ABSTRACT

This article traces the emergence of the misogynist as a character type in American feature comedies of the 1910s. Though scholars note how comedy shorts in this period often derived humor at the expense of women’s fight for social change, some feature comedies appealed to female audiences by mocking the comical misogynist. Correlating with public debates around the New Woman, the misogynist appeared in stories and plays by the turn of the twentieth century and carried over into silent film. Typically, the comic narratives followed the conversion of the misogynist by an attractive female protagonist. While the light nature of the films rarely delved into the misogynist’s views in much depth, the films highlighted evolving gender roles during the Progressive era, including fears about the misogynist’s potential queerness as well as social anxieties about the New Woman. By openly discussing the male lead’s irrational hatred of ‘all women,’ the films addressed the social problem of misogyny more tacitly than romantic comedies in later decades.

摘要

本文追溯了厌恶女性者作为 1910 年代美国故事片中的一种角色类型的出现。尽管学者们注意到这一时期的喜剧短片通常以牺牲女性为社会变革为代价而获得幽默感，但一些故事片通过嘲笑可笑的厌女症来吸引女性观众。与围绕新女性的公开辩论相关，厌恶女性的人在 20 世纪之交出现在故事​​和戏剧中，并延续到无声电影中。通常情况下，喜剧叙事是在厌女症被一位有吸引力的女主角转变之后发生的。虽然电影的轻松性质很少深入探讨厌恶女性的观点，但这些电影突出了进步时代不断演变的性别角色，包括对厌恶女性的潜在酷儿的恐惧以及对新女性的社会焦虑。通过公开讨论男主角对“所有女性”的非理性仇恨，这些电影在后来的几十年里比浪漫喜剧更默契地解决了厌女症的社会问题。