The Hollywood Wears Skewed Messages
So a while ago I was discussing The Devil Wears Prada with a friend. I decided then to watch the film again with another friend, to see if what had bothered me before bothered me again, and if it bothered her.
First, as an assistant I can actually appreciate this film. My bosses have never been as bad as Miranda Priestly, although I've had the misfortune of working with people not so much better than Emily - all too happy to point out every screw up, no matter how minor. And you're always kind of the butt monkey, even when you do have good employers. People dump crap on my desk all the time. When you're the assistant? It's not your desk, it's the business desk. Where your chair, phone and data in order to do your job happen to be.
In any case, it was a good look at just how much you have to give up your life when working for a bigshot like Miranda; I know people who've worked for large corporations (and theoretically a fashion magazine like Vogue Runway is a corporation), and they left because they really didn't have lives. They were expected to be at the beck and call of their employers at every hour. And sometimes, yes, it sucked and was unreasonable. Having to cancel theater plans with your father to help your boss get a ride? Not reasonable. Although that part of the movie would've been made far more simple had Andy simply not answered her cellphone. Actually, half of her conflicts would've been resolved by not answering her phone. But Andy wanted to.
As we were watching Andy's boyfriend and friends respond to her situation, we were a little uncertain as to what we were supposed to be getting out of it. What we saw was that Andy's friends ultimately couldn't understand that she had new aspirations. One night Andy's boyfriend gets mad at her for missing his birthday dinner. I can understand being annoyed, I probably would be too, but he acted like she'd done something unforgivable. It's not like Andy got back at three in the morning without any sort of acknowledgement of what she'd missed; she probably got home at ten or eleven, and actually did a sweet thing by having a cupcake with a candle on it. But he takes this to another level by beginning to insult every professional decision she makes; he hates that she enjoys her new clothing (I love when Hollywood does Fancy is Bad - no hypocrisy there at all), he hates that she has to work late, and he hates that she wants to go to Paris. Her friend Lily isn't much better; when Lily sees a man kiss Andrea, instead of giving her best friend the benefit of the doubt, she tells Andy she doesn't love her boyfriend anymore and should just go enjoy Paris. When Andy finally quits her job, understandably vexed at how shallow the world can be, her boyfriend says "you did it for the shoes." Andy does not disagree with that. So I think what we're supposed to get out of the film is that working really, really hard is bad, because if you do you just want to have nice things. And go to Paris, which apparently is equal with being evil. I've been to Paris; I guess that makes me a bad person. Whoops.
The thing is that Andy is at no point forced to keep this job. What makes her quit isn't actually her friends and boyfriend deserting her, even though it's supposed to be part of it; to me, that was her her fall-back plan. It's realizing that she and Miranda have both screwed over their coworkers. It's meeting people like the other love interest (for some reason I don't remember his name), who aren't much better than the people they scoff in the end. Furthermore, there's no pressing need for it, apart from it looking good on her resume. She's not struggling to make rent, she's not doing an internship (which would be bad to blow off). Also, Andy doesn't need to answer her cellphone; like I said, most of her conflicts would've been avoidable had she just kept it turned off or ignored it, like when she was about to see Chicago with her Dad. Andy wants to, because she wants this job. And that's what bothers me about this movie: The idea that it's bad to have aspirations that mean you have to sometimes make social sacrifices.
I never once got the impression that Andy just wanted to live in their world. I got the impression she was beginning to love what she was doing, and really, I don't see what's wrong with that. The way she did it wasn't right, like all well written characters she made some mistakes, but the problem wasn't that she wanted nice shoes and didn't care about her friends anymore. I think her friends were, if anything, the other extreme. What Andrea really needed was to ditch all of them and stay in Paris.
Of course, I've noticed that Hollywood often writes things that snub hard work. In Ugly Betty, which bore a lot of similarities, Betty Suarez's family would constantly guilt trip her, to the point where her father had an offscreen heart attack to show how selfish Betty was. Even in films where the hard work has a deeper purpose, such as saving inner city teens from becoming gang members and druggies, the main character (usually female) will lose her boyfriend/husband in the process. They also love to show how being less fancy is better. Except Hollywood thrives on people who work insane hours, on making everything fancy, indeed, on having people wear nice shoes to promos. So what is it saying? Is it a cry for help? Or is it failure to recognize the hypocrisy in their own industry?
