The Great Katharine Hepburn has relocated to margaretperry.org, where you will find even more amazing reviews and commentaries on films from the classic era to today!
The post is written in honour of International Women's Day 2015. Scroll to the bottom for more information about how you can be part of the fight against sexism and gender inequality.
A WOMAN REBELS (1936) is about a Pamela Thistlewaite (Katharine Hepburn), a young woman in Victorian England who must raise her illegitimate daughter as her dead sister’s child. Because she is unmarried and doesn’t wish to live with her domineering, unfeeling father, she decides to find work and raise her child on her own. Hepburn’s character is like Hepburn’s own mother, who must rebel against the Victorian gender roles imposed upon her by her older male relatives in order to pursue her way as an autonomous woman. Hepburn’s character has two love interests in the film, both of whom have very few scenes and lines in comparison with Hepburn’s character. Neither relationship is particularly romantic, and it’s hard to believe Hepburn’s complete submission to the man in the final scene. READ MORE...
I am going to give you all, beloved readers, a slice of the life of a starving writer. I was lying in bed last night thinking of all the ways I had failed in life - failed at relationships, jobs, writing, you name it. I was racking my brain for a single thing in my life I had ever done well. Do you know what came to mind? A catch. A really sweet catch.
In the words of Sophia Petrillo, "Picture it. Northern Virginia, mid-1990s." An eight-year-old Margaret Perry was playing first base in a Chantilly Youth Association softball game. I couldn't tell you the score if I wanted to, but at some point the batter hit a solid line drive my way. Without batting an eye I reached across and caught the ball with a backhand. Out! It was an awesome catch and everybody on that field knew it.
So, here I am - a twenty-something struggling to make ends meet in a world that does not celebrate history/English lit. liberal arts graduates. And the one moment of personal glory I can claim without hesitation is an epic catch I made on the softball field over a decade ago. As I write this, I am remembering a dozen or so other examples of great plays I made on that field. Like that sweet grounder I hit into left field, right past the short stop. Or that time I got a huge strawberry sliding into third. Or the time I lobbed it from third to first, making an amazing double play.
“You've heard it before: Women aren't funny. The opinion has been appearing and reappearing in various guises for decades... But few assertions are easier to prove than this one. It's as simple as saying that women make us laugh.” (We Killed 3)
“Women have always been funny. It's just that every success is called an exception and every failure an example of the rule. (We Killed 5)
Women have been active participants in history since the dawn of time (Who Cooked the Last Supper?), and the world of comedy is no exception. When looking back over the history of entertainment, who is the earliest comedienne you can think of? Fanny Brice immediately comes to mind. I am also reminded of Charlie Chaplin's leading lady Edna Purviance. No doubt there are many examples of funny ladies from Hollywood's Golden Age - let's not forget our very own Katharine Hepburn in such films as BRINGING UP BABY (1938) and THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940).
But what of television's golden age? Were women funny in an era when the happy housewife was the glorified ideal of American femininity? You bet your bloomers they were!
“The women featured here headlined their own sitcoms and were the top-billed stars of those shows. These actresses and their characters were the primary laugh-getters on some of the most highly rated sitcoms of the 1950s, shows that were noteworthy not only for their popularity, but for their innovation and creativity in the then-young medium of television.” (The Women Who Made Television Funny)
Many of television's first sitcoms were holdovers from radio. Husband and wife comedies like Ozzie and Harriet, Fibber McGee and Molly, and George Burns and Gracie Allen all enjoyed profound success on the airwaves before appearing on the small screen. Despite Beatrice Arthur's later comment that the women of these shows were "just a bubblehead out to get laughs," each earned professional respect as a comedienne in her own right.
This was certainly true of what I like to call "The Big Three" of early television comedy: Lucille Ball, Eve Arden and Betty White. The popularity of these comediennes, obtained independent of their male co-stars, has endured to today.
"Mother with her real savvy of life. She adored [father]. She adored us. She was deep. She was witty. Some say I am like her. I hope so, I'd be so proud." (Hepburn 27)
On the 106th anniversary of Katharine Hepburn's birth (May 12, 1907), is only seems fitting to pay a Mother's Day tribute to Mrs. Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn. As much as I admire Katharine Hepburn the film actress, the real heroine of that family was her mother Kit.
Mrs. Hepburn was involved in most major causes of the Progressive Reform Era, including woman suffrage, social hygiene, and birth control. She worked tirelessly for women's rights in a way that both enabled and encouraged her oldest daughter to live a life of independence many women of the time could only dream of.
Attempting to categorise classic Hollywood stars as feminist or anti-feminists is basically a futile exercise.
