In westerns, the main protagonist
is generally an older male. In
fact, in many instances, westerns seem to cater to men (specifically American
men). This main character happens
to embody the “true American spirit” and is often rough and unrefined. He has a take-charge approach to
difficult situations. He is
willing to stand up for what he believes and defend his country. Contrast this characterization with the
female actresses in westerns. They
are often the ones that need to be saved.
They are taken advantage of and very rarely do they even play a large
role in the actual film. Women in
westerns (and especially in “The Searchers”) are often depicted as weak and/or
incapable of handling extreme pressure.
The first female character in “The
Searchers” to truly demonstrate these unfortunate characteristics is
Debbie. Debbie ends up being
captured by Scar and forced to be one of his wives. This is the first example of her being weak. Instead of fighting off the Comanches
like the men in the film do, she allows herself to be captured. Once she is captured, she is
essentially “brainwashed”. No male
character is ever captured and then psychologically (and possibly physically)
manipulated to live with the Indians.
This showcases how women are weaker minded and easily swayed mentally. It isn’t until Debbie is rescued by the
white male, that she seems to snap out of her Comanche trance. The idea furthers itself when Ethan
goes into a room full of other women who were kidnapped by the Comanches (while
searching for Debbie with Jeffrey).
These women act like they have completely lost all sense of humanity and
are depicted as stereotypical savages.
Yet another example of how only women seem to be the ones ever
manipulated and are continuously represented as the weaker sex.
Women in “The Searchers” are also
portrayed as being incapable of handling extreme pressure. When Lucy (Debbie’s sister) realizes
that they are about to be attacked by the Comanches she screams dramatically. The image of her screaming takes up the
entire screen. A large amount of
focus is put on her terror and powerlessness. Compared to all of the other family members, she is overly
dramatic. Her own mother ends up
slapping her to get her to calm down.
But her younger sister (who at this point seems more mature than Lucy
herself) and father appear very calm.
Eventually the viewer discovers that once she was captured, Lucy was
later killed.
The one female character who breaks
the mold of the weak/defenseless woman actually happens to be Martha. While the Comanches early on in the
film kill her, her short amount of screen time depicts her as a capable
strong-minded woman. Even during
the scene shortly before the Comanches attack she appears to be able to handle
the pressure. She helps push her daughter
to a safer location, she works on calming Lucy down (ironically, by slapping
her), and is selfless in her actions.
This stronger female character does not live long and leaves one to
question: why is there not a single strong lead female in “The Searchers”?
-Bonnie Hance
While watching The Searchers, the overall dominance of male strength and power was demonstrated throughout men’s actions, thoughts and spoken words. However, this did not even stick out to me until I read this post. Although now, when I think further and deeper about it, I realize how much this post is true. I now remember seeing no women as authority figures, but as poor and defenseless creatures who needed the help of a man to simply survive. I think that Bonnie describes the role of Lucy and Debbie perfectly. It is through these characters that women are portrayed as helpless, weak and dramatic. The women are also portrayed as someone to be controlled through the Indian woman that Martin marries for a night. That Indian woman is portrayed as worthless when all Martin has to do is sell his hat to her father. Even Martin thought that he was just trading that for a hat, but little did he know the value her dad had on her. I think that another woman who tries to break the mold of this is Laurie. She decides that she will no longer wait on a man who does not bring her happiness, and is not afraid to speak her mind to Martin or anyone else. She sticks up for what she thinks is right! All in all, I completely agree with this post and am glad to have read it because I became more aware of this in the film.
ReplyDeleteAlthough westerns like seldom depicted women in powerful positions and The Searchers is definitely no exception, there are a few differences in your assessment of how female characters are portrayed in The Searchers and mine.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the time being portrayed was inarguably sexist and the time that the movie was released was hardly better, Laurie seemed to be a very strong character within the bounds of her dependence on men in the movie. She admittedly is treated as inferior by Marty, who does what he wants and expects her to wait for him to marry, but she shows a remarkable amount of autonomy in her forwardness in the start of the relationship (kicking Marty over a chair), and in finding a new husband when she decides that she cannot wait for Marty any longer. Although this does not amount to equality and in the end she marries Marty anyway, I felt her behavior was significant for the time period being portrayed.
Another point I might make is that Debbie is a child when she is kidnapped and could hardly be expected to fend off her abductors, regardless of her gender. Furthermore it might be pointed out that Debbie’s father and brother were killed in addition to the women and the Comanche’s keeping of female prisoners might be attributed to a girl’s breeding potential to the Comanche rather than sexism on the part of the filmmakers.
Other than those exceptions, I would say that the women portrayed in The Searchers exhibited social stereotypes, rather than powerful personalities. Many of the main female characters showed a strong dependence on men and typical “damsel in distress” vulnerability.
Marshall Fegenbush