DOCSLIB.ORG

Chapter 4 Congratulations - It's a Boy!

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Chapter 4 Congratulations - It's a Boy! 1 chapter 4 congratulations - it's a boy! Birth is the primary numinous event. It is our major metaphor for life and coming into being. We talk about birth of the universe, the birth of galaxies. It is how the world came into being. It is the first act of magic — and physical testament to the continuity of human and all life.1 A short film shown at a festival in Sydney in 1995 begins with an image of an imposing Catholic church. The dark chords of heavy organ music overlay the images and serve to intensify the religiosity of the scene. The genre of tragedy is indicated. An Italian woman, dressed in black and wearing a head scarf, enters slowly by the central aisle, lights a candle, crosses herself, and bows her head and solemnly prays. Above and around her are numerous familiar icons and statuary: crucifixes, stained glass, a haloed Jesus and a dolorous Mary. She looks up at the melancholy Madonna and entreats: 'Mother, why are you always so sad?' Tears flow surreally from the moulded eyes, there is a pause and the statue speaks. It declares: 'Because, my child, I wanted a daughter'.2 Icon, directed by Di Cousens, although only one minute in length, was both startling and humorous because of the novelty of its concept which subverted the most fundamental level of Christian doctrine. As well, it challenged and therefore undermined the preference for a male child which had been a part of most cultures for centuries. The birth of a child is a momentous occasion, described by Judith Lumley and Jill Astbury in their Australian study on the subject, as: 'that most creative and joyous of events.'3 Birth marked the crucial moment of woman's transition to becoming a mother according to British sociologist Ann Oakley.4 She maintained that 'birth is an event with 1Arisika Razak, 'Toward a Womanist Analysis of Birth' in I. Diamond & G.F. Orenstein, (eds), Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism, Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1990, p. 168. 2Icon was directed by Di Cousens. It formed part of video collection 'Visions of Women' presented at the Women on Women Film Festival, May 27-28 1995, Valhalla Cinema, Sydney. 3Judith Lumley & Jill Astbury, Birth Rites Birth Rights: Childbirth Alternatives for Australian Parents, Sphere Books, West Melbourne, 1980, p. 126. 4Ann Oakley, Becoming a Mother, Martin Robertson, Oxford, 1979, p. 59. 2 great psychological, emotional and social meaning'.5 Similarly, Arisika Razak considered birth 'an event of incredible human significance' with a 'profound spiritual, psychological, and emotional importance'.6 These writings indicate that the moment of a child's birth is extraordinarily powerful. From them we can gather that all the connotations surrounding the event are salient in understanding the issues of motherhood. Because the birth of a child is so important to the family, films frequently used the event for the beginning or the conclusion of a story. In 1992, the cinema review journal, The Velvet Light Trap, devoted an entire issue to the phenomenon of birth in films. In it, Lori Shorr discussed the cinematic construction of the maternal body in childbirth. She analysed educational videos of birth and was critical of the paternal presence which appropriated the mother's part in the labour and delivery process.7 Robin Blaetz, in the same journal, examined films for the sounds of childbirth, and astutely observed that 'birth has traditionally been shown in terms of its effect on a male listener'.8 Other articles in the journal considered surrogacy, abortion and working mothers in films. While these offered useful insights into research into motherhood in the cinema, they paid curiously little attention to the difference the sex of the child made to the narrative. This aspect was also ignored by Lucy Fischer in her study of birth in Roman Polanski's film, Rosemary's Baby. In a long, detailed and exemplary reading of the film, the issue of the child's sex was not considered.9 The difference the delivery of a female or male baby made for the mother in films has not been fully analysed. This has been a significant omission. 5Ann Oakley, Women Confined. Towards a Sociology of Childbirth, Martin Robertson, Oxford, 1980, p. 121. 6Razak, 'Toward a Womanist Analysis of Birth', p. 168. 7Lori Shorr, 'Performing Birth: The construction of female bodies in instructional childbirth videos', The Velvet Light Trap: Review of Cinema, number 29, Spring 1992, pp. 3-14. 8Robin Blaetz, 'In Search of the Mother Tongue: Childbirth and the cinema', The Velvet Light Trap: Review of Cinema, number 29, Spring 1992, p. 17. 9Lucy Fischer, Cinematernity: Film, Motherhood, Genre, Princeton University Press, NJ, 1996, pp. 73- 91. 3 This chapter investigates the different meanings attached to birth in films and in particular demonstrates the difference that the child's sex makes in the life of the mother. The aim is to understand whether the context and the reception of the cinematic birth work to reinforce beliefs about the superiority of the male in society. It would be no surprise to find that the exuberance which traditionally greets the arrival of a boy child has been replicated on screen. The acceptance, even expectation, of the preference, raises the question of how the context of the films might have reinforced it. In other words, were narratives organised to support these particular notions? Was the mother of a male child rewarded by appearing to be a more significant figure? What happened to the woman if she delivered a girl baby rather than a boy? These questions can be answered quite simply by an examination of the trajectory of the narrative. There