In the first place, the term "feminist" or "feminism" didn't come into wide usage until the late 1960s, when the "2nd wave" was in full swing. In fact, when the term did become popular, many of our most influential leading ladies rejected the term. When talk show host Dick Cavett asked Bette Davis if she would mind if he light her cigarette for her she responded, "Oh, no, I'm not woman's lib." During Katharine Hepburn's interview with Cavett, he asked her if she was inspired to support the women's movement, to which she replied in the negative: "No, because we did that, you know, a very very long time ago."
Secondly, the level of an actress's feminist tendencies is not inherently indicative of her strength of character. Nor does it in any way quantify or qualify her abilities as a performer. For example, some may call Joan Crawford a feminist because she worked so hard to earn a fantabulous career, while others can only see her as a complete witch-with-a-capital-B. At the opposite end of the spectrum other stars, like Judy Garland, may seem like nothing more than vulnerable victims of the studio system, and yet their inner strength of character still bedazzles audiences decades later. So, what is the point of trying to label actresses as either feminist or not?
This post was written in conjunction with the Dueling Divas Blogathon hosted by Lara at Backlots. Women in film are often represented as romantic rivals for a male character. Girlfriends and ex-girlfriends, wives and mothers, sisters and fiancées are perpetually warring with each other on the big screen. As the Bechdel test highlights, women are seldom shown as friends, and when they are shown as friends they are still obsessed with love and marriage. We are often exposed to an image of women as bitchy, witchy, and catty. There is no doubt that the media perpetuates this view of womanhood via advertising and news coverage. The current slew of "reality" TV shows is shameless about showcasing the very worst idea of womanhood. However, there are instances throughout film history when the public has been exposed to
alternative, more healthy examples of womanhood. Several of Katharine Hepburn's films include situations where one would expect a "dueling diva" type of scenario, yet in many cases, any semblance of a romantic rivalry is broken down by the ultimate unity, or at least tolerance, of the female characters in question. These examples can be broken down into three distinct categories: communities of professional women, female relatives, and friendships. Hepburn's persona, as a champion of women's equality, serves to bring women together, rather than alienate them from each other. Here are the various ways that the strength of the Hepburn persona as anti-rival is manifested in her films:
I apologize, dear reader, for taking this autobiographical sidetrack from classic movies. It is not my habit to use this blog to discuss my personal views. That said, I was led this morning to write this article about feminism. I do not mean to offend anybody with my views and this is not a political rant, by any means. It is simply a metacognitive look at how I became a feminist. It is kind of Katharine Hepburn's fault, so I have allowed myself to publish it here. I am not offended if you are not in the least bit interested. Staye tuned for more posts about classic film history after this!
Although I consider myself a feminist now, I have not
always done so. I was raised in a fairly respectable middle class family; my
parents are conservative and they raised my brother and me to share their
views, without actually forcing them upon us. Bill Clinton was always referred
to as “Slick Willy” at our dinner table, and after 9/11 we put up our American
flag and supported George Bush 100%. But then the United States invaded Iraq I
thought, “Now, wait a minute. Where are you going with this one, W.?” At college
two professors in particular had a profound effect on my political education.
One was liberal and one was conservative, and I am so grateful to both of them
for being such just, fair, open-minded individuals as they encouraged me to cultivate
my own political views.
When I read Katharine Hepburn’s autobiography (Me, 1996) in my sophomore year in college,
I found myself as interested in her progressive upbringing as in her film
career. Hepburn’s mother, Katharine Houghton Hepburn, was orphaned at sixteen,
yet still managed to put herself and her younger sisters through Bryn Mawr College. Both she and her sister Edith threw themselves into progressive reform
work after graduation and marriage. They worked tirelessly for woman suffrage
and birth control, taking what they had learned at Bryn Mawr to help raise the
standard of women’s rights.
As I began studying Progressive Reform Era feminism (1st
wave feminism), I felt myself becoming more sympathetic with the feminist,
gender, and sexuality issues of my own time. Frankly, I am not terribly interested
in politics, as such; the mud-slinging, back-stabbing, and corruption that goes
on in government bores the brains out of me. But I am a compassionate
individual who likes to make informed decisions based on my highest sense of
right. Sometimes this means I support the liberals, sometimes the
conservatives. But I will always support the women’s movement.
