Page - 47 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/02

Visionary Critique | 47www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/2, 45–66 the globe, as well as to the different ways in which men are affected by patri- archal structures. Also, as mentioned above, it has become clear that it is not sufficient to focus on gender in isolation from other factors that shape the lives of individuals: depending on its intersection with other categories such as class, religion, ethnicity or ability, gendered identity can take many different forms.5 Feminist analyses of work and capitalism have also shown the systemic disad- vantage of women in the labor market due to masculinized ideals of work and workers that create an “asymmetrical vulnerability of economic dependency” for women.6 Feminist and gender-sensitive ethics share numerous concerns with Christian social ethics, most and foremost the affirmation of the equal dignity of all human beings, the acknowledgement of being-in-relationship as a fundamentally human way of being with consequences for the understand- ing of subjectivity, intersubjective relationships and social relationships, the importance of family, the dignity of work as a form of self-expression as well as a means to meet the needs of oneself and one’s family, and a certain skep- ticism toward capitalist understandings of work and economic relationships.7 Besides these shared interests, however, feminist and gender studies have also critiqued in particular Catholic teaching on gender that promotes the naturali- zation of gender and a theory of essentialist gender complementarity with re- gard to gender roles, especially as far as parenthood and the division of wage work and care work are concerned.8 I will set the scene with some more general observations about the treat- ment of gender in the films by the Dardennes, and then focus on the analysis of Rosetta (1999) and Two Days, One Night (2014). I will argue that whereas Rosetta (1999) offers a critique of the damaging effects of the masculinized capitalist system on individuals and their relationships, Two Days, One Night (2014) can be understood as a vision of alternative possibilities of solidarity and women’s empowerment and agency even within the persistent context of mas- culinized capitalism. COMPLEXITY, AGENCY, AND DIVERSITY: GENDER IN THE FILMS BY THE DARDENNES Across their œuvre, the Dardennes are equally interested in male and female protagonists. Different from, for example, the camp approach to gender bend- ing of Pedro Almodóvar, whose films disrupt conventions by exaggerating 5 Cf. Kamitsuka 2007; Beattie/Fenton 2011. 6 Albrecht 2002, 143. 7 Cf. Albrecht 2002; Cahill 2011; Cahill 2014; Clark 2010; Scholz 1997. 8 Cf. Hinze 2009, 71–78.