were thirty-six births in Australian feature films from 1900 to 1988. Of these, twenty-one, or fifty-eight per cent were male. In a patriarchal society, perhaps, it was not surprising that male births predominated in films. It was the context surrounding the birth, however, that was most interesting in understanding how popular images might reflect the preference for a male child which had been a part of most cultures for centuries. This chapter argues that the sex of the child is an important predictor of narrative outcome. Within the films selected, there is a tendency to reward the mother of a son, and to consider the mother of a daughter as less meritorious. That this trend is routine and normalised to a degree that it becomes almost imperceptible, suggests that it reflects a set of beliefs that are both firmly entrenched and unquestioned in the society. The analysis is arranged in four sections. The first part examines the expectations surrounding the birth. It concentrates on the preferences stated by the parents for a daughter or son, and uses historical, social and psychoanalytical research to understand the position taken in several typical films. The second part considers the events after the birth, particularly in relation to changes the new baby brings to the life of the mother. The punishment and rewards that are attached to female and male births are assessed in 4 this section of the study. The special circumstances of births to unmarried women are analysed within this context, to identify any differences that female or male births have on the mother's future wellbeing. The third section describes those films in which the birth of a son is used to provide credibility or power in the development of the narrative. These are contrasted with the films in which the birth of a daughter is trivialised by its link to humorous situations. Expectations: The preference for a son My readings of the films concentrate on birth and gender, despite this not necessarily being the primary concern of the filmmakers at the time. The incorporation of births into films and the decisions regarding the sex of the infants are, perhaps, part of a normative process, largely unquestioned by the filmmakers and audiences. As historian, Gerda Lerner, observed, 'Patriarchal concepts are…built into all mental constructs of…civilisation in such a way as to remain largely invisible'.10 Reflection on the history of childbirth and its relation to modern practice is helpful in gaining some insight into the representation of births in films. Historical writings made it clear that sons have been considered more desirable than daughters for many centuries and across many cultures and countries. Lloyd de Mause, in his European history of childhood, noted that before the fourth century AD, when infanticide was not considered a crime, girl babies were often killed. He concluded that: 'Girls were, of course, valued little'. De Mause cited Hilarion's letter to his pregnant wife Alis in 1 BC, in which he ordered her to expose a daughter and let a son live.11 Lerner also noted that in 8-5th century BC Athens: 'The main function of wives was to produce male heirs… Many female children were exposed at birth and left to die, with the decision over their fate always made by the father'.12 Additionally, Adrienne Rich observed that ancient 10Gerda Lerner, The Creation of the Feminine Consciousness: From the Middle Ages to Eighteen- Seventy, Oxford University Press, NY/Oxford, 1993, p. 3. 11Lloyd de Mause, 'The Evolution of Childhood' in L. de Mause (ed.), The History of Childhood, Harper Torchbooks, NY, 1984, pp. 1-73, see particularly pp. 25-6. 12Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Patriarchy, Oxford University Press, NY/Oxford, 1986, p. 202. 5 Upanishad texts privileged male births by maintaining that the father welcomed the birth of a son, as a representation of his own second birth.13 The preference was widespread.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Adt-NU1999.0010Chapter7.Pdf (PDF, 104KB)
    1 chapter 7 the place for mothers in films of the bush There's nothing here for a wife except submission. My only purpose is to produce heirs for all this. Sometimes I feel just like another of his brood mares.1 The bush has become the mainstay of our mythology and, according to Ross Gibson, has defined the nation and offered 'the most enduring aspect of Australian experience'.2 A common description of an Australian, for example, depicted a figure who was tough, strong and tanned, a man of the land, a battler, a bit of a larrikin and someone, as Russel Ward has noted, who 'above all, will stick to his mates'.3 At the foundation of this stereotype was a nation which was rural, physically challenging and unequivocally male.4 The bush was proposed as a place for men, where they could realise their masculine desires, pit themselves against a formidable opponent and find pleasure in their male companions. Unlike the palimpsest of England, the Australian landscape provided the pioneers something unwritten and new. Myths of the bush were used as a method of finding a new Australian identity away from the limitations of English society. Gibson observed that while an autochthonous society might be inclined to rely on gods to explain its origins, a colonial society tended to use more 'secular myths'. The white settlers used 'essentialist myths of the land' Gibson argued, to find a place for themselves which was separate from the Old World.5 The physical labour required in the harsh conditions meant that a 'machismo' environment flourished and mateship and brute strength came to be prized.6 The aura of masculinity was exaggerated because 1Mrs Dalgleish, the disgruntled wife of a large outback property owner in Donald Crombie's The Irishman (1978).
