For over fifty years, the roles that most frequently earn a Best
Actress or Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination are those of
prostitute, adulterer or rape victim. I discovered this while
picking movies for the presentation “A Movie Watcher’s Guide to
Visual Literacy,” I’m giving at the Women’s Power Strategy
Conference in Marin on March 24,
womenspowerstrategyconference.com
I arbitrarily chose the year 1958 to begin my list because I’m
starting off my talk with a clip from “The Vikings,” the culturally
significant* film from that year, directed by Richard Fleischer and
starring Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh and Ernest
Borgnine.
By only looking back fifty-three years, I have excluded some of the
juiciest Oscar-winning roles, including Vivien Leigh as the
adulterer and rape victim Blanche Dubois in “A Streetcar Named
Desire” (1951) and Donna Reed as the prostitute/dance hostess
Lorene in “From Here to Eternity” (1953).
I was admittedly generous with my categories. For example, before
becoming a lounge singer in The Fabulous Baker Boys, , Michelle
Pfeiffer’s character worked as a “paid escort,” which I
reclassified as a prostitute. And in the middle of the confirmation
process to become the Vice President of the United States in “The
Contender,” Joan Allen’s character is only accused of being paid
for sex. I was equally broad with the rape victim category,
including spousal rape in “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” and
statutory rape in “Coal Miner’s Daughter” because Loretta Lynn
(Sissy Spacek) got married when she was only 13-years-old.
So here are the surprising results:
26 nominations were for playing prostitutes.
15 of the Oscar-winning roles were prostitutes.
1. Susan Hayward -I Want to Live! (1958)
2. Shirley Jones-Elmer Gantry (1960)
3. Elizabeth Taylor-BUtterfield 8 (1960)
4. Shirley Jones-Elmer Gantry (1960)
5. Shirley MacLaine-Irma La Douce (1963)
6. Shelley Winters-A Patch of Blue (1965)
7. Jane Fonda-Klute (1971)
8. Liza Minnelli-Cabaret (1972)
9. Glenda Jackson-A Touch of Class (1973)
10. Marsha Mason-Cinderella Liberty (1973)
11. Madeline Kahn-Blazing Saddles (1974)
12. Mira Sorvino-Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
13. Elizabeth Shue-Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
14. Kim Basinger-L.A. Confidential (1997)
15. Charlize Theron-Monster (2003)
82 nominations were for playing Adulterers
14 of the Oscar-winning roles were Adulterers
1. Wendy Hiller-Separate Tables (1958)
2. Simone Signoret-Room at the Top (1959)
4. Julie Christie-Darling (1965)
5. Goldie Hawn-Cactus Flower (1968)
6. Glenda Jackson-Women In Love (1970)
7. Cloris Leachman-The Last Picture Show (1971)
8. Ellen Burstyn- Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)
9. Lee Grant-Shampoo (1975)
10. Jane Fonda-Coming Home (1978)
11. Meryl Streep-Sophie’s Choice (1982)
12. Shirley MacLaine-Terms of Endearment (1983)
13. Cher-Moonstruck (1987)
14. Julie Christie-Afterglow (1997)
21 nominations are for playing Rape Victims
4 Oscar-winning roles were Rape Victims
1. Sophia Loren-Two Women (1961)
2. Patricia Neal-Hud (1963)
3. Sissy Spacek -Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)
4. Jodie Foster-The Accused (1988)
I’ve posted the complete list of 130 films and their categories
on my movie blog, but in summary, over half of the golden
statuettes awarded for Best Actress or Best Actress in a Supporting
Role garnered over the past fifty-three years were for playing
either a prostitute, adulterer or rape victim.
So when the statues are presented on Sunday night, February 26,
take a minute to consider the choice of roles made available to
women who work in movies-because there are thousands of additional
prostitutes, adulterers and rape victims in the over 15,000 other
films released during the last five decades.
And then take a minute to ponder why so many of us-male and female
alike-have such a distorted view about the role of women in our
culture.
* Culturally significant because when Mills High School opened its
doors in 1959, the students (including a freshman named Gil
Mansergh), voted for their mascot name to be “The Vikings,” and
have their marching band use the movie music at football games and
parades.
Comments? E-mail gi*********@co*****.net.
