This is a brilliant essay. You confront an issue in which deliberate ignorance, gynocentric focus, active misandry, and fudged statistics erase male victimhood. You do so with a controlled, focused, absolutely clear anger at a fundamental injustice.
Male violence is constantly exaggerated, while female violence is minimized, ignored, and excused. This is criminal. Your voice is, alas, not as loud as it should be, but one potato after another eventually fills the sack. I am immensely grateful for your efforts, and on this Thanksgiving I give thanks for your dedication, and the urgency you bring to the support of men, and boys.
There's another thing about female violence that often goes unnoticed, which is killing without brute force, specifically poisoning. Poisoning is statistically much more likely to be enacted by women than men. Such deaths are frequently attributed to natural disease, even when the frequency should make it obvious that something else could be going on. One example that comes to mind is the murderous nurse Jane Toppan, who murdered dozens of patients in medical facilities and in families where she worked as a private nurse. Only when she killed 4 members of one family in a weekend, with relatives becoming immediately suspicious, did she attract attention as the mass murderer she turned out to be.
The other category of women murderers who are surely underreported are those who kill their own children. Those who are caught are treated very leniently because they "must" be suffering mental problems (which probably leads to their being counted as committing manslaughter, or mentally unfit to stand trial). Those who disguise poison or pillow-over-the-face murders aren't counted as murderers, and their children aren't counted as murder victims.
Nov 23, 2023·edited Nov 24, 2023Liked by Janice Fiamengo
Thanks for this, Janice. It is wearying to keep pointing to realities that MRAs have been been pointing to for some decades, without mainstream media coverage, but what choice do we have? I have a couple of things to add here. Firstly, one of our blog pieces (from so many) on domestic violence, with links to the Partner Abuse State of Knowledge Project 2013 (PASK13), the largest ever survey of the world literature on the subject:
Secondly, a blog piece pointing to the highest rates of domestic violence being in lesbian couples. A woman is more likely to be the victim of partner violence when her partner is a woman, than when it's a man:
The genuine appreciation for the value of men’s lives in the highest levels of US government is rapidly approaching zero. I give you a quote from Hillary Clinton in 1998: “Women have always been the primary victims of war. Women lose their husbands, their fathers, their sons in combat.” This is yet another example of the fact that so many women measure the value of men only in terms of men’s value to women. Hillary’s perspective totally lacks any regard for the inherent value of a man’s life as a long, fulfilling and healthy existence on this Earth. How can anyone begin to compare the loss of life of an 18 year old young man to the grief of those who knew him? Her callousness toward men regarding combat death extends to the failure to recognize there are fathers and brothers who grieve too. All of us must call out this callousness in every instance we see it.
Awful as Hillary's statement is, it did minimally acknowledge that those men were of value to the wives, mothers and daughters of the dead. Even this emotional value of men to the women who love them isn't acknowledged as a priority to anyone by a lot of people these days.
Nowadays, there are women who firmly believe that once reproductive technology can create human embryos without using sperm men will be entirely dispensable. They don't even have comprehend that even though our society is safe and prosperous enough that wine aunties and girl bosses can live and long, comfortable lives without male partners, the larger society can't function without men. The infrastructure that men create and maintain could not be perpetuated, or even maintained, by female labor alone.
I have a woman friend who worked for a big city's water bureau for about 10 years. I always admired her for just doing the job, not expecting special treatment for being a woman, and never spewing a bunch of feminist ideology. Sadly, she's only in her early 50s and after 10 years doing a man's job, her body is completely destroyed. Even a particularly muscular and willing woman is incapable of doing jobs like that for decades the way men do. I'm sure that the water bureau work she was doing would not be considered particularly difficult compared to many jobs that men need to do to keep our civilization functioning.
Actually, I find the conduct that feminists ascribe to men is actually far more descriptive of the conduct of feminist WOMEN than of men. The lesbian violence on women is also extreme but completely covered up especially in academia where it is rampant.
Theories created by those women least able to empathise with the male condition. Their only possible resort is to project their own inadequacies. When encountering anything feminist in nature always put it through that filter first. Always assume projection.
I've had good experiences with lesbians but they tended to be completely apolitical. The dangerous ones are the radical feminist separatists.
This has been my experience with lesbians too, for what it's worth, most of them fairly empathetic towards men (far more so than heterosexual feminists). What particularly galls me are all the non-feminist men and women who couldn't care less about the realities of male suffering.
Particularly in our generation the lesbian would face a life trajectory the same as most men ie forty odd years of forty hours. There's no "Plan B" for them, no likelihood of somebody else working to provide for them. They also know what it's like to live with a woman!
Many were tough-minded and down to earth with few illusions about anything. The political lesbians, of course, are a different kettle of fish altogether.
Thanks Janice, for pushing through to write this. The nonsense about these issues is so exhausting. The purveyors of this anti-male rubbish are supported in every institution..universities, public administration, churches, media, etc. It is almost impossible to speak out against the overwhelming rush of irrationality and hate.
And they still maintain the narrative women are uniquely oppressed by men to such an extent they require colossal resources and special help, all while claiming they are strong and independent and don't need no man.
I notice that feminists not only do not have a coherent ideology, they don't even have a pretense of trying to maintain a coherent ideology. They just jump on current issues that they can connect up in some way to their claims that women always get a raw deal. Even in the mid-19th century, the feminists wanted to acquire the privileges that adult men enjoyed, while keeping the privileges women enjoyed (men would not be afforded the privileges women enjoyed, such as single adults being financially supported by their fathers). On the flip side, feminists never agitate to be subject to the responsibilities of adult men - just look at all the reeing and screaming any time conscription of women gets mentioned.
I am convinced these days most of the feminist announcements are just massive fitness tests. They subconsciously keep waiting for men to man up and throw them back in the kitchen. Plus mental illness, which seems to be on the rise. Childlessness doesn't help.
Yes, some years ago, I researched a case in Canada of a woman who paid one "hit man" to kill her nonviolent husband. That "hit man" took her $25,000C and, rather risibly, walked away. So she tried again, this time paying an undercover police officer who caught the transaction on camera. She was arrested and charged, but found not guilty by the male judge because she claimed to feel afraid of her husband. There was no evidence of his violence against her and his only violent acts had occurred many years previously in bar fights with other men, but she parlayed her feelings into an acquittal. Oddly enough, the family court reached an entirely different conclusion, giving full custody of their daughter to the husband. His new wife told me he's utterly nonviolent and that she'd never contemplate a relationship with a man who was violent.
Nicole Doucet Ryan! Who can forget? The Crown declined to retry her, didn't they, because she'd already suffered enough, even though it was obvious that she hadn't suffered at all and had made a determined effort to have a decent man murdered. Horrible woman universally sympathized with as a 'victim.'
If you like this story, you should check out the video link below. A guy who worked as a programmed bought the domain name "hire a hit man" (with the idea of getting "hits" on your website). When the business he bought the domain for went bust, he still owned the name. Long story short, he maintains the site, and forwards serious enquiries to law enforcement. The video is definitely worth popping some popcorn to enjoy while watching!
This sounds familiar. What I remember was that the father was previously shot through his car window but survived and a police investigation ensued. The mother of the daughter was also involved in hiring a new hitman. I had articles saved on this case but I discarded them along with many other cases I researched.
Thank you for this important article. If one were to sit in a college bar as an impartial observer one would quickly see that women are MORE likely than men to assault people they do not know for "offending" them even when the person is not interacting with them. They feel free to lay their hands on others to express their will but will cry abuse if you tell them to stop, let alone attempt to physical restrain them. Much of the physical conflict arising between men in such situations is actually triggered by the conduct and demands of WOMEN involved. It is time as a society that we stop putting women on a pedestal and see them for who they really are.
All men learn in boyhood hassling other males quickly leads to physical repercussions. We have strong taboos against hitting women and girls, so they don't learn the same lessons. Men also have better emotional regulation which helps prevent things getting out of control.
But I am all for a blunt discussion about female nature. That would help everyone. We should start with false rape accusations.
Yes...that would be a good place to start. Feminists don't want to have either conversation however as that would knock women off their pedestal forever. Hell, we might find that the Islamic rule regarding the testimony of women having half the weight of that for men on issues of this sort has a basis in reality.