    [Show full text]
  • Copyright Sources for Australian Drama and Film Richard Fotheringham Many Early Australian Play Scripts Have Survived Only Because of Stage Censorship
    Copyright Sources For Australian Drama and Film Richard Fotheringham Many early Australian play scripts have survived only because of stage censorship. Such manuscripts have been retained in files in the Australian Archives’ copyright files. The author outlines some of his more interesting discoveries during his research, and describes how to proceed to view them. One of the side benefits of the otherwise dubious practice of stage censorship is that it was an excellent way of ensuring that scripts of performed plays were preserved for posterity. It is because of the Lord Chamberlain’s Office in London, for example, that complete manuscripts of two of the most important Australian plays of the nineteenth century George Darrell’s The Sunny South and Alfred Dampier and Garnet Walch’s stage version of Robbery Under Arms — were preserved in the British Library and eventually published in modern critical editions.1 The British censorship system became involved because both plays had at different times been staged in London, as were several other Australian plays held in this collection. It has usually been assumed that the survival of unpublished playtexts performed only in Australia, after the early attempts at censorship, was a far less regular or regulated business, and that we are faced with the almost total disappearance of the plays of several vigorous and exciting ages of Australian drama, including significant works written as recently as the 1930s. It is not just stage history which is impoverished by the loss of these texts, for the live stage has always been a place where the Australian language, its slang and colloquialisms, is quickly picked up; and a place too where contemporary ideas about nationhood, nationalism, aboriginal people, ethnic minorities, the role of women in Australian society, the Australian identity, war, the bush and the city etc, have been freely discussed.
    [Show full text]
  • Lottie Lyell
    Lottie Lyell: the silent work of an early Australian scenario writer http://www.screeningthepast.com/2015/08/lottie-lyell-the-silent-work-of-an-early-australian-scenario... Current Issue Back Issues Occasional Papers Publications Webteque Events About Us Archives Margot Nash Lottie Lyell was a much-loved silent movie star in the early days of cinema in Australia. She was also an accomplished scenario writer, director, film editor, and producer. Quietly working alongside director, Raymond Longford, she had a considerable influence on the twenty-eight films they made together. [1] Longford directed and Lyell starred in nearly all the films, but it is now generally accepted that she contributed a great deal more to all the films than was officially acknowledged at the time. [2] This article builds on the existing research on Lyell through a focus on her work as a scenario writer. It also makes a contribution to screenwriting research through a study of some of the original scenarios held in the archives. In her work on the Canadian silent screen star, scenario writer, director, and producer, Nell Shipman, Kay Armitage writes of the experience of original research in the archives and “the sense of the body of the subject as perceived through the sensorium of the researcher”: … every time Shipman typed a capital, the letter jumped up half a line, and when she came to the end of a sentence, she hit the period key with such force that it left a hole in the paper … That it is Shipman’s body that we contact, rather than a simple fault in the machine, is proven when we read a letter written by Shipman’s husband on the same typewriter.
    [Show full text]
  • Lottie Lyell
    Lottie Lyell Also Known As: Lottie Edith Cox Lived: February 23, 1890 - December 21, 1925 Worked as: art director, director, editor, film actress, producer, screenwriter, theatre actress, title writer Worked In: Australia by Margot Nash Lottie Lyell was a much-loved silent film star in Australia. She was also a scenario writer, director, editor, producer, and art director. Quietly working alongside director Raymond Longford, she had a significant influence on the twenty-eight films they made together. Lyell starred in nearly all the films, but it is now generally accepted that she contributed a great deal more than was officially acknowledged at the time (Wright 1986, 1-14; Pike and Cooper 1998, 19, 109; Dooley 2000, 4). The Australian feature film renaissance of the 1970s awakened interest in the rich history of Australian cinema, and feminist scholars and archivists like Andrée Wright and Marilyn Dooley began to research the role of women in the early days of Australian cinema. In 1985, Wright produced a feature documentary called Don’t Call Me Girlie. Lottie Lyell featured in the section on the silent era and Wright included camera interviews with surviving actors and crew who testified to the major role Lyell had played both on and off screen. The following year, Wright published Brilliant Careers, devoting the first chapter to Lyell and calling it “The Sentimental Girl” (1-14). The title refers to Lyell and Longford’s most successful film, The Sentimental Bloke (1919). Based on the poem by C.J. Dennis, the film tells the story of a “knock about” bloke just out of jail who falls in love with a local lass.
