Women are Savages in the Absence of Dresses

     I recently watched two movies about women breaking out into the open world on their own and saw two completely different visions of women and freedom. It is in the first film, Girls of the Road, that women seem to convert to savagery and faction without the presence of men. It is in the second that we see a world without adventure is not a world worth living in. I was hoping to have a humorous post about how women are portrayed as stupid and senseless, living from slum to slum because no one is there to take care of them. I direly hoped that after watching Roman Holiday I would have my opportunity at ridicule. After all, I believe ridicule to be something that I am very good at.

     Girls of the Road does not offer one the ability to look fondly at how the female experience adapts to harsh situations. The film details female drifters along the roadway. In the depression era economy, it was difficult for a woman to keep a job, a character in the film even said that a woman couldn't even beg for one. So how did these women cope with life on the road? Well they became gamblers who carry clubs and wrestle in the mud of course. When first seeing the scene where the women are carrying large sticks around a hobo camp to protect themselves, I could only image what adversities they must have seen to revert back to such a primitive state. Yet, some of the women had only been on the road for a short while, and were quick to take part in riots, fights with the police, and flight from safe travel. An argument quickly turned into a wrestiling match that took place in a mud pit of all places. The story was originally told from a male perspective, but in this instance it was adapted to feature women. It was written and adapted by a man. I could not help but think of Honey West, the heroine from many detective novels who in the course of solving crimes was frequently caught in states of undress. This is what I was hoping to do originally: I wanted to lampoon the personification of women in cinema in this post. However, Roman Holiday gave me pause.

     Roman Holiday is quite honest with itself. It is a story that is fictional, but not over the top; assertive, but not pushy and all that. This film gives a princess of an unnamed fiefdom the freedom to walk about the city outside of the protection of her family and guards. It is only by the kindness of a passerby that she is not apprehended by the police. This passerby happens to be a journalist who finds out her identity, and poses as someone who would want nothing more than to make her small dreams come true. The struggle of greed and trust finalizes in a scene where he chooses to pay money for the lies he has told, and keep the princess' secret holiday a secret. It sounds a bit cliché, but its honesty comes from its portrayal of humanity rather than the credibility of the plot. Women as masters of their own domain is a large part of this course, and I think this film did a wonderful job of showing just that. A woman was given the opportunity to be free, and that freedom was put into jeopardy due to a man. I was able to see that although money was at a man's door, humanity came through. That no one's dignity is worth a paycheck.
     This post was a bit serious, so here is a picture of a bear riding a shark. Enjoy.