Yurick vs Friedan (Rachel Smalle)

The Warriors (1979), was released 16 years after the Feminine Mystique, although the book was only written only 2 years after the book’s debut. This film about a male dominated gang culture, written by, directed by, and staring men, does not seem to reflect on any of Betty Friedan’s philosophy. As Cyrus notes, he has gathered thousands of gang members before him in Van Cortland Park. Women are excluded from his request to the gangs: “Can you count?!” Of the 7 women who appear on screen, only 6 are given a face. Of those 6, few are given more than a few lines to speak. The words that fall from their lips are, we find out, lies, desperation, or “trouble.”

It is difficult to watch the introduction of the female character Mercy and not be reminded of Freud’s idea of Penis, envy, which Freidan criticizes. Freidan writes, quoting Freud “”The discovery of her castration is a turning-point in the life of the girl,’ Freud went on to say. ‘She is wounded in her self-love by the unfavourable comparison with the boy, who is so much better equipped.’ Her mother, and all women, are depreciated in her own eyes, as they are depreciated for the same reason in the eyes of man. This either leads to complete sexual inhibition and neurosis, or to a ‘masculinity complex’ in which she refuses to give up ‘phallic’ activity (that is, ‘activity such as is usually characteristic of the male’) or to ‘normal femininity’, in which the girl’s own impulses to activity are repressed, and she turns to her father in her wish for the penis.” Everything goes well for the Warriors while in the Orphan’s territory, at first. They compliment and preen Sully, who in turn allows them to walk through his territory freely, until Mercy makes an appearance. Labeled “trouble” by Swan, she –for seemingly no reason at all- pushes Sully and questions his masculinity until he commands the warriors to lose their colors, which they refuse. One must assume here that Sol was following this Freudian idea, that women are jealous of men, jealous of being excluded from this club and sees her self and all other women as lesser. She then follows the Warriors, and stays with them despite the way they treat her and push her away. Why? Because she wants to be a part of them.

Freidan goes on to criticize this view, noting “The real injustices life held for women a century ago, compared to men, were dismissed as mere rationalisations of penis envy. And the real opportunities life offered to women now, compared to women then, were forbidden in the name of penis envy.” We get no sense of Mercy, other than her desperation to be a part of some kind of brotherhood, and all of her behavior is attributed to this. She has no history, only wants and needs. What happens to her is not seen a injustices, but mere results of her own actions.

If we then compare Mercy to the Lizzies, all unnamed, there is a highly critical view of women who do not seem to be desperate to join the Warriors. They lure the gang into their den, in an act not unlike the Sirens in the Illiad. Their actions seem worse, almost on the level of the Rouges, who lie about Cyrus’s murderer. Rather than the blunt and desperate honesty of Mercey, Lizzies wait until the Warriors have gotten comfortable to turn on them. They reject the Warriors, and scream like banshees when they lose them. The unnamed woman in the park likewise lurs Ajax into a similar trap. Women, it is clear, are not to be trusted, especially women who fail to fulfill promises for sex, women who reject the idea of penis envy.