As I watched The Stepford Wives, there was something uncomfortable about the film. Like we discussed in class, it seemed like there was very little action and that it built up very slowly. I thought that this was done on purpose as a way of getting a stronger effect. Generally in horror, we are used to a rise in action as the problems rise. This film never gave us a flow of action but rather just subtly added slight differences which were out of place. It placed an unsettling feeling which added to Joanna's story that finally exploded right at the very end.
I feel like the film used this subtlety as a way of expressing views on feminism and patriarchal society. The major problems were obvious with the clearly patriarchal Men's Association and their housework obsessed wives. However, there were also various other hints that were spread out that also pointed towards the same issues. The main one I picked up on was Joanna's "boss". The fact that it was a man and that it was his opinion that mattered most on her photos perpetuated the patriarchal society. It was also interesting to think about how the photos he finally "liked" differed from those she had taken previously. Before, her photos seemed like they revolved around metaphors for male domination such as the man carrying the female mannequin. The photos that were finally accepted were of her children playing around. In a way, the photos that are accepted are similar to the plot of the story. The pictures that were desired are in a way parallel to the wives that the Men's Association wanted to have. The original pictures were similar to Joanna, defiant of the male dominated society and free of control. The pictures that are accepted can be associated to the Stepford wives, focusing on their family rather than on their own lives. In this way, the pictures can relate to the plot of the film giving another layer to Joanna's fight to escape male domination.
Within the reading, the author mentions the end of history. I thought this was interesting topic to tie in as I have worked with the concept of the end of history before. History is pushed by contradictions of ideas and that the end comes from a universalization of ideas. This further explains the reading's mention of how Stepford seems stuck in time. As the women of the town are replaced by robots, there are fewer contradictions in idea as all of them are focused on housework and cooking. This is why history had ended in Stepford and the town is now stuck in time. Without anything to challenge the ideas in the town, nothing changes and it's stuck in a perpetual sequence of events.
I can see why many women didn't accept the movie as supportive of feminism. Though the film plays with the idea of a patriarchal society, it never really delves into actual society focusing on the fictional domination of women by turning them into robots. It doesn't contribute to feminism as a critical view of society rather just using the idea to give a story. For the most part, it expresses the controlled aspect of housewives but in a completely exaggerated way. I think that is the reason why this doesn't really help the feminist cause. Though it does express actual issues, all of them have been blown out of proportion for the film.
When you mentioned the end of history, it feel like that was a really good point because when Joanna in the beginning was the type of person who would change society and move forward but once she got to Stepford, you could see how everything was frozen in time. The robotic wives seemed like they had one mind set and it would never change so there would never be any arguments to move forward with feminine rights.
ReplyDeleteThis brings me to my next point, I can also see why feminists did not accept this movie as much as expected. If Joanna had made it out of Stepford, it would have completely changed the movie. Because she didn't, it almost implies that no matter what women do, the men have all the control and will do as they please. Like Diz said when Joanna asked him why they are turning the women into housewife robots, "because we can." It just shows that the men have all the control and they know it. From a woman's point of view, this movie made women seem helpless. It actually almost seems to work against feminist movements because men would see this movie and see how 'perfect' the robot women are and they would want their wives to be just like that, in turn making the fight for women's rights that much harder. I guess I just didn't see how this was supportive of feminism in any way.
Really interesting observations here--especially the part about how her photographs changed, which I had noticed but wasn't sure how to analyze. I'd have liked to see this discussion go deeper. The question of whether or not this movie is feminist is a good one, but the terms could have been better defined. In one strand of 2nd-wave feminist analysis, where _was_ nowhere for Joanna to escape to, precisely because it regards patriarchy as such a constant. Where would she go where there wasn't patriarchy? We can see attempts to take this question head on during the 'consciousness-raising' session where Joanna gets the Wives together to talk about their lives and feelings, and how it all devolves into product placement instead. This is an important scene, involving as it does how women's work is and isn't valued, and how it does and doesn't define their lives.
ReplyDeleteThe reading reframes the question about if and how the movie is feminist as a consideration of whether the extremely privileged lives of a very small sociological subset of women can really represent much that's relevant about women's issues--this is what the feminist objections of the time had more to do with.
Hit 'post' a bit too soon. Anyway, you touch on all of this in your post, and in a really good way; and I wanted to see where you'd go if you went just that extra step into following your observations a little bit more.
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