Review: Film by Kate Millett
Kate Millett recently showed her film for the first time in England, at a meeting organised by the Women's Liberation Workshop. The crowded showing was followed by a discussion.
The film consisted of three women talking separately, straight at the camera, about their lives, chiefly their experiences with men. The first woman used to sit around all day, with nothing to do, waiting for her husband to die. Victim of the feminine mystique, only when she left her husband did she begin to live her life for herself. The second woman was an older woman, who was living a "happily married life". She had battled with her parents to allow her to continue her education, and then had given up her job as soon as her first child was on the way. The third woman was the only one who was able to recount her experiences in anything like an interesting way. She was an ex-hippie and a lesbian - this fact is not disclosed until the end to enable it to make a suitable impression. The film was produced entirely by women.
Apparently, Kate Millett was hoping that in the discussion following the film there would be some response in the form of reminding the audience of similar experiences they had had. Instead, questions and criticisms were levelled at the film. She was asked why she had chosen these three women. They had been well known to Miss Millett, were easily accessible, and fitted her requirements of different ages and backgrounds, especially as one was gay. She did not pick a black woman, as such a woman should be filmed by black women. Somebody felt she should have shown women who were actively oppressed by men, another was worried that the men in the audience had laughed in the wrong places and then left as soon as the film ended!
One woman thought that the film should have appealed to working-class women, but this remark was refuted by another who felt they should make an impact on themselves before they could make contact with the working class.
It seemed to me that too many of the audience were concerned overmuch with their personal hang-ups, resulting in an exclusiveness and inability to take action. During the discussion even the concept of sisterhood went somewhat overboard as hostile feelings became evident.
Kate Millett was asked why she had made the film. Because she had wanted to see the experiences of women in a film for the first time filmed by women; films had always shown women living through and for others. And yet, in my opinion, this film showed all three women's complete dependence on men. It merely depicts the individual experiences of three middle-class women and shows their inadequacies without relating these inadequacies to the system which helps to produce them. If this film is shown to the public as a product of "women's liberation", it will do little to gain sympathy for the movement, or to further the understanding of the nature and cause of women's oppression.