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Sophie Giese

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ARTS2121 ESSAY

How do both Caryl Churchill’s ‘Top Girls and Annie Sprinkle’s ‘Post-Porn Modernist’

explore the feminist movement?

Feminism is regarded as one of the most influential and important social movements

throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, with an overall goal of establishing political,

economic and social equality between the sexes. With its impact still reaching into

modern day 2018, feminism has transformed and progressed society on a global scale.

Originating with the first wave in the late 19th century, feminism has slowly evolved

over time to include its various and more contemporary forms that are now more

common. This progression and success of the feminist movement is clearly evident in

both Caryl Churchill’s ‘Top Girls’ and Annie Sprinkle’s ‘Post-Porn Modernist’. Churchill’s

1982 play explores both the early social and cultural issues and inequalities that

plagued that late 20th century and forces its audience to ask themselves, at what cost

can women find their success? On the other hand, Sprinkle’s “Sex Positive” (Sprinkle,

2014) 1990-1995 performance presents a hesitant voice on female subjugation in

modern society whilst projecting the newer stages of feminism to endorse post-porn

feminist identity in the modern era. Both performances engage with the different stages

of the feminist movement through their various theatrical and technical devices and

both work to progress and significantly contribute to feminism today. This essay will

analyse both ‘Top Girls’ and ‘Post Porn Modernist’ through the feminist lens, exploring

how both works showcase different types and stages of feminism and discuss how they

both significantly contributed to the progression of the social feminist movement.


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Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls discusses various forms of female oppression and

progression by presenting both positive and negative images of women throughout

time. We are given an image at the end of the play, which encompasses all characters

together in one shot, all displaying different behaviours and moods. By looking at this

image it is clear that Churchill touches on all types of feminism in Top Girls, however,

predominantly engages with both Liberal Feminism and Materialist Feminism as we can

see through analysing its diverse characters, storytelling as well as its contribution to

the progression of the feminist movement.

The original wave of feminism, known as Liberal Feminism, is frequently showcased

throughout the piece through its representation of its characters and their

representation of the progression of women’s rights. Liberal Feminism seeks to work

within existing structures to secure eventual equality with men in a social, political and

economic sense, as opposed to major structural change that just places women atop a

capitalist ladder. It proposes the view that each individual is inherently equal and

should receive equal treatment. This ideology can clearly be identified in Top Girls by

studying the characters and their behaviours; particularly the character Marlene, who

appears to sacrifice so much in her life in order to hold a similar corporate position as a

man. Marlene embodies liberal feminism as she herself worked extremely hard, by

having “more balls” than any other men who would argue they are entitled to have the

job, to get to where she is within the necessary channels in order to achieve director of

the employment agency ‘Top Girls’. She passes her ideology and lifestyle onto others, in

the introductory scene of the play she is conducting a consultation with Jeanine at the

employment agency and advises her that the girl before her “left to have a baby so you

wouldn’t want to mention marriage there” as her plans could hinder her chances of
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getting the job. However, Marlene does represent the individualistic aspect to the liberal

feminist front. Her efforts are only for her own benefit and not the benefit of the entire

female gender; as shown again in her scene with Jeanine, where she proposes that in ten

years all Jeanine can live up to is to be “secretary to a top executive”. This is additionally

shown in Marlene giving her only daughter Angie to her mother and leaving the

working-class family to chase her corporate dreams without any thought to how her

actions affect others. Therefore, characterisation allows Churchill to highlight the

methods and goals of liberalist feminism in Top Girls. However, she is careful to note

that whilst liberal feminist ideologies can and have contributed to the progression of

gender equality there are sacrifices that might have to be made. This makes us ask

ourselves what we must sacrifice in order to achieve this equality.

Similarly, Churchill’s use of plot in Top Girls engages with another form of feminism,

Materialist Feminism. According to Jill Dolan, the Marxist based concept of “Materialist

Feminism….views women as historical subjects whose relation to prevailing social

structures is also influenced by race, class, and sexual identification” (Dolan 2012).

Therefore; Materialist Feminism focuses on gender as a construct by capitalist society

that forces and creates gender roles and identity-seeing both material objects and the

patriarchy as the source of female oppression. Applying this more socialist lens to the

plot of Top Girls, we can clearly observe the Materialist Feminism influence throughout

the play; it’s representation of each character’s social classes and their ideologies, as

well as their combined behaviour as a gender clearly identifies this influence. The first

act in particular displays these defining features of Materialist Feminism, Marohl

explains that “[in] The first scene, in which women of different historical periods and

different cultures convene to celebrate Marlene’s promotion, dramatizes the lack of


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unity among persons of the same sex, effected by the lack of ideological unity. The six

women at the dinner represent diverse cultural attitudes towards class, religion, family,

ethics, and gender”, therefore the materialist influence is shown in Act 1 particularly,

through the incorporation of these diverse cultures, time periods and classes present at

Marlene’s promotion party. Act 1 creates a sense of utopia by observing this same sense

of diversity in the characters, however this fades later in the scene. The characters share

stories and biblical passages, they then understand their sacrifices stemming from their

actions for their current positions. For example, Griselda’s fourteenth century marriage

required her to initially sacrifice her children and her freedom-the story that causes the

dinner to take a downward turn as it inspires anger from the other women present,

such as Marlene leaving the table. This is due to Griselda’s gender role and identity

being predetermined and expected from her oppressive husband. However, at this point

in the play we are also exposed to the progression of the feminist movement, as Nijo

tells a story of how she beat her oppressive emperor after he had mistreated her and

the other concubines, showing how women overcame the confines and expectations of

the patriarchy as other nobles “wouldn’t dare to step on his majesties shadow….and I

had beaten him with a stick”. Therefore, Churchill’s plot encapsulates the motives of

Materialist feminism, as the reaction and treatment of these common historical

behaviors highlights both capitalism and the patriarchy as the source of female

oppression and the progression of feminism and women’s rights.

Image of Post Porn Modernist- Image of the play and how this relates to the previous

image from Top Girls- how does this relate to the relate to the 3 Lines of enquiry (what

you will talk about)?


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o Post Porn Modernist mainly focuses on Cultural and Post-Feminisms through its

theatrical devices, structure and method of spectatorship

o Discuss how it showcases cultural feminism through its structure

 Historical Context of Cultural Feminism

 Analysis on how it is represented in the performance

o Discuss how it showcases Post-Feminism through its method of

spectatorship

o How did Post-Porn Modernist contribute to/further the feminist

movement? Shown through a new image.

Conclusion including brief link back to Churchill’s play and how they both encapsulate

various forms of feminism-showing the progression of the feminist movement

Conclusion

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