Very demeaning to females

[deleted]

The weakening of the female in certain movies is truly bizarre to behold. The simple inclusion of Roberta here is strange as the actual book had a mother, a father and four sons, no daughters or females at all. It was obviously a boy's adventure.

My alltime favorite movie is Mad Mad Mad Mad World ('63) and even with Ethel Merman as the shrewish mother-in-law, it is obvious the three women involved are extensions of their men. Edie Adams is present only to keep Sid Ceasar from being in the basement alone and Dorothy Provine keeps Ethel Merman from walking alongside the road alone.

Still, the ending bit works with the women being excluded from pursuing the money, but I can't help but wonder in today's age, if a woman were traveling alone, would she be expected to stay on the ground like that and perhaps cut herself out of the money? How would it work?

Then why would she have entered the hospital room at the end if no man was her husband or boyfriend or anything.

Of course, none of this I pondered when I watched it as a child.

My second fave movie is Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and well, that's a winner in and of itself there, isn't it?

I really don't know how the dialogue occurred about women not being able to pick a flower for themselves back them. Either those in the movies thought, well, this is how the PUBLIC wants to see women, men as well as women.

Guys don't want to take their girlfriends to a movie where the women are charging around and not waiting for the menfolk to rescue them?

I guess there are any possibilities of reasons for back then.

A second movie I got a kick out of, Mysterious Island ('61) had two women conveniently wash up on shore, as once again, the story had no women in it, only the five men.

So putting women even IN the stories, no matter how weak and demure, was considered a breakthrough for feminist rights back then, I'm sure. Simply being included!

I can't say I noticed anything demeaning to the fairer sex. I thought they helped build the tree house and participated in the battle. Hardly the helpless waifs you say they are.

Get over it... in case you forgot, the women were right there in the final battle alongside the men wielding weapons. Didn't look weak to me... quit already with the feminist BS, go watch the movie again. Get a fresh perspective why don't ya?

Try to remember that this story probably took place about the late 1700s or early 1800s — Two hundred years ago.

Consider when the author lived: Johann David Wyss (1743-1830). His novel was probably set in his own time — and the movie's costumes and firearms do reflect that.

Not much place for a strong, independent woman in that era. Back then, a strong independent woman would have been the widow of a man of great wealth or else someone mid-to-high in the aristocratic hierarchy. Other than that, almost the only "respectable" way for a single woman to earn a living would have been domestic service — doing the cooking and cleaning and such for someone else — not exactly conducive to a display of independence.

And shall we not count that as an improvement over the era 300 years before Wyss when too strong, too independent a woman would have been burned at the stake on trumped up charges of heresy or witchcraft? (Remember Joan of Arc in 1431.)

And that's how things stayed for another 150 years after Wyss until Rosie the Riveter came along in WWII. Unfortunately, even after Rosie, things progressed rather slowly until a few years after this movie came out.

So: rather than cringe over the way it used to be, try to recognize and acknowledge that the situation has improved.

Observations are relative to the observer.
— Albert Einstein

We don't see things as they are; we see things as we are.
— Anaïs Nin

[deleted]

I didn't really find it demeaning. The mother was definitely the boss in the family. Her sons respected her...even if Francis was mischievous a lot of the time.

Roberta was very annoying when dealing with wild animals. They obviously thought they had to milk the fact that Roberta was a well to do London society girl who'd never had to rough it in the wilderness. She became much easier to tolerate once she was back at the tree house with the family. But she never came off to me as a stupid or detestable person. I think Ernst's constant attempts to impress her were more irritating than Roberta herself. As for Janet Munro, she was much cooler in the story of Rudi Matt (The Last Man On The Mountain, which also starred James MacArthur as her boyfriend). But then again, Roberta also proved herself an excellent shooter. Neither of the women was stupid or weak during the battle w/the pirates either.

http://crush-the-book.snack.ws
http://bright-the-book.snack.ws

It wasn't sexism. That is a normal, realistic portrayal.