The rationale for the Muslims is typically a woman's grip on reality is different, and the half weight element is to encourage corroboration to offset emotional distortion. This is especially the case to compensate for vindictiveness. So I suspect so.
Indeed...it is interesting how terrified feminists are of due process. They claim false accusations are essentially non-existent...but steadfastly seek to recreate the conditions that led to the Salem witch trials. It would indeed be ironic is the stats show that presumption of innocence is not sufficient to achieve justice...but rather we should impose mandatory punishment on the accuser for any accusation that FAILS to win in court.
I don't think failure is a reason to do so. But when accusations are revealed to be false most women get off scott free. They should be tried for perjury with a sentence comparable to what the accused would have faced.
The most famous sexual assault trial in Canada was that of CBC media personality Jian Ghomeshi, in which it was proved beyond a doubt that the three complaining witnesses lied to police and lied on the witness stand in court--and conspired together to get their stories straight in order to nail Ghomeshi--and yet were never charged with perverting the course of justice.
Sadly, the mere act of being accused causes irreparable harm to the accused. That needs to come with a price for the accuser. Those who make accusations they cannot prove should have their identity and conduct as fully exposed as the person they accused...and then face the same sentence that the accused would have faced if they had been found guilty PLUS the penalty for perjury.
I don't think there is any statute of limitations on sexual crime allegations in Canada. The police encourage so-called 'historical' victims to come forward. So one never knows when a crazy person will come out of the woodwork to make a complaint about something you allegedly did 50 or 60 years ago. Astounding.
I've noticed that dykes tend to be aggressive in a particular way, because despite taking on the masculine role of aggression they do not take on any masculine virtues and tend to be really hysterical in the worst feminine manner possible.
Not only was this woman continuing to slap this guy, but she even blocked his view while he was driving. The guy in the car handled her exactly as she should have been treated.
Sadly true. If men ACTUALLY treated women they way they treat men you could hear the screams on the moon through the vacuum of space! The irony is that if women fail to reign in the misconduct of their sisters...they may well find themselves living in a world similar to The Handmaid's Tale.
Great piece Janice. If one has an open heart and truly wants the best for all and "equity" for men ad women, it is very difficult to stomach the one sided hateful treatment coming from these folks. This includes just about everyone from journalists to therapists, to lawyers and judges and of course the feminists. It's like dealing with the walking dead.
Thank you for standing up for those without a voice! Your voice is strong and needed.
In your discussion with Tom Golden and Carrie Gress, I think it was Tom who pointed out that when bad things happen to a woman, rather than say that is because of a bad person, they make the issue a global issue and claim that it is a cultural problem.
This is what trying to get violence against men recognised is up against.
The other extremely covert issue is how effectively the Feminist Claim makers have been in shutting down any exploration of the issue and it started with Erin Pizzey. Researchers who produced research that challenged the feminist narrative were met with death threats and other malicious claims aimed at discrediting them.
Eventually, it got to the point where researchers would not go anywhere near the topic of male victims, in addition, difficulties were encountered trying to get funding for such research.
Erin Pizzey is a good source of information as she described what she saw in the womens' shelters. She described many of these women as being violent themselves psychologically damaged and irreparable.
That is an interesting question about why is not academic bullying recognised.
I suspect it has to do with the covert relational aggression tactics that are used to destroy careers and reputations. The onslaught is extremely difficult to resist, perhaps in part because these activists have boundless amounts of energy and do not take no for an answer.
“All violence is unacceptable and any effort to end violence is worthy,” insists that “statistics indicate that women, girls, and Two Spirit, trans, and non-binary people
Nobody, it seems, cares for what happens to men. Men are the subjects of mental, emotional, and physical abuse that never stops. Even a man defending himself against an attack by a woman can face an abuse trial for hitting the woman. Heck, even if a man defends his wife against an attack by another woman and hits that woman, he can be charged with assault.
Men have been conditioned to never hit a woman, even if some "handling" is required, he's not allowed to correct a woman's behavior. But that woman can beat her son, and knife her husband and nobody will care.
Is it any wonder that men are about to completely give up on women? Can you blame them?
The female judge in the case, Michelle Hollins, is quoted as saying that Tallow, in her lethal pummeling of the victim, “appeared to be trying to wake up a severely intoxicated Rain by punching him in the face and head over the course of 30 minutes
It never takes a dozen blows to wake a drunk person, and if it does, just let the man sleep.
If a woman commits a crime, she should face justice for it, but then justice is blind, deaf, and doesn't care about men.
The pain is real, but men don't speak about it. That's not how we work. We are expected to fix it, even when we can't.
I remember one male idiot saying "You made your bed, now lie in it". With a snicker. So much for support from other men. Speaking about "it" even to men who have suffered themselves is an opportunity to get stabbed in the back.
There was an account I read of a slave (1800s) planning to run away to Canada who said he would never speak of his plans to other slaves because he feared betrayal from "those who were unaware of their condition".
A dismaying analysis, if not a surprising one. Thanks for getting it out, Janice. At the very least, you have stimulated some great comments, and I find them heartening and informative. Giving our community information and support of this kind is a significant contribution. I value it highly.
I sent the Adam Jones piece to my sister - grandmother of three boys - years ago. She is still constantly complaining that she sees it everywhere and in everything.
A short glimpse at any MSM shows female CEO's, police seniors, politicians, professionals in abundance. Uni enrolments for females in some areas are almost 100%.
Men are being eased out of senior roles, women into them, and not always on merit. Ok, maybe on merit some of the time...but who knows?
Female victims of crime receive the full regalia of media coverage, and the support of well funded government agencies. Always led by women. Male suicides are mentioned only by those kept on the fringe. Of course, any crimes by any indigenous are hushed by all.
So it is a mess of unbelief, self interest, and plain lies. Women who want power are just one part of this..they do not have any claim to special virtue.
It was never ever about equality, but always about supremacy. If it had been about equality, some of the garbage collectors of my life would have been women, but no, never. Never a single female garbage person have I seen in my life. I wonder why.
Yet teachers in primary, secondary school and academia are by now about 80% women. But nobody even talks about it. Just like nobody talks about 99% of garbage collectors being men
Judge Michelle Hollins wormed her way into the justice system with the intent of overthrowing justice and replacing it with vengance. What could you say to her that would cause her to reflect on what she had done? Nothing. We know what the answer would be. 'Thousands of men, if not millions, rape women *every day* and get away with it. Sucks when it's you, doesn't it?'
Remember we were always told that the world would be a fairer, kinder, more just place with more women in power? Yeah. That really came true.
Great article, but for me the most disgusting thing about feminists, and women in general (with few exceptions), is their failure to call out violence, abuse and neglect perpetrated by women against children, including sentient unborn babies, who are the most vulnerable and innocent members of society. They avoid the topic because it would reveal the truth that women are no better than men, and their fragile egos couldn't handle that.
Even by feminist standards 'The Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability' is a title which chokes on its own pomposity in a manner beyond parody. An observatory, indeed. That 'justice' and 'accountability' are Black Holes to these people and feminism itself is an astronomical fraud is obvious to most with the naked eye.
When parents must come to terms with how few people in the world beyond family would demonstrate consistent non-gratuitous care and concern for any of their sons. That moment may be more endemic to our era. All the early years of loving guidance eventually overshadowed by relative cold indifference must leave some impressions.
Soon perhaps, we may be on the verge of a tipping point. The 'collective consciousness' of humanity has more so awoken during the last three years. It may come to land favourably upon the other half of humanity. Society, and the world, is not going to suddenly collapse when random isolated female death rates reach parity with that of males. Yet, the one sided narrative and grift continues.
Those fellow travelers on the road of observing humanity's specific inhumanity toward men have a knowing of what constitutes the obstacles to addressing this pattern - not only other desensitized men, but those made drunk by the wrath of their own conceit. Those considered saintly are now recognized as parasites and useful despots. Those wanting to take a bullet - they may receive what they wish for.
Will those considered routinely expendable be less so when their presence is needed most? Will the newfound heroes then milk the system for all it's worth like their professionally organized counterparts? Some, but most likely will not. Unless perceptions change the professional parasites of many stripes will continue to despitefuly use and disparage those who continually bail everyone else out.
