In the previous movies we have watched and in Tompkins book ¬West of Everything the role of women in the west has always been seen as very minimal. As Tompkins stated in West of Everything “the message, in the case of Tess Millay, as in the case of women in Westerns generally, is that there’s nothing to them” (61). Tompkins analysis of the women’s role in westerns is that they weren’t really there for much. Many times the alpha-male cowboy wouldn’t even end up with them because he would choose to roam the Western landscape instead. “…As in many westerns, women are the motive for male activity (it’s women who are being avenged, it’s women the men are trying to rescue) at the same time as what women stand for – love and forgiveness in place of vengeance – is precisely what the activity denies” (41). Women are the ones at home, they are not seen as being as powerful and as strong as men, they often try to speak but the alpha-males silence over powers them leaving their voice unheard. The only time they usually came into play is if a man was trying to save/protect them or they were trying to get a man not to leave town. “The Ballad of Little Jo” and “High Noon” are two western films that show different views towards women and their status at that time.
The Ballad of Little Jo opens up with the quote “In the Wild West a woman only had two choices: she could be a wife or she could be a whore. Josephine Monaghan chose to be a man.” This movie depicts the women’s role in society as very similar to what Tompkins saw it as and that was that men hold the superior role. Josephine slept with the man who took their family portrait and got pregnant with a child out of wedlock. After having the child her family kicked her out of the house, so she left the baby with her sister Helen and began to travel west alone. When she is traveling alone she is picked up by a man, who ends up selling her to two “soldiers.” Showing that at the time women weren’t viewed as much more than an object. She manages to get away from them but she realizes that she is not going to make it being a woman, alone in the West because the same thing will happen again. So she decides her only option is to disguise herself as a man. As stated in the quote earlier, woman in this movie were portrayed as being either a wife or a whore, and neither of those were what Josephine wanted to be. So she disobeyed the law (dressing improper to your sex) and became a “man” because this is the only way she felt she could be taken seriously. This just reinforces the role that women had, they would not be taken seriously by the men in town because their role was not to speak or have input in issues. They were there as more of a “housewife,” but Jo stepped outside of that norm to make a different life for herself.
In “High Noon” there are two women that play a role in the movie: Amy Kane, the marshal’s wife, and Helen Ramirez. Amy plays the role of a more typical western woman in the beginning of the movie, but as the movie goes on she steps more out of this role. Her and Will had just got married and were getting ready to move away when he hears that Frank Miller is coming to town. So he puts aside his recent marriage to go back to town even though Amy told him if he won’t leave with her then she is going to leave on the noon train. She tells him “not to try and be a hero, you don’t have to be a hero for me.” Just as many women of the time, they can’t get their man to change his mind no matter how much they vocalize their want for him to stay. While she is waiting to leave she talks to Helen Ramirez. Helen is a very well-know women in the town, she is very outspoken and well-respected. She also owns a shop, all of these being unusual qualities of a woman during this time period. Helen does what she wants to do, there is one point in the movie were Harvey puts his hands on her and she tells him that she doesn’t like people to put their hands on her unless she wants them too and she doesn’t want him to, then she slaps him. She doesn’t understand how Amy can leave Will at a time like this; she said if it were her man she wouldn’t leave his side, she would get a gun and fight with him. This goes against Tompkins analysis of women at the time because she said “the temperance ladies talk and talk; that is all they do. It never comes to shooting.” (63) This goes to show the changing attitudes of women at the time because Amy ends up coming back for Will and ultimately saving his life by shooting one of the men attacking him and fighting back from the other that held her hostage.
The three main women characters in these films all showed that the attitudes of women were changing. They were finally beginning to stand up for themselves and not take a back seat to men. One of Tompkins final analysis’s of women at the time was that “when they do have a history with the genre, women are split into two camps: those who identified with the hero and those who didn’t or couldn’t” (16).Women never played a major role, but Jo went against all that was thought about women by dressing as a man and proving that she could live the unforgiving life of a man and take on a main role. The one thing I do believe Tompkins analyzed the was showed in these two films is that women do still tend to show their feelings more than males, even as each of these women did things men did. Like shooting a gun for example, you could see Amy show emotion after she shot someone whereas an action like this never phases a man in the west.
In the previous films we have watched and in Tompkins book ¬West of Everything the role of women in the west is always very minimal. As Tompkins argues, in West of Everything, “the message, in the case of Tess Millay, as in the case of women in Westerns generally, is that there’s nothing to them” (61). Tompkins analysis of women’s roles in classic westerns is that they are not there to play a major role. The alpha-male cowboy usually does not end up with a woman because he chooses to roam the western landscape instead. In classic westerns the women’s role is as a housekeeper and mother. They are not seen as being strong and powerful like men. When they speak the alpha-males silence often overpowers them leaving their voice unheard. “The Ballad of Little Jo” and “High Noon” show the changing role of women in the west in correlation to their changing roles in society during that time.
ReplyDeleteThe Ballad of Little Jo opens up with the quote “In the Wild West a woman only had two choices: she could be a wife or she could be a whore. Josephine Monaghan chose to be a man.” The traditional view of women in the west is a housewife, but if they aren’t a housewife then they are a whore. Josephine had been disowned by her family so her options were very limited. She did not want to be a wife or a whore so she disobeyed the law (dressing improper to your sex) and became a “man.” This is the only way she felt she could be taken seriously by the men in the town. This just reinforces the minimal role women had and that the only way she could be taken seriously by man was to be a man. In order to have input you had to be a man. The Ballad of Little Jo was made in the nineties when women were starting to effectively challenge male dominance and until Jo’s death she had effectively challenged male superiority in the town.
In “High Noon” there are two women that play a prominent role: Amy Kane, the marshal’s wife, and Helen Ramirez. In the beginning Amy plays the role of a more traditional woman. She is a Quaker and swears off violence. She just recently married Will and they were getting ready to move away, but when Frank Miller returns to town Will tells Amy he must return to his position as Marshal. Amy threatens to leave him if he goes back which coincides with the time period because failed marriages (divorces) were becoming more prominent. Women were becoming more independent and didn’t feel as though they had to rely on a male. Even though Amy doesn’t end up leaving Will and ultimately saves his life by shooting one of the men who was attacking him. While she is waiting to leave she talks to Helen Ramirez. Helen is a very well-know women in the town, she is very outspoken and well-respected. She also owns a shop, all of these being unusual qualities of a woman during this time period. But during this time women were taking on the men’s jobs while they went off to fight in the war. Helen does what she wants to do and there is one point in the movie were Harvey puts his hands on her and she tells him that she doesn’t like people to put their hands on her unless she wants them too and she doesn’t want him to, then she slaps him. She doesn’t understand how Amy can leave Will at a time like this; she said if it were her man she wouldn’t leave his side, she would get a gun and fight with him. This goes against Tompkins analysis of women at the time because she said “the temperance ladies talk and talk; that is all they do. It never comes to shooting.” (63) Amy contradicts her religion and acts with her own moral compass based on responsibility/duty.
One of Tompkins final analysis’s of women is “when they do have a history with the genre, women are split into two camps: those who identified with the hero and those who didn’t or couldn’t” (16).Women typically did not play a major role in classic westerns, but Jo went against the traditional view of women by dressing as a man and proving that she could handle the unforgiving life a man lives in the west. Even though women begin to take on changing roles in western films, especially revisionist westerns, they still tend to show their feelings more than males. One thing Tompkins makes a point of is the difference between male and females use of language/emotion in the west. Amy takes on a more masculine role when she shoots and kills a man, but after she shots him she shows her emotions whereas an action like this would never phase a man in the west.
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