Day of the Outlaw

In “Day of the Outlaw”, we see a very simple vision of women. The film displays women, at the highest, as housewives. While doing this, it also continually makes them seem to be the equivilant of a sexual object. The film quickly establishes that women are only concerned with becoming married when Ernine says that she wants more farms to go up, so she can find a husband. This is followed by her trying to keep the young outlaw in town at the end, even risking all their safety by telling him that there was no trail, making it seem that her only concern is finding a husband. If she was married, she would then become a housewife, just like the other three women we see in the film. The next way women are shown are as sexual objects. The outlaws, except for Bruhn and the young outlaw, considered it a right for them to be able to have their way with the women. They are kept in check by Bruhn, but still show no respect for the women, shown by the way they try groping the women at the dance. Even the women themselves seem to think of themselves as nothing more than sexual objects. Helen even offers her body to Blaise if he will not kill her husband. This shows that the women are resigned to their positions.

This film was made at the beginning of the civil rights movement, but before the second wave feminist movement. It seems to be mocking the idea that women can take care of themselves, and upholds the ideas that men are superior. The only time when a women stands up for someone not her husband is when Ernine goes to help her younger brother. This attempt, however, makes her look foolish and weak. She looks foolish, because she is risking the lives of everyone in the town by trying to save her brother. She looks weak because she needs the young outlaw to rescue her when Tex tries to molest her. This seems to sum up the idea at the time that women couldn’t solve the same problems that men could, and they would just mess things up or hurt themselves if they tried.