Far from being a novel idea, there are enough people in tune with what this blog brings to the table to make the following happen: that we do business with the like-minded.
There are far more capable people than myself here that could successfully organize such a solidarity initiative. Not a guarantee of anything, but a start at navigating the mine fields.
Great blog, Janice. I can’t add any comment beyond what your readers have already written. I would, however, be interested in knowing if you or your readers had ever seen the 1974 French film “La Punition”, released in English as “The Punishment”. It was based on the bestselling story, allegedly autobiographical, by Xavière Lafont. I have not read the book but would be interested in knowing how the film differs from the story it is based on. The film gets a 4.1 star rating on IMDB.com. I would give it about twice that. I would be interested in knowing how Janice or her readers would rate it. It tells a rather grim story about a naïve French country girl, Brit (the actress who plays her, Karin Schubert, was from Hamburg, Germany) who gets into what looks like the glamorous life of a high-society hooker, then finds herself imprisoned naked in a room to satisfy the needs of repellent male clients because of offending a rich client in a trivial way. I have seen it twice, and it really merits a second viewing because the action flips back and forth between past and present in a way that makes it difficult to follow. This isn’t gratuitous artiness though. If filmed in a strictly chronological way, the early scenes would be dull, as poor Britt thinks she is going to live the high life. Near the start, the film shows the revenge killing of the man who sentences her to her punishment by another prostitute, which creates the sense of foreboding in the scenes that follow, which would otherwise be absent. In a Marxist analysis, all of the prostitutes in the film are victims, but the high-income people who live off of them are women as well as men. It is a feature film, not a feminist diatribe. November 26th marks the 79th birthday of Karin Schubert, one of the most beautiful of film actresses, with one of the most tragic histories. She made this film before turning 30, and still had a couple of decades of film-making ahead of her, but like Karen Sillas after making “What Happened Was”, she would never repeat the brilliance of her signature film. Lovely actresses seem to have a shorter shelf life, at least in serious roles, than handsome actors. Most of them don’t get to go on into old age, like Katherine Hepburn, still getting plum roles.
I assume from your knowledge of such an obscure European "exploitation" film that you appreciate French/Italian arthouse/genre cinema. Never heard of that film, but will definitely check it out. I've heard of Karin Schubert, she was in some Italian horror movies known as gialli (a favorite genre of mine) before she went into pornography in the last years of her career to raise money to send her son to rehab, I believe. Later she seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth, with no trace of her whereabouts at present, although given her prior suicide attempts, it looks as though she might have met her fate in such a manner. Anyhow, French films that expose the sordid and miserable side of the pornographic/prostitute business were popular in France at the time. A similar French picture was released only a year later in 1974, L'Important C'Est D'Aimer" (That Most Important Thing: Love) starring the hauntingly beautiful German thespian Romy Schneider, in which she incarnates a washed up actress who has resorted to soft pornos to support herself. A young photographer feels sorry for her after witnessing her breaking down in the middle of a film production, and discreetly borrows money from some gangsters to finance a theatrical production of Richard III, with her in the role of Lady Anne (the temepestuous Klaus Kinski in the titular role). Gradually falling in love with her in spite of her loyalty to her depressed producer husband (a rare and admirable quality) who she does not love but does not wish to leave due to him having saved her from becoming a prostitute; tragedy ultimately befalls this doomed couple. I would love to hear your opinions on this film if you have seen it; I love it and the music stirs me with its melancholy.
Thank you for your reply, Katie. Actually, it’s embarrassing to admit it, but I haven’t had much exposure to French art-house cinema at all. I speak French fairly well, and don’t understand German or Italian, but I got into the German krimi, films made between 1959 and 1972 mostly based on Edgar Wallace crime novels. They are hardly art-house fare, but I found them addictive. The first one I watched was also my favourite, “The Hunchback of Soho”, and the lovely Suzanne Roquette was in it, who was also in a later krimi, “The College Girl Murders”. Klaus Kinski actually got his start in the krimi, and I associate him more with “Dead Eyes of London” than more intellectual fare. There were a number of West German-Italian co-productions that were sort of krimi-giallo mélanges. The only one of these I have seen was “What Have You Done with Solange?” so I know about Fabio Testi, who starred as an Italian language teacher, working at a private girls’ school in England, suspected of being responsible for a string of killings of his own students. He was excellent in this very good film.
I believe that Karin Schubert is still living in Italy somewhere with her pet dogs. It was terrible that she got into making hardcore sex films at an age when you would expect a porn actress to be getting out of the industry, and that she tried to kill herself twice. I hope and pray that she is still alive and God is looking out for her. I don’t believe an actress with her body of work would just disappear, dying without anyone taking notice. I had seen her a long time ago in «La Folie des grandeurs» with Yves Montand, where she played the Queen of Spain, but I actually came to «La Punition» after watching her in a mediocre Italian giallo called “The Girl in Room 2D” where she was quite affecting in a small part. A number of German actresses have really taken to Italy. Brigitte Skay, an actress in the krimis whose career in some ways is similar to Schubert’s, lived most of her life in Italy, returning to Germany only when her Italian partner died, and she was herself about to die of cancer. The great Italian director Mario Bava’s penultimate film, “Rabid Dogs”, would never have been released if its German lead actress, Lea Lander, hadn’t purchased the production rights to it, and after much work, finally released a film that had been on the shelf for a couple of decades.
Thank you very much for the recommendation to watch «L'Important c'est d'aimer.» Romy Schneider is a wonderful actress and I see that she won the César for best actress for her performance in that film. I am really grateful, not only to Janice, but to commenters like yourself, who put me in touch with intellectual and artistic efforts I would otherwise be unaware of.
And your remarks on Karin Schubert move me, I think it's a beautiful thing to wish salvation for a woman who suffered so harshly and suddenly with the downward spiral of the closest loved one in her life: her son. It must have been terrible for her to have witnessed her son struggling with the vicious cycles drugs entail. I would recommend if you haven't already watched them, the Sergio Martino gialli with Edwige Fenech, a delicate doe eyed Italian siren who often played psychologically tormented women like Schubert. "All the Colors of the Dark" is a rather campy yet dreamy narrative in which a woman (played by Fenech) gets invited into a Satanic cult by a neighbor to cure her of her recurring nightmare involving a creepy knife wielding individual, only for her to get entangled with a murderous lot of junkies who would rather see her die than renounce her "membership". Fenech is movingly fragile in her role as a woman droven to the point of insanity by nefarious persons wishing to gaslight her into complying with their demands. Very psychedelic yet aesthetically pleasing, if not particularly mainstream fare, and Edwige's performance is compelling. I heard the director was inspired by Rosemary's Baby, although the narrative is largely sidelined in favor of the visuals.
Katie, thank you for your recommendations. I saw both «L’important c’est d’aimer» and “All the Colours of the Dark.” The first film is much the most clearly related to “La Puntion”. They both deals with the French sex industry in Paris in the 1970s, and end tragically. I can only remember seeing Romy Schneider as Empress Sisi, so it was interesting to see her in a French film. The only time I ever saw the McGarrigle Sisters onstage, Romy Schneider had just died and one of them paid a tribute to her. She seems to have been deeply loved all over la Francophonie. “All the Colours of the Dark” was not so clearly related to “La Punition” and was bit of a struggle for me. I had trouble keeping up with all the plot twists. Still, it was a happier story than “La Punition” and it was obvious that Edwige Fenech was a former beauty queen. I think a film with her in it would find a male audience if she was just sitting on her balcony sipping a cappuccino and reading the newspaper. Notorious P.A.T., another of Janice’s readers, noted similarities between “La Punition” and “Last Night in Soho”. I watched it last night and I agree with him. It may not be to every taste, but it does have the extraordinary Anya Taylor Joy in it, singing as well as acting. The sex trade in Western Europe in the 60’s and 70’s seems to have inspired a lot of films with a lot of top quality actors and actresses.
