The New Soviet Woman and her Portrayal in Dziga Vertovs Man with a Movie Camera Dziga Vertovs

1929 constructivist film Man With a Movie Camera (MMC), can be seen as the epitome of his work and showpiece for his Kinoglaz(cine-eye) and Kino Pravda (cine-truth) philosophy. Experimental, innovative, and pushing the boundaries of both cinematic technology, structure and socially acceptable content, the film and indeed its subject matter can be regarded as a true hallmark of modernity. Apart from being in itself a product of the modern age, the very concept of film being a veritable phenomenon of modernity, the topics central to the film are of truly modernist subject matter. The film deals not only with the concept of the modern city, but is also based around the relationship between man and machine. Moreover, and relative to this study, the idea of the emergence of the woman into the social sphere is another important feature of modernity. Vertovs basic aim was to use film to portray Life-As-It-Is by the direct recording of facts found in real life1 , so the audience could decipher life, seeing through the cine-eye what the human eye could not. 2 In the film, women play a startlingly prominent role, featuring in the majority of its images. Thus it must be considered that the issue of women, in particular the presence the New Soviet Woman, was a prominent feature of the society in which Vertov lived. When analysing Vertovs portrayal of women in MMC, ambiguous is the term that may best describe the picture he presents. Indeed, this idea in itself truly was a reflection of the position of woman in the new soviet society. The ambiguity of the role and nature of what the new woman should be as well as the attitude of the government and society towards women seems to be the hallmark of the woman question in the Soviet context. In this essay I will outline the position of women following the Soviet takeover as well as the construction of the ideal of the New Soviet Woman. I will analyse her role and portrayal in MMC, basing my interpretations on the films historical context. Following the Bolshevik seizure of power, the Soviet government was the first in the world to claim an active commitment to the transformation of womans role in society.3 A proud boast, though in reality the large extent of this commitment was
1 Petric, Vlada. Dziga Vertov as Theorist, Cinema Journal, 18.1 (Autumn 1978), 29-44, p29. 2 Petric, p30. 3 McAndrew, Maggie and Peers, Jo. The New Soviet Woman - Model or Myth, Change International 1

regarding the entry of women to the workforce. Although Marx and Engels acknowledged that there were many facets to female oppression, they were of the opinion that all social issues were results of class society, and apart from this aspect womens other issues were not part of their agenda. 4 Moreover, the Soviet governments, strikingly one dimensional, claim to the great emancipation of women cant solely be attributed to an empathy with feminist ideals. It was fortunate for the Bolsheviks that Marxist ideology happened to correspond with the political and economic needs of the state - due to a demographic crisis and the need for widespread support, the state needed female workers. This necessity for women to leave, as Lenin described, the stupefying and humiliating subjugation to the eternal drudgery of the kitchen and nursery5, seems to have been the driving force behind the notions of female emancipation, rather than any particular desire for full equality between the sexes in any other aspects of life. Alexandra Kollontai, Bolshevik government minister, has been acknowledged as one of the few who considered gender as a political issue6 and was dedicated to the cause of the new Soviet woman. She encouraged women to become actively involved with the Communist party and persistently called for more attention to be given to womens economic, political, social and sexual needs. In 1919 the womans bureau of the party, the Zhenotdel, was founded. It worked to engage with propaganda among women as well as womens health, educational and political concerns. However, according to the 1920 Zhenotdel report, unsympathetic, unhelpful and uncooperative attitudes within most soviet institutions made the work of womens departments difficult. 7 Despite claims at creating equality for the new woman, male chauvinistic attitudes prevailed among many party officials. However, the role of the woman had changed. She was now expected to work just like a man, the only difference being that as well as her role in production, her role in reproduction was also taken into account. The government recognised the duality of the female role as mother and worker. The new womans duty was not only to be a worker in the cycle of production, but to produce the next generation of workers.
Reports, 1981, p.5. 4 McAndrew and Peers, p.5. 5 McAndrew and Peers, p.8 6 Attwood, Lynne. Red Women on the Silver Screen - Soviet Women and Cinema from the Beginning to the End of Soviet Cinema, Rivers Oram Press/ Pandora List, 1993, p.30. 7 McAndrew and Peers, p.9. 2

