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Regulating Contraception and Abortion in American Cinema, 1915-1952

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Regulating Contraception and Abortion in American Cinema, 1915-1952 Hollywood's Reproduction Code: Regulating Contraception and Abortion in American Cinema, 1915-1952 By Megan Lynn Minarich Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in English May, 2014 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Paul D. Young, Ph.D. Jennifer M. Fay, Ph.D. Kelly Oliver, Ph.D. Shelley Stamp, Ph.D. Copyright © 2014 by Megan Lynn Minarich All Rights Reserved To my paternal grandparents, Ernest Robert and Cornelia Ongenae Minarich, without whom none of this would have been possible iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are many people who I would like to thank for their contributions to and support of my dissertation process and product. First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge my committee chair, Paul Young, and my committee members, Jennifer Fay, Kelly Oliver, and Shelley Stamp, for their incisive and insightful feedback throughout this process and their belief in the importance of my work. Their guidance and encouragement not only helped me to identify ways in which my project could develop and mature, but they also helped me to hone the skills necessary to make that growth happen. I am tremendously grateful to my committee for their sustained and serious engagement with my dissertation. Kelly and Shelley’s research, positivity, and mentorship have been inspiring. Jen’s feedback challenged me as a writer and researcher in the best ways. And Paul, thank you for always pushing me to privilege my own scholarly voice. The archival research that enabled this project was made possible by grants from the Department of English and the College of Arts and Science at Vanderbilt University, and I am also grateful for fellowships provided by both the Vanderbilt Department of English and the Vanderbilt Writing Studio. Thank you to the staff at the Library of Congress, the UCLA Film and Television Archive, the Margaret Herrick Library, the University of Michigan Historical Health Films Collection, and the Vanderbilt University Jean and Alexander Heard Library for their help with locating obscure films and pertinent related materials. I am especially grateful to Vanderbilt’s Frank Lester for his enthusiastic and timely assistance, as well as to Michigan’s Martin Pernick for his personal interest in and attention to my research. Additionally, the feedback I received on portions of this project from colleagues at the Modernist Studies Association and Society for Cinema and Media Studies conferences always helped to bring a iv fresh perspective to my work. I am lucky to have had several excellent mentors and advocates beyond my committee. Jennifer Holt, Andrea Mirabile, Jay Clayton, Kathryn Schwarz, Teresa Goddu, Mark Wollaeger, Paula Moya, Jay Fliegelman, Vainis Aleksa, Sharon Holland, Jennifer Ashton, Chris Messenger, and Clarisse Zimra have all, at various points throughout my undergraduate and graduate careers, taught me to embrace the difficult questions, dig for significant archival contributions, devise new plans when obstacles present themselves, and always show others professional courtesy. Donna Caplan, Sara Corbitt, Janis May, and Amanda Middagh have looked out for me since my Vanderbilt beginnings. Additionally, my Vanderbilt colleagues have played a significant role as interlocutors and friends. Nicole Spigner gracefully dealt with the nuts and bolts and scheduling annoyances of arranging my dissertation talk through the English Graduate Student Association. Jennifer Adler patiently worked with me at the Writing Studio on some of my most challenging revisions. Michael Alijewicz, Elizabeth Barnett, Elizabeth Covington, Katherine Fusco, Amanda Hagood, Stephanie Higgs, Andy Hines, Amanda Johnson, Elizabeth Meadows, Mick Nelson, Freya Sachs, Nicole Seymour, Dan Spoth, Killian Quigley, Jane Wanninger, and Elizabeth Weber Edwards have shown me too many personal and professional kindnesses to name here, but they should know that I do not forget a kindness. I am privileged to have been able to work with and learn from such dedicated and generous scholars. I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to those friends and family who have been encouraging and supportive not just throughout the dissertation process, but long before. Parrish Paul and Valri Bromfield always listened, never judged. Lindsey Coppola and Catherine Johnson Furbish dependably offer sound advice without making me feel silly for needing it. The UIC Writing Center Crew keeps me grounded and has been “yes and”-ing my ideas since our days in v Chicago: Cary Weisgram, Rachel Chamberlain, Jared Kubokawa, Edgar Villeda, Jeff Eichholz, Laura Swanlund, Dennis Episcopo, Catherine McChrystal, and Molly Maguire. I don’t know where I’d be without