I think it's interesting that even though it takes place in an era were women were actually supposed to sit home and knit for their husbands and maybe settle for secretarial work, Mad Men actually averts this trope well, while still showing how poisonous big industries like that can be. Peggy Olsen and Joan Holloway Harris are bullied and treated like shit, and there's certainly an Andy versus Emily vibe to their relationship. Actually, if you watch Peggy's first work scene, Betty Suarez's first work scene, and Andy's first work scene, there's similarities; all three girls are told "kiss your boss's ass. Wear better clothing." Both Peggy and Andy have to make shoe switches. Both Peggy and Betty have to watch their misogynist bosses objectify people. (Although Daniel Meade's written far more sympathetically than Don.) Both Joan and Amanda are objectified for being the pretty woman of the office, although Joan holds a different role.
But unlike Betty and Andrea, Peggy's issue never seems to be that she works hard. We have other people complain that she likes her job, but they're presented as assholes who don't understand that she wants to be at work. The issue isn't that she likes her job, the issue remains how people - on both ends of the table - treat her. Don expects Peggy to be his buttmonkey from the start, and even when he gives her more credit than a lot of people and promotes her to copywriter, that's when he's really terrible to her. Her family, however, is supposed to be equally vile and abusive. Her boyfriend Abe, who later dumps her for being the enemy, is supposed to be an idealist who is just as shallow as the people he complains about. All of Peggy's work problems and all of Joan's work problems stem from the toxic environment of a workplace where the higher-ups have their heads filled with hot smoke, not from the fact that they enjoy working extra hard in an industry that requires working extra hard.
Even Ugly Betty, as contrived as it was and as much as it did press the whole "hard work is bad" thing (if mostly towards the end, though in some ways it made it worse because it came out of nowhere), focused mainly on the problems within the industry. In a melodramatic way? Yes, very much so, but of course so does Mad Men. The point of drama is to exaggerate, to show how bad something is by taking it up a few notches. So in The Devil Wears Prada, then, we shouldn't have needed Andy's friends to tell us "this is what's wrong with your job and why you should hate it." Although a movie has less room than a TV show with five to seven seasons to work with, there are better ways they could have dealt with it. Maybe Andy telling her friends how she ended up going to Paris, and having a few raised eyebrows. That I can see them getting pissed off at her for. Maybe having Miranda have a sympathetic moment before the ending, giving Andy further drive to stay- because we only see Miranda being somewhat sympathetic towards the end of the film, and two scenes later Andy still ends up quitting. Or if the show really wanted to have Andy go evil until realizing what she'd become, turn her nastiness up a notch; have her be snobby .Have her make comments about eating takeout Chinese food. It's not nice, it's not pleasant, but that was one direction.
Of course, even with Ugly Betty there was/is a lack of believability. Ugly Betty tried very hard to make fun of an industry it essentially was born of; it made fun of obsession with celebrities, but in there were constantly guest stars for no particular reason, like Lindsay Lohan. I'm sure an attractive famous woman like Vanessa Williams has made it to fashion week. It's not saying they shouldn't have done these things, they're actors, they're going to act, but it still reminded viewers that really, Hollywood still needs crazy people like Wilhelmina Slater to exist, because they're the ones interviewing their stars and promoting - even defining - the latest styles.
I liked The Devil Wears Prada, despite everything I just said. I think that for all its flaws, it did give us a glimpse into a world I'll sure avoid trying to work for. And again, even though I don't work at a magazine and even though neither one of my bosses were ever as bad as Miranda Priestly (or anywhere near it), as an assistant there was a bit I could relate to to the point where it was a bit uncomfortable here and there. Which is actually a good thing, because it was supposed to be. I just find it hard to watch a film with actors who wear Prada tell me the evils of wearing Prada.
