The motion picture industry expressed many of the changes that were taking place in society. However, the motion pictures did not always depict real life for women but, in some cases, actually instructed them on how to be a "modern." Women in the movies were a glamorous rendition of the social roles that were now open to women of this time. .
The movies, particularly in periods like the twenties when female roles were undergoing a major remodeling, constituted a powerful cultural force, shaping individual choices with in the boundaries of social and economic possibilities, thus assisting in the creation of a new womanhood.[11].
.
Women were portrayed as sensuous, yet virginal. They were out to get their man, and were free with their sexuality, but never to the point of losing their virginity. Actress Linda Arvidson Griffith described the treatment of the new woman in film in her memoirs in 1925:.
We are dealing in things vital in our American life and not one bit interested in close-ups of empty-headed little ingenues with adenoids, bedroom windows, manhandling of young girls, fast sets, perfumed bathrooms and nude youths heaving their muscles.[12].
.
This new permissiveness in the display of the female body and treatment of sexual themes was the classification of the new woman.[13] The 1920s were a time when women could express themselves as they wished. They were not controlled by the opinions of society in the same way their mothers were.
These movies displayed what some young women were doing and served as an instructional manual for the rest. Young women idealized the stars of their favorite films and wanted to be exactly like them. To these women the movie stars had the freedoms they wished to possess.
Of a Joan Crawford film, one girl said, "I watch every little detail, of how she's dressed, and her make-up, and also her hair." Another surmised, "I"ll bet every girl wishes she was the Greta Garbo type.
