Similarities Between Carnal Knowledge And The Marriage Of A Young Stockbroker

Changing cultural attitudes were also reflected in film. The films Carnal Knowledge and The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker represented women in roles that were harmful to them and illustrated the injustices women faced. Carnal Knowledge demonized men who objectified women; their objectification left them empty. The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker tells the story of a problematic marriage in which the main character becomes obsessed with voyeurism. Throughout the film women are continually objectified. There’s a woman in the film who has feminist ideas but she is quickly repressed. The couple reconciles with sex. These films are not an example of a perfect society but are critical of attitudes and actions in which women are objectified. The

men in the film end up alone or delusional.
According to a 1957 poll, only 9% of Americans thought that someone could be single and happy (“The History of Marriage”). In 1960 about 72% of all adults ages 18 and up were married. 59% of those individuals were ages 18 to 29 (Cohn, Passel, Wang, and Livingston).
In the 1950s “girls were taught the being a suburban housewife was the happiest mode of existence for them” (Anthony). Women were extremely limited in the 1960s. They were expected to marry in her early 20s and devote her life to children and homemaking (“The 1960s-70s American Feminist Movement”). “The female doesn’t really expect a lot from life. She’s here as someone’s keeper – her husband’s or her children’s” (“The 1960s-70s American Feminist Movement”). Many women weren’t happy with the limitations placed on them and their assigned role of homemaker (Anthony). Frustrated with the societal state of the 1950s and 1960s, these women led second wave feminism.
Women in the second-wave feminist movement fought for their right to work and for gender equality within marriage (Anthony). Betty Friedan, the author of The Feminine Mystique, wrote that women shouldn’t just seek fulfillment through motherhood and wifehood (Anthony). She argued that this ideology kept women from realizing their full potential. Women were “taught that the best possible life for them was to be married with a house in the suburbs, 2.5 kids, maybe a dog or a cat, and a home to keep them busy all day” (Anthony). Friedan discovered that many women were unhappy with suburban lifestyle. American women weren’t fulfilled and wanted more autonomy (Anthony). This dissatisfaction wasn’t widely discussed before the 1960s. She shed light on the lack of opportunities women had during the time period. Friedan had the gumption to say what countless women felt. “A woman today has been made to feel freakish and alone and guilty if, simply, she wants to be more than her husband’s wife” Friedan stated. Women across the country overwhelmingly agreed with these sentiments. The second-wave feminist movement spanned from 1960 to 1980 and encouraged women to become more politically engaged and to imagine futures that weren’t possible in the past.
From 1960 to 1975 there was a 12.9% decline in the proportion of married women under the age of 25 (Heer and Grossbard-Shechman 51). Women began to shift focus from domestic duties to work and careers outside of the home (Heer and Grossbard-Shechman 49). These changes altered the role of women in society. In the 1960s more females than ever were entering the paid workforce (Walsh). The increase was most significant for married women between 20 and 24 years old. “The proportion of married women who were in the labor force increased from 31.7 percent in 1960 to 57.0 percent in 1975” (Heer and Grossbard-Shechman 62). The largest increases in the labor force came amount married women (Heer and Grossbard-Shechman 62). However, in 1963 women’s pay was 60% males pay rate (Walsh). By 1975 women made 58.7% a males pay rate (Heer and Grossbard-Shechman 62). The employers argued that women didn’t need to be paid as much because their husbands would make a higher income to compensate (62). There was a long way to go before a woman would be considered equal to a man in the workforce. The feminist values of the 60s resulted in a significant increase of women in the workforce and set a precedent.
The “advent of new and highly effective methods of birth control” gave women more power of self-determination and in marriage (Heer and Grossbard-Shechtman 51). The women’s movement caused women to “radically change their ideas concerning their own goals in life and also their concept of a just social ordering of male and female roles” (Heer and Grossbard-Shechtman 49). Birth control was a source of empowerment for women. It made it possible for women to be more sexually adventitious, without fear of pregnancy, for the first time in history. There was less focus on waiting to have sexual intercourse until marriage due to fear of pregnancy. When the pill first came onto the market many doctors wouldn’t prescribe it or were prevented to do so by law (Frink). However, by the end of the 1960s about 45% of college health centers offered prescriptions for birth control (Frink).
The pill was extremely controversial and many people believed that it would lead to female promiscuity. However, Studies show that the largest number of those that used oral contraceptives when they emerged on the market were married women. This gave women the ability to plan when they wanted to have children and allowed for other opportunities within work or education (Frink). It liberated married women from unplanned pregnancies. Many believed that the pill enhanced the marriages because it gave couples more freedom. Couples could now have worry free sex. “Rather than unleashing a sexual revolution, the pill increases this woman’s enjoyment of married life” (Frink). The pill made it possible for women to have more fulfilled sex lives. Oral Contraception was a bi-product of the sexual revolution, not the cause (Frink). By the end of the 1960s about 80% of married women of childbearing age were taking oral contraceptives (Walsh). Because of the pill women were able to take more control of their role in the home and it’s one of the many strategies women used to gain self-determination (Frink).
There was a notable drop in fertility from 1960-1975 (Heer and Grossbard-Shechtman 56). The proportion of married women from ages 20 to 29 increased from 24.2% to 42.3%. The reduction in the number of unwanted pregnancies was partially due to oral contraceptive technologies (Heer and Grossbard-Shechtman 56). Abortion also became on option by the late 1960s due to an increase in women’s self-determination and technological advances (Heer and Grossbard-Shechtman 56).
The film Carnal Knowledge is a good film to look at when examining gender and marriage in the 1960s.

