In both of the films High Noon and The Ballad of Little Jo, there are multiple revisionist ideas that exist and show the changed attitudes toward women in the west. For High Noon, we see the ideas in the characters of Amy Kane and Helen Ramirez. Amy Kane in the film is able to display a power or control over her husband. He didn’t get married in his town’s church because she is a Quaker and he is putting down the gun because of her Quaker values. This represents a significant change from the past classics that show women being solely obedient to the male’s orders. It indicates too that the male is more open with his female counterpart. To let the words of a women affect Kane enough to walk away from his job indicate that he is open in his emotions and will talk with his wife and let her know he real feeling about a situation. Kane must have had an open discussion with her about their future where her words had an effect on him that the past alpha males would not have allowed.
We also see from Helen Ramirez a different type of women who exists amongst the men. She s a women who owns property and will not be told what to do why any man as she clearly states. That type of independence was in no way seen from the classic westerns. Property was an issue that men controlled. And what is even more puzzling about Helen owning the property is that she is also Mexican. She isn’t even of the same race of the white Angelo Saxon males that held all the power in the west at the time of many of the films. Helen is able to make he own business demand and even negotiate the sale with a man who takes her seriously. It was fairly surprising to see a woman in that type of position of power.
In the Ballad of Little Jo, we see Josephine transform herself actually into a man during the film. Instead of becoming a wife or prostitute, Josephine chooses to become a man known as Jo. She wears the clothes of the men and tries to scuff herself up to look like she’s been roughed up amongst the boys. Every time she is discovered to be a woman by the boys they are always surprised and show great respect for her. It’s a tough undertaking to be one with the boys in the American West but Jo is able to blend in well with her set of skills that is as good as most males in the West at the time.
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In both of the films High Noon and The Ballad of Little Jo, there are multiple revisionist ideas that exist and show the changed attitudes toward women in the west. For High Noon, we see the ideas in the characters of Amy Kane and Helen Ramirez. Amy Kane in the film is able to display a power or control over her husband. He didn’t get married in his town’s church because she is a Quaker and he is putting down the gun because of her Quaker values. This represents a significant change from the past classics that show women being solely obedient to the male’s orders. It indicates too that the male is more open with his female counterpart. In the western world where “women must use words as their chief weapon”, Amy Kane’s words must have worked on her husband in order to have him walk away from his current life (64). To let the words of a women affect Kane enough to walk away from his job indicate that he is open in his emotions and will talk with his wife and let her know his real feeling about a situation. An alpha male just didn’t let himself be effected by a woman in traditional westerns as women were secondary in their lives.
ReplyDeleteWe also see from Helen Ramirez a different type of women who exists amongst the men. She shows off the individualist type personality that Matheson say shows up in many of the hardboiled cowboys of westerns. She makes her down decisions and is not afraid to state her judgments. He owns property as well and openly negotiates the sale of her business with the men of the town. Even more remarkable is that Helen own property as a Mexican. Mexicans in previous roles are almost inexistent. Being a strong Mexican woman like in High Noon is a departure from the towns in westerns that have white men running everything.
In the Ballad of Little Jo, we see Josephine transform herself actually into a man during the film. Instead of becoming a wife or prostitute, Josephine chooses to become a man known as Jo. She wears the clothes of the men and tries to scuff herself up to look like she’s been roughed up amongst the boys. Every time she is discovered to be a woman by the boys they are always surprised and show great respect for her. She defies Tompkins statement of how “when push comes to shove, as it always does, they [women] crumble” (61). She shows toughness that women of earlier films could not display. It’s a tough undertaking to be one with the boys in the American West but Jo is able to blend in well with her set of skills that is as good as most males in the West at the time.