Imitation Of Life Movie And Gender

g” (49). Race is societal and cultural in America, so is gender. And interweaving with them is the issue of class. The ideology about race, gender and class in American society indicates hierarchies that values white over black, males over females. Deriving from this hierarchy are oppression and revolt that keep shaping America till today. Movie is one of the lens for examining this hierarchy in America, both reflecting the ideology of societies and influencing it—the 1934 and 1959 versions of Imitation of life are two examples. As Kristi Branham argued, “The ‘woman question’ and the ‘race question’ are conflated in the passing story in both the 1934 and 1959 film versions of Imitation of Life” (258). Furthermore, underlying the two issues …show more content…
Similar to the increased confliction shown in the development in the racial aspect, the two movies presents gender role in fairly different light. The character of the white mother exemplifies the central confliction of gender role in the movie, which is, as Branham illustrates, the tension between work and home, between feminine responsibility and masculine achievement (259). In the 1934 version, Bea [the white mother] is portrayed as an independent woman who achieve success by becoming the “pancake queen” in New York. In the scene of the business party, Bea is surrounded by successful business man and is treated as their equal, which represents the climax of her success. While the movie compromise her somewhat masculine success with her innocent and sweet manner during the encounter with Steven Archer, her future lover, indicating that despite the masculine success, Bea’s femininity remains intact. Such compromise can also be found in nature of Bea’s business itself. Even though Bea’s success and the role of breadwinner that can be considered masculine, the character achieve this success by selling pancakes, a cooking activity with a “domestic” nature. What’s more, Bea’s workplace, her pancake store, is assigned to be connected to her home and children, which enables her to develop her career while caring about her daughter. For example, the movie includes a scene where Bea plays card game with Jesse, saying “I’m glad I have an excuse to keep you home with me.” In fact, according to Ruth Milkman, during the 1930s, “women were urged to leave the paid labor force” under the effect of the Great Depression, a historical context that resonates with the movies effort to seek compromise between Bea’s work and mother responsibility