I'm glad to see that you found them interesting! "L'important c'est d'aimer" is a movie that has been intermittently on my mind for more or less two years now; the intense atmosphere generated partly by the score and partly by the sober visuals is probably why. "All the Colors of the Dark is another film whose score and visuals contribute to its memorability, alongside the obvious presence of La Fenech, as she if often referred to in Italy. Her beauty appeals first and foremost to men of course, but additionally to women, many of whom rank her on top of their lists of "giallo goddesses". In the words of the poet: "a thing of beauty is a joy forever".
Thank you for providing a link for Janice and her readers to “La Punition”, Katie. Yes, it seems we have remarkably similar eccentric interests in films. If you decide to watch a krimi, I would recommend starting with one of Alfred Vohrer’s films. He was the best of the krimi directors, with a sure sense of pacing, although he is not in the same class as Mario Bava. Lea Lander, who was the saviour of “Rabid Dogs”, was also, as you know, a leading character in “Blood and Black Lace”. It shows Bava’s phenomenal range that he could make such very different pictures. There was a French remake of “Rabid Dogs”, filmed in Quebec, with Lambert Wilson. It is not bad, and pumped money into the Canadian economy, but it can’t really compare to Bava’s film, since it lacked the historical context of a contemporary Italy strained to the limit by the Red Brigades and other forms of lawlessness. Good luck with your Italian, and I hope you do become fluent soon. I never heard of “All the Colors of the Dark” or of its female star, but I will certainly watch it soon. I see that is easy to find; it is on the Internet Archive. Today is Karin Schubert’s birthday, but, quite shamefully, IMDB.com has omitted her from its list of important celebrity birthdays! Bonne chance!
Merci beaucoup pour votre belle souhait! I think it shouldn't be too long now, what with all the Italian films I've been watching as of late. I will check out Vohrer as soon as possible, his name sounds familiar. And "Rabid Dogs" is on my watch list as well, its connection to the many socio-political problems occurring during the "Years of Lead" in 70s Italy heightens its intrigue.
It's amazing how I've found a kindred spirit in terms of cinema. I also speak French (learnt it thanks to Canadian schools and their French Immersion programs from Elementary school onwards), and I understand some Italian given the similarities to French, but am not yet fluent, hoping to be one day however. I know about krimis, although I haven't watched any, and Bava is a phenomenal horror director (Blood and Black Lace is a stunning film, it showcases his immense visual flair; little surprise given his repute as a cinematographer), and I have watched Girl in Room 2A, which I found to be a guilty indulgence in rather silly mediocrity. Regarding Fabio Testi's performance in "What Have You Done to Solange", I think you'll be pleased to hear that he appears alongside Romy Schneider in the aforementioned film, as the young photographer who falls in love with her. Both make a fine couple, beautiful as they are.
Also I found a link to La Punition with English subtitles if anyone is interested: I recommend this site thoroughly for obscure arthouse films, European and otherwise; they have virtually everything one could ask for.
Happy Old New Year, Katie! (It’s coming up three days from now.)
I left my initial comment on Janice’s blog hoping that her or one of her readers might have read the novel by Xavière, also called «La Punition», and tell me how the film was changed from the novel. Yesterday I received it by mail and read it myself, so let me briefly summarize some of the differences. (It is a quick read, a little over 90 pages with large print, a novella rathe than a novel.) The most substantial is that while Britt is murdered by a hit man at the end of the film, Xavière survives. Since she is telling the story in the first person, this is pretty obvious, unless she were writing something with an ending like Stephen Leacock’s “Soaked in Seaweed”: “I fell ill. I died. I buried myself. Would that others who write sea stories would do as much.” The film is altogether more violent than the novel. The murder of Raymond, with which the film starts, seems to have been inspired by an altercation in the novel between Gloria, the girl screaming in the next room in the prison-hotel where she and Xavière are kept, in a nightclub in Paris where Xavière is working, screaming a denunciation of Raymond, but no more than that. And of course there is also the brutal murder of someone trying to protect Britt by the hitman when he is on her trail. There is no hitman in the novel.
Where the film jumps back and forth in time, the novella follows events pretty much in a linear sequence. Where Britt’s trivial offence that leads to her punishment is clearly shown in the film, we have no clue what led to Xavière’s punishment. There is no romantic relationship between M. and Xavière in the novella as there is between Manuel and Britt in the film. Gloria is a more important character in the novella than in the film, while Antoni, one of Xavière’s young clients, also an important character in the novella, has his role reduced so much in the film that he goes uncredited.
In the novel Britt tells another girl in the prison-hotel that she wouldn’t be there if she had only had an abortion, and then she wouldn’t have had to turn to prostitution to support her child. This conversation is omitted from the film. In the film Françoise, the woman who introduces Britt to Manuel, clearly has a lesbian attraction to her, but no longstanding lesbian relationship exists between the two women, as is the case in the novella.
I think this is one case where the film was superior to the book, a bestseller in France. The differences from the novella seemed to be directed by artistic choices, not by commercial considerations. Nevertheless, one could make a case for a film that more closely followed Xavière’s own vision, although I doubt that at this remove in time, one will ever emerge
Huh, that movie sounds similar to "Last Night In Soho", which came out in 2021. That movie...whew, I would like to see what a prominent thinker such as Janice has to say about that.
Thank you for your comment, Notorious P.A.T. I am ashamed to say that I never heard of "Last Night in Soho", which is strange because I loved Anya Taylor-Joy in "The Queen's Gambit" and "Emma". I am not sure that "La Punition" is so similar to "Last Night in Soho". There is no time travel in it, and Britt's pimp is not a tall, intimidating thug like Matt Smith (if Matt Smith is a pimp in the film as the trailer suggests). Still, I will definitely watch it. Thank you for the recommendation. I would be interested in knowing Janice's opinion of "Last Night in Soho" as well.
Notorious P.A.T., I watched "Last Night in Soho" last night, but not in Soho. There are some strong similarities with "La Punition". They both deal with naive country girls who have come to the big metropolis and get into prostitution. About half of "Last Night in Soho" takes place in the late 60's too, while "La Punition" was based on a novel published on January 1, 1972, so the time periods were roughly the same. Of course, there is a strong sense of nostalgia in the 1960s scenes in "Last Night in Soho", absent from seemed to be set in I am more into realist than fantasist film-making, and "Last Night in Soho" was definitely fantasist, but I still enjoyed it. It was not nearly as bleak a film as "La Punition", although it seemed to me the happy happy ending was a tad contrived. Anya Taylor Joy is a marvel. She did all the singing and dancing of her character herself. What a talent. She still probably peaked with her performance as Beth Harmon in "The Queen's Gambit". The really beautiful actresses tend to peak in their twenties. However, I would love to be proved wrong. I would like to know Janice's views on "Last Night in Soho" too.
This is a brilliant essay. You confront an issue in which deliberate ignorance, gynocentric focus, active misandry, and fudged statistics erase male victimhood. You do so with a controlled, focused, absolutely clear anger at a fundamental injustice.
Male violence is constantly exaggerated, while female violence is minimized, ignored, and excused. This is criminal. Your voice is, alas, not as loud as it should be, but one potato after another eventually fills the sack. I am immensely grateful for your efforts, and on this Thanksgiving I give thanks for your dedication, and the urgency you bring to the support of men, and boys.
There's another thing about female violence that often goes unnoticed, which is killing without brute force, specifically poisoning. Poisoning is statistically much more likely to be enacted by women than men. Such deaths are frequently attributed to natural disease, even when the frequency should make it obvious that something else could be going on. One example that comes to mind is the murderous nurse Jane Toppan, who murdered dozens of patients in medical facilities and in families where she worked as a private nurse. Only when she killed 4 members of one family in a weekend, with relatives becoming immediately suspicious, did she attract attention as the mass murderer she turned out to be.
The other category of women murderers who are surely underreported are those who kill their own children. Those who are caught are treated very leniently because they "must" be suffering mental problems (which probably leads to their being counted as committing manslaughter, or mentally unfit to stand trial). Those who disguise poison or pillow-over-the-face murders aren't counted as murderers, and their children aren't counted as murder victims.
More examples of the gynocentrism of the legal system treating women as victims when they commit horrible crimes.
There's too many to count. It disgusts and horrifies me to think about how many truly despicable women get treated like precious little angels.
It seems to take mass murder to wake people up to the criminality of women.
It is absolutely exaggerrated.
