Multicultural Perspectives

ISSN: 1521-0960 (Print) 1532-7892 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hmcp20

Mrs. Miniver's Girls: Plucky Girls in Hidden Figures,

The Zookeeper's Wife, Their Finest, and Colossal

Bernard Beck

To cite this article: Bernard Beck (2017) Mrs. Miniver's Girls: Plucky Girls in Hidden Figures,
The Zookeeper's Wife, Their Finest, and Colossal, Multicultural Perspectives, 19:4, 223-226, DOI:
10.1080/15210960.2017.1373566

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/15210960.2017.1373566

Published online: 15 Nov 2017.

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Multicultural Perspectives, 19(4), 223–226
Copyright Ó 2017 by the National Association for Multicultural Education
ISSN: 1521-0960 print / 1532-7892
DOI: 10.1080/15210960.2017.1373566
PART II
Mrs. Miniver’s Girls: Plucky Girls in Hidden Figures, The Zookeeper’s Wife,
Their Finest, and Colossal
Bernard Beck
Northwestern University
Four recent movies, Hidden Figures, The
Zookeeper’s Wife, Their Finest, and Colossal
exemplify a new cultural version of the movie her-
oine. This version combines feminism with com-
mitment to solving an overwhelming problem.
These heroines, thus, display the character virtues
of Wonder Woman and Mrs. Miniver. This new
version reflects changing concerns about the cul-
tural understanding of women and a new direction
for women moviemakers.
Here She Comes to Save the Day
In a complex society with diverse identities, we find
different cultural approaches to defining the world. We
also find a dominant main culture which interprets dif-
ferently the facts of different sub-groups. Among human
societies, one of the universal differentiations is by sex-
ual status. The dominant cultures include definitions and
attributions about women, and a “woman” category is
the basis for a major sub-group with an associated sub-
culture of its own.
The history of each society may show a unique ver-
sion of women’s sphere of activity and women’s subcul-
ture. The cultural understanding of women in a society
Correspondence should be sent to Bernard Beck, 842 East Villa Street,
Apartment 412, Pasadena, CA 91101. E-mail: bbroncks@gmail.com
Multicultural Perspectives
223
may also be as inferior. All of these versions may change
over time. That is how history works. After the long
recent period of reemergence of women’s issues, popu-
lar culture is focusing on distinctive varieties of wom-
en’s roles. In the last few years, movies have appeared
that highlighted stories of major accomplishments by
women in fields that are traditionally defined as exclu-
sively male, where women were not expected to be able,
or want to participate. The stories emphasize the fact that
women have met some challenges that men had not been
able to handle.
The themes of such stories include the impressive
competence, creativity and strength of character of
women and the resistance of men to acknowledging the
mastery of women and their own inadequacy. In these
movies, women have had to solve great problems and deal
with the skepticism of their male associates. Hidden Fig-
ures (Chernin, Gigliotti, Melfi, & Topping, 2016) was a
striking example of this kind of movie. Other examples
followed: The Zookeeper’s Wife (Abberley, Levin,
Patricof, & Caro, 2017), Their Finest (Dwyer, Posey,
Woolley, & Scherfig, 2016), and Colossal (Rustam,
Foreman, Nahikari, Levine, & Vigalondo, 2016).
In movie history, David-and-Goliath stories have not
been rare. Enjoying the victories of underdogs is as fun-
damental a form of movie delight as cheering when boys
get girls, celebrating the defeats of monsters, or laughing
at sight gags. The movies have often supported the value
of fighting against social inequality by giving audiences
opportunities to identify with the struggles and triumphs
of the afflicted. Such stories are often found in westerns,
war movies, and sports movies. Now, we have a number
of movies opposing the oppression of women. There is
an additional element of the good fight in the new mov-
ies. The women protagonists not only achieve equality
or recognition. They display exceptional superiority to
those who thought themselves better. They were not
only super heroines, they were also superheroes.
The women protagonists not only
achieve equality or recognition.
They display exceptional
superiority to those who thought
themselves better.
The David-and-Goliath story line depends on a pattern
of fear and relief, the fear of overwhelming malicious
power and the relief of resisting that menace. The details
of each specimen of the story line identify particular cir-
cumstances that make it meaningful to particular audien-
ces. In these recent movies, “David” has been represented
by capable women. But these capable and ultimately tri-
umphant women also display a quality often noted in sto-
ries about long-suffering underdogs who triumph:
unflappability. The poise that dominated people develop is
based on their realistic awareness of powerlessness, so
that opposition requiring great energy results only in
defeat. Great ability can lead to success, however, by
applying the shrewdness and even temper that makes
focus on the goal possible. Underdogs can win against all
odds; but the most unfavorable odds are the disrespect
