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

About this book

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 womenhow they are used in movies how they use movies and how the parts they play function as projections and verifications of our myths about womens lot and womans psyche and even lately womens 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 womens 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 auditoriumsexual 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