Maternity and female working legislation was introduced to create a balance between production and reproduction.8 Moreover, the introduction of women to the workplace in theory necessitated the transformation of housekeeping into a social industry as well as childcare and education. Due to economic priorities, this idea never translated to a reality. The old family unit that Marx and Engels had predicted would eventually dissolve with socialist society remained largely in tact. Women did enter the workforce but now had the double burden of also taking care of the family. The Marxist rationalism regarding the womans role as a factor of production, in reality became awkwardly mixed with the more romanticised bourgeois idea of the feminine homemaker. 9As the government increasingly tried to have women both ways, the role of the new Soviet woman was decidedly ambiguous. According to McAndrew and Peers, Soviet woman was expected to be an exemplary worker and to develop the qualities and traits which were appropriate to the work place ;also to have certain natural traits and behavioural patterns which made her innately suited to domesticity and childcare.10 An increasingly contradictory image of the soviet woman diverged from the theoretical understanding of womans position under socialism.11, and this ambiguity and duality of the simultaneously liberated and still oppressed woman is apparent throughout MMC. As noted by Judith Mayne, one of the few scholars to address the issue, despite the films status as a key piece of avant garde work and thus having been studied and analysed by numerous experts and critics, MMC is a film whose radical innovative structure and style have not been addressed adequately in terms of gender questions that they raise.12 In many ways it seems, ironically, to coincide with the woman question in soviet society - being an issue that was largely ignored or rather overlooked by the authorities. As the broader context of the woman question was largely overlooked by the Soviet government, so too are gender issues in studies of MMC. Once again, Vertov has perhaps triumphed in his mission for Cine-truth and
8 Attwood, Lynne. Creating the New Soviet Woman - Womens magazines as Engineers of female Identity, 1922 - 53, Basingstoke : Macmillan, 1999, p.2. (In reality this presented difficulties, particularly with the introduction of NEP, when women became the most expendable workers due to their relative low productivity compared to their male counterparts.). 9 Attwood, 1999, p.3. 10 Attwood, 1999, p.3. 11 Attwood, 1999, p.4. 12 Mayne, Judith. Kino and The Woman Question: Feminism and Soviet Silent Film, Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1989, p.155. 3

Life-as-it-is. In one of the few existing studies of gender issues in MMC, Latteier discusses the absence of any comprehensive analysis of the issue. Similarly, she refers to Vertovs apparent lack of concern regarding gender issues in his writings juxtaposed with their overflowing presence in his masterpiece. 13Again, the motif of ambiguity in relation to women repeats itself. Mayne insists that it is impossible with regard to Soviet film of the 1920s to relegate questions of gender and sexual opposition to secondary or purely referential status.14 However, as I have argued, on the contrary, this seems perfectly fitting. In 1920s Soviet society, questions of gender were of secondary status. As Lenin himself stated, division into men and women has no great significance.15 For the new government, concern lay with the class battle, not with that of the sexes. As with many subjects, in soviet society there was often a lack of congruency between ideology and reality. Although officially, the government were committed to the liberation of women, apart from her entry to the workforce and new status as a factor of production, the new soviet woman was by no means mans new equal. MMC overflows with images of women and their pursuits. New women - the worker, the komsomolka, the sportswoman, dancers, bourgeois women, peasant women, NEP women, young women, old women - the female presence in all its forms is palpable throughout the film. Judith Mayne acknowledges the multidirectional flow of production in the film, implying a refusal to assign it a set of closed meanings.16 This suggests that the film is open for interpretation, and indeed, the interpretations, although limited in number, regarding the portrayal of women in MMC are quite varied. As Latteier discusses, 17Joseph Schaub views the film as having a distinctly feminist standpoint, 18whilst Judith Mayne regards it as a piece filled with sexual objectification, voyeurism with regard to the female body, and the association between inert material and female identity.19 It seems that this confusion regarding the interpretation of gender issues is once again a reflection of the
13 Latteier, Pearl. Gender and the modern body: men, women, and machines in Vertov's man with a movie camera, The Free Library, 22 September 2002. <http://www.thefreelibrary.com> Accessed 6 January 2011. 14 Mayne, p156. 15 Attwood, 1993, p.26. 16 Mayne, p.175. 17 Latteier. 18 Schaub, J.C. Presenting the Cyborgs futurist past: an analysis of Dzigo Vertovs Kino-Eye, Postmodern Culture 8 (1988) 4053. 19 Mayne, p.170. 4

