Day of the Outlaw

In revisionist Westerns such as Johnny Guitar or Rooster Cogburn, women were starting to have a more distinct significance in their roles. However, in Day of the Outlaw, men are once again on the top, as women are once again treated as if they were cattle. They are basically around to attend to the needs and pleasures of the men in town. They have no significant importance in the actual storyline or the plot itself, nor do they have any noteworthy dialogue. Everything they ‘blab about’ is regarded as unimportant by men anyways.
The only four women of the town are kept commuting together in the house, mainly in the kitchen. They clean the household, attend the men, prepare food and brew coffee. They are kept in storage as the men roam their town and have a merry life. It’s a men’s world in the Western, and the women are aware. When the men feel like dancing, they dance with the women as they please. Women are pulled around by the men as they batter them with what they seem to think of as dancing. However, once Blaise walks into the dance arena and speaks up, it becomes a men’s place. The women cower and hide as the men resolve the situation.
Women have absolutely no say when confronted by men. In the film we are presented with several circumstances where women are literally given no choice but to do what the man orders. They have no rights or opinion in any occasion. The film shows how grave the situation is when Pace, one of Bruhn’s gang, is about to engage in a little rape session with Helen Crane when she wanted to flee while nobody interrupts. Pace shows no respect to anyone around; not minding the kid right in front, as well as ignoring Hal Crane, Helen’s husband. Any creepy-looking man is capable of simply grabbing a woman by the face and mumbling “I want to look at you”, and the woman will have to hold and be stared.