The first characteristic of a dame who ignores traditional femininity is manifested in the directness of Amanda, a female lawyer from Adam’s Rib (Cukor). According to DiBattista, stereotypical fast-talking dames were likely to “call things as they saw them” even when their logical judgments ignored some important details. Amanda demonstrates this feature almost in any scene; she is a character who expresses her views openly and is not afraid of sinning against the laws of society.
The next feature that makes Amanda similar to fast-talking dames described by DiBattista is her willingness to react to the changing circumstances. DiBattista states that fast-talking dames always know “how to find new words for the changed state of their feelings” (par. 4). Amanda demonstrates this ability in a variety of situations, ranging from the sitting of the court to the final scene with Adam, since she never fails to express positive and negative changes in her emotional state. In particular, she manages to escalate or deescalate conflicts using kind jokes or caustic remarks.
The first scene that illustrates DiBattista’s quote about fast-talking dames and patriarchal femininity is the court scene in which Amanda uses her final argument to defend Doris. As for its traditional definitions, femininity is often understood as a lack of aggressiveness. In the mentioned scene, Amanda ignores all of these expectations and ridicules the existing double standards concerning unfaithfulness in marriage (Cukor). Considering that her speech is quite aggressive, she makes all people in the courtroom cease talking.
Apart from that, the quote about respectable femininity can be applied to the scene in which the character presents her opinion about the deplorable system to her husband while driving a car. In general, the notion of femininity can be reduced to the readiness to defuse conflicts when it is possible. Although the scene demonstrates some negative stereotypes about female drivers, it also shows Amanda’s unwillingness to respect her husband’s opinion, thus illustrating the quote. To some extent, even the fact that she openly questions the credibility of Adam’s conclusions makes her disengage with the norms of femininity.
Works Cited
Cukor, George. Adam’s Rib. Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. 1949.
DiBattista, Maria. “All Mouth and No Trousers.” The Guardian. 2001. Web.