In both High Noon and The Ballad of Little Jo women’s roles have become increasingly more significant to the films. In movies such as The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance woman only took up about 2 to 3 minutes of the movie, but now in these two films woman such as Amy and Jo are main characters in the movies.
Tompkins says, “It is by talking that one opens up to another person and becomes vulnerable” (Tompkins 56). In High Noon Amy opens herself up to Kane and tells him he doesn’t want him to fight and that they could still run away. This opening of feelings feminizes her and labels her vulnerable as most women in westerns are. But the difference between Amy and most western women is that when the fighting starts she puts herself in the middle of it to protect Kane. Tompkins says that women in westerns “may seem strong, resilient, fiery and resourceful at first, but when push comes to shove as it always does, they crumble” (Tompkins 61). Amy is the opposite of this statement when her husband needs help the most she doesn’t “crumble” as Tompkins says western woman do, she grabs a gun and ends up killing one of Frank Miller’s goons. This type of woman was not seen and in previous films and marks a changing point in woman’s impact on westerns.
Josephine Monaghan, also known as little Jo is another woman in westerns that shows qualities unlike that of the previous women we have seen in these films. In this film Josephine transforms herself into a man (little Jo) and actually gets respect from the people of Ruby City who truly believe she is a man. Tompkins explains this by saying, “Each time one element of a pair [in this case men versus women] is driven into a corner it changes shape and frequently turns into its opposite” (Tompkins 48). Josephine was driven into a corner by the western lifestyle because woman who traveled alone were considered weak and could be taken advantage of by the men of the west. So to make sure that she was not taken advantage of Josephine “changes shape” and transforms herself into little Jo. Even when Percy finds out her true identity and tries to take advantage of her Jo is able to protect herself as a man can protect himself. Both women in these films show qualities that are unlike the previous western woman and seem to have changed the woman’s role in western films.
In both High Noon and The Ballad of Little Jo women’s roles have become increasingly more significant to the films. In movies such as The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance woman only took up about 2 to 3 minutes of the movie. But now in these two films woman such as Amy, Helen Ramirez, and Jo are main characters in the movies.
ReplyDeleteTompkins says, “It is by talking that one opens up to another person and becomes vulnerable” (Tompkins 56). In High Noon Amy opens herself up to Kane and tells him he doesn’t want him to fight and that they could still run away. This opening of feelings feminizes her and labels her vulnerable as most women in westerns are. But the difference between Amy and most western women is that when the fighting starts she puts herself in the middle of it to protect Kane. Tompkins says that women in westerns “may seem strong, resilient, fiery and resourceful at first, but when push comes to shove as it always does, they crumble” (Tompkins 61). Amy is the opposite of this statement. When her husband needs help the most she doesn’t “crumble” as Tompkins says western woman do. Amy grabs a gun and ends up killing one of Frank Miller’s goons. This type of woman was not seen in previous films and marks a changing point in woman’s impact on westerns. Helen Ramirez is another very modern woman character. The women of traditional westerns rarely had a job and if they did it was as a waitress or in the kitchen somewhere. But Helen Ramirez on the other hand was a very independent woman that owns her own business. In this film Helen had a lot of power over many men, which women of traditional westerns never had. We see this type of character in High Noon because in the 1950’s women were getting more and more rights. A lot of women were in the workforce by this time and they were starting to gain power in society. Although Helen Ramirez is a little advanced for this time period it just gave the people of the 1950’s a look into the future of what women could be.
Josephine Monaghan, also known as little Jo is another woman in westerns that shows qualities unlike that of the previous women we have seen in these films. In this film Josephine transforms herself into a man (little Jo) and actually gets respect from the people of Ruby City who truly believe she is a man. Tompkins explains this by saying, “Each time one element of a pair [in this case men versus women] is driven into a corner it changes shape and frequently turns into its opposite” (Tompkins 48). Josephine was driven into a corner by the western lifestyle because woman who traveled alone were considered weak and could be taken advantage of by the men of the west. So to make sure that she was not taken advantage of Josephine “changes shape” and transforms herself into little Jo. Even when Percy finds out her true identity and tries to take advantage of her Jo is able to protect herself as a man can protect himself. Both women in these films show qualities that are unlike the previous western woman and seem to have changed the woman’s role in western films. Little Jo or Josephine Monaghan was an alpha character in this film and was equal to the men of the film. From this film we can see that in American society women were being given the respect that they deserved. After all the women’s movements they (women) were finally equals to men.