{"id":5679,"date":"2011-06-09T09:00:24","date_gmt":"2011-06-09T08:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.badreputation.org.uk\/?p=5679"},"modified":"2011-06-09T09:00:24","modified_gmt":"2011-06-09T08:00:24","slug":"my-secret-love-calamity-jane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/badreputation.org.uk\/2011\/06\/09\/my-secret-love-calamity-jane\/","title":{"rendered":"My Secret Love: Calamity Jane"},"content":{"rendered":"

Team BadRep were sent a writing prompt this month: What is your favourite film or TV series, and why? If it\u2019s what you\u2019d call \u2018feminist-friendly\u2019, what about it appealed? If it isn\u2019t, how does that work for you, and are there nonetheless scenes, characters and so on that have stayed with you and continue to occupy a soft spot for you as a feminist pop culture adventurer?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Calamity Jane<\/strong> (played by Doris Day<\/a>) starts off the 1953 musical film<\/a> of the same name as a tomboy, gets humiliated and learns to be a girl, then gets married. In a dress and everything.<\/p>\n

Despite this, it\u2019s one of my very favourite films.<\/p>\n

Proud and tomboyish \u2018Calam\u2019 is a popular and respected figure in the town of Deadwood. Not just one of the boys, but determined to outshoot, outdrink, outswagger them all. But she’s met her match in Wild Bill Hickok whom she admires and who grudgingly admires her, although they get into one of those \u201cooh I hate you and don\u2019t fancy you at all, nope\u201d oneupmanship songs<\/a>. Calam and Bill are comrades, but Calam\u2019s in love with the local Lieutenant Danny, and saves his life, but he\u2019s not interested in her. Because he\u2019s a dick, basically.<\/p>\n

\"Film<\/a>

Doris Day as Calamity and Howard Keel as Bill Hickock<\/p><\/div>\n

Anyway, a Proper Lady (Katie) comes to town and becomes friends with Calam, helping her discover her feminine side (I know, I know, just bear with me) and Bill falls unconvincingly in love with her. But when Danny and Katie are discovered KISSING, Calam loses it and threatens to run Katie out of town. She makes a right fool of herself, and Danny is mean about her, but Bill Hickok defends her and goes to console\/talk some sense into a bereft Calam. On a still summer night, in a wood, under a silvery moon, etc\u2026 they kiss, and conveniently enough it turns out they\u2019ve been in love all along! Everyone makes friends again, Calam marries Bill and Katie marries Danny, even though he\u2019s a knob.<\/p>\n

Okay. So there are some tough bits, most notably the repeated references to \u201cfemale thinking\u201d, and the godawful A Woman\u2019s Touch<\/strong><\/a> song. I get through this by donning slash goggles, through which it all becomes rather charming and ironic.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s even a symbolic castration of Calam at the end when she and Bill get married \u2013 they\u2019re just getting on the stagecoach and he finds she has her gun tucked into her wedding dress. They all laugh and he hands it to some random in the crowd. Then they ride off singing etc.<\/p>\n

BUT. There is a lot that is loveable about this film, and it\u2019s not as bad as the details above might suggest.<\/p>\n

Firstly, Doris Day\u2019s Calam is a wonderful character. Brave, kind, funny and bursting with energy, she leaps about all over the place, and has a habit of firing at the ceiling to get people\u2019s attention. She\u2019s a tomboy but she\u2019s no freak \u2013 everyone in the town is fond of her, respects her and humours her habit of exaggerating her own exploits. She\u2019s accepted, not just tolerated. Her flaw is her pride, and the real point of the story is that it\u2019s her pride which is \u2018corrected\u2019 and not her masculine habits.<\/p>\n

Secondly, although she is engirlied, she doesn\u2019t become a 50s fembot. She wears a few dresses, but mostly she\u2019s out of her buckskins yet still in trousers. There\u2019s no sign at all she\u2019s going to give up riding the stage (or violently oppressing the indigenous population). I think my favourite bit in the whole film is near the end when she\u2019s racing after Katie\u2019s coach to bring her back to Deadwood, and she passes Bill and his mate on her horse. She thunders past, then stops, turns, rides back, kisses him, and rides off again without a word.<\/p>\n

His friend says \u201cI don’t know what kind of life you’ll have living with that catamount… but it ain’t gonna be dull.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bill replies: \u201cThat’s for dang sure.\u201d He looks delighted.<\/p>\n

Thirdly, although it arrives at a supremely convenient time in that way that musicals have, the relationship between Calam and Bill is a convincing one. Throughout the film there are references to their friendship and campaigns together, and they are clearly fond of each other. He sticks up for her when Danny is being disparaging, and tells her early on he thinks she\u2019d be pretty (if she was a Proper Lady, natch). So when Calamity \u2018takes off her glasses\u2019 at the Ball (in fact she\u2019s been covered up in a coat she claims was given to her by General Custer) it isn\u2019t as if he\u2019s only just noticed her. And crucially, rather than trying to put her down or get her to act in a more feminine way, his efforts are about bringing her down to earth from her flights of fancy and towering pride.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a feminist film. It\u2019s not even close<\/em>. But Calamity is wonderful, and I think better a film with her in it than not at all.<\/p>\n

PS. The title is a reference to the most famous song in the film, Secret Love<\/strong><\/a>, which has become a bit of a gay anthem. My favourite is The Black Hills Of Dakota<\/strong><\/a>, although it has a lot less subtext.<\/p>\n

PPS. Don’t come to this film looking for historical accuracy. Here’s some info<\/a> on the actual Calamity Jane<\/a> and Wild Bill Hickok<\/a>.<\/p>\n