Woman in Film and History

Are women really equal to men? Throughout history women have not been equal to men, especially in the early history of America. It wasn’t until the 1920’s that the fight for woman’s rights showed much progress. In the early 1920’s the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed, this Amendment theoretically gave American women the right to vote. Even though women were granted some rights at this time they were still viewed as inferior to their male counterparts. After watching the three movies Splendor in the Grass, Attack of the 50 Ft Woman, and Rear Window it became quite obvious that women during the late 1920’s and even up through the 1960’s were still oppressed and viewed as lower beings. So even though women were granted some rights in the 1920’s, they continued to try to gain more rights up until about the mid- 1900’s. When suburbia started to boom in the 1950’s women started to cling more to the securities they had than fight for rights, by doing so they started to fall more into the stereotypes that were set into place for them at the time.


The movie Splendor in the Grass is about the conventional role of women in relationships and their conflicts with their sexual urges. The main female character in this movie is Wilma Dean “Deanie” Loomis and the “love of her life”, Bud Stamper. As the movie opens we find Deanie and Bud in the front seat of his car kissing. The scene continues and you see Bud attempting to remove Deanie’s clothes, she immediately refuses him telling him “I’m not ready”. Bud gets out of the car acts quite frustrated with her; in the background behind him you can see a waterfall, which is symbolic of female sexuality. Once she arrives home Deanie has a conversation with her mother about these sexual feelings that she has. Her mother tells her that it is not natural for a woman to feel this way; nice girls only have sex with their husbands to give him pleasure and have children. As the movie continues Deanie is fighting with whether or not to follow the conventional ways of her mother, or follow her heart and give Bud what he wants. This correlation can be seen between the flapper generation and the women suffragists’ generation. The flappers expressed themselves very sexually; whereas the women suffragists were more conservative and wanted equality with men. As the battle rages on in Deanie’s head between conservative or not Bud has gone off to find Juanita who seems to portray this movies ideal of a flapper. Once Deanie found out about this she decides to go against the conventional stereotypes of women at the time and moved towards the security that Bud provides. To gain Bud’s security though she must give herself up to whatever he wishes, after she does though he rejects her saying that she is too nice of a girl to do that. This rejection causes Deanie’s sense of self to crumble and send her into hysteria. By bending to what Bud wanted she gave up her sense of self along with her parent’s conventional ways. Buds rejection leaves her emotionally distraught, she feels that she has nothing left so she tries to commit suicide by swimming off the waterfall seen earlier. This act seems to symbolize that this tension inside of her because her sexuality is going to lead her to her death. A group of men save her right before she plunges over the waterfall; she is then condemned to a mental hospital by her parents. I viewed the mental hospital as the reformation of her security; it was a place from where she was protected from the outside and able to find herself again. When she ends up finding a man to marry inside the hospital, showing that she had found a man who had security she could cling to. As we moved into Attack of the 50 Ft Woman you can also see this search for security throughout the movie.


In the second movie Attack of the 50 Ft Woman the search for security and just to fit in is quite apparent. The movie opens with the main female character Nancy Archer driving through the desert on her way home from a night on the town. While driving along this desert highway she comes across a satellite that has landed on the road, inside is a 30 Ft man who tries to steal her necklace. She runs back into town where she encounters the sheriff who believes that she is drunk and is just seeing things. Right here in this opening scene you get the sense that this woman is somewhat of an outcast in this town. You later find out that she has already been committed to a mental hospital once. When she comes into town claiming that she has seen a 30 Ft giant in the desert the sheriff tries to locate her husband, Harry, who is off with his lover Honey and really doesn’t want to be disturbed. Harry wants to run off with Honey, but they first need to get Nancy out of the picture. So when Harry finds out that she has claiming to have seen a giant he leaps at the chance to put her back in the asylum. The doctor tells him though that she just needs some rest and her husband. Once Nancy is up and moving again she and Harry have a conversation about their relationship, this conversation produces one of the most significant quotes of the movie. Nancy tells Harry “I just want you all to myself”. This is really saying that she feels she is losing the security that he provides for her and that she needs to get it back. Through the rest of the film Nancy was outcast by her husband and the rest of the town. They not only outcast her when she claimed that there was a giant in the desert but also when she was abducted and grew to be 50 Ft. No matter what she did to prove her sanity or loyalty, she still seemed to fall into the stereotype at the time that the women were to do what the men said. Men’s comments about women were viewed as absolute truth, so when the men of the town said that Nancy was crazy everyone believed this. In the film Rear Window this fighting of stereotypes can also be seen.