confusion regarding the woman question on the broader scale. Vertovs portrayal of woman is as seemingly complex as the situation of woman in Soviet reality, which presumably was his intent, in fitting with his life-as-it-is ideal. One of the opening scenes of the film is the image of the window and the entry of the camera into the room behind it. The sense of voyeurism is palpable, particularly when we are introduced to the occupier of the room - the waking woman. The camera focuses on various parts of her body, including her naked ring finger - she is unmarried. Images of the womans body parts are interposed with images of homeless men waking on benches. We finally see her get up and she begins to wash and dress. The relatively lavish setting of her apartment, as well as her seemingly high class lingerie suggest distinctly bourgeois overtones. On one hand we observe the dirty homeless men, waking up in public places, and on the other we have the delicate feminine woman, kept away in the private sphere. Vertovs derision of this woman seems clear. The camera watches her dressing - putting on her bra - in a way mocking her privacy. The scene feels distinctly uncomfortable. At the same time, there is reference to a popular film at the time , The Awakening of a Woman, implying the womans sexual awakening20. In a film that is a celebration of collective activity, this scene, one of the few in which the private sphere is presented, the camera seems to objectify the woman, perhaps as a way to mock and deride the bourgeois, connecting the bourgeois woman with sexuality and a level of eroticism. Indeed, the Bolsheviks, and Lenin in particular, despite encouraging easier divorce and the introduction of woman to the public sphere, opposed preoccupation with sexual excesses and over stimulation21 Observing the woman in this way presents her as powerless. This could be interpreted as the idea of the old, powerless bourgeois woman, distinctly at odds with the new woman he moves on to depict. We also see images of women cleaning perhaps a reference to the continued role of the woman as housekeeper. As well as depicting men waking in public, the camera also films an image of a woman waking on a bench. While this may seem in some ways to highlight equality between the sexes, there is another aspect to this image. When the man with the movie camera films the woman on the bench, he moves into a close up on her bare legs. Once again, the woman, and no longer the bourgeois model, remains sexually objectified. Indeed,
20 Latteier. 21 McAndrew and Peers, p.5. 5

the female body is a recurring motif throughout the film. Mayne argues that one of the films strengths lies in its recognition and articulation of the difficulty presented by woman in an any social discourse.22 It uses women to address the issue of class, perhaps further emphasizing the complexity of the class issue itself. The bourgeois character is again represented by woman when we see women in a carriage. They seem happy and carefree and we observe their interaction with a woman who is obviously a servant. These bourgeois images are interrupted with scenes of Vertovs wife, the films editor, Elizaveta Svilova, in the editing room. The juxtaposition between the bourgeois woman of the past and the new Soviet woman is clear. We move from the aimless frivolity of the bourgeois, to the advanced working woman, a key part of the film production process. However, it must also be noted that although we observe Svilova, as a woman and factor of production, it is interesting that she remains in a decidedly private space. Unlike the man with the movie camera, part of the public arena, she remains tucked away in the private sphere. Men and women are still engaged in separate realms of activity. It is also interesting that whenever we see her cutting images as part of the editing process, she is solely handling images of women and children. Moreover, despite arguments from Schaub towards Vertovs feminist sentiments and the prominent, often regarded most important position of editor being filled by a woman,23 it is striking that in the films credits, Svilova is in fact referred to as assistant editor. 24 We also observe other examples of the new woman at work. The film is largely concerned with the relationship between human and machine, and we see women interacting with machines repeatedly. The image of the static sewing machine is juxtaposed with the work in a textile factory. This could be considered as symbolic of both mechanical and industrial progress as well as progress regarding the movement of woman from the home to the labour force. However, yet again, it seems striking to me that the idea of the textile industry has markedly feminine connotations. Sewing, on a private or industrial level, is still considered womans work. This of course is reflective of soviet society as Kollontai alone called for an end to such gendered stereotypes with the idea that all children, both girls and boys, should learn to sew and
22 Mayne, p179 23 Schaub. 24 Latteier. 6

