Proposal Presentation

               American movies have gone through constant censorship since the early 20^th century. This mostly began with the 1915 Supreme Court case; Mutual Film Corp. v. Industrial Commission of Ohio in which the justices unanimously voted (9-0) that motion pictures did not have the right to freedom of speech promised by the First Amendment.  
               
           An unprecedented and completely illegal suppression of the rights established in the U.S. Constitution. The justices' reasoning for their decision was that movies “may be used for evil… We cannot regard censorship as beyond the power of the government.”

Authorities have always seen film as the most threatening art form because of its ability to elicit such an emotional and impressionable impact on its mass audience.

My project will take on the misogynist-role Hollywood has had in its controlled and sexist portrayal of women throughout its short existence.

In the early years of Hollywood, women’s gender roles were being confronted (although still problematically, as I will go into in my project).

This confrontation came in the form of a female archetype known as “the vamp” or the “femme fatale.” Its origins can be found in works of the Middle Ages in Western culture. This archetypical character displayed female independence and a threat to traditional female gender roles. These women were powerful, mysterious, and promiscuous.

In the 1933 film Baby Face, the protagonist (played by Hollywood icon Barbara Stanwyck) is a woman pimped out by her father for patrons of his illegal bar (film takes place during the Prohibition era) who gets advice from a Nietzche-loving friend. The friend tells her:

Baby Face (1933) scene

After this scene Stanwyck goes on to use her power over men to gain social status, a high-paying business job, and wealth in New York City.

But this newfound expression of power and sexual freedom was soon stifled in 1934 with the self-imposed Production Code Hollywood created in reaction to the threat of a mass boycott from the Catholic Church leaders of America.

Commonplace themes like the one displayed in Baby Face became too taboo for the Post-Code era of cinema and female actors were soon portrayed as complacent to the power of men. The only way to happiness for a woman was domestication and the love of a man.

This without a doubt impacted the public’s perception of how the world should be. I would like to research this censorship and the effect it had on cinema’s portrayal of women, the female actors of the era, the astounding mass audience at the time, and the residual damage it has continued to inflict on women in the industry and contemporary politics and pop culture.

 It’s a complex issue with so many contributing factors and I would like to thoroughly research this topic and present the contributing factors in a cohesive visual essay using many clips like the scene from Baby Face, while citing and analyzing academic writing on the subject and historical context.