For Better or Worse: A Gendered Outlook of the films The Leisure Seeker and Alaska

ABSTRACT

Although much has been written to date on gender equality, on personal liberty within the family, and on the burden of family caregivers of spouses, the manner in which these different aspects intersect and impact each other has gone largely unexamined. How do relationships of power and dependency interact? How do they affect the pursuit of happiness and the ability to maintain personal liberty within the family in times of sickness and poor health? Our analysis is based on a qualitative and comparative effort of two films: The first is Paolo Virzi’s The Leisure Seeker (USA, 2017). The second Zepel Yeshurun’s Alaska (Israel, 2018). The findings allow to identify a model of liberty within the family at old age that consists of three aspects: first, women’s freedom within an oppressive system: the ability of women in unequal conjugal relationships to retain agency, to act, to decide, and to struggle for their beliefs. Second, negative freedom: the struggle of old age couples to fend off over-involvement by concerned family members and caregiving institutions, and to assert their independence. Third, positive freedom: the desire of older couples to pursue happiness despite illness and old age.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender inequality
• dementia
• family studies
• film
• negative freedom
• positive freedom
• women’s freedom

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. A movie that is based on the life of the famous writer Iris Murdoch.

2. A phenomenon more acute and common characteristic of relationships that began forty and fifty years ago, as in both films.

3. In the novel by Zadoorian, Ella, the protagonist, writes about her quitting her job after getting pregnant: “I never meant to bury my talent in a napkin. The fact was, I never really know if I had a talent for anything, except for being a wife and mother” (pp. 121–122).

4. Ella’s sense of being left-out is also reveled in a conversation with her daughter, who shares John’s passion for literature and, like him, is a college professor.

5. This is also hinted at in The Leisure Seeker, for instance in the explicit mention of Hemingway’s short story, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, in which a man is accidentally shot by his wife.

6. One reason for this limited spatial aspect has also to do with the movie’s budgetary constraints.

7. The apartment belongs, in fact, to the film’s director—Cheppel Yeshouroun—whose name remains on the doorbell, in a meta-commentary on how the film is enmeshed, reflects and is reflected in, reality.

8. The two films depict marriages that begun after the 1950s. One could surmise that the 50-year long relationship is that of John and Ella, starting the mid-1960s, and the 40-year long relationship was that between Lolek and Martha, starting in the 1970s or 1980s.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Commission> Horizon 2020 Framework Programme: GENDER-NET Plus [741874]; Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology [3-15664].

Notes on contributors

Shlomit Aharoni Lir

Shlomit Aharoni Lir is a feminist activist and postdoctoral scholar at Bar-Ilan University. In her research, she focuses on gender, communication and culture. She is particularly interested in how underprivileged social groups represent themselves and are depicted in cultural and digital spheres. Her research includes exploring and theorizing gendered aspects of Israeli society, in the cinematic world, civic and digital arenas. Dr. Lir has won numerous awards, including the Golda Award, from the Ministry of Science and Technology. Email: [email protected]

Liat Ayalon

Liat Ayalon is a researcher in the School of Social Work, at Bar-Ilan University. Prof. Ayalon promotes awareness of ageism, in order to create change at political and social levels. She is a member of the World Health Organization and in SAPEA work group, responsible for the report concerning the future of ageing, for the European Commission. She directs a research lab on psychosocial aspects of aging and focuses on the interface between formal informal caregiving for older people, and on ageism. Email: [email protected]