Calling A Spade A Spade?

Hello dear reader,

This writer was reading an interesting article encompassing two of her favorite subjects, feminism and noir. Megan Abbott over at Slate wrote a fascinating article about her internal conflict between her love of Raymond Chandler (and similar authors) and her support of the #MeToo movement.

As a fellow pulp fiction, noir devotee this writer (who even tried to live in Sam Spade’s Post St apartment at one time) felt something akin to a bond of sisterhood with Ms Abbott.

However, this writer had a slightly different conclusion than that reached by Ms Abbott.

Yes Phillip Marlowe, Sam Spade, and their ilk share superficial appraisals of the women they encounter. But, might it be that in an era of fragile masculinity (on the heels of the forgotten man, great depression, and women’s emancipation) that these men were afraid of the power these women held? Or was it the fact that these women, the ones who were painted to be seen from 40 feet away and could probably shoot from even further, had reached the pinnacle of feminism? Had these women reached equality?

This writer will poke through a few of Sam Spade’s women.

Spade distrusts the innocence put on by women. He doesn’t believe Wonderly. He “believes her 200 dollars.” He believes O’Shaughnessy. “If you actually were as innocent as you pretend to be, we’d never get anywhere.” The women Spade keeps in his life, like Effie, and those he discards, like Iva, follow the same pattern.

Spade quips with these women. He expects these women to carry a pistol and know how to use it. He judges them and tells them so. He gives them the chance to come clean before moving on. He’s like Mr Knightley with a shoulder piece. His unbridled honesty and willingness to see them as whole people draws women to him. The same honesty gives him the knowledge that they will never settle down. He separates himself from their power, because he knows he can’t control it. And too, he knows to dampen such power would be the greatest crime.

Like Marlowe’s, Spade’s realizations are often voiced by other characters. Ned Beaumont voices Spade’s resignation to never having one of the powerful women he holds at arms’ length. “You’re not supposed to give people things unless you’re sure they’d like to get them from you…”

Spade, Marlowe, and others are well acquainted the feelings of impotency and confinement that torture their existence. And, as a true gentleman would treat a fellow sufferer, they do not try to inflict these same feelings on the strong, self-made women surrounding them.