My ASU course about Arizona and the West provided a wealth of topics on the discussion board and the week that “Women Of The West – Then & Now” wasn’t the least of them. This was my post then:
Looking back on all the films we’ve watched for this class so far, it’s quite plain that life in the West…to speak nothing of making the formidable journey to establish a new life in the West was a tremendous undertaking — fraught with numerous perils. This definitely would have been true whether settlers were headed to the what would eventually become one of the Great Plains states (Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, etc.) or Arizona, California, Oregon, Texas, and so forth. I’m quite certain that for the vast majority of women who ventured into the wilds out West — the trappings of femininity were scarcely a priority when you’re spending four months in a covered wagon with a husband and three children (or more!) and encountering all kinds of obstacles related to harsh climate, unstable weather, challenging terrain, food and water shortages, hostile Indians, and predatory animals.
Keeping all of these sobering realities in mind, it would be no surprise to me that the gritty truth of the Westward movement precludes too many depictions of overt, delicate femininity since they would be rather preposterous and unrealistic. It’s also important to realize that while the majority of cinematic and television Western narratives were male oriented, the truth is another story. In fact, the tough circumstances of life (at least when families were established in Arizona and elsewhere in the West) would have necessitated a great deal of hard work from women to establish civilization in these frontier regions. It would have been impossible for men to do everything on their own.
Certainly, Stagecoach is a memorable portrayal of how two women of vastly different backgrounds and social status had to cooperate with each other to survive their own perilous journey across the Apache dominated territory of southern Arizona. The forbidding natural world (coping with fierce winter storms, fording swollen rivers, lowering heavy wagons and livestock over steep cliffs, traversing blisteringly hot deserts) is almost overwhelming to contemplate. Dangerous situations like these reinforce how everyone had to pull together to surmount these obstacles and achieve a common goal – much like the events depicted in The Big Trail.
Another good example of managing your resources and wits to survive was presented in Once Upon A Time In The West when a beautiful young woman arrives to be with her new family — but becomes an instant widow instead, and has to use more than feminine wiles to survive. Furthermore, Johnny Guitar made it quite clear that the two female rivals battling for ultimate control of a sizable chunk of Arizona real estate were razor sharp and double tough —more so than the men who did their bidding.
Looking at today, feminine identity in Arizona is very public on the national stage as our current governor Jan Brewer has been controversial in the media for her hardline stance on the always contentious illegal immigration issue. Former two-term governor Janet Napolitano is now head of Homeland Security. Actually Arizona has had three female governors, including Rose Mofford who served during 1988-1991. She had worked her way through the rungs of state politics to become the Secretary Of State prior to helming the Governor’s office. Sandra Day O’Connor served as the first female justice on the Supreme Court upon her appointment by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Mary E. Peters served as U.S. Secretary Of Transportation from 2006-2009. It seems that most of the women currently prominent on the national stage are standouts in government and the political realm.
However, there are several female entertainers such as Stevie Nicks, Linda Ronstadt, and Michelle Branch who have also become internationally acclaimed for their musical talents, and Academy Award winning actress Emma Stone, all from Arizona.
