Screening the Hospital: Gendered Work in Contemporary Franco-Belgian Fiction Films

The workplace is a critical site in the social construction of gender that transforms cultural norms about gender into structurally ascribed and hierarchical power relationships. This article examines representations of hospital work in recent French and Belgian fiction films exploring the connections between idealized gender identities and the existence of profoundly unequal and stressful working conditions. Drawing on theoretical perspectives from performativity and the psychodynamics of work, the article examines the complex interplay between gender identity and occupation within three recent films. We will see that alongside structural hierarchy, gender divisions in a hospital setting are legitimized by a logic of urgent medical necessity. Following Judith Butler, the article aims to analyze and deconstruct naturalized gender representations, so that we can challenge the material inequalities to which they give rise.