    [Show full text]
  • [email protected] 1968-70. Enzo
    _ n.3 Anno VII N. 67 | Dicembre 2018 | ISSN 2431 - 6739 1968-70. Enzo Ungari al Chaplin della Spe- Nando, quanto ci zia: il d’Artagnan e gli altri di Giovane Criti- mancherai ca Addio a Nando Scanu, una “Siamo stati i figli di un tempo fortunato. Non vi sembri un paradosso. Gli anni ‘50-’60 furono un tempo per molti vita dedicata al cinema versi felice, nonostante le arretratezze del nostro paese. indipendente: socio fondatore Ungari. Un ragazzino che avevo conosciuto a Venezia, all’apertura di un festival, con il sacco a pelo sulla schiena. nel ‘51 del Cineclub Sassari, Era di Spezia e lo prenotai per la rivista. E’ morto preco- tra i precursori del cinema cemente e ha lasciato di sé un ricordo molto forte. Era uno spettatore vorace e divenne un ottimo organizzatore. neorealista in Sardegna e È spiacevole che non abbia potuto dimostrare a pieno “campione dell’associazionismo quanto valesse artisticamente”. Luigi Faccini culturale”. E’ stato un pilastro del Sardinia Film Festival e un attivo La bella rievocazione persona, a tutt’oggi, lo stesso Stefano, come di Stefano Beccastrini purtroppo, a suo tempo, Melani e con lui Pie- collaboratore di Diari di Cineclub (Quando, con Marco Me- francesco Bargellini, da tempo entrambi, co- Qualcuno lo ricorderà lani, gestimmo la sala ci- me Ungari, là unde negant redire. Con i film di come un buon padre di nematografica di Cavri- Pierfranceso esordiente ebbi invece il privile- famiglia, qualcun altro glia) e la successiva gio di familiarizzare da subito, negli anni del- come un valente im- Nuccio Lodato rilettura del suo ma- la Cooperativa Cinema Indipendente di cui prenditore edile e, in gnifico contributo a fui osservatore ravvicinato attivo, grazie alla tanti, come un infati- un libro a suo tempo molto amato, Il viandante triade amicale Bacigalupo-Leonardi-De Ber- cabile operatore cultu- ebbro (Ricordi di Marco (e di me).
    [Show full text]
  • Margot Nash University of Technology, Sydney [email protected]
    1 Margot Nash University of Technology, Sydney [email protected] The silent work of Australian women scenario writers Abstract Set against a backdrop of the boom and bust of Australian silent film production, World War 1 and the first wave of feminism that provided role models for spirited young women, this chapter will explore the lives and scenario writing work of Lottie Lyell, the McDonagh sisters and to a lesser extent Agnes Gavin and Louise Lovely. Through a study of some of the surviving original scenarios, it will also examine the form the early scenarios took before the talkies transformed writing for the screen into what we know today as the screenplay. Key words Silent film scenarios, Australia, Lottie Lyell, The McDonagh sisters, Louise Lovely, Agnes Gavin Introduction The early days of silent cinema in Australia were extraordinary. Over two hundred narrative films were produced in Australia before the advent of the talkies in 1928. This included what is believed to be the first long-form dramatic film the world, The Story of The Kelly Gang (1906). 1Australians were passionate about the cinema and audiences flocked to screenings in makeshift tents, community halls and the many picture theatres 2 that were quickly built in cities and country towns. Showmen travelled to remote areas by horse and cart, screening films, often in the open air. With small portable cameras, dramatic locations, and a hungry cinema-going public, it was a time when anyone could have a go, and they did. The new medium attracted storytellers from theatre and vaudeville as well as a new generation of both men and women keen to try their hand.
