesn’t respond. Harmon not responding to this narky remark Leads Matt to state, “I’ll put
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you in the beginners’’ not thinking she is qualified enough to play with the men. Harmon finally
sticks up for herself lashing back stating in an angry voice, “I’m not a beginner.” Harmon and
Matt go back and forth arguing eventually leading to Harmon asking about being put into the
open (the bigger reward bracket) instead of being in the general bracket due to unrated rank.
There is no rule saying that she cannot enroll into the open but the two men working the desk are
trying their best to not allow her into the open stating things such as, “There are three guys in
there with ratings over 1800, they will eat you alive.” Harmon does not respond again and puts
her money down for the open tournament (Frank, 2020, 33:23 to 34:10).
To start off with this scene, this is one of the first scenes where Harmon shows some self-
improvement and character development since being in the orphanage, so it is quite nice to see
her stand up for herself and being confident in her chess capability. Looking at the stereotyping
in this scene is something that cannot go unnoticed though. It is very obvious that the two male
desk workers do not want a woman in the open let alone in the tournament. Lacan’s phallocentric
ideas are very prominent here as there is obvious judgement in the relationship between the men
and women here. This is a very important scene as well because of Harmons current situation.
She has never been given the opportunity to play the game she loves, and when she finally gets
the opportunity, she is not getting the respect that she deserved when she could easily beat
everyone in the competition. Abigail Rine (2010) explains women often face solid sexual
boundaries or “glass ceilings” in how they are valued. Rine states, “‘Woman’ is always
associated with passivity, functioning as the paralyzed other that orients the active, masculine
self. Cixous asserts an urgent need for writers and theorists to undermine the amalgamation of
logocentrism and phallo-centrism, a system that sustains itself through the subordination of the
What Rine is trying to say here is the word women already has a connotation to it
depending on what the context of the situation is. Having a conversation regarding women and
men being involved in the same category, people have already formed an idea about this
subconsciously, yet it does not ever come up in the conversation because of the norms we live in
today’s society. Back in the 1950’s, a man telling a woman to stay home and basically be a
housewife would not be an odd thing to hear. Throughout time, this social norm has been
frowned upon and now looked at in a sexist way which is why this subconscious way of thinking
is still in the back of our heads, just not conversed about unless bringing up one of the many
The Gaze
While the phallocentric approach to the Queen’s Gambit is very noticeable in certain
scenes, something that may go unnoticed to someone who just enjoys watching a TV series is
how the male gaze is shown. When looking at media arts throughout time, there is a very
common trait that seems to stay and does not get noticed a lot and that is the male gaze. The
male gaze has been shown in every century from paintings to now television shows and movies.
Women’s status as being sexualized beings or maternal figures goes along with Lacan’s
phallocentric premise, but this is more visual. Think about old 1700 paintings of women. If you
look at multiple paintings, the women are always undressed and being looked at more as objects
rather than human beings. This is purely for the male’s view and not for both genders. Looking
at current media such as Tv shows and movies, we can see this occurring often with iconic shots
such a Marilyn Monroe’s famous dress scene or even Playboy Bunny’s magazines. The one
The one key difference in the male gaze however is the different types of viewing
relationships. As Croucher and Cronn-Mills discuss, the individual term of “the gaze” gets
broken down into three different sections. The first term that is mentioned is scopophilia. This
term refers to the pleasure in looking at something. The second term that is mentioned is
exhibitionism which is the pleasure of being looked at. The last term is the term that I will focus
mainly on and that is voyeurism. Voyeurism is the pleasure in looking at something while not
The Gaze is subtle, and it often is not obvious to the audience until you realize it’s
present in almost all forms of popular media. It can only be a camera angle in a subtle way which
leads me to the connection between the gaze and the Queen’s Gambit. While watching this
series, there is always an iconic shot right before Harmon sits down for a match. The camera
angles always start underneath the table viewing the legs of Harmon panning all the way up to
her face. Harmon tends to wear dresses that show off her legs and get more conservative as they
get to the midsection of the body which was a very common way to dress in this time period.
However, this is filmed for the males’ eyes and done on purpose. Legs have always been a
sexualized body part in every extraditing media source and is still prominent in today’s media.
The viewing of Harmons legs cues the audience to know she is about to begin a chess match, yet
I do not like how they set this up. The directors and producers could have cued this any other
way, instead they chose to shoot the legs because they knew this was going to be a film targeted
at women rather than men, so they needed to bring the male viewers up somehow.
