Powerful Women and Misogyny in Film

We all like to think that we are exempt from propaganda; that with enough education and self-awareness, we can side-step the negative impacts of social conditioning. Of course, this is never true, and much of our behaviors and cognitions are based on the propaganda we have been fed. There is, of course, no bigger force complicit in propaganda than film. For over a hundred years film has influenced and reinforced the way Americans perceive themselves and the world around them. This is unfortunate because American society has always been constructed and perceived through a male-centric lens- especially when it comes to the female purpose. This is why I want to analyze how films depict a topic that’s crucial to me: women in the workplace. To do this, I will be analyzing the representation of professional women in two films: the 1942 film Woman of the Year and the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada.

First and foremost, it’s important to describe how these films depict and influence American culture in order to give context as to why the films portray high-powered women in such a negative light. So, when it comes to the film Woman of the Year, its depiction of American culture at the time of its release directly aligns with the well-known deep-rooted misogyny that was so prevalent during that era (and that which is perpetuated today). For example, while Sam, a sports writer and the male main character, is sitting at a bar with his friends, they’re listening to Tess, an international relations writer and the female main character, talk on a radio show about how she thinks baseball should be abolished for the duration of the war (5:36). Now, because of the misogynistic basis of society, Tess’s critique of Americans enjoying sports entertainment while millions of people were actively being slaughtered is, of course, represented as “women shouldn’t talk about things that don’t concern them.” This is reinforced when one of Sam’s coworkers, in response to Tess’s statement about baseball and Sam’s outrage about it, says that “women should be kept illiterate and clean like canaries” (7:07). This entire situation perfectly illustrates what American culture was (and, quite frankly, still is): a self-concerned, luxury-based society in which professional women- even when they had valid, educated critiques of society- could do nothing right. And this is the entire moral of Woman of the Year, as by the end of the film Sam and Tess are married, and Tess vows to give up her job in order to be a proper wife to Sam (who feels neglected because Tess’s pesky job keeps getting in the way of their relationship) (2:12:20).

Now, hand in hand with its depiction of American culture is Woman of the Year’s influence on American culture- both now and when it was released. In terms of the former, Woman of the Year serves as a blueprint for every high-powered professional female in film today. For example, in The Devil Wears Prada, the moral is pretty much the same as it is in Woman of the Year: the woman’s career gets in the way of her personal life even though the man’s career doesn’t seem to, and this results in the woman having to choose between loneliness or lack of professional fulfillment. Obviously, women shouldn’t have to make this sort of demoralizing decision, but because of American ideals and early films like Woman of the Year, the fear that the professional woman will be the death of the nuclear family is still prevalent today.

When it comes to the latter- Woman of the Year’s impact on American culture during the time of its release- I would argue that it likely didn’t have a huge impact on the mainstream; it likely just served as a feel-good, gender-role-reinforcing romance film that reflected the ideals of the time. For feminists, however, the film likely felt like a setback for the movement- especially since Tess actively speaks about feminism and women’s rights throughout the film. But, due to the anti-feminist overtones of the film, I’m assuming its entire purpose was to combat those pesky feminists always fighting for women’s rights whilst reinforcing to any doubters that women do, in fact, belong in the home instead of the workplace.

Now, having covered an older film’s representation of and influence on American society, I think it’s important to explain The Devil Wears Prada and its representation of and influence on American society, too. That being said, while the film’s depiction of American culture at the time it was released differs greatly from that of Woman of the Year on the surface, the misogyny is still the same. For instance, the entire premise of The Devil Wears Prada centers around how Andrea, one of the female main characters, thinks fashion is for vain people who have nothing better to do than to focus on how they look. Indeed, many of the workers at Runway- the fashion magazine where Andrea gets a job at in the beginning of the film- are constantly nagging Andrea about her poor choice of clothes, her “fatness” (put in quotes because Andrea is a size six in the film), and her idea that she’s above those who care about fashion.

At the risk of being too obvious, this depiction of American culture as symbolized by Andrea is rooted in misogyny in and of itself; yet, the film still manages to pull a Woman of the Year, hitting two misogynistic talking points with one film. That is, The Devil Wears Prada is also representative of the American ideal that high-status professional roles are the source of women’s unhappiness. For example, as Andrea becomes more invested in her job as Miranda’s- the other female main character- assistant, her relationship with her boyfriend gets increasingly more tumultuous. This is underscored when Andrea misses Nate’s (her boyfriend) birthday party because she had a last-minute work function (1:05:56). To take another example, Miranda mentions that she’s once divorced (7:06), and by the end of the film, she is twice divorced (1:21:25). This further serves as a vessel for conveying the pervasive cultural ideal that if women enter a rigorous work environment, it will lead to the loss of their personal life.

