Name: Atirek Bajpai

JGU ID: 22010434

Course: Gender and Society
BBA/LLB (2022-27) | Section - B

Reclaiming Her Story

A Journey of Colette's Liberation
Gender representation in the media has long been a subject of discussion and debate. The portrayal
of women in popular culture has raised questions about the impact of these images on society. This
paper aims to delve into the specific question of how the biopic "Colette," by Wash Westmoreland
illuminates and challenges established gender norms and societal attitudes towards bisexuality,
transgenderism, and female agency, specifically within the historical backdrop of the late 19th and
early 20th centuries? Furthermore, how does the film provide insights into the evolution of societal
perceptions regarding women's creative roles during a time when literature authored by women
was frequently marginalised or dismissed? Lastly, how does 'Colette' contribute to our
understanding of gender dynamics and creative agency in both historical and contemporary
contexts? These questions will be answered by taking a deep dive into the early life of the
legendary Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, known by her mononym Colette, the French author, ‘woman
of letters’ (a female scholar), mime artist, actress and journalist. We will do so by engaging with
the film as well as the reality that defined it, through the dialogues, the legacy of Colette’s life and
a performance that I believe really provides us with a reflection on how agency for women is an
evolving concept, a journey made arduous for them by society, but also a journey where the
triumph is theirs alone.

An Author was Born:

The film begins in the 1890s when the young Colette, a country girl is being courted by this literary
entrepreneur, Henry Gauthier-Villars who calls himself Willy, that's the name he's known by
virtually everybody. He basically courts her and takes her to a new life in Paris, and so, she is
brought to ‘gay Paree’, the Belle Époque (“the beautiful era” in French), in more ways than one,
La Belle Époque has been regarded as Europe's golden age. He brings her into the artistic salons,
and this is where you first get a hint that there's something different about this girl. She's not
impressed by these egomaniacal authors and posers, and there's a sense of disillusionment as she

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learns the truth about her husband being a brand. Not soon after, she realizes that her husband's
talent is nothing like his expenditure, and his expense outstrips his talent. It turns out that what he
actually does is, he has a stable of people writing pseudonymously under him. So, he's publishing
these books under the name of Willy, but these books are written by a number of people, all of
whom are kind of roped in to write the books. But money is running out; he spends too much on
restaurants and the rest of it. He is also quite the Casanova; fidelity is not a word that appears to
be in his dictionary. Eventually, he suggests to Colette that she should start writing stuff
pseudonymously for him, and she doesn't want to. He asks her to write one of the school stories
that she told him. He exclaims, “Start immediately. Aim for four hours at a time. The wolves are
at the door!”

Power Dynamic in Heterosexual Marriages:

From the onset, Colette’s husband had placed the burden of subsidizing his hedonistic lifestyle on
his wife, who merely suggested that they should economise to make ends meet. He basically forced
her to write at the beginning, and in fact, there was a moment in her life when her writing started
to flourish, he literally locked her in a room to write while he continued his lifestyle of seeking
platonic sexual pleasure with other women. Much like the power dynamics alluded to by
Mackinnon1, Willy always felt that gaining sexual pleasure was his right and that only he should
have dominion over it. His wife was the mere object of his subordination, and she was supposed
to accept this, as that’s the nature of a woman. And so, he started publishing the stories that she
wrote about Claudine, and well, Claudine’s stories actually became the Harry Potter of Paris in the
early 20th century. Suddenly, everybody had to read what she had put on the page but, of course,
he was the person taking the credit for it. So, she was in this really strange position where she was
writing this extraordinary stuff, and it was striking a nerve, particularly with young women readers
across Europe. I feel the reason behind this heightened interest from such a demographic had
something to do with the way in which she captured the dreams and desires of a young woman.
No one had really given teenagers and young women respect in the way that she did, and suddenly,
Claudine was not just a book; it was a brand of its own. It was a skin product; it was a soap. People
were cutting their hair to look like that woman. And so, she became the toast of Paris, but of course,
she did not because she was still in her husband's shadow. He was the celebrated toast of the town
because she was not getting the recognition, she rightfully deserved for what she was doing.

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It's interesting, particularly if we think about this in the context of certain modern heterosexual
relationships wherein the wife being more talented, doesn’t share the same success as her
counterpart. There is a thematic similarity here, a woman who is very talented, but a husband who
is very celebrated. He claims that he is not using her work; it's a brand name and that they all work
together under this umbrella, despite the fact that he's the front of it. It becomes a discussion about
what agency means for a young and ambitious woman in the late 19th to the early 20th century.

The Evolution of Individual Autonomy and Sexual Freedom:

So, picture this, they just returned from the publishers, and the publishers are saying, "When can
you write more Claudine?" And she had the temerity to admit that she may have inspired some of
these stories. This led to a heated exchange between the couple where Willy remarks, “I understand
the mentality here, you don't” to which Colette immediately quips, “Well, I understand it well
enough to write a book that is the toast of Paris”, and I love that. That was exactly the trap she was
in, but she knew she had written something that resonated, and that was being appreciated.
Obviously, she had insight, but she couldn't reveal who she was without ruining what she had
done.

