Wednesday, July 25, 2012

The Women

    
      Back in my high school days, a few of my girlfriends and I were sitting in my basement, flicking through the TV guide, trying to find a movie to watch. Apparently, it was a bad TV day. There wasn't much on. But flicking through the HBO channels, my friend Dianna told me to stop at the movie 'The Women." 

   Dianna knew all about it, as her mom had seen the movie and raved about it. She said it was a completely female cast--no male actors appear in the movie, not even extras. In addition to that, the film was written and produced by a woman. This idea seemed completely strange to all of us. Reluctantly, we all agreed to watch it. We joked that it would be a 'mom' movie. It didn't sound great, but we were intrigued. We were also surprised.
        The Women is about Mary Haines, a mother and part-time clothing designer who's married to a wealthy man who has some hot-shot Wall Street job. Mary has it pretty good--that is, until, she discovers that her husband has been cheating on her with an extremely attractive perfume saleslady at Saks, played by Eva Mendes.
Much of film consists of Mary being crushed that her husband is cheating on her, and she trails the saleslady (pictured above) in an attempt to see what she's up against. Mary's three close friends rally behind her. Her friends have several romantic problems of their own, although they are all strong, working women. One of them is a lesbian. Not all of them are married.
   This movie strongly goes against the findings (granted, about TV shows) that "male characters outnumbered female, were allotted more speaking time, and were more likely to have professional and high-status jobs, whereas female characters were more often characterized by their marital and parental status" (Holz Ivory, Gibson, and Ivory). As the article states, "women and sexual minorities have a history of underrepresentation in television, and this lack of visibility has resulted in narrow and stereotyped depictions of both groups." By having an all-women cast, this movie addresses these issues.
   I still remember, albeit faintly, how the film made me feel at the time I watched it several years ago. My friends and I all agreed that it was a good movie, which surprised us. It wasn't a 'mom' movie, as we had expected. We all agreed it was refreshing--refreshing to see a movie that was all women and dealt with women's problems.
   While I didn't have the capacity to look at the movie critically then, I see now how the movie is male-centric, even though there are no men even visibly present. The film centers completely on the problems caused by male actions, and ruminates on those actions. Although men are never shown, they are a constant presence, considering how they are the basis of the storyline
    To me, the film's feminist goals are entirely undermined by the fact that it's all about Mary's misery after being hurt by a guy. Don't women have more serious problems? It seems like the media refuses to acknowledge that women have concerns other than being loved (or not loved) by a man. 
   But the fact that such a movie, with an all-female cast with no male extras, was even made and was seen as progressive shows how male-dominated the film industry is. I think audiences are now so accustomed to--and expectant of--this male-centrist paradigm that even this movie, which supposedly flaunts female independence, couldn't escape it.

It's also interesting how in the movie poster (top picture), none of the actresses are looking directly into the camera. Rather, they're all looking toward Eva Mendez who plays the seductress, even making shocked faces. This shows how extremely important this jealousy theme is to the movie, which I think is very shallow indeed. Feminist? I think not.

2 comments:

  1. I've definitely seen this movie, and I agree with you on all counts. Yes, there were no men in the movie, but YES, the whole storyline revolved around her being miserable that he was cheating on her, until the turning point when the storyline revolved around her trying to get him back. Chalk one up for feminism?
    You make a valid point in regards to the film being seen as progressive for its lack of male characters. Why? Is the film industry such a boys' club that this should be a big deal? I feel like this is a comment that you see in a lot of different areas where women are successful. A lot of people seem to react with, "Wow! It's gotta be hard being a woman in a male-dominated field like that, but you persevere!" The collective surprise really does speak volumes to the fact that society is so male-dominant.
    This reminds me- St. Vincent (Annie Clark) talks about that a little bit in relation to her music, because she's an indie rocker whose music features a lot of really intense and skillfully played guitar, and she gets annoyed that people are taken aback by that. She mentions her distaste for people's sympathy for her being surrounded by male musicians in this interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kQ9ls46ueo

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  2. Woah! The fact that I didn't even notice there were no men in the movie is kind of weird and it could be due to the fact that the movie is centered around a husband's infidelity. What I find interesting after reading several communication studies in class is that the movie works to dispel the myth of ideal women. It's stereotypically believed that if you have a hot body and an attractive face that men will want you.Eva Mendes plays a sultry "spritzer girl", wearing tight clothing and playing up her sexuality which is very much consistent with Kim et al.'s (2007) feminine courtship code. Her character is given no personality and is simply valued for her physical appearance. This works well enough for her to score a rich, successful married man with a happily devoted wife. Meanwhile, Mary, who's husband is cheating on her embodies the Feminine Commitment code presented in the Kim et al. study (2007), sacrificing her aspirations to have children and not overshadow her husband.


    The movie suggest that the husband is not truly interested in Eva Mendes' character once his wife leaves him. This suggests that men are not only interested in looks and want something deeper. The idea of what men look for in a women is especially challenged when Mary's husband tries to get her back. However, this is only after she steps out from what could be considered a submissive housewife role and goes after what she wants. She is now a personal success and it looks as though Mary's husband finds success in a woman sexy.


    The movie works to challenge so many other gender stereotypes as well. The character who cheats on her husband is not a sultry seductress. She is a mother, who is shown as being devoted to her children and wants to have more children. The lesbian character is not butch or manly looking and neither is her partner. Rarely are lesbian couples portrayed in the media as both partners being feminine. And the movie definitely addresses the portrayal of women in magazines and how it affects younger girls when Mary's daughter believes she is fat and wants to look like the women on the magazines. This movie is very progressive in its portrayals and it's also one of my favorites.

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