Now, when it comes to The Devil Wears Prada’s impact on American culture during the time it was released, I assume that it was considered- by those in the feminist sect- an incredibly poignant criticism of the personal anguish experienced by high-powered women in terms of being forced to choose between a career and a relationship. Considering the film was directed by a man, however, I’m hesitant to give it a feminist benefit of the doubt; instead, I opt more for the interpretation that the film, for those in the mainstream, overtly criticizes high-powered roles in general whilst covertly criticizing the concept of women in high-powered roles more specifically. Thus, I think that The Devil Wears Prada operated, in the mainstream, as another reinforcement of anti-feminist American ideals; although, when interpreted through a feminist lens, the film can also serve as a dialogue about women being forced to choose between professional respect and a happy home.

Similar to its influence on American culture during its initial release, I think that The Devil Wears Prada reads the same in today’s age (though, of course, some things within the film- such as making fun of Andrea for being “fat”- didn’t age well). I say this because, again, an argument could be made for the film being a poignant critique of society’s desire to put women in one of two boxes- crazy divorced eccentric mean cat lady with a career, or devoted spouse and mother. Never can a woman be both professionally powerful and personally satisfied; she must always make a choice. Now, as a feminist-minded person and as aforementioned, I do think the film can open up an important dialogue when interpreted through a feminist lens. I don’t, however, think the movie is overtly feminist by any means, and it lends itself much better to the same male-centric, nuclear family-oriented interpretation that it did during its initial release.

Moving on, now that I've established a basic understanding of the sort of society that The Devil Wears Prada and Woman of the Year represent and their influences on that society, I think it’s important to compare the films to one another in order to reinforce the fact that the same misogynistic rhetoric has been oppressively prevalent throughout the years.

As briefly touched on above, there are some similarities between the narratives of both films. For example, both films depict high-powered women- Tess and Miranda- as people who shouldn’t be liked. Tess was too work-driven, resulting in her emotionally abandoning her husband. Miranda was a vicious, scary woman who cared more about work than her husband. In this, the similarity is obvious; both women were considered mean and negligent. Further, because of the way the women’s jobs were portrayed as being the root of their evil, both films depicted a narrative that centered around the downfall of the women’s personal lives due to their professional ones. Now, this doesn’t just include Tess and Miranda, but Andrea, too. All three of these women were portrayed as being so invested in their work lives that they couldn’t see the importance of the relationships they had with their spouses. Thus, all three women faced potential relationship devastation, and only Tess and Andrea managed to avoid the collapse of their relationships due to giving up their high-powered jobs. Miranda, however, refused to give up her work and instead gave up her husband, making her an effective warning for any woman who dares think she can have a work life and a personal one.

Of course, like in any comparison of films, there are also differences between Woman of the Year and The Devil Wears Prada. These differences mostly come in the form of the depiction of American culture at the time of the films’ releases, although the focal point of demonizing women in the workplace is still prevalent in both. The other key difference between the films is the job that Tess and Miranda work; they are vastly different, though both are high-powered, lending the women to different versions of the same kind of misogynistic rhetoric.

The last thing that I find important to touch on in terms of Woman of the Year and The Devil Wears Prada is this: these films directly impact me personally. As a woman who is hoping to have a high-powered job someday, it’s depressing to see the horrifically pervasive narrative that insists that women cannot be powerful at work and still be happy at home. Women in the workforce are depicted, in films like these, as mean, vile, unnatural women who are undeserving of a partner’s love because they’ll never know how to prioritize a partner over work. I abhor this narrative. The issue isn’t women working, it’s capitalism. The issue is always capitalism, but these films never even try to dig a little deeper into systemic causes of the all-important destruction of the nuclear family; instead, they reach for the low-hanging fruit, leaving women with the short end of the stick decade after decade after decade.

In conclusion, Woman of the Year and The Devil Wears Prada have nearly identical morals and nearly identical impacts on society- both when the films were released and in the present day. Though the representation of American culture was different between the two films, both representations are still rooted in misogyny and still reinforce misogynistic ideals. Unfortunately, I doubt this narrative will change in any way in the near future, and women having careers will continue to be demonized. That being said, I refuse to be disheartened by this; instead, I am determined to forge my own path in this world, balancing my personal life with my work one in the same way men are constantly portrayed as being capable of.

Films Mentioned

Woman of the Year. 1942. Director: George Stevens. Screenwriters: Michael Kanin, Ring Lardner Jr. Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Fay Bainter. Genre: Comedy, Romance.

The Devil Wears Prada. 2006. Director: David Frankel. Screenwriters: David Frankel, Aline Brosh McKenna (based on the novel by Lauren Weisberger). Starring: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, Emily Blunt. Genre: Comedy, Drama.