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A review by grayola
From Reverence to Rape by Molly Haskell
3.0
"It is one of properties of perspective that from a distance of time or space everyone, like the Chinese, looks alike." (p. 49)
Yikes. This a flawed feminist text. Haskell spends much of her time in the first chunk of the book separating herself from "feminism" by asserting her identity as a film critic before her identity as a feminist—perhaps catering to skeptical readers? Ironically, the rest of book more or less upends this idea as she goes on to mention feminism in name thoroughly throughout the book and of course use its principles to analyze the mythologies of American masculinity and {white} women's role in film up into the 70s. Her analysis of American masculinity and European filmmaking towards the latter half of the book are in my opinion, her biggest contributions from this book. I kept imagining what the cultural landscape and film-loving community would have felt like at this moment in time. The name, after all, is in total panic over where movies are headed at this point in history.
Yikes. This a flawed feminist text. Haskell spends much of her time in the first chunk of the book separating herself from "feminism" by asserting her identity as a film critic before her identity as a feminist—perhaps catering to skeptical readers? Ironically, the rest of book more or less upends this idea as she goes on to mention feminism in name thoroughly throughout the book and of course use its principles to analyze the mythologies of American masculinity and {white} women's role in film up into the 70s. Her analysis of American masculinity and European filmmaking towards the latter half of the book are in my opinion, her biggest contributions from this book. I kept imagining what the cultural landscape and film-loving community would have felt like at this moment in time. The name, after all, is in total panic over where movies are headed at this point in history.