GER 150 Podcast - Frauism - Ep 4 - Die Neue Frau in Film

The episode discusses the concept of the New Woman, or Neue Frau, who emerged in the late 19th century and challenged traditional gender roles. The focus is on two international film stars, Marlene Dietrich and Anna Mae Wong, who embodied the New Woman in their own ways. Marlene Dietrich, a white German actress, adopted traditionally masculine traits and became a sex symbol in the United States. Anna Mae Wong, an Asian-American actress, faced discrimination in the American film industry and found success in Europe. Both actresses used their bodies to challenge societal norms and build their own careers. The episode also explores the significance of the New Woman movement and its impact on women's empowerment and queer identity. Hello and welcome to episode 4 of Frowism. Today we will be discussing the New Woman as well as two international film stars who can be seen as a key part of this changing era. The New Woman, or the Neue Frau in Germany, was a female figure, a new gender type, who emerged in modern society towards the end of the 19th century during the Weimar Republic. They adopted traditionally heteronormative masculine traits when they dressed to dissociate themselves from the pre-World War I woman, thought of by men to be submissive and pretty. It also ushered in an era of queerness for women that made being queer more normalized. The fact that women formed an entire new gender construct in order to make a statement is sort of fascinating, and because this movement started, women were starting to feel like they could express themselves, at least with the knowledge that other women were doing it too. The New Woman was a symbol of confidence and self-love, and accounted to the conservative views on women during the time period. So one of the first female actresses that we will talk about is Marlene Dietrich, known as the bisexual anti-fascist face of Deutschland. She was born on December 27th, 1901 in Schönenberg, Berlin, Germany. She played in films such as Morocco, Der blaue Engel, and Shanghai Express, and is known for her provocative roles and appearances in these films and other sort of things that she would appear in. She fled Germany during Nazi's reign due to her political affiliation, and therefore she acted in the United States. In the US, she was seen as a sex symbol, similar to Marilyn Monroe, but she denied that idea, and similarly, everyone wanted a piece of her. Yeah, so the second actress we're going to be talking about is Anna Mae Wong. She was an Asian-American actress born into a Dutch first community in Los Angeles in 1905. She was this huge fascist icon, building her name for herself by often playing into this authenticity of her ethnicity and not settling for the standard Asian-American roles of the time. She was very adaptive, achieving international stardom in 1924, being able to speak English, Chinese, French, Italian, and German. Due to constantly being discriminated against within the American film industry, and constantly being given these stereotypical roles that Asian-American women would play during the time, she moved to Europe in 1928. However, where Europe, she faced less discrimination within films. There was still this white supremacist idea within films in both countries. Due to America's tendency to discriminate against minorities groups, Anna Mae Wong's film careers were restricted, and it was often harder for her to even fulfill the roles that she did play during her time as an actress. Anna Mae Wong died at the young age of 56 due to heart issues. However, her works are still reflected on in tomorrow's day, as well as how her legacy has affected the ability for Asian women in the film industry. So, we can go ahead and compare and contrast these two women. So, similarly, they are both immigrants, both used their bodies, whether it would be for clothing, or just appearance, or even in a sexual role. Only in film, though. I think you said earlier that outside film, they didn't do anything like that. Right. And then, they were both able to force themselves into the industry, so they both built their own names, and they both worked really hard to be outside of what society was telling them to be. Definitely. They made their career themselves, rather than someone else making it for them. Yeah. And I think especially with the sex roles, modesty was what was accepted at the time. It definitely wasn't these provocative roles that they were playing. Like, for example, in the film Morocco, she deliberately kissed another woman, and everyone there clapped and laughed about it, like it was either, A, uncomfortable, or B, that was cool. And so, she really was showing her true, authentic self, and I think that's interesting, that no one else told her to do something. It was her choice, her career, she built it herself. Yeah, and I think more than anything, it's especially interesting, she was sexually active until her seventies, but that's power to you, but she was also, we know that she was openly queer, and that was definitely something that wasn't really accepted at the time. She was with both men and women, and she was married. Didn't she call her male sexual partners the Alumni Association? Yeah. I love that, that's great, but I can't remember what the women partnership were called, do you remember? No, I don't remember. Yeah. They're both