and insult that are the steady diet of social inferiors.
True Grit
In 1942, in the middle of World War II in Europe, but
just after America entered the war, a Hollywood movie
about British people in wartime London became a major
hit and a classic of movie history. Mrs. Miniver (Frank-
lin & Wyler, 1942) starred a host of Hollywood’s British
actors. The tribulations of London’s civilian population
engaged the sympathies of the American public before
this country became a combatant. The brave Britons,
who served as emotional surrogates for Americans,
awakened them, and news reports in papers, on radio,
and in movie newsreels were consumed hungrily.
The movie concerned the life of an “ordinary” mid-
dle-class family, but the central figure was the title char-
acter, the wife and mother. She was the pillar of strength
The Official Journal of the National Association for Multicultural Education
224
that kept the family together and functioning. Her most
prominent trait was her brave, resilient, indomitable
steadfastness. Winston Churchill, the eloquent Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom, symbolized defiance,
but Mrs. Miniver symbolized and honored the quiet
courage of women. She is an example of the homage that
is paid to the role of women in creating and supporting
family life and, as a result, human society itself. Male
chauvinists and feminists alike testify to this belief. But
Mrs. Miniver is not a character who solves the greatest
challenges to society at the same time, as the heroines of
contemporary movies are. In escapist juvenile movies
about superheroes, the character who presents the com-
bination of competence and poise is Wonder Woman.
She is one of the earliest superheroes to appear during
the so-called Golden Age of comic books. She was intro-
duced in 1941, soon after the starts of the other DC
superheroes, Superman in 1938 and Batman in 1939. As
venerable a figure as she is, she has been much less visi-
ble publicly, with far fewer radio, television, and movie
versions. Her only successful television series began in
1975. Ever since the turn of the 21st century, however,
Wonder Woman has appeared often in various media
and in commercial merchandise, such as costumes and
personal appearances at pop culture conventions and
mall openings. Finally, this year, a blockbuster super-
hero movie, Wonder Woman (Snyder, Snyder, Suckle, &
Jenkins, 2017), was released. During the same recent
period, many popular culture events have presented sto-
ries of strong, capable, and heroic women, leaders in
business, politics, science, and art. The past year has
seen the appearance of several movies about truly won-
derful women, not young beauties for viewing by ado-
lescents, but mature, serious women facing adult
challenges and responding with adult intelligence.
Women of the Year
Hidden Figures (Chernin et al., 2016) is based on the
true but long neglected story of the successful effort to
put John Glenn into orbit around the Earth. The difficult
project put the United States into the forefront of space
exploration at a time when the Soviet Union had been in
the lead. Glenn became a hero and the American public
was ecstatic. A formidable design obstacle had to be
overcome to make the success possible, and the solution
to the problem was provided by three African American
women mathematicians. They are excluded from partici-
pation by the leading scientists working on the project.
Only the intercession of a strong-willed superior gave
them a place on the team. Their work was hampered by
the disrespect of their supposed colleagues and the racist
limitations on their physical working conditions. Even
their own close associates were skeptical of their fitness
for the work. To everyone’s amazement, they found the
answers to the difficulties. But the praise they had earned
was still grudgingly withheld, for years in some cases.
Their achievements, however, were followed by further
accomplishments in their professional and personal
lives. And their victory was marked by the calm,
bemused equanimity they displayed in the face of
impediments.
Winston Churchill, the eloquent
Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom, symbolized defiance,
but Mrs. Miniver symbolized and
honored the quiet courage of
women. She is an example of the
homage that is paid to the role of
women in creating and supporting
family life and, as a result, human
society itself.
The Zookeeper’s Wife (Abberley et al., 2017) is also
based on a true story. When the Nazis invaded Poland in
1938, Jan Zabinski, the Director of the Warsaw Zoo, and
his wife Antonina had their stable and proactive lives
disrupted by the occupation. The world-famous zoo was
disrupted, and the animals scattered and harmed. Even
more ominously, the Warsaw Ghetto was established. In
response to the invasion, a resistance force was formed.
While the husband became involved in resistance, the
wife kept the zoo in existence by dealing with the Ger-
man official overseeing it, while coping with and making
use of his sexual interest in her.
They also found themselves engaged in sheltering
fugitives from the Ghetto. So, Antonina, with little prep-
aration, became an indispensable manager of the danger-
