Cinema of Subjugation

When I was talking about Lucifer's Women (1974) the other day I mentioned how its underlying theme was that of the subjugation of women to a patriarchy, with them expected to sacrifice themselves, whether literally or figuratively, to their masters.  It's not an original observation, plenty of others have made it, not just in relation to this particular film, but to exploitation films generally.  Because that's what a lot of exploitation is about, (the clue is in the word 'exploitation'), regardless of whether the main subject matter under exploitation is violence, sex, horror or race, more often than not, the plot will lean heavily upon the subjugation of women in one way or another in order to move the story along.  Whether they are being sacrificed to pagan gods or blood cults, strapped to a rack in some sadistic sex pervert nobleman's dungeon, being menaced by a mummy/vampire/werewolf/Frankenstein monster, sacrificing their virtue to save the hero, being sold into prostitution, being probed by aliens or abducted by a biker gang, they are doing it a state of undress or, at the very least, showing a lot of cleavage and heaving bosoms, they are doing so for the pleasure, not just of the characters victimising them, but also the predominantly male audience.  This is even more true of those films, often set in prisons, where a heroine is victimised by other female inmates and warders - it's giving the guys watching even more female flesh to ogle.  Even the victimisers are themselves being made victims.

There is, of course, a small sub-genre of exploitation films that feature female protagonists, be they 'avenging angels', kick ass mercenaries, street-wise cops or hard boiled private eyes.  But even in these, the theme of female subjugation is strong.  In most of these films the female protagonist has to go through some kind of ordeal before they can triumph.  While male protagonists also generally go through various ordeals, these usually involve physical beatings, traumatic emotional losses or psychological torture, for their female equivalents, not only are they ramped up quite considerably, but they also involve sexual humiliation, sexual assault and, more often than not, rape.  The levels of brutality handed out to exploitation heroines is usual far more brutal than they are for guys.  Take, as an example, the Cherry Caffero vehicle Ginger (1971), in which, having already revealed her childhood trauma of sexual abuse, the titular private eye has to endure being stripped, tied up, shot full of drugs and raped by the villain at the film's finale.  Or Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs (1974), where the female undercover cop protagonist has to endure multiple savage beatings and rapes in order to resolve her mission.  It isn't just confined to crime and thriller orientated exploitation.  The other day I was watching Nashville Girl (1976), a tale of a young runaway who tries to break into the country music business - to achieve this she gets raped twice and has a violent sexual encounter with a juvenile detention officer.  The message is clear in all these films: even when a woman achieves a degree of emancipation she does it only by first appeasing the patriarchy and even then, her freedoms and success are still clearly defined by them.

All which brings us to the inevitable question of if these films are so sexist, why do I watch them?  Well, my relationship with exploitation is complex - while the films undoubtedly showcase some of the worst aspects of humanity - violence, sexism, racism, etc - often in the crudest manner possible, that's part of their fascination: they don't flinch from showing humanity at its basest and absolute worse.  In that sense they can have a  cathartic effect in enabling us as viewers to confront those ideas and impulses in ourselves.  Whether we like it or not, even those of us who like to consider ourselves liberal and enlightened still, in the deepest recesses of our psyches, harbour these disturbing feelings and urges.  Besides, most of these movies were made in the sixties, seventies and eighties and, well, we did things differently back then The majority of us, I hope, can put them into their historical context and appreciate that they reflect the mores of their era, even if we wouldn't approve of these attitudes now.  Most simply, of course, they are, more often than not, very entertaining, lacking the pretensions, (not to mention budgets), of  mainstream studio pictures, they are far more direct in their approach, focusing on the action.  So yeah, I can see how wrong these movies can be, particularly in respect to the treatment of women, but they are also just cheap films and it is perfectly possible to enjoy them on that level.