ETA: Since this post took a life of its own, to summarize I talk about conflicting messages in Hollywood, as well as how television and media exposes the problem in certain industries.
First, as an assistant I can actually appreciate this film. My bosses have never been as bad as Miranda Priestly, although I've had the misfortune of working with people not so much better than Emily - all too happy to point out every screw up, no matter how minor. And you're always kind of the butt monkey, even when you do have good employers. People dump crap on my desk all the time. When you're the assistant? It's not your desk, it's the business desk. Where your chair, phone and data in order to do your job happen to be.
In any case, it was a good look at just how much you have to give up your life when working for a bigshot like Miranda; I know people who've worked for large corporations (and theoretically a fashion magazine like Vogue Runway is a corporation), and they left because they really didn't have lives. They were expected to be at the beck and call of their employers at every hour. And sometimes, yes, it sucked and was unreasonable. Having to cancel theater plans with your father to help your boss get a ride? Not reasonable. Although that part of the movie would've been made far more simple had Andy simply not answered her cellphone. Actually, half of her conflicts would've been resolved by not answering her phone. But Andy wanted to.
As we were watching Andy's boyfriend and friends respond to her situation, we were a little uncertain as to what we were supposed to be getting out of it. What we saw was that Andy's friends ultimately couldn't understand that she had new aspirations. One night Andy's boyfriend gets mad at her for missing his birthday dinner. I can understand being annoyed, I probably would be too, but he acted like she'd done something unforgivable. It's not like Andy got back at three in the morning without any sort of acknowledgement of what she'd missed; she probably got home at ten or eleven, and actually did a sweet thing by having a cupcake with a candle on it. But he takes this to another level by beginning to insult every professional decision she makes; he hates that she enjoys her new clothing (I love when Hollywood does Fancy is Bad - no hypocrisy there at all), he hates that she has to work late, and he hates that she wants to go to Paris. Her friend Lily isn't much better; when Lily sees a man kiss Andrea, instead of giving her best friend the benefit of the doubt, she tells Andy she doesn't love her boyfriend anymore and should just go enjoy Paris. When Andy finally quits her job, understandably vexed at how shallow the world can be, her boyfriend says "you did it for the shoes." Andy does not disagree with that. So I think what we're supposed to get out of the film is that working really, really hard is bad, because if you do you just want to have nice things. And go to Paris, which apparently is equal with being evil. I've been to Paris; I guess that makes me a bad person. Whoops.
The thing is that Andy is at no point forced to keep this job. What makes her quit isn't actually her friends and boyfriend deserting her, even though it's supposed to be part of it; to me, that was her her fall-back plan. It's realizing that she and Miranda have both screwed over their coworkers. It's meeting people like the other love interest (for some reason I don't remember his name), who aren't much better than the people they scoff in the end. Furthermore, there's no pressing need for it, apart from it looking good on her resume. She's not struggling to make rent, she's not doing an internship (which would be bad to blow off). Also, Andy doesn't need to answer her cellphone; like I said, most of her conflicts would've been avoidable had she just kept it turned off or ignored it, like when she was about to see Chicago with her Dad. Andy wants to, because she wants this job. And that's what bothers me about this movie: The idea that it's bad to have aspirations that mean you have to sometimes make social sacrifices.
I never once got the impression that Andy just wanted to live in their world. I got the impression she was beginning to love what she was doing, and really, I don't see what's wrong with that. The way she did it wasn't right, like all well written characters she made some mistakes, but the problem wasn't that she wanted nice shoes and didn't care about her friends anymore. I think her friends were, if anything, the other extreme. What Andrea really needed was to ditch all of them and stay in Paris.
Of course, I've noticed that Hollywood often writes things that snub hard work. In Ugly Betty, which bore a lot of similarities, Betty Suarez's family would constantly guilt trip her, to the point where her father had an offscreen heart attack to show how selfish Betty was. Even in films where the hard work has a deeper purpose, such as saving inner city teens from becoming gang members and druggies, the main character (usually female) will lose her boyfriend/husband in the process. They also love to show how being less fancy is better. Except Hollywood thrives on people who work insane hours, on making everything fancy, indeed, on having people wear nice shoes to promos. So what is it saying? Is it a cry for help? Or is it failure to recognize the hypocrisy in their own industry?