In the movie Rear Window there are a lot of stereotypes placed upon the main female character of Lisa Freemont. There is also the undertone that she wants security from her boyfriend the main character, L.B. Jefferies. Lisa is portrayed as a woman who fell into the stereotype of a woman only wants to get married and a high class snobbish woman who only cares about clothes and shoes. This is a stereotype that was highly stressed upon by Mr. Jefferies, when they have their conversation about their future and why they shouldn’t get married. He tells her that his only thing to do in life is to go off to distant countries and take photos, he mentions that this is no life for her and that she wouldn’t be able to handle it. They seem to be having a lot of troubles throughout the entire movie, until Mr. Jefferies thinks he witnesses a murder across the courtyard. When Lisa takes an interest in the murder Mr. Jefferies takes more notice of her and she that gives her security in their relationship. She continues to do things that seem out of character to keep her boyfriends interest in her. In the end of the movie they have grown together, she seems to have found the relationship she was looking for and it appears that his idea of her role in the relationship has changed.


Throughout history there have been stereotypes and restrictions placed upon the women of our society. In the 1950’s when suburbia started to really boom all around the United States these stereotypes really started to show through in the culture of the time. As these stereotypes started to be a burden on the women of those times, they began to look for security in the men around them. All of these issues can be seen in the movies Splendor in the Grass, Attack of the 50 Ft Woman, and Rear Window. In each of these films the main female character is faced with a challenge of how they should conform to the man in their life, while trying not to play into these stereotypes around them. In the end each woman falls into these stereotypes in some fashion and really rely on the security provided to them by their man. By doing so they forfeit a lot of their individuality and the rights that their fore mothers had been fighting for.

Woman in Film and History Draft

Are woman really equal to men? Throughout history woman have not been equal to men, especially in the early history of America. It wasn’t until the 1920’s that the fight for woman’s rights progressed anywhere. In the early 1920’s the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed, this Amendment gave American woman some rights. Even though women were granted some rights at this time they were still viewed as inferior to their male counterparts. After watching the three movies Splendor in the Grass, Attack of the 50 Ft Woman, and Rear Window it became quite obvious that women during the late 1920’s and even up through the 1950’s were still oppressed and viewed as lower and dense. So even though women were granted some rights in the 1920’s, they continued to try to gain more rights up until about the mid- 1900’s. When suburbia started to boom in the 1950’s woman started to cling more to the securities they had than fight for rights, by doing so they started to fall more into the stereotypes that were set into place for them at the time.



The movie Splendor in the Grass is about the conventional role of woman in relationships and their conflicts with their sexual urges. The main female character in this movie is Deanie Loomis and the “love of her life” is Bud Stamper. As the movie opens we find Deanie and Bud in the front see of his car kissing. The scene continues and you see Bud attempting to remove Deanie’s clothes, she immediately refuses him telling him “I’m not ready”. Bud gets out of the car being quite frustrated with her; in the background behind him you can see a waterfall which is symbolic of female sexuality. Once she arrives home Deanie has a conversation with her mother about these sexual feeling that she had. Her mother tells her that it is not natural for a woman to feel this way; nice girls only have sex with their husband to give him pleasure and have children. As the movie continues Deanie is fighting with whether or not to follow the conventional ways of her mother, or follow her heart and give Bud what he wants. This was the same correlation that can be seen between the flapper generation and the women suffrage generation. The flappers expressed themselves very sexually; where as the women suffragists were more conservative and wanted equality to men. As the battle rages on in Deanie’s head between conservative or not Bud has gone off to find Juanita who seems to portray a flapper. Once Deanie find out about this she decides to go against the conventional stereotypes of woman at the time and more towards the security that Bud provides. To gain Bud’s security though she must give herself up to whatever he wishes, after she does though he rejects her saying that she is too nice of a girl to do that. This rejection causes Deanie’s security to crumble and send her into hysteria. By deciding to go with Bud she gave up the security of her parents by disregarding their conventional ways, and being rejected by Bud leaves her with no security at all. She views that she has nothing left so she tries to commit suicide off the waterfall from earlier. This act seems to symbolize that this tension inside of her because of her sexuality is going to lead her to her death. A group of men save her right before she plunges over the waterfall, she is then condemned to a mental hospital by her parents. I viewed the mental hospital as the reformation of her security; it was a place from where she was protected from the outside and able to find herself again. When she ends up finding a man to marry inside the hospital, showing that she had found a man who had security she could cling to. As we moved into Attack of the 50 Ft Woman you can also see this search of security throughout the movie.