"I wear my kind of clothes to save me the trouble of deciding which clothes to wear." Katharine Hepburn Katharine Hepburn exhibited a unique fashion sense both on screen and off. A slender, angular figure, costume designers loved the way her outfits hung on her slim frame. Behind the scenes, Hepburn preferred the laid back outfits which accommodated her athletic lifestyle. When the studio once stole her slacks from her dressing room, Hepburn walked around the lot in her underwear until they were returned. As Hepburn's screen persona reflected her real life personality, she began to develop a unique brand of American tomboy glamour. IMDB describes her trademark of wearing "slacks instead of dresses, decades before it became fashionable for women to do so." Below are some pictures of the star wearing slacks through the years, from her earliest days in Hollywood and into old age.
Feminist personas of classic Hollywood come in many shapes and sizes. Some, like the great Katharine Hepburn, found profound new ways to represent strong women on the big screen. Others more subtly broke new ground in their private lives. There is no set way to define a feminist icon, but there are some ways you can measure how progressive the stars' personas could be. For one, all of these women are professionals who get paid (a lot) for their talent and hard work. Secondly, stars who were aware of their desire to present a progressive view of women often chose films which would showcase these strengths.
Katharine Hepburn has been called a feminist film persona and a 20th century feminist icon, but few have really delved into the sources and manifestations of the term “feminist” as it relates to this great star. Is she called a feminist because she insisted on wearing pants in a time when most women were expected to wear skirts and high heels? We all know the story about the time the studio, in an effort to force her into dresses and skirts, stole the trousers from her trailer and Hepburn paraded around the studio in her underwear until her slacks were returned. Her feminism was also manifested in her choice of a career over marriage. Although these aspects of her life choices contribute to our image of the feminist, it is within her films themselves that the strength of her feminism is most prevalent.
M. Carey Thomas of Bryn Mawr
Hepburn’s feminist choices and tendencies can be traced back to a couple different sources, but I believe that the major feminizing influence on Katharine Hepburn is Bryn Mawr College, one of the Seven Sister’s colleges on the East coast. Not only did Hepburn herself go there, but the major female influences of her childhood also attended, including her mother, her Aunt Edith, and her mother’s friends from college, “Aunts” Mary Towle and Bertha Rembaugh (prominent lawyers living in Greenwich Village). At Bryn Mawr, Hepburn’s mother’s generation adopted the feminist principles of the college’s president M. Carey Thomas. Katharine Hepburn was raised in the midst of the Bohemian society that these early feminist created for themselves - a female society of free thought, speech, and action. The Hepburn feminist persona is a product of the feminism she experienced first-hand as a child.
Although many of Hepburn's films contain themes of feminism, her most radically feminist films can be divided into three categories: those in which communities of women are central to the plot/story, those in which Hepburn portrays strong female characters from literature and history, and those films which directly address the "woman issue."
Hepburn plays women from literature and history a number of times: LITTLE WOMEN (1933), MARY OF SCOTLAND (1936), SONG OF LOVE (1947), and THE LION IN WINTER (1968). As you can see, these women are characteristically independent and freethinking individuals. In two of these films, Hepburn is portraying women of power, women in leadership roles.
Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in
ADAM'S RIB (1949)
Only a couple of Hepburn's films directly address the question of woman's equality, or gender issues generally, but these films are the most significant because of the pertinence of their message: LITTLE WOMEN (1933), SYLVIA SCARLETT (1935), A WOMAN REBELS (1936), WOMAN OF THE YEAR (1942), ADAM'S RIB (1949), and ROOSTER COGBURN (1975). One could argue that a couple of these films don't meet the qualifications for the category, but the gender stereotypes are so central to the thrust of the story, I chose to include them in this group.
The films listed here make up more than 25% of the movies Katharine Hepburn made in her 60-year career. Even in those films that didn't qualify for these categories, Hepburn carries the standard of female autonomy high. LITTLE WOMEN is the only film that overlapped in these three divisions, which goes to show how significant the Jo March character is to the feminist ideal. M. Carey Thomas herself used to sign her diary as Jo when she was a girl. George Cukor, who directed Hepburn in that film and many others, often remarked that LITTLE WOMEN was Hepburn's seminal film because she actually was Jo, in more ways than one!
As Eleanor of Aquitaine in THE LION IN WINTER (1968)
(with Peter O'Toole)
If I were to compose a canon of Hepburn's most feminist films, I would choose only a couple from each of the groups listed above. Clearly, LITTLE WOMEN would make the top of the list, closely followed by ADAM'S RIB, in which Hepburn and Tracy play husband and wife lawyers on opposite sides of the courtroom - she defending the female position, he the male. The two films which best embody the manifestation of female autonomy are STAGE DOOR and DESK SET, not because the Hepburn character is radically feminist, but because the film text as a whole supports a feminist agenda. The last film I would add to the canon would be THE LION IN WINTER, because Eleanor of Aquitaine was a feminist in her own right long before there was a fancy word for it. Hepburn really did her research for that part and felt an immediate affinity for the queen who had lived hundreds of years before her. There is no doubt she deserved the Oscar she won for that role.
