And The Victim Goes To:
by Joseph LindseyYear after year, Hollywood continues to make films that objectify the image of women in the name of art. This sends a dangerous message to young girls in this country and around the world at a time when they need healthy role models outside their mothers. Kids need healthy role models from Hollywood because it’s fun for kids to fantasize about the limitless possibilities of living in a free society.
If I told you the tales I know of, of what some actresses have gone through to get a job in Hollywood, your head would spin. You’d think The National Organization for Woman would be up in arms over the misogyny that is the underbelly of Tinseltown. But they aren’t, because feminism in Hollywood is now only liberalism. Hollywood and the media proved that in this last election with the treatment of Sarah Palin. When liberal Hollywood gives an award to an actress they don’t tell you what she went through to get that part, they only show you what she played to get that award.
And for what sorts of parts does Hollywood award actresses?
-The first Best Actress Oscar award was given in 1927 to Janet Gaynor for playing a poor prostitute in Street Angel.
-1933 Helen Hayes won Best Supporting actress as sacrificial, maternal streetwalker in The Sin of Madelon Claudet.
-1946 Anne Baxter won Best Supporting actress as a thrown-away woman who turned to prostitution after a car crash in Razors Edge.
-1948 Claire Trevor won Best Actress as a torch-singing floozy turned into a gangster’s alcoholic mistress in Key Largo.
-1950 Judy Holliday won Best Actress as a mistress and kept woman in Born Yesterday.
-1956 Dorothy Malone won Best Actress as a wild, frustrated nymphomaniac in Written on the Wind.
-1957 Joanne Woodward won Best Actress as a woman with multiple personalities (one of which was a prostitute) in The Three Faces of Eve.
-1958 Susan Hayward won the Best Actress Oscar as a deceitful party-girl prostitute in I Want to Live.
-In 1960 Hollywood honored a threesome for their work. Elizabeth Taylor won the Best Actress Oscar as a high-class New York call girl who wants to straighten out her life in Butterfield 8 – in the same year, Melina Mercouri was nominated for playing a Greek prostitute who doesn’t work one day of the week in Never On Sunday and Shirley MacLaine was nominated for her role as the mistress of a callous business executive in The Apartment.
-Also in 1960 Shirley Jones (against type) won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar as a vengeful prostitute in Elmer Gantry.
-1963 Shirley MacLaine was nominated for Best Actress as a Parisian prostitute in Irma La Douce.
-1965 Julie Christie won the Best Actress Oscar as an amoral model in Darling.
-1971 Jane Fonda won the Best Actress Oscar as a fearful, bored, and victimized/stalked streetwalker in Klute.
-1976 Jodie Foster was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a young runaway prostitute in Taxi Driver.
-1990 Julia Roberts was nominated as Best Actress for her role as a LA hooker/escort in Pretty Woman.
-1995 Mira Sorvino won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar as a bubble-headed prostitute in Mighty Aphrodite – in the same year, two other nominees for Best Actress also played prostitutes: Sharon Stone for Casino and Elisabeth Shue for Leaving Las Vegas.
-1997 Kim Basinger won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar as a Veronica Lake-look-alike hooker in L.A. Confidential.
-2003 Charlize Theron won the Best Actress Oscar as a serial-killer prostitute in Monster.
Hollywood has also given their top prize four times to women who’ve played mutes and numerous awards have gone to women who’ve played nut-jobs and drug addicts. This year’s nominees are a smattering of crazies, drug addicts, and domestic victims. If this is the end result of a life in the arts for an actress in Hollywood, you can only imagine what they went through to get that hard little golden man in hand.
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“And for what sorts of parts does Hollywood award actresses?
Hollywood has also given their top prize four times to women who’ve played mutes and numerous awards have gone to women who’ve played nut-jobs and drug addicts. This year’s nominees are a smattering of crazies, drug addicts, and domestic victims.”
I guess it’s easy to win awards for parts that aren’t much of a stretch.
Sorry about the double post.
