After Spring Break, our Midterm paper was due, and here mine is.

No Woody Without Women
When you think of the human race, you generally think of it involving Man and Woman. There would be no human race if there wasn't one or the other, and so, each is an extremely integral part of humanity's survival. Originally, men were the providers while women were the housekeepers/nurturers, and a lot of men like to think of themselves as completely different and altogether separate from women, however, this couldn't possibly be farther from the truth. For the first few years of a man's life, he is under almost entirely the sole care of a woman, and this leaves quite a resounding impact. One of these impacts manifests itself in the form of what Sigmund Freud coined as the Oedipus Complex. According to Freud, all men go through the Oedipus Complex and it is a key part of becoming a normal human being integrated into society. The Oedipus Complex can be cause for a man's need to be dominated by women, and examples of this can be found in some of Woody Allen's work.
An extreme form of men wanting to be controlled by women would be the sexually deviant dominatrix, who by some men enjoy being bound up in leather by and whipped and beaten and disciplined. None of Woody Allen's characters portray a level of the Oedipus Complex as radically as a dominatrix, but some of them could be tip-toeing on just barely not being at that level. The amount of domineering by women of Allen's characters is more intellectual than physical. As children, men are dominated by their mother both intellectually and physically. Since Woody Allen's characters are all grown up, though, and can no longer be dominated physically, they still need to feel those feelings of inferiority but can't get them anymore because women are no longer physically imposing to them. Instead of Allen's male characters being dominated by women physically, they often seek out the company of women who are superior, or at least up to par, intellectually for them to deal with.
That Woody Allen's characters go after women who are intellectually superior than them shows the cultural background that Allen grew up with. In the Jewish community, as Martha Ravits explains in her essay entitled “The Jewish Mother”, the woman is seen thus: “Her claims to affection, her voicing of opinions. . .are perceived as threatening in part because she acts as a free agent, not as a subordinate female according to mainstream cultural ideals.” Woody Allen's being raised in the ethnic Jewish community and by the classic Jewish Mother has had a huge impact on the way he portrays women in his movies. Since Allen has been brought up with women that are free spirited and independent from the binding constructs of a male-dominated society, he is looking for that same sort of rebellious woman who is not subordinate, but instead, dominant.
One of the most compelling ideas for this case is Woody Allen's 1979 film “Manhattan”, in which Allen's character falls head-over-heels in love with Diane Keaton's character. Initially, Allen's character finds Keaton's character to be extremely beautiful and intelligent, however he feels she is much too opinionated and overbearing, and he finds her utterly repugnant. Eventually, though, Allen's character finds that the personality traits of Keaton's character that he once couldn't stand, he now finds irreplaceable and endearing. He finds these traits so indispensable, in fact, that he gets fed up with the intellectually hollow relationship that he is in with a fourteen year old girl and breaks up with her to be able to devote himself romantically entirely to Keaton's character. When they first meet in the movie, Keaton and Allen are discussing modern art in a museum and they each have extremely different ideas on art, how art should be displayed, and the meanings behind art. The high speech that they use to get their points across is like a little intellectual game, or battle, that they are having with each other. The fight that Allen is putting up against Keaton says a lot about what is attractive to him in a woman. Allen's is not the only character who is guilty of this interesting little trait though, because Keaton's character is just as bad as he is. Stereotypically, one would assume that a tall and beautiful woman like Keaton's character would go after men who are equally tall, if not taller, and they would almost without exception be handsome fellows. Instead, though, Keaton's character habitually dates men who are very smart, however they are also short, nasally, and balding, as is shown when she accidentally bumps into her ex-husband. Keaton's character's ex-husband was played by Wallace Shawn, which was an excellent comedic choice since he is obviously so contrasted to the way that Keaton had been describing him, which was as a dashing lady-killer of sorts.
