hand, Hollywood has had a "leveling impact on indigenous cultures," neutral­

izing local culture in a wash of homogenized Americana. But on the other hand,
it has been a modern force for progressive change, advancing the possibilities of
democracy by challenging "prevailing social and sexual arrangements and
advanc[ing] new possibilities of social identities and cultural styles." (p. 68) For
this reason, Hollywood films offer scholars and critics a wealth of opportunities
for studying the ways American cinema influences ideological perspectives in
the U.S. and across the globe.

Audiences who have grown up watching films like Knocked Up might take its
matter-of-fact treatment of sexuality for granted. But in the decades of the 1930s
to the 1960s, filmmakers weren't permitted to even mention when characters
were pregnant, much less depict lovers in the midst of heated passion. The birth
of Little Coyote in Stagecoach, for example, comes as a shock to some viewers
because, throughout the first two acts, the other passengers on board refer to
Lucy Mallory as "ill" instead of stating what should be obvious: she needs to get
to her husband quickly because she is about to give birth. Even as she goes into
labor, none of the characters explicitly states what is happening. The audience
must infer what has befallen Mrs. Mallory based on roundabout details: the
drunken Doc must sober up in a hurry, other passengers start to prepare "lots of
hot water," and there's mention of "the stork" having visited in the night.
This prohibition against direct reference to or representation of sexuality was
articulated in Hollywood's Production Code. This practice of self-censorship
offers a concrete example of how filmmakers and public interest groups, aware
of the profound social influence of the cinema, monitored and molded the con­
tent of the movies in order to maintain what were perceived to be the United
States' normative ideologies.
Ironically, the earliest Hollywood films weren't censored. Contemporary
audi­ences might be shocked to see brief glimpses of nudity and risque subject
matter in early studio films. A 1916 Lois Weber film, Where Are My Children, for
example, deals frankly with the taboo subjects of birth control and abortion. In
fact, today, there are countless DVDs, film screenings, and cable network
specials that titillate audiences with Pre-Code Hollywood films. But in the early
1920s, the industry found itself increasingly under attack from church groups
and conservative publications, which denounced the industry because of
scandals relating to sexual deviance, avarice, drugs, and alcohol. In 1915, the
Supreme Court had ruled that motion pictures were not part of the press and
therefore not constitutionally protected from censorship. As a result, the 1920s
protests sparked industry-wide anxieties that movies would soon be subject to
government censorship.
In response, Hollywood established the Motion Picture Producers and
Distributors of America (MPPDA), an organization designed to help the industry

314 Chapter 10: Film and Ideology