The "international day for the elimination of violence against other men" doesn't exist.
The international day for the elimination of violence against men does exist.
Women are such sleazeballs with language. Covertly erasing the violence that women commit against men.
Women commit most of the DV
they kill their husbands all the time, more than men kill wives if you include emotionally driven suicide and poisonings.
Women commit all of the infanticide, and most infanticide victims are baby boys.
Women kill most of the elderly and most of the murdered elderly are old men.
Oh, but that's right, women are "nurturing" or something. I forgot.
Cornball.
Thanks for this, Janice. It is wearying to keep pointing to realities that MRAs have been been pointing to for some decades, without mainstream media coverage, but what choice do we have? I have a couple of things to add here. Firstly, one of our blog pieces (from so many) on domestic violence, with links to the Partner Abuse State of Knowledge Project 2013 (PASK13), the largest ever survey of the world literature on the subject:
https://j4mb.org.uk/domestic-violence/
Secondly, a blog piece pointing to the highest rates of domestic violence being in lesbian couples. A woman is more likely to be the victim of partner violence when her partner is a woman, than when it's a man:
https://j4mb.org.uk/2022/12/09/are-women-more-likely-to-be-abused-in-lesbian-or-heterosexual-relationships/
Mike Buchanan
JUSTICE FOR MEN & BOYS
http://j4mb.org.uk
The genuine appreciation for the value of men’s lives in the highest levels of US government is rapidly approaching zero. I give you a quote from Hillary Clinton in 1998: “Women have always been the primary victims of war. Women lose their husbands, their fathers, their sons in combat.” This is yet another example of the fact that so many women measure the value of men only in terms of men’s value to women. Hillary’s perspective totally lacks any regard for the inherent value of a man’s life as a long, fulfilling and healthy existence on this Earth. How can anyone begin to compare the loss of life of an 18 year old young man to the grief of those who knew him? Her callousness toward men regarding combat death extends to the failure to recognize there are fathers and brothers who grieve too. All of us must call out this callousness in every instance we see it.
Thanks Padraig, I couldn't agree more. Greetings from a chilly Dublin!
Greetings and may your God go with you as a Dave Allen fan.
Awful as Hillary's statement is, it did minimally acknowledge that those men were of value to the wives, mothers and daughters of the dead. Even this emotional value of men to the women who love them isn't acknowledged as a priority to anyone by a lot of people these days.
Nowadays, there are women who firmly believe that once reproductive technology can create human embryos without using sperm men will be entirely dispensable. They don't even have comprehend that even though our society is safe and prosperous enough that wine aunties and girl bosses can live and long, comfortable lives without male partners, the larger society can't function without men. The infrastructure that men create and maintain could not be perpetuated, or even maintained, by female labor alone.
I have a woman friend who worked for a big city's water bureau for about 10 years. I always admired her for just doing the job, not expecting special treatment for being a woman, and never spewing a bunch of feminist ideology. Sadly, she's only in her early 50s and after 10 years doing a man's job, her body is completely destroyed. Even a particularly muscular and willing woman is incapable of doing jobs like that for decades the way men do. I'm sure that the water bureau work she was doing would not be considered particularly difficult compared to many jobs that men need to do to keep our civilization functioning.
Actually, I find the conduct that feminists ascribe to men is actually far more descriptive of the conduct of feminist WOMEN than of men. The lesbian violence on women is also extreme but completely covered up especially in academia where it is rampant.
Theories created by those women least able to empathise with the male condition. Their only possible resort is to project their own inadequacies. When encountering anything feminist in nature always put it through that filter first. Always assume projection.
I've had good experiences with lesbians but they tended to be completely apolitical. The dangerous ones are the radical feminist separatists.
This has been my experience with lesbians too, for what it's worth, most of them fairly empathetic towards men (far more so than heterosexual feminists). What particularly galls me are all the non-feminist men and women who couldn't care less about the realities of male suffering.
"most of them fairly empathetic towards men"
Particularly in our generation the lesbian would face a life trajectory the same as most men ie forty odd years of forty hours. There's no "Plan B" for them, no likelihood of somebody else working to provide for them. They also know what it's like to live with a woman!
Many were tough-minded and down to earth with few illusions about anything. The political lesbians, of course, are a different kettle of fish altogether.
There are two women I'd love to have dinner with. One of them is Camille Paglia. (The other is Mae West.)
Thanks AUTTH, appreciated.
Thanks Janice, for pushing through to write this. The nonsense about these issues is so exhausting. The purveyors of this anti-male rubbish are supported in every institution..universities, public administration, churches, media, etc. It is almost impossible to speak out against the overwhelming rush of irrationality and hate.
But you have done. You need some coffee and care.
And they still maintain the narrative women are uniquely oppressed by men to such an extent they require colossal resources and special help, all while claiming they are strong and independent and don't need no man.
I notice that feminists not only do not have a coherent ideology, they don't even have a pretense of trying to maintain a coherent ideology. They just jump on current issues that they can connect up in some way to their claims that women always get a raw deal. Even in the mid-19th century, the feminists wanted to acquire the privileges that adult men enjoyed, while keeping the privileges women enjoyed (men would not be afforded the privileges women enjoyed, such as single adults being financially supported by their fathers). On the flip side, feminists never agitate to be subject to the responsibilities of adult men - just look at all the reeing and screaming any time conscription of women gets mentioned.
I am convinced these days most of the feminist announcements are just massive fitness tests. They subconsciously keep waiting for men to man up and throw them back in the kitchen. Plus mental illness, which seems to be on the rise. Childlessness doesn't help.
I can't argue with any of that!
"supported in every institution"
The long march started during the seventies. I've long believed men needed to do the same but I doubt we have enough time left to us.
Yes, some years ago, I researched a case in Canada of a woman who paid one "hit man" to kill her nonviolent husband. That "hit man" took her $25,000C and, rather risibly, walked away. So she tried again, this time paying an undercover police officer who caught the transaction on camera. She was arrested and charged, but found not guilty by the male judge because she claimed to feel afraid of her husband. There was no evidence of his violence against her and his only violent acts had occurred many years previously in bar fights with other men, but she parlayed her feelings into an acquittal. Oddly enough, the family court reached an entirely different conclusion, giving full custody of their daughter to the husband. His new wife told me he's utterly nonviolent and that she'd never contemplate a relationship with a man who was violent.
Nicole Doucet Ryan! Who can forget? The Crown declined to retry her, didn't they, because she'd already suffered enough, even though it was obvious that she hadn't suffered at all and had made a determined effort to have a decent man murdered. Horrible woman universally sympathized with as a 'victim.'
Took 25k and walked away!! LOL This man is a hero...
If you like this story, you should check out the video link below. A guy who worked as a programmed bought the domain name "hire a hit man" (with the idea of getting "hits" on your website). When the business he bought the domain for went bust, he still owned the name. Long story short, he maintains the site, and forwards serious enquiries to law enforcement. The video is definitely worth popping some popcorn to enjoy while watching!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHDWi4EEW2c
This sounds familiar. What I remember was that the father was previously shot through his car window but survived and a police investigation ensued. The mother of the daughter was also involved in hiring a new hitman. I had articles saved on this case but I discarded them along with many other cases I researched.
Thank you for this important article. If one were to sit in a college bar as an impartial observer one would quickly see that women are MORE likely than men to assault people they do not know for "offending" them even when the person is not interacting with them. They feel free to lay their hands on others to express their will but will cry abuse if you tell them to stop, let alone attempt to physical restrain them. Much of the physical conflict arising between men in such situations is actually triggered by the conduct and demands of WOMEN involved. It is time as a society that we stop putting women on a pedestal and see them for who they really are.
All men learn in boyhood hassling other males quickly leads to physical repercussions. We have strong taboos against hitting women and girls, so they don't learn the same lessons. Men also have better emotional regulation which helps prevent things getting out of control.
But I am all for a blunt discussion about female nature. That would help everyone. We should start with false rape accusations.
Yes...that would be a good place to start. Feminists don't want to have either conversation however as that would knock women off their pedestal forever. Hell, we might find that the Islamic rule regarding the testimony of women having half the weight of that for men on issues of this sort has a basis in reality.
