Paula Isaa

Introduction to Cultural Studies

Far From Heaven (2002) Directed by Tom Haynes

We have four stages of development of womens history. The first is compensating
history, which focused on women whose work and experience deserved to be more
widely known. Then followed contribution history, which kept men as the main actors
but also recognized womens contributions as a group to significant historical events in
America (frontier settlement, abolition, urbanization, industrialization, progressivism,
etc.). The reexamination of the social relation of the sexes was the third stage, fueled by
the Temperance movement (late 19th century). Its main focus was the relation between
the two groups and how it impacted on history. The last stage marks the change of
Womens Studies to Gender Studies. Gender started to be thought of as a social
construction. This concept of gender is deeply connected to Simone de Beauvoirs The
Second Sex, in which she explains that
One is not born woman, one becomes this. No biological, psychological or
economic fate determines the figure that the human female presents in
society it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature, intermediate
between male and eunuch, which is described as feminine.1
Second wave feminists adopted De Beauvoirs interpretation of the social construction
of femininity as Other to men, who have claimed the category of Subject. Two
political movements emerged in the late 1960s: the Womens Rights Movement and the
Womens Liberation Movement, mainly composed by professional women. But these
movements also attracted middle-class housewives who were unhappy with their
domestic lives. This is related to Betty Friedans The Feminine Mystique, in which she
talks about the problem that has no name, the struggle of the suburban wife because
of the discrepancy between the reality of her life and the image to which she was trying
to conform. These women were being affected by the dominant patriarchal ideology and
its definition of gender which assigns gender roles as an extension of the differences
between the biological sexes; this tied women to motherhood, nurturance and
dependence. According to Betty Friedan
The feminine mystique asserted that the highest value and the only
commitment for women is the fulfillment of their own femininity.2
De Beauvoir and Friedan focused exclusively on the experience of middle-class,
heterosexual, white women. They challenged the belief that women can find
fulfillment in traditional roles because they believed in their capability to achieve
their dreams, along with social and economic equality. The 1960s marked a period
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Introduction to Cultural Studies

in which this group of women entered the labor market for the first time, resulting
in a shift in womens reality and a departure from the ideology of the feminine
mystique. This unprecedented number of women in the work force brought up the
update of gender stereotypes and hence, new forms of patriarchal ideology.

Todd Haynes Far From Heaven helps illustrate the life of the typical 50s white
suburban housewife, along with her sense of dissatisfaction and yearning for
something else other than to attend her duties as a wife and mother. Cathy Whitaker
is a white, middle-class woman living an apparently picture-perfect domestic life:
shes married to Frank, a successful executive at a company that sells television
advertising, she has two children and a beautiful house. All this doesnt seem to
content Cathy, who after being complimented for being the proud wife of a
successful sales executive, she responds but, really, my life is like any other wife
or mother, in fact I dont think Ive ever wanted anything to which she is then
interrupted. She doesnt express her feelings of inadequacy in her role and the
dissatisfaction of her sexual desires, and she internalizes the repression that she
imposes on her kids. Like Betty Friedan pointed out, women found it harder to talk
about this problem than about sex.3 The films theme coincides with Friedans
vision of the fifties as a period of repression of the female autonomy and desire,
where women were born to be mothers and housewives. Cathy seems to yearn
something else, pursuing a forbidden relationship with Raymond, her African-
American gardener, and wanting to know if theres more to life than take her
daughter to ballet classes and planning her husbands parties. Towards the end of
the film, Cathy seems to have lost. Frank asks her for a divorce, Raymond turns
down the possibility of a future relationship, Eleanor acts prejudiced towards her
when she tells her about Raymond, and she doesnt have economic stability. She is
somehow punished for trying to find out who she is and what she really wants her
life to be like.

The film also focuses on the sexual and racial tensions of the 1950s. Todd Haynes,
considered a pioneer of the New Queer Cinema, explores the homophobia of that
period and the common belief that homosexuality was a disease. Frank Whitaker is
the stereotype of the typical masculine heterosexual man: job-and-task centered,
active, strong and rough. Hes the breadwinner of the household, somewhat distant
 Paula Isaa
Introduction to Cultural Studies

to his children and his wife. However, we then find out that he has a drinking
problem, and is very anxious and unhappy, all this because he has been repressing
his homosexuality. He begins conversion therapy with the support of Cathy, after
she finds him kissing another man. The treatments comprised of psychiatric
sessions, although the doctor also offers him electroshock aversion therapy and
hormonal rebalancing procedures. Frank feels that his sexuality is a sickness, and
his internalized homophobia makes him feel despicable; he perceives this thing as
a stain on his manhood. He displays uncontrolled rage because of his frustration;
when Cathy tries to comfort him by telling him hes all man, he hits her. There
are a few scenes in the film that evoke the feelings of prejudice towards same-sex
attraction in the 1950s, such as the scene where Eleanor says that real men are not
a touch light no their feet and that homosexuals are a bit flowery for [her] taste.
Haynes illustrates the covert gay underworld with noir scenes, using blue lighting
to give a feeling of mystery and forbiddingness. In the end, Frank is the one who
ends up winning and his sexual desires are fulfilled, and this remarks the
hierarchy of taboos that meant that a heterosexual, interracial relationship was
significantly more dangerous and unacceptable than a gay relationship 4.
Raymond is at the center of the racial tensions presented in the film, he is the target
of highly offensive terms of derision (nigger, boy) and physical aggressions
from both white and black people, which leads to him leaving the town. Racial
politics are brought to the fore in many scenes: the subliminal television image of
President Eisenhower endorsing the Supreme Court decision regards to the Little
Rock situation, the white supremacist comment about the dangers of integration at
the cocktail party, the appearance of the NAACP after Cathys reputation as kind to
Negroes expands, the discrimination Raymond faces at the art exposition and how
he always seems to be the target point when he interacts with Cathy. All this brings
Raymond back to the cruel reality, and he is forced to move to Baltimore. In their
last conversation, he says to Cathy Ive learned my lesson about mixing in other
worlds. Ive seen the sparks fly. All kinds, which exposes that the splendid world
that he had envisioned before has now evaporated.

Endnotes
1
Cathia Jenaimati & Judy Groves, Introducing Feminism: A Graphic Guide (London,
UK: Icn Books Ltd., 2010), p. 82.
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Introduction to Cultural Studies
2
Cynthia Costello, The Feminine Mystique, the Feminist Critique, and the Myth of the
Liberated Woman in The Journal of Intergroup Relations, Vol. XI, No. 4, Winter
1983, p. 8.
3
Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963) and Robin Morgan No More Miss
America! (1968) in Timothy Patrick McCarthy and John McMillan, The Radical
Reader. A Documentary History of the American Radical Tradition (New York and
London: The New Press, 2003), pp. 415.
4
Gary Simmons, Paradise Lost: Far From Heaven, Screen Education, Issue 40, 2005,
p. 106.