What finally happened was that her horizons started to expand as she started realizing that the
marriage itself was rather stifling. A big part of Colette’s story is that she was actually bisexual
and when she found out that her husband was off philandering with prostitutes, she started
developing relationships, firstly with a female socialite model called Georgie and then fell in love
with a woman named Missy, a woman who felt that she was a man in a woman's body, a woman
who was basically a transgender pioneer at that time. As this happened, she was encouraged to
find her own voice, to find her own identity, to stake her own claim on what was rightfully hers.
And so there you see, suddenly Colette started dressing in three-piece suits. Suddenly Colette was
in an open marriage with her husband. Now, she was trading in her fancy dresses for different
outfits. Such changes were not welcome in her life, and Colette was largely ostracized and shamed
due to the same in her life. The establishment of the family institution and the vehement
categorization of extra-marital affairs can also be traced back to the perspective of "good and
natural sex," as articulated by Gayle S. Rubin2. The concept of the 'Charmed Circle' posited that
the ideal manifestation of sexuality should adhere to a framework characterised by heterosexuality,

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marital union, monogamy, procreative intent, and the absence of commercial transactions. Colette
single-handedly destroyed such a much-worshipped circle. And then she left the book publishing
world and went on the road with a radical vaudeville production. She was pelted with fruit whilst
she used to perform on stage as people weren't ready to accept what she was trying to tell them,
yet she was defiant in her response. To go back to the film, there is a moment I like, when
addressing the hate she was getting, she said “Those people don't frighten me at all. Look, am I
trembling? I will continue to pursue this because I want to, and if Paris won't have me, then so be
it. I'll go elsewhere to make a living.” So, you know in many ways, Colette's the kind of strong
feminine character we have gotten to know throughout history, that resolve, that spine, that wit,
but in her, we find a story that resonates even today. It is set in the early 1900s but seems so
progressive and modern. Hers is a story about somebody losing their identity. There's that moment
in the film in which she says, "Some days I find it hard to find myself; I can't find who I am." Hers
is a story about somebody whose identity has basically been taken away from them, that somebody
else is using their voice and selling their voice.

Breaking Down the Barriers:

With Colette’s story, we've got a lot of taboo subjects here. We've got bisexuality, open
relationships, transgenderism, and ghost-writing, particularly in a time when writing by female
storytellers didn't sell or at least the widely held belief was that it wouldn't. Throughout the film,
the dialogue between Keira Knightley (Colette) and Dominic West (Henry Gauthier-Villars)
perfectly conveys this sense of equality, trust and admiration between the pair early on in their life.
The normalization of bisexuality, transgenderism, and female agency in the context of ghost-
writing seems to be singularly difficult stories for people to digest and seem an unsurmountable
task, but Colette’s story does this so naturally.

At the centre of it, you have an incredibly resilient woman, whose character, firstly, gives you the
sense of somebody who's very charismatic, smart, and sharp but hasn't publicly found her voice.
She had been fighting her own battles, but then as the whole thing unfolded, and as the public
attention came, it became about what it meant to be in the public gaze or to be out of the public
gaze, to be accepted, to be seen from the outside world as something, or not be seen. The actress
who plays Colette in this film felt a sense of upliftment from the portrayal, as her own remarks on

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the matter were that she felt taller when she played Colette. This is because Colette refused to be
defined by society's ideas of what a woman was at that time. This is in contrast to Willy, who was
the quintessential dominant man. He was arrogant, vain, and yet also stupidly insecure. His
insecurities were demonstrated by him being so bullish and what I would call as being, fantastically
arrogant.

Through reflecting on Colette’s life, we can observe the entire range of emotions that young
women across the world go through when trying to develop a voice of their own. From the young
naive new wife who goes to ask her mother what to do when her husband is cheating on her, to the
young woman who corrects her husband when he uses the wrong pronouns for her transgender
partner, Missy. Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette really was a pioneer for feminist thought and breaking
down normative frameworks on what sexuality and autonomy meant for women in the
cosmopolitan city of Paris more than a century ago. Her life is a historical tale, but it has a very
modern edge to it. It feels like a story about a woman finding her own voice, a story about women
who challenge gender boundaries, a story about people saying, ‘I won't conform to this stereotype,
and I won't constrict myself to the viewpoint the world has carved out for me.’ The story was
derivative of real life and yet was conveyed cleanly, optimistically and realistically.

The endeavour to secure women's sexual autonomy and empowerment is a complicated and
intricate struggle. Centuries on from Colette’s Paris, even today in contemporary society, women
encounter obstacles that are deeply rooted in gender stereotypes, double standards, issues of
permission, and societal expectations. The desire for sexual autonomy is further complicated by
the junction of gender identity, namely in the case of transgender women. Moreover, bisexuality
serves as a means to question the inflexible categorization of sexual orientations and actively poses
a threat to the heterosexual and patriarchal hierarchy. Colette’s historical account of female
subjugation and the perception that women's artistic endeavours hold lesser worth compared to
those of males still impose constraints on women's autonomy within the realm of arts.

In order to effectively tackle these concerns, it is imperative for society to proactively demolish
detrimental norms and stereotypes, cultivate an environment that prioritises consent and respect,
and offer comprehensive support and inclusivity for persons including diverse gender identities
and sexual orientations. The attainment of sexual freedom and agency for women in contemporary

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culture necessitates the acknowledgement and proactive confrontation of these persistent
problems.

1. Catherine A. MacKinnon, 'Sexuality, Pornography, and Method: "Pleasure under Patriarchy"' (1989)
99 Ethics 314-346.
2. Gayle S. Rubin, 'Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality' (1984) Pleasure
and Danger 267-319.
3. Colette, Directed by Wash Westmoreland (30West, 2018)