I am everyday amazed at the smarts of all the Big Hollywood bloggers. A great little piece…
Hmm…I think you are failing to really look at the bigger picture in your quest to somehow make this about Sarah Palin
Helen Mirren won Best Actress for playing Queen Elizabeth
Judi Dench won Supporting for playing Queen Victoria
Katherine Hepburn won for playing someone royal in Lion in Winter
Geraldine Page won for playing an elderly woman going home in Trip to Bountiful
Jessica Tandy won for playing an elderly woman being driven around in Driving Miss Daisy
Frances McDormand won for playing a pregnant cop in Fargo
Ellen Burstyn won for playing a woman who ultimately LEAVES a bad relationship in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
Sissy Spacek won for playing Loretta Lynn
These certainly weren’t “victim” or “prostitute” roles, and I’m sure if I could look up more, I’d find more winners just like this.
Great list, Mr. Lindsay! I knew a few, and have used them, but wow, they really add up.
Then, when you add the non-glam (Halle in Monster’s Ball, Cher in Silkwood, Sharon Stone in Last Dance–though don’t hink she got a nod, it was an obvious attempt at one), the list would quadruple….
I think my life is pretty interesting, and would make quite the movie—someone could gain forty pounds (I’m twenty over normal healthy women, so add twenty for Hollywood)….
What about “Monster’s Ball?”
Women should have the same chance as men to win Oscars for playing serial killers, drunks, drug addicts, lunatics, phony preachers, mad scientists, crooked politicians, informants, gangsters, hired guns, pool hustlers, prisoners, scam artists, and murderous despots.
Something that has been bothering me since I read the plot summary of “Requiem for a Dream” is what Jennifer Connelly stooped too in that film, which in turn somehow gave her the cred to take on more dramatic roles, including the one that won her an Oscar. It seems that the only way for an actress to be taken seriously in Hollywood is to completely degrade herself. Charlize Theron is a perfect example of this, as well.
Pete did miss the point of the blog that it was the degradation of women in Oscar roles, but he does point out that many others have won for portraying strong woman.
My big issue with one of the roles Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, Gere catches her in the bathroom, and then threatening to kick her out because he thinks she is doing drugs. OK so the message is drugs are bad but selling your body is good?
Oh and on Palin good thing she didn’t have a “black love child.” (Just to point out how vile that some have been against their own party).
Although there are many on your list that I wholeheartedly agree are awful role models (and painful BS parts that have nothing to do with reality) e.g. Pretty Woman – I have to disagree about the Jane Fonda’s Brie Daniels character in Klute, especially. She is not bored, life has taken the wind out of her sails a bit. She is a strong character with a great deal of vulnerability. And she is scared because she is experiencing caring about someone (something which is entirely new to her) and the struggle with how vulnerable that maker her feel. And certainly there is a great deal of fear that stems from the circumstances – is there anyone you know who would be calm when being stalked…?
Also, I believe Julia Roberts won for Erin Brockovich who is (although “unconventional”), an excellent and fierce role-model.
It’s also important not to reduce everything to the concept of who is inspiring – on many levels film are going to be just films. They should be about human experience and that is not always black and white. I don’t see anyone criticizing a film like “Sideways” for its negative male portrayals… Some guys will be alcoholics, or womanizers etc. I think if the parts were more realistic and really about women rather than some odd/skewed idea of what women are and experience – then the role-model thing could be a moot point.
Yeah, I would like to point out it is not only women that have had to do things to get ahead.
A friend of a friend of mine was a very succesful model. I used to ask him how he got his gig. His answer was always “I was discovered”. This guy was obviously sick in the head and needed treatment, but somehow he got along.
One day I was told how did get his gig. Needless to say I was shocked and disgusted at the act that he was required to accomplish in order to “be discovered”. It amazes me that people think they can come to California and “be discovered” based solely on their talents. Some people will do anything…
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for posting this article!
I’ve noticed this pattern of “rewarding the prostitute” myself and wonder why nobody is troubled by it.
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Okay, I’ll be fair: this post makes a fantastic point about the degradation of women endemic in Hollywood, and the sorts of self-debasement they reward.
Now let’s look at the other side:
Most of the twits earning the rewards are the most unredeemed socialists (if not outright communists), misanthropes, and outright America-haters on the planet, with rarely two coherent thoughts on anything substantive outside their filed of endeavor, and more than occasionally precious little mentionable talent even within that chosen field.
So honestly, I’m having a bit of difficulty getting too worked up about how Hollywood degrades actresses, when I see the basic material they have to start with in the first place.
