Deconstructing Media: A Sample
In his 1995 book, Media Literacy, Art Silverblatt calls for "the development of strategies with which to analyze and discuss media messages." In other words, Silverblatt challenges consumers to deconstruct media. Recognizing that producers intentionally construct media messages, combining various elements to achieve a specific goal, a literate audience deconstructs those messages, examining individual parts for a clearer understanding of the whole. Teachers of media literacy can encourage students to observe everything, emphasizing that no detail is too small for consideration. The following essay demonstrates such deconstruction.
The essay examines George Cukor's film adaptation of Clare Boothe's play The Women. In addition to modelling deconstruction, I hope to provide an entertaining review of a classic film that has recently received considerable attention. Women's magazines ranging from Ms. to Mode have published their own reviews within the last year, and New Line Cinema plans to release a remake starring Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan.
Deconstruction Sample: The Exchange of Women in George Cukor's The Women
Marriages are a most basic form of gift exchange in which it is the women who are the most precious of gifts.--Claude Levi-Strauss
In a frequently cited essay, "The Traffic in Women," Gayle Rubin responds to the depiction of women as exchangeable property. Rubin agrees with Levi-Strauss in identifying the "exchange of women" as an organizing principle of society. Such transactions, she observes, establish partnerships between men at the exclusion of women. While Levi-Strauss accepts women's status as inevitable, however, Rubin challenges that assumption in what feminist critic Gayle Austin calls the "essence" of Rubin's contribution:
The "exchange" of women' is a powerful and seductive concept. It is attractive in that it places the oppression of women within social systems rather than in biology. Moreover, it suggests that we look for the ultimate locus of women's oppression within the traffic in women, rather than within the traffic in merchandise.
In Feminist Theories of Dramatic Criticism, Austin applies the "exchange of women" concept to two post-World War II dramas, Death of a Salesman (Arthur Miller, 1949) and Another Part of the Forest (Lillian Hellman, 1946). Rubin's theory provides perspective as well for George Cukor's 1939 film The Women.
Based on a script by Clare Boothe, The Women features an all-female cast led by Norma Sharer as Mrs. Stephen (Mary) Haines and Joan Crawford as Crystal Allen. The plot concerns Crystal Allen's seduction of Stephen Haines and Mary's response to the affair. Other characters share gossip, engage in their own affairs, divorce, remarry, and generally devote their collective energy to the acquisition of men. In fact, The Women appears to address the exchange of men, never allowing a male character to appear in his own behalf. In an interpretation of Rubin's theory, Eve Kosofsky Sedwick examines male homosocial relationships established by the "traffic in women." She writes: "'To cuckold' is by definition a sexual act performed on a man, by another man." The Women turns the tables, presenting Mary Haines as the cuckolded wife. Other characters, namely Sylvia Fowler and the Countess, find themsleves in the same position as the film progresses. Cuckolding, Sedgwick points out, is on path "by which men my attempt to arrive at satisfying relationships with other men." In The Women cuckolding creates bonds between women. Mary develops a friendship with Miriam Aarons, a divorcee who offers experienced advice. Miriam also happens to be having an affair with Sylvia Fowler's husband. As a result, Sylvia withdraws from her relationship with Mary and begins socializing with Crystal, who has since married Stephen Haines. Sylvia's betrayal only increases Mary's need for Miriam's company, reinforcing separation between original friends and strengthening new bonds. One might question whether these new bods represent the "satisfying relationships" Sedwick stipulates. Sedgwick comments:
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