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Women Cross-dressing and Gender nonconforming Women Throughout Film 1890…

- - - - World War 2 (1939-1945)
- - - - Woman with a Movie Camera:
  - - - Both films, She Done Him Wrong (1933) and The Grub-Stake (1923), allude to prostitution and reflect controversial topics within sex work that still exist to this day. On one hand, Mae West's character, Lady Lou, is a very wealthy and desirable prostitute, and for her, it gives her sexual freedom, power, and independence to live her life the way she wants to. While nobody out right says she's a prostitute, it's clear that she uses her body to make money, and she's not ashamed of it. On the other hand, in The Grub-Stake, we see a more terrifying and likley reality of those who are unknowingly sold or forced into prostitution; these women are portrayed as young, naive, and poor, and often running out of options. The movie is based around Shipmans dangerouse escape from prostitution.
  - - - Additionally, in The Grub-Stake (1923) written by, directed by, and starring Neil Shipman. Shipman plays a young, naive woman who's been lured into a marriage by a gambling man, who she later discovers plans to sell her into prostitution, "a dance hall". I was surprised to find a Neil Shipman movie about escaping prostitution as a film like this would have never passed production code, especially considering how it is still an avoided topic today. It made me realise how prevalent prostitution has been (and still is) throughout society.
- - - - On-screen presence of a woman dressing in men's clothing, and kissing a woman. This movie was loosly bassed on the life of 17th-century Queen Christina of Sweden. Aired pre-production code but the code wasn't rigorously enforced until the following year in 1934.
      - Production code in effect
        
        Greta Garbo ended her acting career after the filming of Two-Faced Woman (1941). This was partially due to the censorship of her films, which culminated after the release of Two-Faced Woman. The film received intense backlash upon release, even after passing the production code, from the National Legion of Decency. The film was then banned in with multiple cities and revised by the Archbishop of Cincinnati before being rereleased.
        
        side note, I'm from Cincinnati Ohio, a shame to learn this bit of Cincinati history, but it makes alot of sence.
      - Queer Coded Film
        
        Queer Coded Film
    - - Lillian St. Cyr in The Red Girl and the Child (1910)
        
        Women Cross- Dressing
        
        Unlike later representations of indigenous women in film, Lillian plays an action hero. A powerfully capable and independent character who rescues an abducted white child and brings the child back to her family. To track down and save the child, Lillian changes out of her ingenuous dress and into men's clothes. Lillian starred in over 70 films and did all her own stunts. Screening Cinema’s First Nasty Women
      - Carl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc is based on the real transcripts of Joan's trial. This Silent film broke most rules of filmmaking and is considered an influential masterpiece of all time. Joan is played by Renée Jeanne Falconetti. At the time, it was very unpopular for actresses to play roles like this and could have been seen as career-ending, because Renée wore no makeup throughout the film and had to cut her hair short as well as shave it off completely. In the film, Joan dresses in men's clothes and refuses to change into women's, despite being pressured to, and it is because of Joan's female identity that she is attacked so viciously. Whether or not the film directly ended Renée's career, she never acted in another film.