A Woman Under the Influence causes me to think about what the woman was influenced by. Was this her obvious mental affliction, or did it allude to the abuse of her husband? I am curious how much abuse society expected women to deserve versus how much abuse men were expected to deserve. Nora Sayre of the New York Times wrote in a 1974 article, “but—perhaps unintentionally—he has made the man appear much crazier than his wife; are we supposed to assume that his frantic nature has driven her over the edge? Or are we meant to see madness as contagious?”. This highlights that men who were critically abusive were perceived as simply “frantic natured”. It even passes blame from the man’s toxic behavior to the fault of madness being contagious, or even as far as perhaps Mabel contracted the madness for herself. This makes me wonder if the roles had been reversed, how would the public and critics have reacted to Mabel being a male and Nick being female.

Trends of the time consisted of equal human rights, free love, and other progressive ideals. The stereotype of men being abusive was becoming less of a stereotype but I think still, if a woman had played Nick’s role and a male as Mabel’s, society would have not taken to it. The movie is unconventional and had to strike an audience, but it can’t do that with a theme that is too far fetched. I think Globalization is a big trend that is identified because it shows how mental disorders are becoming a more widely recognized topic. As scientific discoveries provide more documentation and information regarding disabilities, we are seeing that more and more movies include and recognize that part of humanity. Decades prior, people with disabilities were abused and often mistreated. Nonetheless, Casavettes touches on the most obvious trend of American history, the role of the mother and father attempting to achieve “The American Dream”.

This notion is that of a “healthy family” with stereotyped roles of a cookie cutter soccer mom, a bread winning hard working father, with beautiful and happy children. Touching on these topics also demonstrates how unconventional the film is. Roger Ebert remarks in a historical article written at the time of the movie’s release, “hidden in a quieter, tidier film: that Nick no less than Mabel is trapped in a society where people are assigned roles, duties and even personalities that may have little to do with what they really think and who they really are.” Nick absolutely suffered from societal pressures and ideals because he demonstrates multiple times his borders and limits. Nick is quick to snap under the pressure if things don’t go the way he expects, because he is even more insecure than Mabel. When Mabel arrives home from the sanitarium, Nick erratically asks all his guests who are not family to leave after he had made personal house calls to extend invitations to over 60 people. His need to impress not only his wife, but his neighbors and society dominates Mabel’s feeble desire for approval and affection. After his guests shuffle on, he continues to have a breakdown at the dinner table after Mabel FINALLY breaks out of her discomforted shell and tells a joke. The kids get up, start dancing and joking around, and Nick loses his temper. Watch here, as his need to be normal and happy exceeds his ability for such.

In this movie, the critics thoroughly debate Mabel’s condition and how she is affected by society, but if she truly is a counter-gender self-portrait of the filmmaker, why would he portray himself like that if that were not how society made him feel. This, to me, shows clearly how genuinely honest Casavette’s was with the world in his feelings of misunderstanding, neglect, and abuse. Mabel shows pure love for her children, and they show it back. They get up and dance and joke when she jokes. She plays with them and has honest open conversations like a parent would, with her own personality added in. The only part in the entire movie where she is a perpetrator is when the children are having a playdate and they are playing recklessly. This is the one part of the movie I think her parenting skills and ability to healthily handle children could be brought into question. Certain societies would deem this unhealthy, but then there are nudist colonies, so if the kids want to all play naked that would not be considered unhealthy.

Nick demonstrates the perpetrator much more. He pulls the kids out of school to have a fun-day when he’s stressed at work, he hits his wife, commands her on how to behave when his behavior is worse, and doesn’t provide the kind of love and affection Mabel did. This is how Casavettes’s style highlights the abuse he experienced from societal pressures in this “behind the doors” look at an American family’s dysfunction.