The rationale for the Muslims is typically a woman's grip on reality is different, and the half weight element is to encourage corroboration to offset emotional distortion. This is especially the case to compensate for vindictiveness. So I suspect so.
#BelieveAllWomen
Indeed...it is interesting how terrified feminists are of due process. They claim false accusations are essentially non-existent...but steadfastly seek to recreate the conditions that led to the Salem witch trials. It would indeed be ironic is the stats show that presumption of innocence is not sufficient to achieve justice...but rather we should impose mandatory punishment on the accuser for any accusation that FAILS to win in court.
I don't think failure is a reason to do so. But when accusations are revealed to be false most women get off scott free. They should be tried for perjury with a sentence comparable to what the accused would have faced.
The most famous sexual assault trial in Canada was that of CBC media personality Jian Ghomeshi, in which it was proved beyond a doubt that the three complaining witnesses lied to police and lied on the witness stand in court--and conspired together to get their stories straight in order to nail Ghomeshi--and yet were never charged with perverting the course of justice.
Sadly, the mere act of being accused causes irreparable harm to the accused. That needs to come with a price for the accuser. Those who make accusations they cannot prove should have their identity and conduct as fully exposed as the person they accused...and then face the same sentence that the accused would have faced if they had been found guilty PLUS the penalty for perjury.
I don't think there is any statute of limitations on sexual crime allegations in Canada. The police encourage so-called 'historical' victims to come forward. So one never knows when a crazy person will come out of the woodwork to make a complaint about something you allegedly did 50 or 60 years ago. Astounding.
I've noticed that dykes tend to be aggressive in a particular way, because despite taking on the masculine role of aggression they do not take on any masculine virtues and tend to be really hysterical in the worst feminine manner possible.
I just watched this video yesterday on the very point of women feeling entitled to throw hands at men:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6GOWTFJVUE
Not only was this woman continuing to slap this guy, but she even blocked his view while he was driving. The guy in the car handled her exactly as she should have been treated.
Sadly true. If men ACTUALLY treated women they way they treat men you could hear the screams on the moon through the vacuum of space! The irony is that if women fail to reign in the misconduct of their sisters...they may well find themselves living in a world similar to The Handmaid's Tale.
That'll never happen.
I hate it when people say dumb shit like that.
"If feminists keep it going, men might rape women en masse!"
This is not going to happen under essentially any circumstances.
Men might collectively abandon them and go mgtow though.
Which I think would be a good thing.
Great piece Janice. If one has an open heart and truly wants the best for all and "equity" for men ad women, it is very difficult to stomach the one sided hateful treatment coming from these folks. This includes just about everyone from journalists to therapists, to lawyers and judges and of course the feminists. It's like dealing with the walking dead.
Thank you for standing up for those without a voice! Your voice is strong and needed.
In your discussion with Tom Golden and Carrie Gress, I think it was Tom who pointed out that when bad things happen to a woman, rather than say that is because of a bad person, they make the issue a global issue and claim that it is a cultural problem.
This is what trying to get violence against men recognised is up against.
The other extremely covert issue is how effectively the Feminist Claim makers have been in shutting down any exploration of the issue and it started with Erin Pizzey. Researchers who produced research that challenged the feminist narrative were met with death threats and other malicious claims aimed at discrediting them.
Eventually, it got to the point where researchers would not go anywhere near the topic of male victims, in addition, difficulties were encountered trying to get funding for such research.
Erin Pizzey is a good source of information as she described what she saw in the womens' shelters. She described many of these women as being violent themselves psychologically damaged and irreparable.
and we are suffering now
That is an interesting question about why is not academic bullying recognised.
I suspect it has to do with the covert relational aggression tactics that are used to destroy careers and reputations. The onslaught is extremely difficult to resist, perhaps in part because these activists have boundless amounts of energy and do not take no for an answer.
“All violence is unacceptable and any effort to end violence is worthy,” insists that “statistics indicate that women, girls, and Two Spirit, trans, and non-binary people
Nobody, it seems, cares for what happens to men. Men are the subjects of mental, emotional, and physical abuse that never stops. Even a man defending himself against an attack by a woman can face an abuse trial for hitting the woman. Heck, even if a man defends his wife against an attack by another woman and hits that woman, he can be charged with assault.
Men have been conditioned to never hit a woman, even if some "handling" is required, he's not allowed to correct a woman's behavior. But that woman can beat her son, and knife her husband and nobody will care.
Is it any wonder that men are about to completely give up on women? Can you blame them?
The female judge in the case, Michelle Hollins, is quoted as saying that Tallow, in her lethal pummeling of the victim, “appeared to be trying to wake up a severely intoxicated Rain by punching him in the face and head over the course of 30 minutes
It never takes a dozen blows to wake a drunk person, and if it does, just let the man sleep.
If a woman commits a crime, she should face justice for it, but then justice is blind, deaf, and doesn't care about men.
The pain is real, but men don't speak about it. That's not how we work. We are expected to fix it, even when we can't.
It's heartbreaking. Hideous beyond words.
I remember one male idiot saying "You made your bed, now lie in it". With a snicker. So much for support from other men. Speaking about "it" even to men who have suffered themselves is an opportunity to get stabbed in the back.
There was an account I read of a slave (1800s) planning to run away to Canada who said he would never speak of his plans to other slaves because he feared betrayal from "those who were unaware of their condition".
A dismaying analysis, if not a surprising one. Thanks for getting it out, Janice. At the very least, you have stimulated some great comments, and I find them heartening and informative. Giving our community information and support of this kind is a significant contribution. I value it highly.
“Ottawa had 16 homicides in 2022—and nearly half of the victims were women or girls.”
That rhetorical erasure of male victims has been documented since at least the 2000s and has been criticized repeatedly:
Adam Jones - Effacing the Male: Gender, Misrepresentation, and Exclusion in the Kosovo War (2001) http://adamjones.freeservers.com/effacing.htm
ManWomanMyth - Misandry - Men Don't Exist (2015) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkarjBm8dwo&list=PLxlwskDzJpOOx6n4AzRlBAPGc0OlLHtxf&index=70
Thank you my friend!
I sent the Adam Jones piece to my sister - grandmother of three boys - years ago. She is still constantly complaining that she sees it everywhere and in everything.
A short glimpse at any MSM shows female CEO's, police seniors, politicians, professionals in abundance. Uni enrolments for females in some areas are almost 100%.
Men are being eased out of senior roles, women into them, and not always on merit. Ok, maybe on merit some of the time...but who knows?
Female victims of crime receive the full regalia of media coverage, and the support of well funded government agencies. Always led by women. Male suicides are mentioned only by those kept on the fringe. Of course, any crimes by any indigenous are hushed by all.
So it is a mess of unbelief, self interest, and plain lies. Women who want power are just one part of this..they do not have any claim to special virtue.
It was never ever about equality, but always about supremacy. If it had been about equality, some of the garbage collectors of my life would have been women, but no, never. Never a single female garbage person have I seen in my life. I wonder why.
Yet teachers in primary, secondary school and academia are by now about 80% women. But nobody even talks about it. Just like nobody talks about 99% of garbage collectors being men
I'd argue it's probably never on merit.
It's systematic comes from feminist rigging of the game.
Boys are discriminated against in public schools and have been since the 70s.
They are discriminated against in universities en masse.
They are discriminated against in the workforce en masse.
I personally don't believe it's on merit almost ever.
If meritocracy still existed, the workforce would look more like the 50s.
Judge Michelle Hollins wormed her way into the justice system with the intent of overthrowing justice and replacing it with vengance. What could you say to her that would cause her to reflect on what she had done? Nothing. We know what the answer would be. 'Thousands of men, if not millions, rape women *every day* and get away with it. Sucks when it's you, doesn't it?'
Remember we were always told that the world would be a fairer, kinder, more just place with more women in power? Yeah. That really came true.
Yes, for many of these bitter and resentful feminist women, now occupying positions of power everywhere, men do not deserve justice at all.
Great article, but for me the most disgusting thing about feminists, and women in general (with few exceptions), is their failure to call out violence, abuse and neglect perpetrated by women against children, including sentient unborn babies, who are the most vulnerable and innocent members of society. They avoid the topic because it would reveal the truth that women are no better than men, and their fragile egos couldn't handle that.
