MB "High Noon" and "The Ballad of Little Jo"

Within typical western film the role of women is greatly over shadowed by the alpha male cowboys physical dominance. Within the film High Noon(1952) and The Ballad of Little Jo(1993), women become empowered. In High Noon Mrs. Kane and Ms. Ramirez, have powerful roles and in The Ballad of Little Jo Josephine becomes very powerful.

Marshall Kane in High Noon was not the typical alpha male hero of the film. Kane had a very difficult time finding support for his pose to take on Frank Miller. Kane's newly wedded wife Amy Kane also stood up to her husband. Mrs. Kane was a Quaker whose religion does not support violence. In what is just minutes after her wedding she defies the common women role of supporting her husband and tells him she is leaving on the next train and that Mr. Kane can join her if he wants to act civilized. Mrs. Kane stands up to him because she does not get why the alpha male cowboy, as Tompkins states, "would rather die than settle the argument by talking to each other"(64). Unlike most of the westerns we have viewed Mrs. Kane is a very powerful women because she is not afraid to speak her mind and stand up to her husband. Unlike most women she does not blindly follow their every action.

Also in High Noon, Helen Ramirez is not your typical women or even outsider. Helen is a Mexican women who is wealthy and has extended stock within the town of Hadlyville. Helen owns the local store and has the respect from many of the local business men. Helen also is a women who speaks her mind and lets her mind/actions be heard by everyone. For example when Harvey tries to "handle" Helen she hits him and lets him know that she doesnt want to be touched. She slaps Harvey to let him know that she not he is in control. This approach by Helen did not involve any words but rather physical actions much like the alpha male cowboy. As Tompkins would state " Control is the key word here. Not speaking demonstrates control not only over feelings but over one's physical boundaries as well."

In The Ballad of Little Jo, Josephine bares a wed locked child and is forced to head west. Upon her journey she realizes that a women sticks out within the west and decides it would be better to disguise herself as a man. As Tompkins states, "To be a man is not only to be monolithic, silent, mysterious, impenetrable as a desert butte, it is to be the desert butte"(57). Jo dresses like a man and even had her own homestead. When her secret as a women does become uncovered she is not afraid to kill to protect her identity as a woman. Jo's character acts like a man and even has the entire town believe that she is a man until that day that she dies. Her role is exactly like that of the typical alpha male cowboy.