In Defence of Poor Things

When Poor Things hit the screen, it split opinions like a sharp corset. Some saw a feminist fever dream. Others cried exploitation dressed in arthouse velvet.

Since the film’s release in 2023, there has been so much discussion already, and I’m not here to repeat what has already been said or tickbox what made it feminist or not. I don’t know whether it was feminist or not. I do know that it touched me. This is a small and happy piece about why.

A moment for Bella Baxter

I loved Poor Things- first and foremost because I loved the protagonist, Bella Baxter, and maybe just loving a female character, as a woman yourself, is one of the most natural feminist responses there can be.

I found her character endearing, hilarious, unconventional, self-assured, courageous, unashamedly sexual, and genuinely joyful about life.

This film is an absurdist, fantastical and stylised coming-of-age (the costumes and set design- wow), with a fascinating concept at its heart.

Poor Things is about a woman reborn with no shame, no social script, and no internalised male gaze.

This means that first: Bella hasn’t been weighed down by generations of sexual conditioning. Where others saw a male-directed fantasy of a hyper-sexual woman, I saw a woman untouched by damaging patriarchal ideas, with a natural and fearless appetite for pleasure.

Bella’s character really highlighted to me just how skewed our societal views on sex are.

Poor Things didn’t teach me that the limiting, judgmental rules invented by the patriarchy around women and sex are appalling (I already knew that), but it did remind me how utterly absurd they are. These viewpoints are vapid, bizarre, and completely contrived.

When people slut-shame, obsess over ‘body count,’ or judge a woman for being openly sexual, I just want to scream: it’s just bodily pleasure! It’s as natural as eating or drinking- it’s not harming anyone! How are you so easily swayed by the moral codes of our time? Bella, to me, was the physical embodiment of that truth.

Bella is so powerfully oblivious to society’s judgments that it exposes just how unnatural those ideas really are. Fresh to the world, she simply doesn’t recognise them, and in doing so, makes their absurdity glaringly obvious.

Bella discovers sex work

This same theme of Bella highlighting the backwardness of certain societal viewpoints continues when she discovers sex work.  Her immediate reaction is Wait… I can actually survive by having sex?

I loved how Bella’s character portrayed a woman who’s less concerned with who she has sex with and more focused on her own bodily pleasure. Don’t get me wrong, I love emotionally connected, heartfelt intimacy as much as anyone, but there’s a huge myth that women can’t, or don’t, enjoy sex in a way that’s almost anomalistically centred on their own physical satisfaction, with no deeper emotional attachment.

And when they do, they fall into the ‘bad’ category. By the Cambridge Dictionary definition, a woman who has sex without emotional involvement is called a ‘slut.’ Bella’s ability to prioritise her own self-satisfaction without shame or concern for male desire felt incredibly refreshing.

Poor things is a big  fuck you  to a society that wants to strip women of their human instinct.

Bella, with her pure, untainted perspective and no wider social conditioning, doesn’t see the decision to do sex work as the most shameful choice a woman could make- she sees it as the best option.

She’s simply thrilled that something offering the greatest pleasure she’s yet discovered could also be a form of work, like getting paid to eat cake.

She’s equally delighted to be, in her words, her ‘own means of production’, a line that has resonated with many sex workers and highlights how, for Bella, using the erotic for her own liberation and independence is an act of strength.

Bella doesn’t yet understand how sex work has been shaped by systems that make it far more dangerous and exploitative than it needs to be. But her unknowing perspective reminds us of how different it could be- and why we should keep working toward that vision.

The film isn’t an ode to sex work or a romanticised portrayal of it, and Bella doesn’t stay at the brothel forever. Over time, her enjoyment fades, partly because she’s not working in conditions that allow her real agency to choose her clients. She also has other dreams and ambitions.

But we’re given a nuanced depiction- not just of the work itself, but of a sex worker’s evolving attitude and experience. There are moments when Bella enjoys her work, moments when she doesn’t, and moments when she’s bored, moments of sexual intimacy outside her work, moments of non-sexual intimacy inside her work.

Her relationship to sex work shifts over time, and her individual experience isn’t some neat, simple binary of good or bad- how can anyone ever reduce it to something so simplistic?

Still, I get the sense that, looking back, Bella wouldn’t regret her decision to do sex work. It was a step toward her freedom.

No one puts Bella in a corner

It’s understandable why some viewers might feel uneasy. A male director and a largely male crew, a woman protagonist with the mind of a child and an insatiable appetite for sex- this can be troubling. And yes, some find it ironic that Bella is supposedly free from the male gaze, yet the film is written and directed by men.

But the men who objectify Bella’s vulnerability are not portrayed favorably. This is most clearly depicted through Mark Ruffalo’s character, Duncan Wedderburn. His attraction to her is not romanticized; instead, it’s shown as misguided and absurd. His character is written as a creep, and worse, just ridiculous.

I believe we’re supposed to be repulsed by how they sexualise her innocence. Moreover, Yorgos has written Bella as someone who simply doesn’t care about Duncan. She doesn’t let him control her and walks away from him. In fact, she leaves every man who tries to dominate her. She refuses to conform to their expectations or desires, and that’s part of what makes her so powerful.

What I find so wonderful is that, no matter her circumstances- whether she’s being chased by Duncan or working in the brothel under the madam’s rule- Bella’s mind remains free. Her freedom, above all else, is unbreakable.

Emma Stone also created Bella

While the critique of a male director creating unrealistic female characters is absolutely valid- and a point well-taken throughout the history of film- it seems to often overlook the women who bring these characters to life.

Emma Stone is not just a vessel. Her performance is precise, unique, and often devastating. Crucially, her interpretation adds another layer to the authorship.

Watching her in this role, we see a woman shaping a character from the inside out, imbuing Bella with both physical and emotional intelligence that goes beyond the script. It’s not simply a man’s fantasy on display.

Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone together created a character who resonated with me deeply. She made me feel seen, strong, proud of my authenticity, sexuality and independent attitude as a woman.

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Iso

Author

Iso is a writer and filmmaker based in East London. She is passionate about all things erotic and leads a sexy, shame-free life in hope that she can inspire others to do the same. Originally from a Northern seaside town, she is naturally drawn to the best things in life: candyfloss, trashy karaoke bars and heart-shaped sunglasses.