In a time when women were fighting for equal rights and the ability to be seen as more then just wives, mothers and secretaries the movies of the time worked just as hard to keep women in their place and in those traditional rolls that were accepted as the natural order of things. From Saturday Night Fever to Halloween seventies films were full of messages that women who stepped outside of their place would suffer and movies such as Stepford Wives and Woman Under the Influence sent messages of what that place was supposed to be. Blaxploitation films were no exception to the times. While on one hand they were very much about equality and black empowerment they also were very clear about what the roll of women should be in society.

Jack Hill