I think it's interesting that even though it takes place in an era were women were actually supposed to sit home and knit for their husbands and maybe settle for secretarial work, Mad Men actually averts this trope well, while still showing how poisonous big industries like that can be. Peggy Olsen and Joan Holloway Harris are bullied and treated like shit, and there's certainly an Andy versus Emily vibe to their relationship. Actually, if you watch Peggy's first work scene, Betty Suarez's first work scene, and Andy's first work scene, there's similarities; all three girls are told "kiss your boss's ass. Wear better clothing." Both Peggy and Andy have to make shoe switches. Both Peggy and Betty have to watch their misogynist bosses objectify people. (Although Daniel Meade's written far more sympathetically than Don.) Both Joan and Amanda are objectified for being the pretty woman of the office, although Joan holds a different role.
But unlike Betty and Andrea, Peggy's issue never seems to be that she works hard. We have other people complain that she likes her job, but they're presented as assholes who don't understand that she wants to be at work. The issue isn't that she likes her job, the issue remains how people - on both ends of the table - treat her. Don expects Peggy to be his buttmonkey from the start, and even when he gives her more credit than a lot of people and promotes her to copywriter, that's when he's really terrible to her. Her family, however, is supposed to be equally vile and abusive. Her boyfriend Abe, who later dumps her for being the enemy, is supposed to be an idealist who is just as shallow as the people he complains about. All of Peggy's work problems and all of Joan's work problems stem from the toxic environment of a workplace where the higher-ups have their heads filled with hot smoke, not from the fact that they enjoy working extra hard in an industry that requires working extra hard.
Even Ugly Betty, as contrived as it was and as much as it did press the whole "hard work is bad" thing (if mostly towards the end, though in some ways it made it worse because it came out of nowhere), focused mainly on the problems within the industry. In a melodramatic way? Yes, very much so, but of course so does Mad Men. The point of drama is to exaggerate, to show how bad something is by taking it up a few notches. So in The Devil Wears Prada, then, we shouldn't have needed Andy's friends to tell us "this is what's wrong with your job and why you should hate it." Although a movie has less room than a TV show with five to seven seasons to work with, there are better ways they could have dealt with it. Maybe Andy telling her friends how she ended up going to Paris, and having a few raised eyebrows. That I can see them getting pissed off at her for. Maybe having Miranda have a sympathetic moment before the ending, giving Andy further drive to stay- because we only see Miranda being somewhat sympathetic towards the end of the film, and two scenes later Andy still ends up quitting. Or if the show really wanted to have Andy go evil until realizing what she'd become, turn her nastiness up a notch; have her be snobby .Have her make comments about eating takeout Chinese food. It's not nice, it's not pleasant, but that was one direction.
Of course, even with Ugly Betty there was/is a lack of believability. Ugly Betty tried very hard to make fun of an industry it essentially was born of; it made fun of obsession with celebrities, but in there were constantly guest stars for no particular reason, like Lindsay Lohan. I'm sure an attractive famous woman like Vanessa Williams has made it to fashion week. It's not saying they shouldn't have done these things, they're actors, they're going to act, but it still reminded viewers that really, Hollywood still needs crazy people like Wilhelmina Slater to exist, because they're the ones interviewing their stars and promoting - even defining - the latest styles.
I liked The Devil Wears Prada, despite everything I just said. I think that for all its flaws, it did give us a glimpse into a world I'll sure avoid trying to work for. And again, even though I don't work at a magazine and even though neither one of my bosses were ever as bad as Miranda Priestly (or anywhere near it), as an assistant there was a bit I could relate to to the point where it was a bit uncomfortable here and there. Which is actually a good thing, because it was supposed to be. I just find it hard to watch a film with actors who wear Prada tell me the evils of wearing Prada.
ETA: Since this post took a life of its own, to summarize I talk about conflicting messages in Hollywood, as well as how television and media exposes the problem in certain industries.