ous and endangered operation, which preserved the
zoological institution and saved the lives of many Holo-
caust survivors. In the process, she became the object of
advances from the German officer and jealous suspicion
by her husband. Emotionally battered, she remained
resourceful and effective, accomplishing what few
others were able to do. She met an immense challenge
without recognition.
The movie has been criticized for minimizing the
horrors of the Holocaust and offering a cheerful new
overview of the activities of its victims. In that respect, it
resembles other recent movies that celebrated the
achievements of Holocaust resisters. Specifically,
Multicultural Perspectives
225
Schindler’s List (Lustig, Molen, & Spielberg, 1993) and
Life Is Beautiful (Braschi, Ferri, Davis, & Benigni, 1997)
have been both honored and condemned for their opti-
mism. In this movie, the successful handling of the prob-
lem is not only celebrated as a good outcome. It is also
attributed to the capability of the title character. The part
is played by Jessica Chastain who recently played
another extraordinarily capable but undervalued woman
in Zero Dark Thirty (Antosca, Bigelow, & Boal, 2012),
one of the many movies about capable women.
Their Finest (Dwyer et al., 2016) is based on a true
episode in the history of British official movies made for
the home front during World War II. Catrin Cole was a
woman who found clerical work in the British movie
industry. She was involved in the production of natures
to support the war effort. She showed talent for writing
such scripts, and when the operation was shifted to a
government department, she went with it. In the com-
pany of “real” screenwriters, she was ignored, over-
looked, and excluded, in spite of her insight and
ingenuity. An important assignment came along, to
make a laudatory movie about girls who had taken boats
across the English Channel to pick up British soldiers
trapped at Verdun. This operation was a famous and
inspirational event. Many ordinary people had crossed
the Channel to boat lift a great many soldiers. Catrin
interviews the girls. They were embarrassed by the
attention because in fact they had been unable to get
their boat out of its home harbor. They had never gotten
to Dunkirk. Ironically, the stable woman who was
ignored was to write a movie about celebrated women
who had not succeeded. Her outrageous response to this
situation showed her strength and her competence.
Moreover, she, too, had difficulty with her unemployed
husband who resented her for taking over as the family
provider and her long hours spent with male coworkers.
Pulp Fiction
Colossal (Rustam et al., 2016) is anything but a true
story. In fact it has an absurd, fantastical premise that
contrasts amusingly with its ordinary life scenes. A not
so young woman left New York City after work disap-
pointments and a humiliating romantic break-up. She
returned to her small hometown and reestablished her-
self there. She moved back into her old home, encoun-
tered old acquaintances, and found a waitress job. So,
she returned to a life she would have led if she had never
left to seek her fortune in New York. Her sense of failure
and confusion is evident.
Meanwhile, sensational news came from Seoul,
Korea. A huge monster suggestive of Godzilla was dev-
astating the city. She stumbled on a startling, incredible
coincidence. In a local playground, she discovered that
Vol. 19, No. 4
her actions in that place were exactly duplicated by the
monster in television footage from Korea. So, she was
confronted with an awesome challenge by a circum-
stance she had no preparation to handle. Who could have
been prepared for it?
This fantasy problem was even more challenging than
those that confronted the women in the three true-life
movies, because it was preposterous, and the woman
who had to deal with it seemed so unequal to the task.
She did not have the training, the organization, or the
history of achievement that those women had. On the
contrary, she felt that she was a loser, defeated, hopeless,
and depressed. Her personal life was not only an impedi-
ment to her problem solving. It was a source of even
more menace. Yet, solve it she did and executed a victo-
rious and spectacular response that solved the problem
no one else could remotely attempt. The climactic scene
of her solution is as outlandish as the problem, but her
success showed an ingenuity and strength of character
that earns her a place alongside those heroic women in
the image of Mrs. Miniver.
Undefeated
Heroic women fighting for their full personhood in a
patriarchal world are not new in the movies. But in these
movies, the formidable barriers are not the main story,
nor is the spirit of defiance of the women the main virtue
they show. Instead, their commitment to tackling and
The Official Journal of the National Association for Multicultural Education
226
solving the problems and their refusal to be deterred
from those pursuits is their outstanding feature. These
movies seem to offer a distinctive message, a different
kind of Wonder Woman, prefigured by the brave British
woman enduring the Blitz. It suggests the maxim: Don’t
get mad. Get to work.
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