And if 999 actresses banded together and turned down tawdry roles, it wouldn’t work, because there’d always be some tart fresh off the bus who’d sell her soul, get the part, and win the Oscar. (In fact, that’s rather descriptive of the last 40 years, if not far longer.)
Actresses get awards for degrading roles because they adore a degraded world, and throw themselves into the roles with the gusto necessary to garner an award nod.
The Best Actress is a symptom of Hollywood’s malignancy, not the disease itself. When Hollywood itself stops producing feces and venerating filth, they’ll (hopefully) stop rewarding it.
“If I told you the tales I know of, of what some actresses have gone through to get a job in Hollywood, your head would spin.”
Come on, share some of these stories! I need to make a film where an up and coming actress must “prostitute” herself out in order to make it in Hollywood.
If your theory is correct, I smell a Best Actress Oscar!
Madeline,
Yes, I tried speaking to a feminist once, but she just kept screeching at me about how men (yes, all of us) had conspired to keep her from succeeding, blah, blah, blah.
So, I went back to getting my coffee at the convenience store.
Worst. Barista. Ever.
So does this mean Sarah Palin is a prostitute? Are amoral models — love that description re Darling — also like prostitutes?
And ‘feminuts’. Heh. That’s quality humor. Is Lola drinking and typing again?
Interesting list, man. I honestly never much thought of that prosty thing. It’s pretty icky, really. And Erin Brockovich ain’t much of a role model though, well maybe just to those of us with no breasts to speak of to push up…..
However, I did notice the Nazi movie Oscar connection. No conclusions, just saying…..
Hang on. Does this mean a Holocaust Prostitute is a lock?
Didn’t Hollywood speak loudly during the election with Hollywood’s treatment of women? Both Hillary and Sarah. Women in Hollywood should learn to use TaxTurbo immediately.
Hey Harley, it won’t be long before we see a sexually ambiguous, Jewish prostitute Holocaust survivor, single parent with a morphine addiction. Who, in real life, is gay and voices his/her anger towards Rick Warren.
That actor is a LOCK.
Alright, write a part for a gay, lesbian, royal, retarded, slave prostitute and reap the rewards.
“JohnFNWayne – January 22nd, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Alright, write a part for a gay, lesbian, royal, retarded, slave prostitute and reap the rewards.”
Already been done.
“Exit to Eden” Rosie O’Donnell (1994)
Spiro, heh. Except the ‘reap the rewards’ part, of course.
Great post!
Interesting how all of these actresses were quite young when they played these roles. How come we never see an “old” prostitute in films? Majority of these actresses, luckily, went on to bigger and better. Yet I’m amused that past the age of 40 they wouldn’t be offered the role of a sex worker, especially a starring role. Until these actresses stand up for themselves (especially those over 40) this bias will continue.
I’m with you on the premise of your post. However, Anne Baxter (1946), Claire Trevor (1948), and Judy Holliday (1950) turned in magnificent performances.
“The Razor’s Edge” has always been one of my favorite movies. Anne Baxter’s performance at the point where she is struggling to remain sober makes my heart feel as an anvil. Gene Tierney’s performance is also very good. In her (Isabel’s) temptation of Sophie (leading to ultimate destruction) over simple jealousy, Gene manages to portray manifest evil. I would also note that these two were among the most beautiful women in Hollywood at the time.
Ok, back to your post. Yes, it would be nice to see more positive role models, but I wonder if Hollywood has what it takes? It takes good writing, good acting, and an academy with an open mind. Right now, each of these things is problematic.
I wish I could remember who it was, someone in Vogue I think, who talked about how insane it was that young starlets think they are being bold, brave, empowered feminists by playing edgy roles that involve explicit sex and nudity, and then cry when they can’t have those roles after a certain age. They don’t realize either how they are objectifying themselves or what it will feel like when they reach “a certain age” and can’t get those roles anymore, and how unjustified their anger and sense of betrayal will be at that time.
Don’t start a reply post by teasing us with something we all want, and then not follow through!
Is this a plea for some kind of politically-correct affirmative-action deal, whereby it’s not enough to write good parts for women but they also have to be positive and/or come with some kind of socially-redeeming proselytizing?
Hardly. We’re just wondering why playing a “positive” role is less likely to garner an Oscar nod. Such roles do exist, always have, but when the nominations come around it’s as if the Academy looked and said, “Hmm. Dunno about this one — it’s not really depressing enough.”
