A Feminist Goes to the Movies
                       From "Womyn's Words"

                     Patriarchal Propaganda

    Recently I went to see Goldie Hawn's new film, "Deceived" and
I didn't review it right away.  I felt uncomfortable with it but
didn't know exactly why.  But it started me to wondering whether
there might not be a disturbing mini-trend abrewing in mainstream
Hollywood movies.  So off I went to the video store to take a
look at a film I had successfully (and wisely) avoided when it
was in the theaters last summer: "Sleeping With the Enemy."
   My hunch that these two films have a lot in common was
correct, both are "thrillers" which feature a woman as the
central character, the faked death of a spouse, a husband who is
outwardly wonderful but turns out to be a psycho, and the woman
surviving her harrowing ordeal by killing her husband.
   You might even be tempted to think that since the characters
played by Goldie Hawn and Julia Roberts prevail through their own
efforts over the murderous men stalking them that these are even
in some sense feminist films.  Don't you believe it; both are
sheerest patriarchal propaganda pieces masquerading as women-
friendly.
    Both films are filled with what feminist theorist Mary Daly
calls reversals, where the real message is just the opposite of
the ostensible one.  The worst example of this is in "Sleeping
With the Enemy" where on the surface the theme is how a woman in
an abusive marriage is able to trick her husband and escape and
make a new life for herself.  But by portraying the husband as an
elegant, wealthy madman (complete with facial contortions and
rolling eyes the likes of which you haven't seen since silent
movie days), the underlying text suggests that abusive husbands
are insane and, by implication, rare.  This belies the reality
that it is an all too common practice in the United States,
engaged in by "normal" males, who are criminal, but not
considered insane in a society that encourages men to dominate
women.  The husband in "Deceived" is also portrayed as a madman,
albeit a subtler (and better acted) one.
    Another reversal is that the wife is depicted as having the
resolve and ability to plan and carry out an ingenious escape
from this hideous marriage while the subtext seems to confirm the
truth of the abusers standard threat that he will track her down
no matter where she goes should she run away from him.  How could
that have anything but a horrifying effect on real women
contemplating escape from an abusive situation?  The fact that in
the film the wife is able at the last minute to get her hands on
his gun and shoot him cannot be much comfort, and the unreality
of the scene (including the use of a little touch of animation to
make the wedding ring glimmer in the final frame) virtually
screams out "This is not the way it is in real life."
    "Deceived" is a far better film than "Sleeping With the
Enemy"--with fine acting from Hawn and John Heard--but it shares
the same duplicitous reversals.  It looks as if its suggesting
that no matter how wonderful your husband seems too be, it could
all turn out to be an act and he might be someone else entirely.
A warning, perhaps, to women to be on their guards?  That was my
initial reading of the film, but then I got to thinking about
what one of the local film reviewers said about the film and
decided that his reading was probably the one most of the
audience would share.  He said it was a good film for a first
date because it is so scary the woman will grab her date for
protection.  The message he got was the old patriarchal ploy of
reminding women that some men out there are dangerous--not so as
to encourage the women to learn to take care of themselves--but
so they'll look to other men to be their protectors.  Goldie does
save herself in the end, but only after an hour and a half of
psycholgical and physical victimization, and the mood at the end
is not that she triumphed but that she lucked out.  Not a very
empowering feeling for the women in the audience--a real downer,
in fact.
    So feminists will probably want to pass on "Deceived" and on
"Sleeping With the Enemy."   Besides there are far better new
videos out.   "Postcards from the Edge," for example, has finally
hit the video stores, so you can now see on the home screen.  It
is a feminist film about empowerment and growth, and funny to
boot.
                                   Linda Lopez McAlister

Originally broadcast on the WMNF Women's Show, October 5, 1991