The Women in Rollerball

Nova, thanks for your reply! I was glad to see that someone else has thought about the women's roles in the movie.

Your take on the Jonathan's women's situation is what I had pretty much been thinking. It is obvious that women were just objects to be passed around. I guess it isn't clear whether they were actual protitutes or whether all women are treated this way in a futuristic society.

I am with you in that I find the view of the female in a lot of these types of movies interesting.

BTW, I didn't make it clear in the first post but I really enjoyed Rollerball.

[deleted]

This society depends on crushing individualism and most of the people portrayed in the movie are total sell outs to the corporation. In return for their free will, they get comfort and privilege. For some of the women, this entails becoming a literal type of prostitute.

It seems obvious to me that all the young, pretty women in the movie are employees of the corporation and their jobs are to be companions to the male executives or top Rollerball players or whomever else the company wants to keep happy and compliant. Sex, friendship, and light housekeeping are part of the gig. I would assume these young women opted for this type of life and are generally treated well, unlike the apartment prostitutes in "Soylent Green." I thought the etiquette of the party was interesting - Jonathan's buddy comes on to the women discreetly; there are drugs but no out of control behavior; there's affection, but no open sexuality. No sordid behavior at parties, please. You get the impression that abusive behavior to the women would not be tolerated - they are the picks of the litter and the company does not want their prettiness or good natures spoiled.

The women get passed around as it suits the company. Having these women available to you is just another corporate perk. Judging from Maggie, however, some may hold out hope of actually marrying a bigwig before they age out of the job, or at least being invited to stay with them in a committed relationship and perhaps having children with them. They can still be made to leave this relationship, and their children, if it suits the company.

Many movies are written by men who have little idea how to write female characters. They are seldomly three dimensional. They are usually glorified props. They are not main characters. They are just wives, girlfriends or moms.

Yes, but the kind of women we are talking about are prostitutes. We saw the regular women, the underclasses, in the game audience shots.

Obviously Ella and the rest of her kind are complicit in the prostitution. Ella after all agreed to stay with the executive and they had children. I strongly suspect they met at one of those sports parties Jonathan and his team attended. They had an affair and she agreed to the separation. No one ever consulted Jonathan because he is also just a piece of furniture.

The only people that matter are the executives.

Seems that this movie copied from Soylent Green's "Furniture Girls"! How original!

Out of all the women, I like Maggie the best. She seemed so unassuming and low-maintenance, but of course left Jonathan on a whim. But they reunited at the cocktail party and had a nice conversation. Daphne was a little strange and bubble-headed to have been that interesting. And as for Jonathan's wife, she seemed like a fine lady, but rather passive and powerless.

I would have liked to have seen him get it on with that library tech! She was so nice and polite to him and downright beautiful, but he dismisses her!