It’s as if a performance becomes somehow less award-worthy when it’s not about someone on the underside of society.
I think you are onto something there.
Erin Brockovitch is an excellent and fierce role model?
If you want your daughter to grow up to be a shakedown artist, I suppose that might be true. To say nothing of the woman’s trainwreck personal life.
This won’t end as long as women continue to choose following over leading. Ever have a big opportunity but chickened out at the last minute? My gender did that on November 4th. Well, the butchering of Sarah Palin began long before that, but you know what I mean.
My daughter came home for first grade reciting all kinds of wonderful facts about the civil rights movement. Too bad she won’t be taught that much about Women’s Sufferage. Where the hell are all those ‘women’s studies’ majors from the ivies pushing THAT agenda in the public schools? We’ve marginalized ourselves.
RYUKYU
What about “Monster’s Ball?”
Ms. Berry won that “Historic” Oscar because she was Black / Mixed Race. Just like the current President. She was an “Affirmative Action” pick.
I don’t think this phenomenon is really gendered in the way you describe.
Please list all the men who have won Oscars for playing gay prostitutes, gigolos, and pool boys seduced by rich married women.
Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Yawn. This has been the case for women’s roles in Hollywood since day one, even when Hollywood was much more of a conservative town, run by the likes of Louis B. Meyer and Will Hays.
I think the author of this was trying to point out that modern liberal Hollywood has not come to terms with this old fashioned “double standard” but unabashedly continues the cultural hypocrisy.
Whorishness is the warp and woof of all drama, no matter what gender.
Liberalism or political correctness is not a cure, just a disguise.
Again, so what? Go complain to Shakespeare. Or God.
With art they say to do what you know, which may explain so many prostitutes.
Oh, Carolyn, the old ‘mother’s basement’ joke, this time super improved by the beanie propeller line. (What’re you, 65? Oh. And menopausal?).
You’d be a more effective bully if you were smarter. Pity, that.
As an aside – Carolyn you just gave my first belly laugh of the day. Thank you! I needed that.
…and the twirl of the beanie propeller goes on…
Harley – ROFL – oh Puh-leez…is that the fantasy you have when you twirl your propeller? That we want to bully you? Honey, we’re just laughing at you. Not with. AT.
Sharon! I find it interesting that the posters on this site with the biggest swinging dicks are all women. Angry, smirky, condescending women.
Not sure why. Maybe it’s just a coincidence. Me? I blame Ann Coulter.
Why thank you Harley – at least I have more than you do…plus Ovum to boot. Yay Me!
And you’re comparing me with Ann Coulter? WOW!! I am HONORED, I tell you. There should be more of her around. The thing that Leftards hate the most is having to swallow their own medicine, and Ann is a superb doctor when it comes to administering it.
No wonder you thought you lost your d*ck to us conservative women…
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You guys kill me. If you didn’t exist liberals would have to create you.
“This year’s nominees are a smattering of crazies, drug addicts, and domestic victims.”
Are you guys even awake when you write these things? A full 20% of this year’s actress nominees (lead and supporting) played f’n nuns!
Once again, at what point does being wrong make you think you should stop saying stupid stuff?
” the last twenty years of Best Actress winners, all of their careers have gone into the toilet after winning the Oscar”
Jodie Foster wins in 1988 and then 3 years later wins again for that box office bomb Silence of the Lambs
Jessica Tandy – OK, you got me here, she never did have another big hit. Of course she was 81 and died a few years later
Kathy Bates – followed up her win with Fried Green Tomatoes which was pretty big but then ended up in that flop Titanic
Emma Thompson – Love Actually and Sense and Sensibility did pretty well, too bad those Harry Potter movies never took off
Hilary Swank – won her oscar and then disappeared. well, except for winning again with Million Dollar Baby
Charliae Theron wins and then gets nominated again two years later
Of course those Ocean movies Julia Roberts is in never make any money, that’s why they keep making them
And Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Frances McDormand and Susan Sarandon can’t find work anywhere. And if Iron Man doesn’t make it’s money back on DVD I’m sure Gwenith Paltrow will never work again.
You folks should all stick to things you actually know something about. I’m sure there’s SOMETHING.
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