The part doesn't seem neutered to me. It seems more enriched and more appropriate for this medium. Steinbeck did go back and reworked Curley's wife to give more dimension to he rwhen he translated his novel to a play and in his letter to Claire Luce, the first actress to portray the character, he specifically mentions that Curley's wife is still chaste and somewhat of an innocent so there's plenty of room to how to interpret her. If the character's power is solely or mostly relied shallow, male glaze, that's actually more lazy and not so powerful in the first place.