Canaries and Coalmines: Toxic Discourse in The Incredible Shrinking Woman and Safe

The article examines cinematic representations of the chemical contamination of the female homemaker's body. Engaging the discourse of illnesses caused by the by-products of technology and industry, these films reveal a profound anxiety regarding the integrity of our homes and bodies, as well as a skepticism of the solutions offered by scientific and technological advances, while foregrounding the obstacles confronting women who attempt to challenge the social and scientific status quo. I argue that the protagonists of the Lily Tomlin vehicle The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981) and Todd Haynes's film Safe (1995) are postmodern Cassandras: Women in possession of knowledge that their communities aggressively deny. In order to contextualize these narratives of women who testify to environmental degradation's potentially disastrous impact on human health and well being, I situate these films within a tradition proceeding from Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962) and continued in Lois Gibbs's Love Canal: My Story (1982). In suggesting that the environment is disabling and that attitudes can be disabling, these films invite consideration of the interrelatedness of the weight of scientific authority, the persistent deployment of the charge of "hysteria" when a woman articulates an unpopular notion, and the use of metaphor as an instrument of silencing.