It may not be as up to date as you might want, but Molly Haskell's _From
Reverance to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies_ might work well.

MG
----- Original Message -----
From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 4:02 PM
Subject: request for text suggestions


> there is one course i teach regularly for which i have never
> found a text that really works well . . . so i approach the
> list one more time in the hopes of finding some helpful
> suggestions
>
> the course is an expository writing course, for first year
> students who have previously done little [if any] careful
> reading and serious writing . . . the course is designed to
> be built around a single topic and to culminate in a small
> scale research paper . . . the topic i have used with success
> in the past and want to use again is "Sexism in Hollywood"
> and considers the various ways sexism shapes hollywood
> practices both on the screen and behind the scenes . . .
>
> trouble is, i have never found a book that i can assign for
> this course . . . books i find most interesting [by kuhn, modleski,
> doane,  stacey, for example] are far far beyond their grasp--
> and more difficult writers -- doane, de lauretis, silverman,
> might as well be in a foreign language . . . in short the sort
> of stuff that comes out of duke, routledge, or BFI is almost
> by definition out of the question . . .
>
> on the other hand the books that they might have some success
> with -- i think offhand of susan douglas' WHERE THE GIRLS
> ARE--are hard to take credit as academic prose or as serious
> explorations of complex issues . . . .
>
> surely there MUST be writers who deal with issues of sexism
> and feminism in cinema using an approach and a language that
> are serious and sophisticated yet  available to what are, in
> fact, novice readers
>
> i suppose the level i'm looking for is best represented by gary
> wills JOHN WAYNE'S AMERICA or robin woods' work on
> hitchcock . . . i've assigned woods in a hitchcock class and while
> the students did not find it easy they were at least able to work
> through it more or less successfully, something i have not been
> able to achieve with any of the books i've used in the sexism
> in cinema class . . .
>
> so, if you know of any books at all that might lend themselves
> to these purposes i'd be grateful to learn of them
>
> thanks very much
>
> mike
>
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>

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