Carnal Knowledge is about sex without relationships or sex without eroticism; these are the only subjects the main characters interact over. This objectification and sexism in the film eventually lead to a meaningless existence for, the main characters, Sandy and Jonathan. Susan, a prominent character at the beginning of the film, has some sexual freedom but seemingly forgets her ambitions to be a lawyer and marries Sandy after college. She she isn’t an important character for the remainder of the film. The women in the film have little personhood and are only seen through the eyes of the men in Carnal Knowledge. Neither Jonathan nor Sandy is able to sustain relationships with women long-term. Both men objectify women; Jonathan calls women “ballbusters” and treats women as the lesser sex and Sandy puts women on a

pedestal.
Another prominent female character in the film, Bobbie, is only loved for her voluptuous physique. Her partner, Jonathan, constantly berates her for lying around all day in the apartment yet doesn’t want her to work. Bobbie is the perfect woman on paper but Jonathan still finds himself unhappy in the relationship. In the 1960s there were a lot of fixed ideas about women and their role in society and within relationships. The women in this film are objects of male sexual conquest. Bobbie doesn’t exist outside of her relationship with Jonathan. “Carnal Knowledge never finds its male characters at fault, and the movie isn’t concerned with fixing blame…at the end, we’re left with people who have experiences as much suffering as they’ve caused through their inability to accept women as fellow human beings” (Ebert). Women are the lesser sex throughout the film. Sandy and Jonathan fail to find meaningful sexual or individual happiness because they can’t stop treating women like objects (Ebert).
The Marriage of a Young Stock Broker was not highly reviewed; however, is a good film to look at when discussing gender and marriage during the 1960s. The film depicts a marital breakdown. In the movie a successful young stockbroker named William gives up his career to focus on Voyeurism full time. When his wife Lisa finds out she moves in with her sister. Lisa’s sister is the only strong female character in the film sister, Nan, encourages her to get a divorce. However, Nan is also an example of an unsuccessful and unfulfilled marriage that husband is fed up with her (Ebert). Lisa doesn’t take her advice and the couple ends up reconnecting when, at the end of the film, William forces his way into the country club and grabs his naked wife from the shower and proceeds to have sex with her in a closet before they drive off into the sunset. Throughout the film the couple has trouble communicating coherently (Ebert). The couple is naively happy at the end of the film and they fail to express themselves or communicate. As in other films of the 1960s couples don’t communicate well. This speaks to a larger issue of a lack of communication within marriages at the time and a lack of understanding of the opposite sex between men and women.
The sexual revolution liberated women sexually, to some extent, but the institution of marriage was still rooted in traditional gender roles.

Both Carnal Knowledge and The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker portray dysfunctional relationships. Both films reflect poorly on the men in them. Sandy, Jonathan, and William are all self-destructive in the relationships they are in. Their objectification of women causes unhappiness and unfulfilled lives. They are examples of films that grapple with tough subject matter and shed light on societal issues.

Alternative arguments posit that the women’s movement was a side effect of World War Two. Women needed to work when men were abroad fighting. Women entering the workforce could also be said to be a result of people’s realization of the American dream through two incomes (“The 1960s-70s American Feminist Movement”). In turn, this created the emerging upper middle

class.
Feminist ideologies transformed society over time making it possible for women to be powerful figures. “What used to be the feminist agenda is now an everyday reality” (“The 1960S-70S American Feminist Movement”). The feminist movement and the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 70s left a lasting impact on American society (“The 1960s-70s American Feminist Movement”). “Few people give credence to the notion of a woman existing for the sole purpose of being the husband’s helpmate” (McLaughlin). These changing cultural attitudes were reflected in films, that put a negative light of egocentric and oppressive male attitudes, throughout the time period. The availability of birth control made it possible for women to pursue other goals besides motherhood and made it possible for women to have more fulfilled sex lives. Lastly, the increased acceptance of women in the workplace was a result of shifting cultural mindsets. The combination of these factors made it possible for women to be more successful and to have more equity within American society.