I hope you enjoy watching these films! I always love to hear what you think about Katharine Hepburn as a feminist persona. Do you agree with my list? What changes would you make? What films would you add or take away? Thanks for reading and happy viewing!
This test evaluates the representation of women in films today. Go through your DVD library and see how many of your movies pass the test. I think you'll be surprised by how few do. This video applies the test to some current movies, including some Oscar nominees. The comic strip below is the original Alison Bechdel comic Dykes to Watch Out For featuring "The Rule."
Our village movie club got together to view All About Eve and we discussed several elements of the film afterwards, including the Biblical references and feminist/anti-feminist messages in the film. There are several indications in the movie which allude to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve. Many of the lines incorporate language such as "venomous," "poisonous viper," etc. when describing other characters. We speculated as to whether Eve was supposed to represent her namesake or if she was more like the serpent itself, who is often depicted in religious art as female. The award given Eve could represent the apple. One theory proposed was that having finally made her way to the top, Eve finally is able to partake of the "forbidden fruit" which reveals all the evils of the theatre business.
We spent a great deal of time discussing how this film is really about women, though not necessarily in a very liberal way. Bette Davis's character, Margo, expresses her ideals of womanhood to her friend Karen (Celeste Holm) at a low point in the film when she is feeling vulnerable. She says, "in the last analysis, nothing's any good unless you can look up just before dinner or turn around in bed, and there he is. Without that, you're not a woman" (film clip below).We talked about the tension between career and womanhood as presented in this film. Someone questioned whether the theatre industry itself was being attacked as something that corrupted women or if it was career in general. The point was made that in the era in which this film was made, show business whether it be stage or film, was one of the few industries where a woman could really make a way for herself professionally. Therefore, the Business was often used to represent how any sort of life in public, away from husband, home, and hearth, would/could ruin a woman and her femininity.
Although this type of anti-feminist sentiment pervades All About Eve, there is yet a fairly strong woman in the character played by Celeste Holm, Karen. Though in some ways she represents the perfect supportive wife to her writer husband, she does have some lines which set her apart. First of all, we know that she is Radcliffe-educated, a fact that seems to rankle Margo because she was never given the opportunity of such an education. She also has a great line when her husband claims: "That bitter cynicism of yours is something you've acquired since you left Radcliffe!" to which Karen replies: "The cynicism you refer to, I acquired the day I discovered I was different from little boys!" Karen also makes an acute observation about the shackles of "proper" womanhood when she lies in bed suspicious of her husband. I cannot recall the exact quote but she states that she was doing the only thing a woman with nothing else to think about could do - worry about her man.
We talked about how this picture is so much a woman's picture about women's relationships but that it is portrayed from a primarily male lens (Laura Mulvey). Margo's boyfriend/fiancé becomes the hero of the picture, though he doesn't have as much screen time or lines as the female characters (a typical trend in old Hollywood). Karen's husband seems a rather indifferent character, easily berated and easily placated by the women in his life and work. Addison, the slick theatre critic becomes a very nasty character, if not as truly evil as Eve herself. But the whole show, the entire plot of the picture, is really following the relationships between the female characters: between Margo and Birdie, Margo and Eve, Karen and Eve, Margo and Karen, and ultimately Eve and Phoebe.
For the most part, our group thoroughly enjoyed the film, especially those of us who were seeing it for a second time. However, one member of our group pointed out something that hadn't occurred to those of us who have grown used to watching old studio-era films. She commented on the melodrama of the whole picture, in particular the performance given by Bette Davis. Although we on team Bette (as opposed to team Joan) like nothing better than to sit back and enjoy Ms. Davis having a good tantrum, our companions perhaps would have rather a bit more realism. We then discussed the historical trend of melodrama which perhaps originated in the silent flicks when so much had to be expressed physically. Another theory is that it comes from the Vaudeville tradition of desperation trying to get a reaction from the audience. But ideals changes after WWII when Hollywood's cinematic spectacular no longer impressed a more pragmatic post-war public. Another, less substantial theory put forward by yours truly was that perhaps the political shift in Hollywood from a more conservative group of actors, director's, etc. in the '30s, '40s, and '50s, to the flaming liberal Hollywood from the '60s on, led to the cinema of stark realism.
I would enjoy hearing your opinions on any of the theories, comments, observations made in this blog. Feel free to leave your comments!
