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opensummer) wrote2019-02-14 05:39 pm
and her little dog too
notasupervillain was asking about technologies that led to social justice and cmcmck offered the bicycle as an example which I +1’ed. That would have been the end of it except I was thinking about the Wizard of Oz for some reason and I couldn’t connect the thoughts but knew they were related.Thanks adhd.
Thankfully, I put together this morning, and think it’s interesting enough to share. I think the Miss Gulch was put on a bicycle deliberately in the Kansas sequence as a visual shorthand for the sort of woman who rides a bicycle- nasty threatening spinsters. We see her on the bike before she ever opens her mouth and wonder if that was signaling to the (1930s) audience what sort of person she was supposed to be.
During the twister we see Miss Gulch transform into the witch of the west and the bike transform into a broom, which visually links the two. It makes some sense, both are means of transportation for independent women but guess I’m wondering if that coding was deliberate? Any thoughts?
Bonus round: I’m racking my brain for a b&w or an older film where a female character appears on a bicycle besides the Wizard of Oz and while I'm pretty sure I've seen a photo shoot with Audrey Hepburn on a bike I can't remember any films before the sixties where there's a positive representation of a woman on a bicycle.
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Not adapted for film until much later, but in or before 1903 AC Doyle wrote "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist," in which Violet Smith (the cyclist in question) is a sympathetic character smart enough to spot potential trouble when someone seems to be stalking her on her bike rides, but not cowed into stopping them. The bicycle ride is situated as a source of independence and also, potentially, of danger (Holmes eventually has to rescue her from a forced wedding), but IIRC Doyle doesn't suggest she's wrong to travel by bicycle, that it reflects badly on her character or even that the abortive forced-wedding plotline wouldn't have happened if she had traveled in a more conventional way.
Apparently there was a silent 1922 adaptation of HG Wells's The Wheels of Chance, which features a young, bloomers-wearing, runaway-from-home-in-search-of-a-life-of-independence female cyclist love interest for the initially-incompetent male protagonist (they then go on a cycling holiday). Here the bicycle is again allied with liberal politics, practical clothing, and potentially reckless bids for independence. The depiction of Jessie sounds broadly sympathetic, if kind of paternalistic/condescending.
I guess in both these examples it's okay for pretty young women to ride bicycles as long as the narrative provides a man to rescue them from the perils that will inevitably result. In the case of a middle-aged woman rider with no man in sight, a la Gulch/the Witch, she IS the peril. :-/
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Got it! I'll add that to my reading list.
I've actually read this one and had totally forgotten about it! I liked that it basically ends with Jessie cycling into the sunset though the tone of their adventures was pretty condescending.
So same story as always basically. :-(
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I was attempting to investigate whether there were any positive portrayals of women on bikes in the early cinema days and not only can I not think of any I'm having a difficult time searching for such a particular subject. Though I am running across many old newspaper articles talking about the new craze for women riding and it so bizarre to me because the authors of several of the articles describe these women in much the same fashion as a cryptid that is unknowable (when they could have freaking asked :P).
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I spent some time doing research on this and had much the same results as you. Lots of articles with the Inscrutable Wimmen doing their crazy thing but not much modern analysis on the subject and no comments on women on bike in film. There's a probably a thesis in there somewhere.
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I've requested back and opened mine up for you as it is kept partly f-locked for reasons which will become apparent as you read.
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Thanks for the subscription and access! I went back and gave you access today though I'm planning on rarely using the f-lock.
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It sounds like yet another case of "it makes women less dependent on men, it must be evil!"
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