SOURCE: "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown: Sexism or Emancipation from Machismo?" in Look Who's Laughing: Gender and Comedy, edited by Gail Finney, Gordon and Breach, 1994, pp. 299-314.

In the following essay, Redding Jessup asserts that "If the ending convincingly sums up Pedro Almodóvar's gender messages in this film, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is a story about emancipation from machismo."

Introduction: May We Laugh?

Is Pedro Almodóvar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown a sexist comedy about hysterical women or a story of liberation from machismo? Should our nerves jangle with Almodóvar's stereotypical treatment of women? Or, may we celebrate the happy ending and laugh with this comic film from Spain?

Even before we see Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, the title conjures up images of edgy, emotional, out-of-control women. Then, from the beginning...