Yes, absolutely agree.
Women sometimes kill born babies.
All infanticide is committed by women.
Most infanticide victims are boys as well.
Even by feminist standards 'The Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability' is a title which chokes on its own pomposity in a manner beyond parody. An observatory, indeed. That 'justice' and 'accountability' are Black Holes to these people and feminism itself is an astronomical fraud is obvious to most with the naked eye.
When parents must come to terms with how few people in the world beyond family would demonstrate consistent non-gratuitous care and concern for any of their sons. That moment may be more endemic to our era. All the early years of loving guidance eventually overshadowed by relative cold indifference must leave some impressions.
Soon perhaps, we may be on the verge of a tipping point. The 'collective consciousness' of humanity has more so awoken during the last three years. It may come to land favourably upon the other half of humanity. Society, and the world, is not going to suddenly collapse when random isolated female death rates reach parity with that of males. Yet, the one sided narrative and grift continues.
Those fellow travelers on the road of observing humanity's specific inhumanity toward men have a knowing of what constitutes the obstacles to addressing this pattern - not only other desensitized men, but those made drunk by the wrath of their own conceit. Those considered saintly are now recognized as parasites and useful despots. Those wanting to take a bullet - they may receive what they wish for.
Will those considered routinely expendable be less so when their presence is needed most? Will the newfound heroes then milk the system for all it's worth like their professionally organized counterparts? Some, but most likely will not. Unless perceptions change the professional parasites of many stripes will continue to despitefuly use and disparage those who continually bail everyone else out.
Far from being a novel idea, there are enough people in tune with what this blog brings to the table to make the following happen: that we do business with the like-minded.
There are far more capable people than myself here that could successfully organize such a solidarity initiative. Not a guarantee of anything, but a start at navigating the mine fields.
Great blog, Janice. I can’t add any comment beyond what your readers have already written. I would, however, be interested in knowing if you or your readers had ever seen the 1974 French film “La Punition”, released in English as “The Punishment”. It was based on the bestselling story, allegedly autobiographical, by Xavière Lafont. I have not read the book but would be interested in knowing how the film differs from the story it is based on. The film gets a 4.1 star rating on IMDB.com. I would give it about twice that. I would be interested in knowing how Janice or her readers would rate it. It tells a rather grim story about a naïve French country girl, Brit (the actress who plays her, Karin Schubert, was from Hamburg, Germany) who gets into what looks like the glamorous life of a high-society hooker, then finds herself imprisoned naked in a room to satisfy the needs of repellent male clients because of offending a rich client in a trivial way. I have seen it twice, and it really merits a second viewing because the action flips back and forth between past and present in a way that makes it difficult to follow. This isn’t gratuitous artiness though. If filmed in a strictly chronological way, the early scenes would be dull, as poor Britt thinks she is going to live the high life. Near the start, the film shows the revenge killing of the man who sentences her to her punishment by another prostitute, which creates the sense of foreboding in the scenes that follow, which would otherwise be absent. In a Marxist analysis, all of the prostitutes in the film are victims, but the high-income people who live off of them are women as well as men. It is a feature film, not a feminist diatribe. November 26th marks the 79th birthday of Karin Schubert, one of the most beautiful of film actresses, with one of the most tragic histories. She made this film before turning 30, and still had a couple of decades of film-making ahead of her, but like Karen Sillas after making “What Happened Was”, she would never repeat the brilliance of her signature film. Lovely actresses seem to have a shorter shelf life, at least in serious roles, than handsome actors. Most of them don’t get to go on into old age, like Katherine Hepburn, still getting plum roles.
Thanks for this. I will look for it if I dare!
I assume from your knowledge of such an obscure European "exploitation" film that you appreciate French/Italian arthouse/genre cinema. Never heard of that film, but will definitely check it out. I've heard of Karin Schubert, she was in some Italian horror movies known as gialli (a favorite genre of mine) before she went into pornography in the last years of her career to raise money to send her son to rehab, I believe. Later she seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth, with no trace of her whereabouts at present, although given her prior suicide attempts, it looks as though she might have met her fate in such a manner. Anyhow, French films that expose the sordid and miserable side of the pornographic/prostitute business were popular in France at the time. A similar French picture was released only a year later in 1974, L'Important C'Est D'Aimer" (That Most Important Thing: Love) starring the hauntingly beautiful German thespian Romy Schneider, in which she incarnates a washed up actress who has resorted to soft pornos to support herself. A young photographer feels sorry for her after witnessing her breaking down in the middle of a film production, and discreetly borrows money from some gangsters to finance a theatrical production of Richard III, with her in the role of Lady Anne (the temepestuous Klaus Kinski in the titular role). Gradually falling in love with her in spite of her loyalty to her depressed producer husband (a rare and admirable quality) who she does not love but does not wish to leave due to him having saved her from becoming a prostitute; tragedy ultimately befalls this doomed couple. I would love to hear your opinions on this film if you have seen it; I love it and the music stirs me with its melancholy.
Thank you for your reply, Katie. Actually, it’s embarrassing to admit it, but I haven’t had much exposure to French art-house cinema at all. I speak French fairly well, and don’t understand German or Italian, but I got into the German krimi, films made between 1959 and 1972 mostly based on Edgar Wallace crime novels. They are hardly art-house fare, but I found them addictive. The first one I watched was also my favourite, “The Hunchback of Soho”, and the lovely Suzanne Roquette was in it, who was also in a later krimi, “The College Girl Murders”. Klaus Kinski actually got his start in the krimi, and I associate him more with “Dead Eyes of London” than more intellectual fare. There were a number of West German-Italian co-productions that were sort of krimi-giallo mélanges. The only one of these I have seen was “What Have You Done with Solange?” so I know about Fabio Testi, who starred as an Italian language teacher, working at a private girls’ school in England, suspected of being responsible for a string of killings of his own students. He was excellent in this very good film.
I believe that Karin Schubert is still living in Italy somewhere with her pet dogs. It was terrible that she got into making hardcore sex films at an age when you would expect a porn actress to be getting out of the industry, and that she tried to kill herself twice. I hope and pray that she is still alive and God is looking out for her. I don’t believe an actress with her body of work would just disappear, dying without anyone taking notice. I had seen her a long time ago in «La Folie des grandeurs» with Yves Montand, where she played the Queen of Spain, but I actually came to «La Punition» after watching her in a mediocre Italian giallo called “The Girl in Room 2D” where she was quite affecting in a small part. A number of German actresses have really taken to Italy. Brigitte Skay, an actress in the krimis whose career in some ways is similar to Schubert’s, lived most of her life in Italy, returning to Germany only when her Italian partner died, and she was herself about to die of cancer. The great Italian director Mario Bava’s penultimate film, “Rabid Dogs”, would never have been released if its German lead actress, Lea Lander, hadn’t purchased the production rights to it, and after much work, finally released a film that had been on the shelf for a couple of decades.
Thank you very much for the recommendation to watch «L'Important c'est d'aimer.» Romy Schneider is a wonderful actress and I see that she won the César for best actress for her performance in that film. I am really grateful, not only to Janice, but to commenters like yourself, who put me in touch with intellectual and artistic efforts I would otherwise be unaware of.
And your remarks on Karin Schubert move me, I think it's a beautiful thing to wish salvation for a woman who suffered so harshly and suddenly with the downward spiral of the closest loved one in her life: her son. It must have been terrible for her to have witnessed her son struggling with the vicious cycles drugs entail. I would recommend if you haven't already watched them, the Sergio Martino gialli with Edwige Fenech, a delicate doe eyed Italian siren who often played psychologically tormented women like Schubert. "All the Colors of the Dark" is a rather campy yet dreamy narrative in which a woman (played by Fenech) gets invited into a Satanic cult by a neighbor to cure her of her recurring nightmare involving a creepy knife wielding individual, only for her to get entangled with a murderous lot of junkies who would rather see her die than renounce her "membership". Fenech is movingly fragile in her role as a woman droven to the point of insanity by nefarious persons wishing to gaslight her into complying with their demands. Very psychedelic yet aesthetically pleasing, if not particularly mainstream fare, and Edwige's performance is compelling. I heard the director was inspired by Rosemary's Baby, although the narrative is largely sidelined in favor of the visuals.