Looking at Vanity Fairs article on Anya Taylor – Joy after The Queen’s Gambit aired,
some of the statements that Joy comes out with also seconds this idea. In the interview between
Anya and Vanity Fair, some questions were asked to Anya about how she was sexualized in this
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series with something that is not usually thought of visually appealing which is chess. Anya
stated that on set her and some other employees used to state, “Were bringing sexy back to
chess” (Hoby 94). This series was a great hit involving women being involved with something
that might not be considered sexual, but the directors and producers made it this way to get
viewers in and it worked. In the same article, Hoby also brings up that chess sets sales went up
125% weeks after the show first premiered. While it is good to see that this can have a positive
impact on getting more women involved with chess, the sexualization of the character Beth
Harmon was what made people want to get more involved. Beth is proposed to be a very
attractive female in this series and the producers and directors used this to bring views in.
Digging deeper into this, Anya also stated, “The American movie industry has been undergoing
an overdue reckoning with racism and misogyny” (Hoby 94). Even the way that Anya learned
how to hold the chess pieces was supposed to make the audience feel a physical attraction
towards her. Anya goes on stating, “The way Beth summarily fishes a clacking piece up into her
palm with an elegant twist of the wrist becomes something of a signature – a satisfying, haptic
flourish” (Hoby 94). The way camera angles in the cinematic world portray a character have
everything to do with what kind of appeal they are trying to portray for that character and in this
While the camera angles shooting Harmon is a great example of the male gaze, I want to
focus on a specific scene with Beth Harmon and her competitor, Townes. In season one episode
three, “Doubled Pawns”, there is a scene where Beth is viewing the arena she is playing in just
getting a feel for her surroundings. She sees Townes, who she is familiar with, and he begins
following her around talking to her. They are both staying in the same hotel and Beth is starting
to win a lot of matches, leading to Townes asking Harmon if she would be okay with him doing
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a photo shoot of her for the national chess magazine. Beth being only 17 in this scene, you can
tell that she is not very comfortable in the scenario. Even though Harmon has had her fair share
of news media covering her, Townes does not give up eventually leading him to ask her to come
up to his room and Harmon agrees not thinking too much of it. Townes states, “I have a camera
in my room” which flusters Harmon where he quickly changes the subject by saying, “Chess
boards too.” Harmon lightens up about the situation and they go to his room. As soon as they
walk in, Townes starts taking pictures of Harmon without her noticing.
Looking at the layout of the room, Townes has the chess board on the bed for a specific
reason and has a very bad and eerie look to it. Townes asks Harmon to get near the chess board
and start posing by it. Harmon gets on the ground near the chess board for a specific reason and
the camera angles during this scene is where everything comes together for the audience. It is
clear at this point that Townes is trying to have a sexual relationship with Harmon, yet she is not
for it as of right now. Townes gets closer to her and states “You’ve grown up Harmon, you’ve
even gotten good-looking.” This statement sums up the entire scene and shows what he is trying
The camera angles during this scene captures a lot of emotion and tension as well. Not
only is this capturing the male gaze of the audience, but it also shows the male gaze for Townes.
He cannot keep his eyes off of Harmon and is portraying her more of a sexualized body rather
than one of the best chess players in the world. While there is a romantic theme to this scene, it
makes the audience (at least me) very uncomfortable due to the age of Beth Harmon and
Townes. There is a 5-year age gap between the two and knowing Harmon, she is not focused on
relationships right now. The male gaze here allows the audience to feel uncomfortable for the
women’s standpoint because women can relate to this. From a male perspective, this may just
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seem like he is trying to flirt with her but there is more context to this given situation that puts it
Conclusion
After reading Anya’s viewpoint of her own character (Beth Harmon) in the vanity Fair
magazine, it is clear to me that the portrayal of her character was supposed to draw in males to
watch her. This is the deep-rooted problem with American films today; the pleasure of watching
no longer coincides with the actual story plot of the film but is how women are looked at in film
purely for the male’s pleasure watching. While the whole plot of this TV series is to show that no
matter what gender you are, there is always room for competition, the way this show was
visually filmed completely undermines the theme and message they were trying to get across.
The focal point should have been more neutralized, dialogue should have carried this message,
but because of the way people like to watch television, they had to sexualize a woman to get
more views. The famous phrase “sex sells” is still prominent in today’s cinematic industry and
will only get worse because of people’s ignorance on the subject. To change this manner is still a
questionable decision to make because of how invested people are into TV now. People need to
be educated on the manner or the king will always have the power, unless the queens next move
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