In The Public Enemy, women are portrayed as naive and/or objects of carnal pleasure by men. In this period, women were often categorized as mothers, mistresses, sisters, or ladies. Ma Powers (played by Beryl Mercer), the lead character Tom Powers?played by James Cagney) mother, is easily fooled by Tom's fake stories about where he get his money and doesn't believe that her "baby boy" could be a vile gangster. At one point during prohibition, when Tom brings home a barrel

of beer, she doesn't even question where he obtained it, but rather takes a drink for herself. Ma Powers is the prototypical mother of the 1930's. She is blind to the ways of the world and doesn't see the danger of things, even in regard to her own children. She is a widow who does not work, but is supported by her sons. She is even blind to the fact that her sons hate one another. Even though, her Tom was sadistic killer and gangster, she always welcomes him back lovingly with open arms. At the end of the mov!

With the 1960's, came confusion in the dominant culture about women's roles in the cinema. Women were now being portrayed as powerful, unpredictable, and possessing a mysterious sexual power, which they used to elude male control. The 1960's also brought with it his tensions that resulted the escalating war in Vietnam, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, black ghettos going up in flames, the women's liberation movement, the youth anti-war rebellion and free love theme, and the Civil Rights movement. It was safe to say that the American public had violence on its mind and the movie industry capitalized on the public's apprehensions. Director Arthur Penn used Bonnie & Clyde as his medium to imprint the rebellious tone of the 1960's and the uncertainty of the dominant values and norms of society.

ie, she gets a phone call saying that Tom will be coming home from the hospital, where he had been treated for a gunshot. She rushes upstairs to make his bed and get his room ready, when the doorbell rings and the rival gang drops of Tom's gun riddled body.

As they make their getaway in a hot-wired car, he introduces himself as Clyde Barrow (played by Warren Beatty). She instantaneously smothers him with kisses so that he has to pull over on the country road and tells her to "slow down." Clyde informs her that he is "not much of a lover boy", but instead challenges her mentally by offering her the possibility of leaving the routine behind and becoming someone special and notorious when he says:

The other women who appear in the movie are portrayed as fast women who are sexual object to be enjoyed by Tom, until he gets tired of them and then throws them away. In one famous movie seen, Tom doesn't appreciate what his mistress moll Kitty (played by Mae Clarke) said to him, so he wickedly squeezes half of a grapefruit into her face. She is left there belittled, too afraid to stick up for herself.

In conclusion, it is obvious to argue that genre ideology had undergone immense change from the 1930's when The Public Enemy was released to the 1960's when Bonnie & Clyde first premiered on the big screen. The female roles in The Public Enemy were stereotypical of the roles handed to women in the 1930's and also conveyed the zeitgeist of society. During the 1960's, as indicated by Bonnie & Clyde, there was the emergence of the women's role as a central character of the plot, one who was just as capable and omnipotent as the male lead character. She was a character that would not be controlled by society's norms or be held captive to male authority. I

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