LA Times writer Mark Olsen says that Doris Wishman, who made the 1965 flick Bad Girls Go to Hell, was in many ways the forerunner of the feminist exploitation genre. The movie involves a woman being raped by her janitor while her husband is at work; she kills him with a bowl. But fearing the consequences of the murder, she flees the city and travels to New York, where she changes her name and has a tryst with a woman, then gets raped by some other guy, then eventually wakes up to find it has all been a dream. Then her husband leaves for work… And the janitor comes in and rapes her. Uplifting? Here's the trailer:





Then there's Terminal Island, directed by Stephanie Rothman. The movie revolves around a an island penal colony where the male and female prisoners fend for themselves without guards. But the subtext is all about power, sexism and social upheaval. Critic Dave Kehr claims the film can be seen as a "lurid exploitation subject turned into a crafty feminist allegory… It's difficult now to believe there was a time when such progressive politics could be expressed in a drive-in movie." This is not the original trailer, but a remix that might not be safe for work, view with caution: (And check out the trashtastic poster!)





"No She Didn't" will also look at Gator Bait, what's called a "hicksploitation" movie directed by Beverly Sebastian. Kathleen McHugh, director of the UCLA Center for the Study of Women says: "Even in the mid-'70s, the kind of proto-feminist element was being written about… you have these powerful, self-assertive, one might even use the term 'extremely aggressive' women who are wreaking vengeance against forces, people, men who are trying to keep them down." Gator Bait, looks, in a word, awesome:





Of course, all of these films are still part of a genre which is deemed "exploitation." So you'll find gratuitous nudity, violence and general sleaze. But the female filmmakers were following what was — at the time — a viable career path in Hollywood. Notes Olsen: "Where many male filmmakers who worked the same route moved on to more respectable projects and acclaim, their female counterparts largely faded into obscurity." Still, the women making these movies injected their point of view. McHugh points out: "A significant part of feminism was women taking charge of representations of sexuality. And you clearly see, albeit in an extreme and sort of trashy way, you do see it in these exploitation films." Paul Malcolm, who is the programmer of the UCLA series, puts it this way: "The films are really flat-out fun genre films, but there's something else at work."

Female-Exploitation Films Seen In New Light [LA Times]
Bad Girls Go To Hell [YouTube]
Gator Bait [YouTube]
Terminal Island [YouTube]

[Image via MovieGoods.com]

Just an idea of the awesome '70s graphic design. Elton is psyched to talk about sex!

Warren Beatty discusses what turns him on. A definable waist is a must.

Al Pacino's fantasy involves boredom and a seven foot woman. Anyone care to deconstruct?

Jack Nicholson wants you to help him vomit. Any volunteers?

Two or three dozen naked women, Telly? Seriously?

Tina Turner is awesome. That is all.

Elton John's theme song is Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me."

Dear Pam Grier, Did you hear the one about Truman Capote being gay?

The answer is no, she can't have it all. Not in the least, according to Grove. "Having it all (as a life-plan) is a chimera," Grove says, usually because real life interferes. Of the 20 women who appeared in the original book, some of their marriages have ended up failing; some feel guilty for not having spent more time with their children as wee ones; some think not that much has changed in the intervening thirty years.

"As for having it all - perish the phrase," Grove now writes. "I would never write that book today, knowing that women who appear to have everything sewn-up still have moments - or years - of guilt and self-reproach, of feeling stretched and torn in too many directions. Hence the high-powered women who give up on the career. My interest in this subject has dwindled to the point where I go along with Margaret Drabble (mother of three): 'If I get into a railway carriage with a child in it, I get straight out.'"

How over child-rearing is Grove? She ends the essay with a sober note about how women end up alone anyway, so in the long run singletons may be better off. "The most liberated woman is the singleton: independent and free of anxieties about menfolk and offspring," Grove reasons. "Children are hostages to fortune: the larger the family, the more hostages for fortune to play with."

Jesus Christ, fatalistic much? Children are "hostages for fortune to play with?" I mean, I understand arguing for fewer than three children — for a working couple, attention resources can be stretched mighty thin when you have a passel of rugrats — but she's basically arguing that life is wretched and bringing children into this cold, hard world is pointless. I can get behind her notion that "having it all" is an illusion, but damn, woman, our prospects are not so bleak.

How Did Seventies Feminists Fare? [Times of London]