The difference between silent films and sounded films, as pertaining to women

 The view of women, as well as their role they played within the movies, differ hugely between silent films and "the talkies" films.  When silent films first came out and showed women on screen for the first time, there was an outcry from many different people.  Their standing was that if women were shown on the big screen it would lead to sexual promiscuity, and lead to the downfall of man.  This was not true as we see today, although that is imposing today's standards upon that time.  In a sense they were right, with the short nickelodeon of a woman in her undergarments, not like today's undergarments.  These articles of clothing looked as if it was to be a very conservative dress in today's time, but during the turn of the 20th century, this was a huge no-no in society.  This was something taboo.  Then came "The Kiss" which shows a man and a woman sharing a "pecking" kiss.

As the silent films progressed, and were no longer thirty second short films, women began playing a role within the film, although still quite small.  Let us look at the movie "The General."  In this movie the female actress does play a little bit of a role, although not a main role, her role is one of to set the gears in motion.  She is the one to set into motion the plot of the movie, and as the story progresses, is the damsel in distress, and finally the happy ending.  But, there really is no change to this sort of plot line involving women throughout the silent films. 

 As film evolved from silent films into sounded films, the role that women have changes.  The roles move from mere faces and thrown into the mix for little bits of plot, to playing a role, that without them the story would be lacking and altogether impossible.  The best example of this would be "Singing in the Rain," which ironically is all about the transition from silent to sound films and what effects it had on actors and actresses.  The movie discusses how the ability to have sound in movies has a profound impact on actresses who do not possess an angelic sounding voice to go with their looks.  This is one thing that did impact the movie industry, and the creation of "voice" actors was born, used to play over the main actor, or actresses, voice in the movie.

The changes occurred due partly because of public demand.  The studios found that it was beneficial to give females the roles that they were given because during the time of sounding movies, 1920's to 1930's, the depression was in full swing, and the general public was looking for any escape from real life, including the movies.  Studios began to make movies that were more fairy tale, more fantasy, looking to give the public what they wanted.  So, with that in mind, we can see that a movie about real life, with women roles being confined to pretty faces and not much else was a thing of a past, replaced by movies that had women roles as strong, driving the plot along.  Because of the fact that in this point in time the Women's Rights Movement was beginning to surface, the studios began to give larger roles to women.  Studios at this time were signing more and more contracts with women stars, allowing them to use female actresses more and more, giving them larger roles, and able to "pump" out more movies every year.