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Women as Morally Suspect (1) The movie The Devil Wears Prada is one of the best examples of recent cinematographic pieces that are being specifically designed by Hollywood hook-nosed sophisticates to instill viewers with the idea that peoples spiritual and moral corruption is not something to be ashamed of, but contrary to this it is something that needs to be actively celebrated. It encourages viewers to consider the concept of living in the fast lane as only the worthy existential pursuit, on their part, regardless of how degenerately despicable it might be. Moreover, this movie prompts people to think of women as morally suspect, simply because it promotes the idea that existential shallowness is womens foremost psychological trait. In its turn, it results in male viewers becoming even more convinced that, under no circumstances women can be trusted, as they are physiologically incapable of recognizing the true essence of surrounding reality. In this paper, we will aim to substantiate earlier thesis, by exploring movies semantic meaning to a further extent. (2) The plot of The Devil Wears Prada cannot be referred to as overly complex. The young graduate of Northwestern University, Andrea Sachs gets to be hired as personal assistant to editor-in-chief of Runway Magazine Miranda Priestly, known for her taste of throwing insults at about anyone who might cross her path.
Despite Andreas extensive academic credentials, she gradually begins to realize that she does not quite fit for her new job, simply because she is not being obsessed with fashion to the same extent as her coworkers are. Almost immediately, Miranda's senior assistant Emily Charlton (a hysterical young woman who seriously believes that british sophistricacy represents an objective value) begins to poke fun at Andrea, because of her unfashionable looks and because of Andreas rather simple-minded attitude towards the world of fashion. Andrea fails Miranda a few times, while running on errands, which causes Miranda to consider firing Andrea. However, something snaps in Andreas mind and she decides to embrace fashion as an integral part of her life, while hoping that this would win her Miranda's favor. With the help of her newly acquired friend Nigel (a homosexual art director for Runway) Andrea begins to develop a taste for wearing ugly but sophistically fashionable outfits, while eventually turning into equivalent of Emily self-righteous expert on fashion, who refuses to even recognize other womens basic humanity, for as long as they do not wear Prada. Predictably enough, Andreas boyfriend Nate (a progressive young man of dubious racial background, who works as chef in one of New Yorks restaurants) grows increasingly annoyed with the fact that his now fashionable girlfriend continuously lacks time to indulge in sexual escapades with him, while eventually deciding to dump her.
By this time, Andrea can recognize Miranda's countless whims by heart, which in its turn, causes Runway editor-in-chief to invite Andrea to attend a haute couture fashion show in Paris with her, instead of Emily. While in Paris, Andrea finds out that Priestly is about to be replaced as editor-in-chief to Runway Magazine and attempts to warn her boss about, while naively thinking that Priestly would be able to benefit from her warning. However, foxy Priestly proves herself being just as smart as the fox and she manages to retain her office at the expense of firing Andy's buddy Nigel. At this point, Andy becomes stricken by her non-existent conscience and decides to quit her job. On this note movie ends. (2) Before we move on to describe how The Devil Wears Prada degrades (or rightly portrays) women, we will need to provide readers with the insight on what fashion and entertainment industries really are. A typical engineer at one of Americas nuclear power plants, receives $ 200. 000 - $ 250. 000 a year; whereas, movie stars and fashion models often get paid this amount of money within a matter of half an hour, by allowing Playboys or Playgirls photographers to take snapshots of their bare asses.
Yet, it is not the celebrities and fashion models, but such engineers, who provide conditions for people in this country to enjoy a civilized living. Therefore, the industry that generates billions of dollars in profits (regardless of whether we talk about industry related to fashion or entertainment), without producing anything objectively valuable, is best described as parasitic, in its very essence. There is one memorable scene in The Devil Wears Prada, when Priestly enlightens Andrea onto inappropriateness of her ignorant attitude towards what represents a difference between blue and cerulean: This... 'stuff'? Oh...
ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you " re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean. You " re also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets?
I think we need a jacket here. And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs (IMDB 2006). This Miranda's revelation about sheer importance of fashion industry, as such that creates jobs, was meant to remove any doubts, in minds of naive viewers, as to the fact that fashion designers who utilize their creativeness to make millions of dollars, in time free from snorting cocaine and applying grease to their rear ends (the ultimate indication of their progressiveness and sophistication), do benefit the humanity. However, people who were able to retain their sense of rationale, despite being subjected to politically correct brainwashing, will recognize Miranda's arguments as simply another proof that there is something seriously wrong with this society.
