English 413/813 Film: Moms, Maids, & Sex Workers - Redefining Female Heroes

English 413/813 Film: “Moms, Maids, & Sex Workers - Redefining Female Heroes.”

*Class Meets Wednesdays 1:30 to 4:40 at RVB 123.

When a male takes a bullet he is described as a hero. When a woman does something heroic it often goes unnoticed. Search the word "hero" and you'll conjure images of heroic men. In this class, we will work towards redefining and reclaiming the female hero as she emerges in film. Cinematic female heroes are not just sexy women in tights with guns. More interesting are the unsung women heroics who go unmentioned in life - as much as they go unheralded in films. They are often women of the underclass, women of color, immigrants, working class women, and mothers who silently perform heroic acts (often to save their families.) The erasure of unsung female heroes is in itself a testament to the continued attempt to devalue and debase women, especially women of the underclass, refugee women, women of color, sex workers, domestics, and single mothers who quietly perform heroic acts in life and on film. Sadly, some film theorists have misread the sacrifices of women as somehow 'masochistic' rather than heroic. Films that portray heroic women are often misread as upholding patriarchy and capitalism, when they in fact often do quite the opposite - they disrupt and challenge these institutions. Films made for and about women are casually dismissed as "sappy" and overly "sentimental," even though they often feature a strong and brave prominent female hero at center.

Similarly, female spectators and female centered films are often misrepresented as too sentimental or melodramatic. Examining the erasure of the female hero and her audience is central to reimagining what it is to be a hero and a woman. Emotions and struggles of the heart are also debased, and women's sacrifices and heroic acts are misperceived as "weepie," or overly sentimental. In this class we will challenge these notions by looking at a cross section of films that center around a female hero. In this way, we will redefine the female hero from a marxist and feminist perspective. We will also read a number of theories about the female hero in film.

Potential list of films:

La Maternelle

Min and Bill

Stella Dallas

Our Children

Frozen River

Beauty and the Beast

Sleeping Beauty (Leigh)

Belle de Jour

Pretty Woman

In This our Life

The Maid (there are at least 3 versions) The Second Maid The Lesson Black Girl Sugarcane Alley Pariah Bessie The Swamp (La Cienaga) The Waitress Wonder Woman (animated) Addicted to Fresno Meek’s Cutoff The Sessions