    [Show full text]
  • [email protected] 1968-70. Enzo Ungari Al
    _ n.3 Anno VII N. 67 | Dicembre 2018 | ISSN 2431 - 6739 1968-70. Enzo Ungari al Chaplin della Spe- Nando, quanto ci zia: il d’Artagnan e gli altri di Giovane Criti- mancherai ca Addio a Nando Scanu, una “Siamo stati i figli di un tempo fortunato. Non vi sembri un paradosso. Gli anni ‘50-’60 furono un tempo per molti vita dedicata al cinema versi felice, nonostante le arretratezze del nostro paese. indipendente: socio fondatore Ungari. Un ragazzino che avevo conosciuto a Venezia, all’apertura di un festival, con il sacco a pelo sulla schiena. nel ‘51 del Cineclub Sassari, Era di Spezia e lo prenotai per la rivista. E’ morto preco- tra i precursori del cinema cemente e ha lasciato di sé un ricordo molto forte. Era uno spettatore vorace e divenne un ottimo organizzatore. neorealista in Sardegna e È spiacevole che non abbia potuto dimostrare a pieno “campione dell’associazionismo quanto valesse artisticamente”. Luigi Faccini culturale”. E’ stato un pilastro del Sardinia Film Festival e un attivo La bella rievocazione persona, a tutt’oggi, lo stesso Stefano, come di Stefano Beccastrini purtroppo, a suo tempo, Melani e con lui Pie- collaboratore di Diari di Cineclub (Quando, con Marco Me- francesco Bargellini, da tempo entrambi, co- Qualcuno lo ricorderà lani, gestimmo la sala ci- me Ungari, là unde negant redire. Con i film di come un buon padre di nematografica di Cavri- Pierfranceso esordiente ebbi invece il privile- famiglia, qualcun altro glia) e la successiva gio di familiarizzare da subito, negli anni del- come un valente im- Nuccio Lodato rilettura del suo ma- la Cooperativa Cinema Indipendente di cui prenditore edile e, in gnifico contributo a fui osservatore ravvicinato attivo, grazie alla tanti, come un infati- un libro a suo tempo molto amato, Il viandante triade amicale Bacigalupo-Leonardi-De Ber- cabile operatore cultu- ebbro (Ricordi di Marco (e di me).
    [Show full text]
  • Australian Vaudeville Performers in Film
    AUSTRALIAN VARIETY THEATRE PRACTITIONERS AND THE FILM INDUSTRY (Includes Television) Lottie Lyall and Arthur Tauchert in The Sentimental Bloke (1919) Unless otherwise noted all entries indicate an acting role. Abbreviations for other production roles are: [d] = director • [p] = producer • [sw] = screenwriter • [c] = composer • [m] = music director • [ad] = assistant director [pa] = production assistant • [pc] = production company • [ch] = choreographer • [um] = unit manager/production manager [a] = actor (identifies individuals who were engaged in a production role but who also appeared in the film as an actor) Abdy, Harry: Orphan of the Wilderness (1936, as Shorty McGee) • The Broken Melody (1937, as Sam Harris) • Let George Do It (1938, as Elmer Zilch) • Gone to the Dogs (1939, as Hogg) • Ants in His Pants (1940, as Sharkey) • Forty Thousand Horsemen (1940, as Paul Rouger) • The Power and the Glory (1941, as Fritz Grubler) • Harvest Gold (1945, as Johnson). Adele, Marguerite: Grandad Rudd (1035, as Shirley Sanderson). Agar, Dan: Strike Me Lucky (1934, as Major Burnett) • Let George Do It (1938, as the chemist). Alberts, Arthur: The Breaking of the Drought (1920, as Walter Flour) • A Rough Passage (1922, as Poverty Point). Anderson, William: The Squatter's Daughter (1911 [p]). Arnold, Chic: Heritage (1935 [ad]) • Show Business (1938, as Red [ad]). NB: Arnold's association with cinema from the 1946 was as General Manager of Harry Wren Theatres Pty Ltd. Attenboro, Hilda: The Adventures of Algy (1925). Bain, J.C.: Film exhibitor. Bain, Verna: The Adventures of Algy (1925). Bailey, Bert: Actor, writer, director and/or producer. The Squatter's Daughter (1910, as Archie McPherson) • The Christian (1911, as Archdeacon Wealthy) • On Our Selection (1932, as Dad Rudd [p/w]) • Grandad Rudd (1935, as Dad Rudd [p]) • Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938, as Dad Rudd [w/a]) • Dad Rudd M.P.
    [Show full text]