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IntroductionAmerican commercial cinema currently fuels many aspects of society. In the
twenty-first century it has become available, active force in the perception of
gender relations in the United States. In the earlier part of this century
filmmakers, as well as the public, did not necessarily view the female“media
image” as an infrastructure of sex inequality. Today, contemporary audiences and
critics have become preoccupied with the role the cinema plays in shaping social
values, institutions, and attitudes. American cinema has become narrowly focused
on images of violent women, female sexuality, the portrayal of the “weaker sex”
and subversively portraying women negatively in film. “Double
Indemnity can be read in two ways. It is either a misogynist film about
a terrifying, destroying woman, or it is a film that liberates the female
character from the restrictive and oppressed melodramatic situation that render
her helpless” (Kolker 124). There are arguably two extreme portrayals of the
character of Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity; neither one
is an accurate or fare portrayal. Despite the fact that the character of Phyllis as the “tough as nails”
perpetual, intentional aggressor is a valid attempt to obliterate the
image of women as the oppressed, one interpretation of this role is that
she ultimately seems to misrepresent herself, and females in cinema, anyway.
Janet Todd, author of Women and Film, states that, “Women do not
exist in American film. Instead Double Indemnity, in its attempt to lend its female character
more strength and control, no longer situating her as the secure center
of the family, but rather its destroyer, ironically seems to highlight
a played-out submissive, weak, abused or lonely and alienated image of
Phyllis. The varieties of passive,subordinate or pacified women are classic
throughout the history of film. Janet Todd states, “Film teaches
us how to see and understand from the point of view of the dominant, male-orientated
ideology” (132). Cinema has found an audience for the portrayal
of the “weaker sex” (Todd 120). This is an
ConclusionThe issue of representation has been fundamental in the rising awareness of the portrayal of women in film. It can be argued that roles such as Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity are confusing in their attempt to leave viewers with a fare impression of the way women are perceived in the movies. The suspicion of shallowness that goes hand in hand with the sexuality that is so loosely portrayed on screen, the crazed “power woman”-though an exception to the classic sexual connotation- and the deterioration and misrepresentation of womanhood and positive role models in cinema, are examples of the unforgettable imprint women could be leaving on the screen. Characters such as Phyllis do not necessarily aim to capture the shimmering intelligence and wisdom of the woman, solely for what it is and not what money making Hollywood has made women out to be but, can be interesting and even compelling non the less. Whether or not Phyllis Dietrichson is perceived as the “bitch” aggressor or, the repressed waif, indeed weak and dependent, we can safely argue that these two extremes are not a great way to generalize women at all. Still, these narratives are often why we even bother watch film and for some of us, why we love film. It is important to remember that these images speak to our culture, the viewers and most importantly, each other. Ultimately we can only hope that in any context of femininity on screen, we pay to see these women because they are truly lovely in every sense, “and to experience an inner radiance that may find its form in outward grace” (Entertainment Weekly 65).
Works Cited
University of Minnesota Press, 1997. Francke, Lizzie. Script Girls. London,England: British Film Institute,
1994 Haskell, Molly. From Reverence to Rape. Westford, Massachusetts: The
Murray Printing Kulik, Sheila F. Home page. 17 Feb.
2000 Rosenberg, Jan. “Feminism into Film.” Diss. Empire State College,
1977 Sova, Dawn B. Women in Hollywood. New York: International Publishing
Corporation, 1998 Todd, Janet. Women and Film. Vol. 4. New York, NY: Holmes and Meier
Publishers, 1988.
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find another creation, made by men, growing out of their ideological imperatives”(130).
Though these “power girl”characters are strong examples of
anything but submissive and sexual females,they still were created as
images that misrepresent their existence as independent voices and rather
“the knife-wielder on the screen acting as surrogate for the masculine
sensibility enraged at the notion of female assertiveness” (Todd
130). Cassie Carter, author of Woman, Red in Tooth and Claw, makes an
interesting point stating, “The male avant-garde deliberately adopted
the image of the base and violent woman in order to free themselves of
the constricting image of the rational and civilized man…while the
male avant-garde presents the decadent state as liberating, feminist performance
artists who adopt Angry Essentialism often inadvertently reinforcea conception
of the ‘feminine’ which validates the oppression of women”(2).
Carter then further states, “Whilet hese performances attempt to
obliterate the image of woman as the oppressed,nurturing Earth Mother,
they merely invoke her mirror image, the Devouring Mother” (2).
example
of cinema’s skewed portrayal of “womanhood” in film,which
is often misrepresented as “homely” or “motherly”.
Though this may be a characteristic of the female instinct in some instances
persey, it is not a good generalization. For example, Timmy’s mother
in the popular series Lassie (1954), or Mrs. Cleaver in the classic
Leave it to Beaver (1958), are featured almost all of the time
in the kitchen cooking or busy with duties around the household. In fact,
if these type characters are not featured in the kitchen during the actual
act of cooking, cleaning, etc.… they are almost always seen,at any
given time, wearing the classic dress and apron attire. Todd also reminds
us “Since women constitute more than half that public, we are faced
with the troubling reality of an audience passively, even willingly, accepting
roles of its own degradation” (131). These are extreme examples
in classic film but they do illustrate to viewers how Hollywood seems
to be so identified with the maternal and simple values of these women.
Molly Haskell, author of, From Reverence to Rape, points out, “According
to society’s accepted role definitions, which films have always
reflected in microcosm, a woman is supposedly most herself in the throes
of emotion (the love of man or of children), and least herself, that is
least“womanly”, in the pursuit of knowledge or success”
(4). These types of roles are so common we accept that these characters
are distressingly naive and so fail to stun audiences,yet again, with
the shimmering intelligence and ingenue of an interesting female role
in cinema.