funny, but they're different in that their race necessarily helped them in two different ways. Yeah. Well, I think that Marlene being, like, white. Yeah, everything was so whitewashed, and even Wong wasn't given, due to the American film industry being so focused on continuing the separation of people, a white man being with any other ethnicity was essentially forbidden at this time, so Wong wasn't able to play the role of a love interest where Marlene was able to do that, and I think that's definitely a privilege that Marlene had that Wong had to struggle with every single day that she was within the industry. And also, like, Marlene being white, if she were to travel the world, she would be able to stay practically anywhere, and have a, I guess, quote, home, where, like, Wong left Los Angeles because she was segregated against, and no one necessarily would employ her, and so going to Europe, she did find work, she did make a career, and she did somehow, not necessarily find a home, but she found a place of work, she traveled for work rather than pleasure. Yeah, I think there's a huge difference between the two, but I think that another similarity is, like, they both became famous through the, like, sexualization of their bodies, like, with the new woman era, like, that's not something that you would have seen before, however, like, it's still, like, kind of unsettling that they had to sexualize their bodies to be seen, or to be successful. I guess you can also view that in terms of, like, this is a new movement, and we are, like, liberated. Yeah, I guess it can be also empowering, but I think that... I guess it depends on how you look at it. Yeah, I think that, like, if you, if we think about that, like, in modern times, like, there's obviously, like, two divisions, like, still, like, there's the, this, I would say, like, more conservative side, like, encouraging modesty, and then another side that's saying, like, this is liberation, to do what we want with our bodies. Right. I definitely feel like it's, you know, obviously more accepted today than it was then, but I feel like these two, these two women kind of sort of ushered in this sense of, like, we can do what we want. Yeah. Well, I think, I think, like, what, like, I think what I was also trying to say was, like, the American, like, racism, like, they couldn't be with a woman who was, like, wasn't white, but they could watch her for sexual pleasure in a film. That was... Yeah. Yeah, I agree. That's kind of sus as you asked me. I agree with that. We transitioned, Allie, to the, to the new woman. We can talk about, more about that if we have any other things to discuss on that. I think that it was interesting that as, like, during the Weimar period that whenever the war ended and a bunch of men, like, two million men were killed and, like, four million were injured, that women then were like, ooh, we can express ourselves. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that, I think that honestly, like, that movement is so, like, was so important, like, especially, like, for the queer community as well. Like, I know that, like, this idea that you can't express yourself without being, being ashamed of it. So, like, new places, especially, like, clubs, like, I think one was called, like, El Dorado, if I remember seeing some pictures, were kind of, like, hotspots for queer people in their time to be able to fully express themselves. Yeah. As stated earlier, Marlene Dietrich was bisexual, and so she kind of was, like, a, I guess maybe a queer icon, but was Emma Wong also a queer icon? I don't know if she was, like, openly queer. However, I know that the queer community does, like, use her as, like, or feel a connection to her and have always, because she was different. Like, she was expressing herself in a sexual way that wasn't accepted at this time. So. I'm not, I'm not, I don't know if Wong, or Dietrich for sure, but I think Emma Wong's sexual part was just, like, it's something, like, she had to do. She had to don different clothing. Yeah. In order to become, you know, in order to feel more, like, oriental in a way, to kind of fit more into her heritage. Yeah. To get those roles at first, and then to fit into the cosmopolitan feel of Europe, she had to dress the way that she did. Yeah. In order to get into those movies. But then eventually. You know, her authentic self, I guess. Yeah. Eventually the film industry accepted her for who she was, and she was able to play roles that white women would play. Stuff like that. I think speaking of clothing for the Neue Frau, we kind of get rid of the corset, and we put more, not necessarily form-fitting, but definitely looser clothing that would fit all body types versus just one. Yeah. I'm trying to think of anything else that we can include with the Neue Frau. Well, I know that, like, also women were, like, encouraged to start taking care of themselves better. So, like, wealth has always been a source of food. Up until this point, like, being plump was meant, you had money enough to eat. So, like, actually eating healthy instead of, like, eating healthy to be healthy instead of eating to be plump and look wealthy. So. Yeah. Anything else to add about the two actresses or the Neue Frau? No, I think that we covered what we needed to cover. All right. Well, that was episode four. Is that right? Yeah. Episode four. Okay. Tschüss! Tschüss!