knit.25 As I have explained, such movements were not considered important to the authorities, and basic gender stereotypes failed to ever really be addressed. Women and men are largely segregated throughout the film. We do not observe women and men working side by side. Similarly, during leisure time, for the most part we see a segregation of the sexes. When we do observe a woman mixing with men at a bar, it appears in a somewhat negative light. Once again we are drawn to the poster of The awakening of a Woman and a return to sexually based connotations. This could also be a reference to the NEP period which Vertov so despised with its return to private business and associations with excess. The images of the bar contrast with scenes in a workers club. Again, men and women are separated - men playing chess together, women playing draughts together. This wholesome image of the new Soviet man and woman is even more potent when compared with the sexually charged image of NEP society. Again, it reinforces the ideal that sexual liberation does not play a part of the liberation of the new Soviet woman. As Lenin suggested, she is concerned with other things, like sport (or draughts!). A particular sequence towards the end of the film is quite startling in its excess of female images. The film runs at a distinctly quickened pace and we see women in a beauty salon. The film moves from a woman getting her hair done, to a woman washing clothes, to a woman getting a manicure, to Svilovas hands in the editing room, to laughing female workers, to a female cashier, to a woman in a factory making pencil boxes, to a woman and machine, to a woman on a switchboard, to a woman putting pencils in the boxes that the previous woman has made, to a woman typing, to a woman playing the piano. In the middle of all of this female activity, we are also directed briefly to a mans crotch. Is this sequence a summary of the new role of woman? We move from the images of the beauty salon - an indicator at the old bourgeois woman, to images of the new woman worker in various forms. It highlights the new womans role in the cycle of production as well as her part in the extra curricular - playing the piano. The new woman is to be accomplished and well rounded. The fairly innocuous image of the mans crotch perhaps refers to the new womans other role as reproducer. This sequence highlights all of the attributes of the new woman. Most of the montage is constructed of images of the new woman as
25 Attwood, 1999, p.8. 7

worker, and as I have discussed, this was her most important role. The recurring motif of female hands is also quite conspicuous. Again, preoccupation with the female body remains a noticeable feature of the film and in my opinion, serves to remind us that although the new Soviet woman is in some ways liberated, she remains observed and objectified by man. As well as highlighting the cycle of socialist production, the film also approaches, albeit in a somewhat condensed form26 the idea of the human life cycle. In this section the woman once again plays a key part. We observe an elderly woman crying over a grave, a funeral procession for a dead man, a newly married couple, a woman giving birth. We also observe a couple signing a birth declaration, and a man and woman signing divorce papers. In each image, attention is drawn primarily to the female. These scenes are filled with emotion and emotional responses, perhaps referring to the idea of the emotional woman. Indeed, part of the complexity of the new woman and her dual burden was that she was, glorified for her capacity to work like a man and at the same time celebrated for her nurturance and willingness to sacrifice herself for others.27 As I have stated, she was to be both mans equal, and at the same time, the weaker sex. Vertov may also be seen to be alluding to women as the future. We see the funeral of a man, while a woman lives on weeping over a grave. Then we cut to a woman giving birth. It is the female who survives and reproduces, as well as now having the power to fend for herself as an economically self sufficient, contributing member of society.

