HOLLYWOOD’S PRODUCTION CODE OF 1934 AND THE PARADIGM OF FEMALE VIRTUE

Resumo

Between July 1934 and the post-World War II period, Hollywood enforced the idea of domesticity as the female ideal, imbued with a moral duty to set a good example. Good role models of womanhood would depict demure wives and dedicated mothers. Career women, were to be represented as a threat to family life. Women who did not submit to what was supposed to be their life path, by pursuing a type of life that did not include marrying and having children, would be punished with an unhappy ending. Any attempt to correct a behaviour with a self-sacrificing gesture would not necessarily suffice to achieve a happy ending. The Code was unforgiving and bad conducts had to be exemplary punished.