The Paradox of the Reel Female Athlete in Early American Women's Sport Cinema, 1924-1965 Stacy Lynn Tanner
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2013 On the Replay: The Paradox of the Reel Female Athlete in Early American Women's Sport Cinema, 1924-1965 Stacy Lynn Tanner Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES ON THE REPLAY: THE PARADOX OF THE REEL FEMALE ATHLETE IN EARLY AMERICAN WOMEN’S SPORT CINEMA, 1924-1965 By STACY LYNN TANNER A Dissertation submitted to the Program for Interdisciplinary Humanities in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2013 Stacy Lynn Tanner defended this dissertation on April 1, 2013. The members of the supervisory committee were: William Cloonan Professor Directing Dissertation Kathleen M. Erndl University Representative Donna Marie Nudd Committee Member B. Cecil Reynaud Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii I dedicate this work to my beloved grandfather, George Walter Armstrong, who asked me during our last visit, “You are going to go back and get that Ph.D., right?” Thank you, Granddad for always instilling in me the value of education and for encouraging me to play the game. I also dedicate this work to my twin brother and built-in best friend, Scott. You continue to be source of inspiration. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS When I began this journey, people often told me that writing is an isolating experience. Yet, I did not get to this point on my own. I am grateful for so many people’s support and assistance throughout this process. First, I would like to thank Dr. Bill Cloonan for asking the tough questions, forcing me to think beyond the page and screen, and encouraging me to pursue my interests. I would also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Donna Marie Nudd, Dr. Kathleen M. Erndl, and Dr. B. Cecile Reynaud for their guidance and patience. Also, I am appreciative of Dr. John Kelsay’s advice and support during the last few years. Words cannot express how helpful John Netter and Shannon Tucker have been through the many transitions in the department and program. Throughout the research process, Rosemary Hanes in the Motion Picture Division at the Library of Congress was incredibly helpful in retrieving and digitizing film. Kelly Keith of the Strozier Library was ready and willing to lend a hand and steer me in the right direction. Thank you both for making the materials I needed accessible. Johnathan O’Neill at Georgia Southern University made the research trip to Washington D.C. possible. Thank you Lisa L. Denmark, Chuck Thomas, and Don Rakestraw for many happy hours of insightful intellectual debate and discussion. Your company and support made my load “a little lighter”. Thank you to my mentors John Steinberg and Anastatia Sims at Georgia Southern University, for always listening and offering such helpful advice. Thanks to Fran Aultman for inviting me to the barbeque, the jokes, and for keeping me relatively sane and organized. I am grateful to Robin Sellers for her unwavering support over the years and most recently for the coffee breaks. Thank you to Maricarmen Martinez for teaching me to think critically about film. And thank you, Will Benedicks for always scheduling my classes to ensure I could have a reasonable writing schedule. Thank you, Sarah Fryett for the trips to the beach and for the words that let me forget the world for a bit. And thank you to my friends and colleagues for their enduring support: Jennifer Snitker, Hannah Morchen, Talia Magnani, Melissa Remy Redshaw, Brandy Wilson, Theresa Bullock, Christa Menninger, Kathryn Wright, Meghan Martinez, Kenaya Edgehill, Jenn Schwager, Denise Spivey, Joanna Winters, and Cathryn Lockey. I am particularly grateful for Suzanne Caldwell’s mechanical abilities and spatial understanding. Thanks to the Clarks for their kindness and for Mary’s willingness to copy edit this manuscript on such short notice. Thank you Doris Gilliam, Marie Patrick, and Maggie MacCarroll Ramrattan for being my writing buddies. We can do this! Thank you to Cameron and Craig at Killer Coffee for keeping me caffeinated and for listening to my tirades about this, that, and the other thing. iv And finally, I am thankful to my sister, who listened day after day, year after year. If I could only have one sister, I would choose you twice on Sunday- as long as it doesn’t interfere with watching football. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ...........................................................................................................................vii INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................. 1 1. SPINNING REELS AND SPINNING WHEELS: A REVIEW OF WOMEN’S SPORTS CINEMA SCHOLARSHIP............................................................................... 10 2. IN SLOW MOTION: NATURALIZING DIFFERENCE IN EARLY SPORTS CINEMA ......................................................................................................................... 38 3. DELAY OF GAME: HEGEMONIC FEMININITY AND THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF DIFFERENCE ................................................................ 61 4. MISFITTING THE FRAME: REDEFINING FEMININITY IN EARLY SPORTS FILMS............................................................................................................................. 94 5. FAST FORWARD: SPORTS CINEMA AND THE PHYSICAL LIBERATION OF WOMEN ....................................................................................................................... 130 APPENDIX ................................................................................................................... 144 A. FILM SUMMARIES............................................................................................... 144 REFERENCES............................................................................................................. 152 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH........................................................................................... 163 vi ABSTRACT Sports and sports films mean a great deal to many Americans. Since the historic Title IX legislation passed in 1972, opportunities for female athletes reached unpredictably high numbers. Likewise, there was an increase in the number of female protagonists within American sports films. Of the scholarly work regarding the female athlete in film, the focus is almost exclusively on the post-Title IX film. This makes the scholarly study of the reel female athlete in early American women’s sports cinema relevant and necessary. In her work, Working Girls: Gender, Sexuality, in Popular Cinema (1998) Yvonne Tasker stated, “Writing histories that chart women’s relationship to the institutions of film production, like studies of the articulation of gender in the cinema, involve a work of uncovering contributions which have not been spoken about, a process of rereading texts, and challenging given assumptions” (198). I engage in this project to challenge the assumptions of early sports film, to highlight the pioneers of early women’s sports cinema, and to challenge pervasive notions about women’s sports. Specifically, I began this project to better understand the relationship between women’s sports and women’s sports films. I utilize a multidisciplinary theoretical approach and a social feminist historical perspective in order to analyze the reel female athlete. I posit that the image of this athlete in early American sports films is paradoxical. Her representation is at once traditionally feminine and gender bending. In the long run, the female athlete was always a threat to the patriarchal order because she complicated traditional notions of femininity. This limited, but did not erase, her representation on the vii silver screen. Female athletes serve as an important site of resistance in 20th century American film, yet they receive little attention by scholars. I discuss the complex gendered nature of representations of women athletes in pre-Title IX American film. I propose that the paradoxical representation of this athlete mirrors the divisiveness of sports feminist agendas. Most early sports feminists adopted policies of difference in accordance with the social and “scientific” values of early twentieth century America. Dissenting feminists interested in promoting equality of the sexes also complicate the image of the reel female athlete. The tension between these philosophies of gendered sport confused the central messages of women’s sports films and slowed the advance the sports feminist movement. Specifically, I examine feature length films with a female athlete and lead character created between 1924 and 1965 including Venus of the South Seas (1924), Girls Can Play (1937), National Velvet (1944), Fiesta (1947), Pin Down Girls (1951), Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) and the film, Billie (1965). viii INTRODUCTION In their work, Hollywood’s America: United States History Through Its Films, Steven Mintz and Randy Roberts articulate the connection between the history of a people and their cultural productions, “If you want to know the United States in the twentieth century, go to the movies. Films represent much more than mass entertainment . Like any other popular commercial art form, movies both reflect and influence