The concept of the new woman and the possibilities for her are highlighted repeatedly throughout the film, yet alongside this, the motif of her body is also emphasized. I see this as a blatant reference to the idea that although in many ways the new soviet woman was liberated and had progressed from the position as a trapped, mindless, subordinate character, ultimately the focus on her body reminds us that soviet society still entertained many culturally ingrained attitudes towards women. Although ideologically she is seen for the most part as mans equal, in reality this is not the case. Vertov highlights the complexities of the woman question simply
26 Mayne, p181. 27 Attwood, 1999, p.14. 8

by showing life as it is. At one point we observe a woman with a rifle, shooting at a Nazi figure. When compared with the bourgeois women preening themselves, we see how far removed from this the new Soviet woman stands. Yet juxtaposed with this we also observe topless women on a beach, a woman on a rowing machine with the camera focusing intently on her breasts, a woman on some form of soviet bucking bronco that almost appears to be some kind of sex-simulator. Vertov suggests that despite womans liberation to the workforce and possible equal status in this sphere, she remains to be sexually objectified. She is an active participant and still an erotic object.28 MMC cannot be described as feminist or anti feminist - it is simply a reflection of life. It could be argued that Vertovs subjectivity can be seen with relation to his obvious derision of NEP, but this was also a reflection of the opinion of many and thus again a reflection of life as it was. Vertov insisted that filmmaking should not hide from facts or mask problems.29 He was not passing judgement on women or their new role, but simply showing the reality of it, both the potentially positive and negative aspects, to the viewer. Thus Joseph Schaubs opinion of the film as a pro feminist piece, and Maynes criticism that it is somewhat the opposite, are irrelevant. The film is neither. As I have emphasized, it is simply a reflection of reality. It portrays the new Soviet woman as she was, in all her complexity - above all an important member of the workforce, removed from the old bourgeois model of delicate, housebound femininity30, well rounded , engaged in healthy, wholesome activities and adverse to sexual promiscuity, concerned with her place in the life cycle, independent and strong. At the same time she remains in many ways passive, the object of male attention as a definite sexual hierarchy remains in place. This was Vertovs Life-as-it-was, his success in adapting Kino-Pravda to the woman question.

28 Latteier. 29 Petric , p30. 30 Attwood, 1999, p.10. 9

Bibliography Attwood, Lynne. Red Women on the Silver Screen - Soviet Women and Cinema from the Beginning to the End of Soviet Cinema, Rivers Oram Press/ Pandora List, 1993. Attwood, Lynne. Creating the New Soviet Woman - Womens magazines as Engineers of female Identity, 1922 - 53, Basingstoke : Macmillan, 1999. Brodsky Farnsworth, Beatrice. Bolshevism, the Woman Question and Aleksandra Kollontai, The American Historical Review, 81.2 (April 1976) 292-316 Crofts, Stephen, and Olivia Rose. "An Essay Towards Man With a Movie Camera." Screen 18 1 (Spring 1977): 9-58. Evans Clements, Barbara. The Utopianism of the Zhenotdel, Slavic Review, 51.3 (Autumn 1992) 485 - 496. Ilic, Melanie, Women and The Stalin Era, Palgrave, 2001. Latteier, Pearl. Gender and the modern body: men, women, and machines in Vertov's man with a movie camera, The Free Library, 22 September 2002. <http://www.thefreelibrary.com> Accessed 6 January 2011. Mally, Lynn, Performing the new Woman: The Komsomolka as Actress and Image in Soviet Youth Theatre, Journal of Social History, 30.1 (Autumn 1996) 79-95. Mayne, Judith. Kino and The Woman Question: Feminism and Soviet Silent Film, Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1989. McAndrew, Maggie and Peers, Jo. The New Soviet Woman - Model or Myth, Change International Reports, 1981. Petric, Vlada. Dziga Vertov as Theorist, Cinema Journal, 18.1 (Autumn 1978), 2944 Schaub, J.C. Presenting the Cyborgs futurist past: an analysis of Dzigo Vertovs Kino-Eye, Postmodern Culture 8 (1988) 4053. Vertov, Dziga, Man With a Movie Camera, 1929.

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