After Allen's character and his girlfriend, along with Keaton's character and her date, leave the art museum and walking around the town at night, Allen and Keaton continue to battle it out, testing their wits against one another and challenging each others views on society and art and the like. On the left side of the screen was Keaton, tall and somewhat imposing in the frame, in the middle of the frame was Allen, somewhat small and seemingly unassuming, and on the right side of the screen was Allen's fourteen year old girlfriend. The contrast between Keaton's character and Allen's character's girlfriend in the scene is huge; they are polar opposites. One is an intellectual, self-made woman living on her own in the hustle and bustle of Manhattan, while the other is a slouching high school student who could never hold her own in an intellectual conversation with Allen. Allen's character is betraying himself. He tells himself that he wants to be with the young and subservient high school student who would never question any of his beliefs or foundations because he is so much older, experienced, educated, and intellectually superior to her. Obviously though, he wants somewhat more of a challenge than a fourteen year old can give him as he is inevitably drawn towards the more suitable character in Keaton, once again going back to what Ravits was saying. The imprint left in Allen by his mother's defiance of the male constructed ideals of desiring only women that don't say anything and are subordinate is a strong one indeed, one that he spends his whole life trying to deny.
Some more of Woody Allen's thoughts on being intellectually dominated by women come out in his amusing short story “The Whore of Mensa”. The main character in this story, Kaiser Lupowitz, puts Allen in an immediate position of dominance as a private detective, “the fuzz”, as he later calls himself, or a cop, a person who the common man is forced to fear and obey without question in our society. A female character opposite from Allen's, however, is the “whore” that the short story is named after. She is not a whore in the traditional sense of the word, but a whore in that she sells her mind instead of her body. Again, the intellectual female that is portrayed in “The Whore of Mensa” is a way to express Allen's need to be dominated, even though he is technically in the position of power.
The way that Woody Allen writes about an intellectual conversation in “The Whore of Mensa” is interesting, indeed, and reveals further Allen's thoughts on women. Allen presents an intellectual conversation in this short story as something devious, intimate, and even somewhat carnal. At first glance, these traits given to the intellectual conversation can seem meant merely as a comical way to put a looking-glass up in front of society to let it laugh at itself, however, these traits have some pretty serious undertones and meanings. In presenting intelligent speech in this light, Allen is not merely putting up a looking-glass for society to laugh at itself, but he is also putting up a looking-glass that reveals himself and his deepest intentions and thoughts.
Not only are Allen's characters typically attracted to a large intellect, but they also tend to go for tall and beautiful women, specifically non-Jews. Ravits explained when she said that “Jews felt more conflicted about Otherness and the desire for acceptance when they could look over social fences and see the opportunity to blend into the dominant group, if only they could shed traits of ethnicity regarded as inferior by non-Jews.” This rejection by Woody Allen of the typical and traditional Jewish female norm that his peers had all been expected to adhere to is a way for Allen to try and assimilate with the main body of America. Physically, Allen is unmistakeably Jewish, and so to try and fight this, he and his characters are constantly in pursuit of women that are uncharacteristic for an average person of his ethnic background. While Allen is attempting to fight the Jewish stereotypes that have been prescribed and forced on him ever since he was a child, they still manage to find their way through the holes in his defenses in the form of his upbringing. He looks for the physical attributes of specifically non-Jewish women, but then he is only attracted to them if they have the same sort of mental attributes that he has come to admire and need after being brought up in the Jewish community.
Try as Allen might to find a tall, beautiful, non-Jew who is also extremely intelligent, strong, and assertive as a suitable female partner, it is extremely idealistic of him and really quite shallow. Don't be mistaken, I have no issues with how shallow a person can be, but only if they deserve it. Based on the rules of being shallow, Allen is asking for too much. He wants, expects, and feels he deserves a woman who is considered the “full package”, however, Allen is leaps and bounds from being a full package himself. On top of Allen physically being the opposite definition of what is attractive, he is also extremely neurotic, nasally, and can get very annoying. What man doesn't want perfection from his woman, though? In the struggle that is the rat race of human life and existence, perfection is always desired, but never found. This desired perfection in one's sexual partner is an ideal that is carried over from infancy through Freud's Oedipus Complex. The mother is the single most important female in a child's life until they have an intimate relationship with another woman as an adult. The mother is perfect in the child's eyes, and so therefore, the mate, too, should be perfect. This is an ideal, though, and luckily, most humans are able to see past a couple of flaws in their sexual partner's physical attraction or intellect.