Promising Young Women and the White Noise of Patriarchy

Noticing that, in The Second Sex , Simone de Beauvoir deftly describes patriarchy as a male sensorium encompassing vision, smell, touch, taste, and sound, this article focuses on the way feminist directors utilize sound in film and television. Three examples—Chantal Akerman’s 1968 Blow Up My Town , Emerald Fennell’s 2020 Promising Young Woman , and Michaela Coel’s 2020 I May Destroy You —show how feminist media showcases the white noise of patriarchy to reorient the ears of its audience to hear the way feminists do.