From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies [Paperback]

Molly Haskell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1987 | ISBN-10: 0226318850 | ISBN-13: 978-0226318851 | Edition: 1

For this edition of her classic study of the feminine role in film, Molly Haskell has written a new chapter addressing recent developments in the appearance and perception of women in the movies.

"An incisive, exceedingly thoughtful look at the distorted lens through which Hollywood has historically viewed women. It is a valuable contribution not just of film criticism but to a society in which the vital role of women is just beginning to emerge."—Christian Science Monitor

"Haskell is interested in women—how they are used in movies, how they use movies, and how the parts they play function as projections and verifications of our myths about women's lot and woman's psyche and even, lately, women's lib."—Jane Kramer, Village Voice

"In examining the goddesses worshipped by an entire nation, Molly Haskell reveals a good deal about our national character and our most cherished sexual myths. . . . Concerned with the deeply ingrained belief of women's inferiority, she analyzes movies as a social product as well as a social arbiter, and she effectively demonstrates how women are encouraged to impose limitations on themselves by fashioning those selves after flickering shadows in a darkened auditorium—sexual creatures who possess neither ability nor ambition beyond their bodies. . . . Both as an examination of film and as sociology, From Reverence to Rape is excellent."—Harriet Kriegel, The Nation

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Biting, brilliant, and marvelously witty, From Reverence to Rape is the first and the last word on women in the movies--perhaps the best book ever written on the subject. Most feminist film critics produce work that conforms to the academic discipline of cultural studies. Haskell's groundbreaking statement (first published in 1974 but with an added chapter that updates her theme through the 1980s) is accessible, serious, and great fun because its primary source is Hollywood cinema itself. Haskell draws on her amazing knowledge and understanding of American film to comment witheringly upon the ways producers, directors, and critics from the 1920s and onward have treated women. Still, within the attack her passionate love of films and the women who appear in them shines through. For example, in a lovely passage on Greta Garbo, Haskell claims that the actress's appeal, "however provocatively she might array herself, was romantic rather than sexual, and that is the reason women liked her. Her spirit leaped first and her body, in total exquisite accord, leaped after. She yearned not for pleasure in bed but for love in eternity."

Appreciations with this much sensitivity and vigor are as hard to find as a critic who can imaginatively process a lifetime of movie-watching experiences. Moreover, Haskell discusses the larger social significance of the male cinema and male criticism she often finds so infantile. At one point, despairing over critics who either ignore actresses or transform them into love objects, Haskell bemoans the critics' immaturity as "one of the more common and less endearing manifestations of the eternal adolescence that hangs on the American male--who, by the time he is mature enough to appreciate a woman, is almost ready to retire from the arena. There are a few good years in which he can both appreciate and operate, but not enough (particularly with the current defections from heterosexuality) to satisfy the female population, which may be why more and more women are turning to each other, or to themselves." This fine book, as loving and funny as it is angry, is a must for movie fans as well as anyone interested in gender issues. --Raphael Shargel

Review

My favorite movie when I was growing up was the Wizard of Oz. It was full of high adventure, from talking apple trees and flying monkeys, to a shimmering Emerald City to which Dorothy was offered the queenship. She decided, however, that there was no place like home and she really needed to be there by suppertime. Excuse me? Well, actually Hollywood decided that for Dorothy. According to Molly Haskell's From Reverence to Rape this is typical for women in Hollywood films, from the 1920s when women could do no wrong provided they had a man watching over them, to the 1980s where women in the movies began to pay the price for discovering there were other places besides home. Molly illustrates how Hollywood typecast women both within and outside movies, infusing these images into society. While the madonna and the whore might appear to be the only two roles Hollywood allowed women, this book explains the subtle ways in which women used film to go beyond those roles. -- From The WomanSource Catalog & Review: Tools for Connecting the Community for Women; review by Amy Fletcher

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Product Details

• Paperback: 444 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (October 15, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226318850
• ISBN-13: 978-0226318851
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #306,882 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #86 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Abuse & Self Defense > Rape

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars goodness has nothin' to do with it, June 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies (Paperback)

When I first read this book, I absolutely hated it. Haskell is a total joykiller: one of those critics who can find something politically "wrong" with almost any film, even feminist films like Lizzie Borden's _Working Girls_. I still don't agree with everything she says, but now I see that its irritating quality is what makes it so great. Whatever you do, don't read it before you go to bed: you'll lie awake obsessing upon the gender conundrums outlined in the book. I would even recommend it to those who do not know very much about film; it's one of the very best feminist texts I've read for its consideration of women as consumers of popular culture. The book also raises interesting questions about women's sexuality and its representation. And I'll never look at Doris Day the same way again!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I remember this book from high school, January 29, 2003

By 

cinephile "isd5u" (Mount Vernon, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies (Paperback)

I was in the 11th grade at the time and I was just getting immersed in my fascination with movies and film theory. I read every book I could find on film studies.

That is when I stumbled upon this book (first edition) in my school's library. After reading this book, I never looked at the history of films, film themes, etc. in quite the same way.

As the years went by, I had read other film theory books that dealt with femininity and feminist thought, but this one always remained my favorite. So when the opportunity presented itself where I could add this book to my personal film library I was more than glad to.

I think I like this book so much because it introduced me to a series of films that while important in the women's studies and cinema may have been forgotten in the annuls of overall film theory and criticism. One outstanding example is "Letter from an Unknown Woman." The depth with which Ms. Haskell discusses this film immediately made me want to go out and see the film; and indeed I did.

I highly recommend this book not just to read but as an addition to any film lovers' library.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars DON'T LET THE TITLE PUT YOU OFF!, November 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies (Paperback)

--there is absolutely nothing polemical or fanatical about this book, which is for film lovers--not just feminists. It is one of the best books on FILM (not just women in film) I've ever read, up there with Stanley Cavell's "Pursuits of Happiness," but much more direct and down-to-earth. Haskell is a fiercely smart, wickedly funny, and casually erudite critic with many extremely sharp observations. She's arguably both a better belles lettresist and a better critic than her (I believe???) one-time husband Andrew Sarris, a better-known and more prolific film critic. It's also hard to argue with her basic thesis: that the portrayal of women in film was better, not worse, in the studio era and prior to the sexual revolution--although this stands received film and feminist history alike on their heads. Haskell is a rare marvel and model: a feminist aesthete who is able to put art before politics without denigrating the importance of the latter. Unlike, say, Camille Paglia, she neither denies nor quasi-celebrates the misogyny of great or simply entertaining films, yet neither does she make political correctness a criterion of artistic achievement or see misogyny where none exists. On the contrary, some of the best passages of the book are accounts of the strong and complex female characters of directors such as Josef von Sternberg, Karl-Theodor Dreyer, and Howard Hawks, among others. A totally engaging blend of classical liberalism and belles lettres/punchy journalism.