Framing Femininity as Insanity: Representations of Mental Illness in Women in Post-Classical Hollywood

From the socially conservative 1950s to the permissive 1970s, this project explores the ways in which insanity in women has been linked to their femininity and the expression or repression of their sexuality. An analysis of films from Hollywood's post-classical period (The Three Faces of Eve (1957), Lizzie (1957), Lilith (1964), Repulsion (1965), Images (1972) and 3 Women (1977)) demonstrates the societal tendency to label a woman's behavior as mad when it does not fit within the patriarchal mold of how a woman should behave. In addition to discussing the social changes and diagnostic trends in the mental health profession that define “appropriate” female behavior, each chapter also traces how the decline of the studio system and rise of the individual filmmaker impacted the films' ideologies with regard to mental illness and femininity.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of North Texas

Year dc:date

2007

Author dc:creator

• Kretschmar, Kelly

Contributors dc:contributor

• Benshoff, Harry
• Larke-Walsh, Sandra
• Mollen, Debra

• mental illness
• women
• sexuality
• post-classical Hollywood
• femininity
• patriarchal mold
• Mental illness in motion pictures.
• Women in motion pictures.
• Femininity in motion pictures.

Statement dc:rights

• Public
• Copyright
• Kretschmar, Kelly
• Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

oclc: 175221945
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3654/
ark: ark:/67531/metadc3654

OAI identifier oai:identifier

info:ark/67531/metadc3654