Rachael Jefferson-Buchanan
New Netflix series The Empress has swiftly moved into the streaming site’s top 10 since its release at the end of September. It leaves viewers impatient for more, with its artistic framing of the female body and exploration of feminism, as we follow Elisabeth through her journey into womanhood.
Set in the mid-19th century, this royal romance documents the life of the Duchess Elisabeth of Bavaria.
She became the Empress consort of Austria and Queen of Hungary after marrying Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1854, at the tender age of sixteen.
The series captivates its audience through its lavish sets, opulent costumes, and thought-provoking characters, but it is Elisabeth who retains the spotlight due to her fierce feminist ways. These arise from her body language, her free-flow actions, and the way in which her physique is dissected by the camera.
When assembled together, these attributes depict Elisabeth’s dogged disruption of the Austrian royal family’s expected etiquette for women.
Bodily Misdemeanours
“represent the symbolic shedding of her corporeal confinement”
In each episode, Elisabeth is often found outside in nature, wandering barefoot and fancy-free. These moments come to represent the symbolic shedding of her corporeal confinement and her protest against feminine behaviour codes.
Whilst her sister, Helene, embraces the acceptable art of embroidery, Elisabeth runs unshod up and down palace steps and manicured palace lawns, and climbs trees in the dead of night to smoke in secret. The flamboyant discarding of her footwear releases her from the restrictions of her shoe prison – much to the horror of the onlooking court entourage.
When visiting an iron foundry to meet the labourers, Elisabeth spies a barefoot girl in appalling working conditions and spontaneously gives away her own shoes to her, choosing to walk barefoot back to her royal coach. However, her protégé, Countess Esterhazy, insists that a guard must carry her, which leads to tempestuous verbal and physical protestations from Elisabeth.
Elisabeth’s barefoot adventures also extend to her fast and furious horse-riding escapades. One of these involves her fleeing from a prospective suitor at her childhood home, dressed only in a white nightgown and coat as her long hair streams behind her whilst she gallops away to freedom.
“unladylike behaviour is interrupted”
Another memorable moment is when Elisabeth lies down by herself in the Emperor’s palace, leisurely caressing the wooden floor with her fingertips. Her unladylike behaviour is interrupted by her future husband, Emperor Franz, who is fascinated by her impropriety and eventually joins her to enjoy the cool of the floorboards.
At an earlier point, on arrival at the palace with her mother and sister, there is a close-up of Elisabeth stroking a statue’s hand in the palace foyer, eyeing it with childlike curiosity. Her mother admonishes her and breaks her sensory experience, grounding her in palace protocol. But later, when alone, Elisabeth returns to the same location. The camera moves from her handling of the marble staircase rails to her bare feet sensing the carpeted stairs, as she loses herself once again in bodily reverie.
Fertility and Vulnerability
As a royal vessel for future children, Elisabeth has to endure the conventional purity and fertility test from the court doctor and the Archbishop before her marriage to the Emperor is sanctioned.
Elisabeth becomes overwhelmed with violent emotions during this rather public ordeal, kicking the doctor and yelling “Get off me!”. In a subsequent court gathering, Elisabeth exclaims to the Archbishop and others that her body has been sullied: “It felt like two men looking under my frock”.
“invites them to recognise her as a women, rather than as an imperial divinity”
Yet, it is in the closing scene of the series that the audience is reminded of Elisabeth’s oneness with her blossoming fertility. As she drops to the floor in a deep curtsey to the protestors at the palace gates, her skirts softly billow around her. Declaring “I see you”, she invites them to recognise her as a woman rather than as an imperial divinity, sharing news of her pregnancy with them before she has even alerted her husband.
Rejection of Gendered Expectations and Relevance to Today
“uses her body to rail against the gendered expectations”
In framing and anatomising the Empress’s body via an array of camera angles and close-ups, Elisabeth is bestowed with an authenticity that other characters lack in this period drama. However, these intimate filming techniques also illustrate how she uses her body to rail against the gendered expectations that she experiences as a new member of the Viennese aristocracy.
It was only a few decades ago that Princess Diana (often referred to as ‘the people’s princess’) was also reconciling herself with the repressive conventions of the British monarchy, as she was made to undertake a virginity test before she could wed the then Prince Charles.
In this sense, Elisabeth’s historic struggles remain pertinent to the rules and rituals in contemporary royal circles.
Featured image courtesy of Mariana JM via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes have been made to this image.
Dr Rachael Jefferson-Buchanan
I am a lecturer in Human Movement Studies (Health and PE) and Creative Arts within Charles Sturt University's School of Education on the Albury-Wodonga campus. I hold a BEd (Hons) in physical education, dance and special educational needs, and an MA in dance studies. I gained a PhD at Charles Sturt University in 2019; my thesis was entitled: ‘A genealogy of the governance of the body in physical education in England from 1902 to 2016’. I have more than thirty years of experience in education, which has involved designing, teaching and leading physical education and arts activities. During this period, I have fought tirelessly for inclusion, particularly in terms of gender and ethnicity. In 2020 I worked as the senior international expert on a UNICEF-Montrose project in Myanmar, creating modules and teacher training materials for the 'Playing Sports Together' project. This programme supported all students, from diverse communities, studying in schools in Rakhine State, with the overarching goal of contributing to inclusion and a sense of togetherness, through educational activities. My research interests include physical education, sport, PE/sport pedagogy and policy, inclusion (gender, ethnicity), sociology, genealogy (body governance), fundamental movement skills, dance, mindfulness, and yoga. I have extensive experience in writing and leading professional development for teachers within the UK and for several years I have taken on a more international role as the lead consultant for physical education in Cambridge Assessment International Education/Cambridge University Press Asian (Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Myanmar) and Nile Egyptian schools projects. Moreover, I was the UK consultant for Fundamental Movement Skills (STEPS PD) for 5 years, which served to intensify my passion for working with teachers, students and children in the early years sector. This role was also a catalyst for the writing of my book: ‘Fundamental Fun: 132 activities to develop fundamental movement skills’, as well as my PhD research. I love to contribute articles in the media and have written engaging pieces for The Age and The Conversation on gender and sport.