Cinema: Orphan of the Sexual Storm

The New Woman was born in Ibsen's inkwell. When Nora slammed the door on hubby and the kiddies in the last scene of A Doll's House, wives all over the Western world began mentally packing their suitcases. The idea behind Nora's leaving was lofty. Woman was no longer to be a possession, a commodity, a glorified nursemaid, a kept dilettante on the sidelines of the world's imposing work. She would forge her own identity and earn something called "respect." The amusing thing about this, as G. K. Chesterton once pointed out, was that "a...

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