Katie, thank you for your recommendations. I saw both «L’important c’est d’aimer» and “All the Colours of the Dark.” The first film is much the most clearly related to “La Puntion”. They both deals with the French sex industry in Paris in the 1970s, and end tragically. I can only remember seeing Romy Schneider as Empress Sisi, so it was interesting to see her in a French film. The only time I ever saw the McGarrigle Sisters onstage, Romy Schneider had just died and one of them paid a tribute to her. She seems to have been deeply loved all over la Francophonie. “All the Colours of the Dark” was not so clearly related to “La Punition” and was bit of a struggle for me. I had trouble keeping up with all the plot twists. Still, it was a happier story than “La Punition” and it was obvious that Edwige Fenech was a former beauty queen. I think a film with her in it would find a male audience if she was just sitting on her balcony sipping a cappuccino and reading the newspaper. Notorious P.A.T., another of Janice’s readers, noted similarities between “La Punition” and “Last Night in Soho”. I watched it last night and I agree with him. It may not be to every taste, but it does have the extraordinary Anya Taylor Joy in it, singing as well as acting. The sex trade in Western Europe in the 60’s and 70’s seems to have inspired a lot of films with a lot of top quality actors and actresses.
I'm glad to see that you found them interesting! "L'important c'est d'aimer" is a movie that has been intermittently on my mind for more or less two years now; the intense atmosphere generated partly by the score and partly by the sober visuals is probably why. "All the Colors of the Dark is another film whose score and visuals contribute to its memorability, alongside the obvious presence of La Fenech, as she if often referred to in Italy. Her beauty appeals first and foremost to men of course, but additionally to women, many of whom rank her on top of their lists of "giallo goddesses". In the words of the poet: "a thing of beauty is a joy forever".
Thank you for providing a link for Janice and her readers to “La Punition”, Katie. Yes, it seems we have remarkably similar eccentric interests in films. If you decide to watch a krimi, I would recommend starting with one of Alfred Vohrer’s films. He was the best of the krimi directors, with a sure sense of pacing, although he is not in the same class as Mario Bava. Lea Lander, who was the saviour of “Rabid Dogs”, was also, as you know, a leading character in “Blood and Black Lace”. It shows Bava’s phenomenal range that he could make such very different pictures. There was a French remake of “Rabid Dogs”, filmed in Quebec, with Lambert Wilson. It is not bad, and pumped money into the Canadian economy, but it can’t really compare to Bava’s film, since it lacked the historical context of a contemporary Italy strained to the limit by the Red Brigades and other forms of lawlessness. Good luck with your Italian, and I hope you do become fluent soon. I never heard of “All the Colors of the Dark” or of its female star, but I will certainly watch it soon. I see that is easy to find; it is on the Internet Archive. Today is Karin Schubert’s birthday, but, quite shamefully, IMDB.com has omitted her from its list of important celebrity birthdays! Bonne chance!
Merci beaucoup pour votre belle souhait! I think it shouldn't be too long now, what with all the Italian films I've been watching as of late. I will check out Vohrer as soon as possible, his name sounds familiar. And "Rabid Dogs" is on my watch list as well, its connection to the many socio-political problems occurring during the "Years of Lead" in 70s Italy heightens its intrigue.
It's amazing how I've found a kindred spirit in terms of cinema. I also speak French (learnt it thanks to Canadian schools and their French Immersion programs from Elementary school onwards), and I understand some Italian given the similarities to French, but am not yet fluent, hoping to be one day however. I know about krimis, although I haven't watched any, and Bava is a phenomenal horror director (Blood and Black Lace is a stunning film, it showcases his immense visual flair; little surprise given his repute as a cinematographer), and I have watched Girl in Room 2A, which I found to be a guilty indulgence in rather silly mediocrity. Regarding Fabio Testi's performance in "What Have You Done to Solange", I think you'll be pleased to hear that he appears alongside Romy Schneider in the aforementioned film, as the young photographer who falls in love with her. Both make a fine couple, beautiful as they are.
Also I found a link to La Punition with English subtitles if anyone is interested: I recommend this site thoroughly for obscure arthouse films, European and otherwise; they have virtually everything one could ask for.
https://ww1.m4uhd.tv/watch-movie-the-punishment-1973-256782.html
Happy Old New Year, Katie! (It’s coming up three days from now.)
I left my initial comment on Janice’s blog hoping that her or one of her readers might have read the novel by Xavière, also called «La Punition», and tell me how the film was changed from the novel. Yesterday I received it by mail and read it myself, so let me briefly summarize some of the differences. (It is a quick read, a little over 90 pages with large print, a novella rathe than a novel.) The most substantial is that while Britt is murdered by a hit man at the end of the film, Xavière survives. Since she is telling the story in the first person, this is pretty obvious, unless she were writing something with an ending like Stephen Leacock’s “Soaked in Seaweed”: “I fell ill. I died. I buried myself. Would that others who write sea stories would do as much.” The film is altogether more violent than the novel. The murder of Raymond, with which the film starts, seems to have been inspired by an altercation in the novel between Gloria, the girl screaming in the next room in the prison-hotel where she and Xavière are kept, in a nightclub in Paris where Xavière is working, screaming a denunciation of Raymond, but no more than that. And of course there is also the brutal murder of someone trying to protect Britt by the hitman when he is on her trail. There is no hitman in the novel.
Where the film jumps back and forth in time, the novella follows events pretty much in a linear sequence. Where Britt’s trivial offence that leads to her punishment is clearly shown in the film, we have no clue what led to Xavière’s punishment. There is no romantic relationship between M. and Xavière in the novella as there is between Manuel and Britt in the film. Gloria is a more important character in the novella than in the film, while Antoni, one of Xavière’s young clients, also an important character in the novella, has his role reduced so much in the film that he goes uncredited.
In the novel Britt tells another girl in the prison-hotel that she wouldn’t be there if she had only had an abortion, and then she wouldn’t have had to turn to prostitution to support her child. This conversation is omitted from the film. In the film Françoise, the woman who introduces Britt to Manuel, clearly has a lesbian attraction to her, but no longstanding lesbian relationship exists between the two women, as is the case in the novella.
I think this is one case where the film was superior to the book, a bestseller in France. The differences from the novella seemed to be directed by artistic choices, not by commercial considerations. Nevertheless, one could make a case for a film that more closely followed Xavière’s own vision, although I doubt that at this remove in time, one will ever emerge
Huh, that movie sounds similar to "Last Night In Soho", which came out in 2021. That movie...whew, I would like to see what a prominent thinker such as Janice has to say about that.
Thank you for your comment, Notorious P.A.T. I am ashamed to say that I never heard of "Last Night in Soho", which is strange because I loved Anya Taylor-Joy in "The Queen's Gambit" and "Emma". I am not sure that "La Punition" is so similar to "Last Night in Soho". There is no time travel in it, and Britt's pimp is not a tall, intimidating thug like Matt Smith (if Matt Smith is a pimp in the film as the trailer suggests). Still, I will definitely watch it. Thank you for the recommendation. I would be interested in knowing Janice's opinion of "Last Night in Soho" as well.
Notorious P.A.T., I watched "Last Night in Soho" last night, but not in Soho. There are some strong similarities with "La Punition". They both deal with naive country girls who have come to the big metropolis and get into prostitution. About half of "Last Night in Soho" takes place in the late 60's too, while "La Punition" was based on a novel published on January 1, 1972, so the time periods were roughly the same. Of course, there is a strong sense of nostalgia in the 1960s scenes in "Last Night in Soho", absent from seemed to be set in I am more into realist than fantasist film-making, and "Last Night in Soho" was definitely fantasist, but I still enjoyed it. It was not nearly as bleak a film as "La Punition", although it seemed to me the happy happy ending was a tad contrived. Anya Taylor Joy is a marvel. She did all the singing and dancing of her character herself. What a talent. She still probably peaked with her performance as Beth Harmon in "The Queen's Gambit". The really beautiful actresses tend to peak in their twenties. However, I would love to be proved wrong. I would like to know Janice's views on "Last Night in Soho" too.