Bryan Forbes,
The Stepford Wives,
& Feminism in 1970s
Hollywood
A bit on Forbes
The League of Gentlemen
(1959)
1975
Shot on location in Connecticut
A collaboration of Forbes and screenwriter William Goldman
Lily Boruzkowski on The Stepford Wives
While the 1970s were a time of strides in the women’s movement, Hollywood was stuck in the past
Film not popular with audiences
Critics did not like how men were portrayed
Horror genre + social problem genre = innovative ??
Freudian Concepts
Male vs. Female Recreation
The film acts as a means of protecting the patriarchy and oppressing women
Men make the women sexual/domestic objects
Diz as Freud
Joanna stabbing Bobbie as a metaphor for castration
Lacanian Concepts
Joanna sees “mirror” image of herself
The new Joanna is like Lacan’s idea of the woman
She lacks intelligence and language skills due to her lack of phallus
2 paths after the feminine realization
Fashion as a vehicle of change
Fun Facts
You decide: feminist or not?
The Hollywood New Wave
Films starring women,
made for women,
made by men
An Unmarried Woman (1978)
Paul Mazursky
Paul Mazursky on An Unmarried Woman
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)
Martin Scorsese
Women Take on the New Wave
The Working Girls (1974)
Stephanie Rothman
“The Male Gaze”
Laura Mulvey
Hollywood is centered around the patriarchy and “the male gaze”
Looking represents sexuality
Therefore, a female spectator viewing a film is seeing through the eyes of the male
Women need to “destroy the patriarchy” and break the male gaze
Riddles of the Sphinx (1977)
Laura Mulvey