The Women Mostly & a Few OTHER Women

The WOMEN in 1939 are Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell, Joan Fontaine, Paulette Goddard
CRYSTAL ALLEN, the Other Woman, is Joan Crawford.

In 1956, 17 years later in the OPPOSITE SEX, they are June Allyson, Ann Sheridan, Dolores Gray, Joan Blondell, 

Agnes Moorehead and Ann Miller.

CRYSTAL ALLEN, the pursuer of the opposite sex, is Joan Collins.  

And finally in 2008, the recent past, the WOMEN are Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Jada Pinkett Smith and Debra Messing supported by "bigger & older women": Carrie Fisher, Bette Midler, Candice Bergen.
and CRYSTAL ALLEN, the Other Woman, is Eva Mendes.




The Common Plot:  
Crystal Allen, the other woman, is out to get Stephen Haines/Haynes...Mary's husband... and boy, does she get him...and marries him soon after Mary (Norma/Meg) reluctantly divorces Stephen. But that doesn't last long. Crystal falls for Buck who has more financial possibilities.  She drops Stephen...who then decides to return to Mary.   


The Opposite Sex, the women's musical version, has a slight variation on a number of curious details. Stephen never appears in the original and latest versions. In the musical version, Stephen becomes "Steven Hilliard" and is a role portrayed by Leslie Nielsen.


Culture Study:
These women belong to a circle bound by a close yet volatile friendship...BFFs.  Issues of divorce, essence of friendship, loyalty, envy, ...these don't change at all regardless of era. However, gender and relational concepts have evolved and ventured to wider possibilities of subjective sexual preferences.  The original WOMEN portrayed the different facets of womanhood - the strictly female gender type: lady, woman, dame (within that traditional range).  The title Opposite Sex clearly gives reference to the male gender.  It no longer creates a naughty and ticklish impact as it may have probably provoked. The WOMEN of the 21st century explore and present a larger gamut of options: the Wife, the Mother, the Daughter, the Lady Boss, the Lesbian Partner...