Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Is Friday Feminist or Feeble-Minded?
Hildy Johnson is a confident career woman who can compete with men (and defeat them) in the dog-eat-dog world of journalism. She is even willing to divorce her man if he doesn't treat her right. Yet, at the same time, she seeks the domestic joys of children and caring for her man -- and in the end returns to the rascal whom she left in the first place. What is the role of women in this film? Does it tell us anything about "modern" women in 1940's America?
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In His Girl Friday, women are treated as the 1940s equivalent of equals. Females are still typecast as housewives and mothers, though they can get jobs and speak their minds. However, these jobs are secretarial and not of the importance of their male counterparts. Women attempt to be equals in "modern" society, but only Hildy Johnson successfully achieves such equality in the movie.
ReplyDeleteHildy is a top reporter for the newspaper in His Girl Friday, shown by the important assignment she and Walter take on. When the movie begins, Hildy comes to say goodbye to both her ex-husband and her old life as a newspaper woman. Everyone at the paper greets her as she walks back as they know of her reputation and her history.
The other women in His Girl Friday are unimportant characters, save Bruce’s mother. Most of them are shown only in the opening minutes of the film. Secretaries answering phones in the office are shown first, followed by switchboard operators, speaking their minds to Hildy when she asks them about Walter. On her walk back, few women are present, with Hildy acknowledging two secretaries and a writer of an advice column (from what it seems). After that opening scene, no other woman is shown until Mollie Malloy, a prostitute.
Except for Hildy, the women in the movie have low quality jobs. However, these are jobs nonetheless and they represent the will to work of the 1940s, “modern” woman. Mollie Malloy, however, represents the extremity of gender inequality. She sleeps around, fulfilling the wishes and desires of men in a male-dominated society. Malloy is what men want out of women in the 1940s while women attempt to gain footing in society, albeit to little avail. Hildy Johnson is the power and importance that women dream about in the workplace, though most women are not treated that well, either. The “modern” women in the 1940s attempt to gain workplace equality, though they are unable to gain as much as they would like, shown well in His Girl Friday.
Hildy Johnson may seem like an example of a progressive free thinking and feminist woman. She is able to compete in a world completely dominated by men and prove herself their equal. However she is not. No matter how powerful and dominate Hildy appears to be she is still under the control of one man, her ex-husband. Walter’s treatment of his ex-wife resembles one between a master and his servant. He manipulates, lies, and cheats her so that she will do what he says when he says it. Walter shows complete disregard of her happiness. Walter knew that Hildy wanted to start a new life, one in which she could finally have a successful marriage. However his desire for her to write a perfect article on the trial came before that. He then manipulated her emotions, framed her fiancée for several crimes, and committed a few crimes himself to make sure she wrote the story.
ReplyDeleteSome people however say that he did all of that to show her he loved her. He wanted her to see she wouldn’t be happy with a home life. However, what kind of love is that? Love is caring and unchanging, not jealous and deceitful. To play with someone’s emotions like Walter did shows complete selfishness and disregard for their happiness. If he truly loved her he would have treated her right when they were first married, he wouldn’t have put work in-front of her, and he wouldn’t have tried to prevent her from leaving town.
You would think that after all Hildy had accomplished, she was a smart enough woman to know she deserved better. She would see past Walter’s schemes and treachery and break away from his charm. But she doesn’t. She turns a blind eye to his antics and accepts the excuse that it was all because he loved her. And still after she agrees to return to him, he still cares more for the newspaper than he does for her. This is shown at the end when he refers to their honeymoon as a “reward” to Hildy and not because he loves her. All of the feminist aspects of her personality dissolve here as she is now under the complete control of a man. Walter once again has become the master and Hildy is the servant.
His Girl Friday definitely does not portray women as powerful and progressive. Hildy may be intelligent and successful but in the end she still bows down to a man. It makes the audience believe that no matter how strong any woman can be, they still will have to answer to men.
I would like to approach this from a different angle, one that gives an overview of women in the era during which this film was made. Hildy in His Girl Friday is a woman in the man’s world of Journalism; yet she is able to surpass many of her male counterparts. She seems like a strong independent woman, but she does seem to want the quiet life of a stereotypical married housewife. While today this may seem like an oxymoron, we must be careful to consider the times; for her time Hildy is a remarkably progressive woman. In the 1920s there were many liberal women, flappers, who began to challenge traditional gender roles. During the following depression, women continued to leave the home as an extra source of income or even lead the family through the times of trouble, such as the famous Migrant Mother photograph by Dorothea Lang. Note that she is herself a woman in the still relatively new field of photography; not only was Land able to be successful, but actually created one of the most iconic photographs of the era. Hildy is similar to Lang in that she is a pioneer in a man-dominated business and is able to surpass her male counterparts: Walter at several points states that she’s the best he’s got. The movie was released in 1940, as the depression was ending and World War Two already raged in Europe, with American entry approaching by the end of the year. When millions of American men went off to war, women, embodied by Rosie the Riveter, fueled the war effort from home and became factory workers. I recall my own grandmother telling me stories of her times in the war factories. Rosie the Riveter would be Hildy’s best friend were she real: she is a strong woman ready and able to take on the role of men and challenge traditional gender roles.
ReplyDeleteThe film His Girl Friday portrays the role of the woman, through Hilde’s role, as that of an equal to men in terms of careers and personal decision-making. It is obvious to any audience that Hilde is a progressive character because of her high-up reporting role and because of her willingness to divorce (and discuss it so openly). However, some argue that Hilde then negates that progressive aura by returning to Cary Grant because of her wish of getting married. I do not think that this is a sign of “weakness” or of conforming to some sort of feminine construct. Instead, I think that this is an even greater extension of her progressive character because instead of feeling pressure to adhere to her “progressive persona” and refuse to “belong” to any man, Hilde rises above the stereotype and follows her own heart. As cheesy as it sounds, Hilde and Walter are the most in-touch with their feelings for each other—so much so, in fact, that society simply doesn’t matter to the status of their relationship.
ReplyDeleteSome have argued that Walter’s amoral character (characteristic of the Hollywood classic style) and apparent disregard of her impending happiness (i.e. his eagerness to break her marriage with the Alban insurance agent) as almost abusive and unfair. I think this is an exaggerated interpretation. While it is true that Walter manipulated Hilde throughout the film, he did it mostly for love (for professional reasons as well, but mostly love). All of the framing Walter does adds, in my opinion, to the comedy of the whole situation. After all, it is completely clear by their banter, and body language, that Hilde and Walter were always meant to be together.
The restaurant scene is a wonderful example of this. Towards the beginning during lunch before the scheduled trip to Albany, Walter spends the entire time trying to get Hilde to stay in town for this article (and succeeds). Throughout the lunch, there is the verbal dialogue, which includes the insurance fiancée, but simultaneously there is the body-language dialogue happening between Hilde and Walter. All signs point to their true love.
We know that Walter wasn’t the perfect husband the first time around. But instead of reading Hilde’s return to him as a regression (to a “worse” marriage) we should look at it as Hilde giving him a second chance after they have had time to develop some issues that arose from the first divorce.
Some see the “reward” honeymoon at the end as a patronizing way to view something that should be “sacred” in every sense. I think that these close-minded analyses are not correct. This interpretation of the relationship does not take into account the nature of their banter and humor with one another.
The fact that Hilde returns to Walter at the end of the film shows the audience that not only was she progressive enough to have a career before a family and to get a divorce, but also she is even more progressive than the flapper culture of the time by deciding to evaluate her true feelings and act according to them and no one else.