Grace Kelly is To-Be-Looked-At.

Charlotte’s post mentioned some confusion about how and why Lisa became a subject only after appearing in the neighbor's window, when the separation of the window turned all of the neighbors into objects. I had some difficulty with the subjective/objective thing myself, but interpreted the Lisa issue as follows: when Lisa was behaving like his girlfriend, showing up at his apartment in pretty dresses, he was unable to identify with her. She was only something perfect to look at—perfect not only in physical appearance, but in social appearance as well, because she is successful, well-liked, well-mannered, and she always seems to know how to create the perfect evening. He sees her only as an object, and not really as a person.

It was not just the act of appearing in the window that granted Lisa subjectivity—she was behaving as the protagonist, the (usually male) hero of the film that was being acted out in the window before Jeff’s eyes. He himself was immobilized and could not investigate the salesman’s apartment. So Lisa did it for him. Much in the same way as when we watch a traditional detective film, we ourselves cannot leave our seats in the auditorium to investigate the scene of the crime, so we identify with the detective as he does it for us. By assuming this (traditionally male) role of detective, Lisa became a subject to Jeff.

The other thing that struck me about Lisa (I mean, the other academic thing, because mostly what struck me about Lisa was that she looked fantastic in every scene, which, I suppose, is a point in and of itself) was that she very literally interrupts the narrative with her to-be-looked-at-ness. On the evening when the dog dies, Jeff has spent almost all of their evening together staring out the window, and nothing she says can distract him. Until she comes out dressed in her nightgown. That one moment in which he is distracted by her beauty is precisely the moment when the woman across the way screams because her dog has been killed. Lisa distracted the eyes of both Jeff and the audience from an important development in the plot.