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.