From Reverence to Rape Female Stars of the 1940s

By Molly Haskell

"From Reverence to Rape" takes a tough look at sex and sexism in the
movies and, in so doing, tells us as much about our culture and ourselves as
it does about our films. For the treatment of women in the movies is more
than a question of art or entertainment. If films have flattered and amused
us, reflecting our most cherished beliefs, they have also distorted truth and
reinforced delusions, perpetuating stereotypes and molding values.
Haskell draws on her amazing knowledge and understanding of
American film to comment witheringly upon the ways producers, directors,
and critics from the 1920s and onward have treated women. Still, within the
attack her passionate love of films and the women who appear in them
shines through. For example, in a lovely passage on Greta Garbo, Haskell
claims that the actresss appeal, however provocatively she might array
herself, was romantic rather than sexual, and that is the reason women liked
her. Her spirit leaped first and her body, in total exquisite accord, leaped
after. She yearned not for pleasure in bed but for love in eternity.
Appreciations with this much sensitivity and vigor are as hard to find as a
critic

who

can

imaginatively

process

lifetime

of

movie-watching

experiences. Moreover, Haskell discusses the larger social significance of the

male cinema and male criticism she often finds so infantile. At one point,
despairing over critics who either ignore actresses or transform them into
love objects, Haskell bemoans the critics immaturity as one of the more
common and less endearing manifestations of the eternal adolescence that
hangs on the American male--who, by the time he is mature enough to
appreciate a woman, is almost ready to retire from the arena. There are a
few good years in which he can both appreciate and operate, but not enough
(particularly with the current defections from heterosexuality) to satisfy the
female population, which may be why more and more women are turning to

each other, or to themselves. This fine book, as loving and funny as it is

angry, is a must for movie fans as well as anyone interested in gender
issues.
One

particularly

influential

chapter

in From

Reverence

to

Rape discusses the genre of the "woman's film".

As Haskell points out, woman's film could be a compensation for "all
the dominated universes from which she has been excluded: the gangster
film, the Western, the war film, the policier, the rodeo film, the adventure
film." A woman's film is also more self-pitying in comparison to the male
adventure film which Raymond Durgnat calls the "male weepies." The man's
film abstracts the times before settling down, when men were battling nature
or the enemy. Marriage becomes the killjoy. "All the excitement of life occurs
outside of marriage. At a soap opera level, which Haskell considers the
lowest level, a woman's film "fills a masturbatory need, it is soft-core
emotional porn for the frustrated housewife." These "weepies" are focused
on "self-pity and tears, to accept, rather than reject".

Woman's film characters:

Three types of women characters appear in the woman's film, according to
Haskell:

The Extraordinary woman - For example, characters played

by Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis. These women portray strong,

powerful figures.
The Ordinary woman - These women are common, passive, and often a

victim. They are precursors to soap opera characters.

The Ordinary who becomes extraordinary woman.
The victims who rise, or endure.

Woman's film themes:

Haskell contends, "The domestic and the romantic are entwined, one
redeeming the other, in the theme of self-sacrifice, which is the mainstay and
oceanic force, high tide and low ebb, of the woman's film".
Sacrifice:

A woman must sacrifice herself for her children.

Her children for their own welfare.
Marriage for her lover.
Her lover for marriage or for his own welfare.
Her career for love.
Love for her career.

In the 1930s and 40's most films end tragically.

Affliction:

Women holds a secret. An illness or disease.

Martyrdom is proportionate to guilt.

Choice:

Normally two suitors.

Commonly the male is only curable by "her." The man is a clergyman
or confirmed bachelor.

Competition:

The heroine must do battle with the woman whose (husband, fiance,
lover) she loves.