your heart, intelligence, curiosity, and laughter. Thank you to my family, especially Clarence and Patricia Balla, Jillian Minarich Ritter, and Cynthia Baggett. Charlie Harris met me two weeks before my comprehensive exams, knows exactly what he’s getting, and is crazy enough to want to marry me anyway. His unwavering conviction in the value of my work is heartening, his calmness is steadying, and his willingness to brainstorm with me is invigorating. My parents, Lynn and Ernest Minarich, never doubted my choices and abilities—especially when I did. They taught me the value not just of academic success, but also of determination, integrity, innovation, and conducting myself in a manner respectful of both self and others. Mom and Dad, thank you for always encouraging me to be who I am, even though that often means choosing a difficult path. Finally, I wish to acknowledge my late paternal grandparents, Ernest and Cornelia Minarich. Despite—or perhaps because of— the fact that they were denied access to higher education themselves, they recognized its value and made it the highest of priorities in our family. They are truly remarkable, honorable individuals and role models who I love and miss dearly. Their spirit has sustained me when things looked most daunting. Gram and Poppy, this is for and because of you. Thank you doesn’t even say it. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION…………………………………………..………………………………..………iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS…………………………………………………………………..……iv I. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………....…..…1 Popular and Prescribed Morality in Reproductive Rights History………..……………..………..5 Regulation and Interpretation……………………………………………………………………16 The Reproductive Woman’s Film as Liberating Filmic Space………….…………………….…20 Chapter Descriptions……………………………………………………...……………………...30 Chapter 1…………………………………………………………..……………………..30 Chapter 2……………………………………………………………..…………………..30 Chapter 3………………………………………………………………..………………..31 Chapter 4…………………………………………………………………..……………..32 Coda……………………………………………………………………….……………..32 II. From Sexy to Pregnant: The Problem with Women’s Erotic and Reproductive Agency……………………………………………………………………………………...……34 The Sex/Pregnancy Divide…………………………………………………………………..…..37 Problems with Erotic Agency: Female Types and Transitional Era Censorship………….……..43 The White Slave and Film’s Changing Legal Limitations……………..………………..46 The Vamp……………………………………………………………………………..….62 The Flapper……………………………………………………………………………....70 The Femme Fatale……………………………………………………………………..…76 III. Contraceptive Education: Morals, Science, and Eugenics…………………………..……...84 Where Are My Children?, Margaret Sanger, and On-screen Birth Control: Eugenics as Scientifically and Morally Educational…………………………………………...……..88 Narrative Integration as Educational Framework: The Visual Rhetoric of Eugenics……….…112 Female Degeneracy: Dysgenic Invisibility and the Gendering of Blame…………………........129 IV. Reproductive Agency on Trial: The Criminality of Choice in 1930s Abortion Exploitation Film……………………………………………………………………..…..........................…..142 Moralizing the Illegal: Abortion Practice and the Exploitation Film……………………..........145 Guilty Parents and Gambling With Souls: The Case of the Reproductive Woman…………….158 Race Suicide and Unborn Souls: Investigating Abortion’s Morality………………………...…179 vii V. The Visible and the Violent: Classical Hollywood Melodrama and the Abortion Spectacle………………………………………………………………………………………..191 From Exploitation to Mainstream: Surgical Spectacle in Men in White………………...……..194 Reproductive Agency Up in Flames: Christopher Strong’s Spectacular Abortion………….....211 “Yes, she was that kind of monster”: Leave Her to Heaven and the Domestic Abortion Spectacle………………………………………………………………………………………..223 VI. Coda………………………………………………………………………………………...235 FILMOGRAPY…...…………………………………………….………………………….…..243 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………………246 viii INTRODUCTION “Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. And when he isn’t around, he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?” —It’s a Wonderful Life So says a knowing Clarence to a bewildered George Bailey in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). The familiar spin on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol follows the story of George (Jimmy Stewart), a husband and father who begins to question the choices he’s made throughout his adulthood. Frustrated with his current financial, professional, and personal predicament—and feeling awfully sorry for himself—a shot-reserve-shot sequence juxtaposes shots of a distraught, inebriated George contemplating jumping off of a bridge and committing suicide with shots of the icy river below. Before George jumps—or doesn’t—we are confronted by the snowy, bleeding visage of George: the selfless, well-meaning friend and family man who has done immeasurable
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