Moreover, they will begin suspecting women as such who actively contribute to society's inner integrity being undermined from within, because movies female characters, including Andreas fat Black friend Lily, are being represented to viewers as spiritually corrupted individuals, who would stand up for Miranda's ideas as their own. In the scene where Andrea presents Lily with a brand name bag, Lily becomes literary speechless she grabs this bag in such a manner if her whole life depended on it. Despite the fact that movie presents Nate as the least intellectual of all Andreas acquaintances, his verbal reaction to Lily's inadequateness makes absolutely perfect sense: Why do women needs so many bags? You have one, you put all your junk in it and thats it, youre done! . But then, Andreas another degenerate friend, White yuppie Doug rushes to Lily's defense: Fashion is not about utility, an accessory is merely a piece of iconography, used to express individuals identity. Apparently, despite his possession of a university diploma, Doug could not understand one simple thing identity is not something that can be bought!
Identity is something people are being born with, or without. Moreover, in post-industrial world, it is individuals ability to conform, to suppress their identity (which is exactly what Andrea was doing), which accounts for his of her chances of gaining social prominence. However, given Doug's yuppyish appearance, it would be quite appropriate, on our part, to suggest that deep inside, he is more of a woman then a man apparently, while being brought up as mommas boy in secluded White suburbia, Doug never had a chance of expressing his decadently feminized ideas in the company of real men, because otherwise, these men would advise him to undergo a transgender surgery or would simply beat him up back into his manly senses. Therefore, we can say that even by watching how movie male characters act, viewers come to conclusion that feminized perception of surrounding really is in heritably wicked, while growing to consider women as being morally suspect. After The Devil Wears Prada was released to the theaters, many short-sighted feminists and neo-Liberal male crazies, instilled with the psychological complex of guilt, over their possession of a penis, began attacking it as such that lacks feminist motives (Andy consciously chooses to become a secretary, as opposed to her initial plans of becoming journalist). Moreover, many experts on tolerance would go as far as suggesting that movie endorses male chauvinism as fully legitimate worldview.
For example, in his review article The Devil Wears Prada, Aaron Hillis says: Now let's drop the fiction and call a Kate Spade a spade; this real-world precision is what makes the single repeated joke of The Devil Wears Prada as grossly anti-feminist as the fashion biz itself, perpetuating the myth that women sizes 6 and over are fat, ugly, and worthless (Hillis 2006). These critics; however, miss the point. The Devil Wears Prada is actually a feminist movie, because it promotes the idea that only the women worthy of respect are those who are endowed with masculine existential qualities. Nothing proves the validity of this statement better then the analysis of Miranda Priestly character. In his article In The Devil Wears Prada, Meryl Streep Plays the Terror of the Fashion World, Andrew Scott makes an absolutely good point, when saying: With her silver hair and pale skin, her whispery diction as perfect as her posture, Ms. Streep's Miranda inspires both terror and a measure of awe.
No longer simply the incarnation of evil, she is now a vision of aristocratic, purposeful and surprisingly human grace. And the movie, while noting that she can be sadistic, inconsiderate and manipulative, is unmistakably on Miranda's side. It is a movie un apologetically, or maybe semi-apologetically, fascinated with power (Scott 2006). Why does Priestly like to exercise her power over others so much? For the same reason, which prompts physically inadequate men to begin acting like tyrants, once they are being put in a position of authority a deep-seated inferiority complex.
Where does this complex derive from? It derives out of very concept of femininity, as such that equally affect both: men and women. In his famous book Sex and Character, Otto Weininger had said: . The fact is that males and females are like two substances combined in different proportions, but with either element never wholly missing.
We find, so to speak, never either a man or a woman, but only the male condition and the female condition. Any individual is never to be designated merely as a man or a woman, but by a formula showing that it is a composite of male and female characters in different proportions (Weininger, Ch. 2, 34). What is femininity, in metaphysical context of this word? It is persons subconscious strive to be dominated by manliness. However, ...
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Research essay sample on Women As Morally Part 1
