Film analysis

Media Representations
‘The Devil Wears Prada’ is a film that is most famous for the representation of women in the film and also the representation of the fashion industry. There are different types of representations when talking about the representation of women in the film. We have women represented as strong and superior like as Miranda Priestley (Meryl Streep) however this is how she is seen from the outside where as she is actually quite weak and feeble as we later discover in the film. On the other hand we see the presentation of Andy (Anne Hathaway) who is seen to be helpless and vulnerable later adapting herself to the expectations that are attached to her showing the strength she has in the inside which she brings out later when she was provoked to do so.

The generalisation that could be made about the portrayal of women in the film is that no matter how much career orientated women become there will always be a point in life where they have to decide to pursue their career or their personal life. Miranda in the film makes comment that could be applied to women in general and make them think ‘people think that success just happens to you… it doesn’t… want this life (success)… the decision is yours’.The issue of the glass ceiling is raised in this film and this subject is presented accurately as in many cases this idea of the glass ceiling have been raised in real life situations for many women. Andy in the film can’t balance both her personal and professional life one always becomes an obstacle for another ‘my personal life is hanging by a threat’ Nigel her colleague replies to this comment by saying ‘that’s what happens when you start doing well at work…I mean all your life starts going up in smoke… It means that there is time for a promotion’ the meaning that is being picked out of the film is quite literally being said that when women have problems in their personal life it is due to them doing well at work. He also adds that when your life goes up in smoke it means that it is time for a promotion suggesting that you need to destroy your personal life in order to pursue your professional life.

There is also a representation of the fashion industry as being ruthless and mainly accepting women who are a size 0 however taking on Andy in Miranda’s runway was an exception because she was seen as a strong and ambitious women as Miranda says ‘I thought take a chance... hire the smart fat girl’. However she was looked down on because of her appearance as Nigel says ‘who’s that sad little person’ which shows that the fashion industry thinks that appearance is the primary factor in women.

Genre
The Genre which ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ belongs to is the Comedy and Drama genre, the conventions of this genre would be to provide momentary escape from day to day life and this film tends to do that and they usually end with a happy ending which this film does as she goes with her boyfriend although she has sacrificed her career to be with her boyfriend. The character of Andy is generically determined she may not be there to give the film a comic relief but she may be seen as the character that does that by her personality but before she changes her appearance. Miranda Priestley is a character which the audience can laugh at because of the sarcastic comments she implies. For example there is a really bad storm and her fight home is cancelled leading to no flights flying out and expects to get home no matter what happens she also calls the heavy storms ‘drizzling’.

Media Values and Ideology
The main values that are presented in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ are that personal life is valued the most. When thinking about the values presented of the fashion industry in the film then all that is important is being a size 0 and having to be wearing the latest clothes.

Patriarchal ideology is being submitted in the film although the film portrays a strong woman fulfilling her dreams and the end she has to give up her career in order to be with her boyfriend, this shows the victory of the man which means it is the victory of patriarchy.

Positive Feminist ideology is another form which is used in the film this is shown when Andy has got a job in the most famous fashion magazine whilst her boyfriend is working as a chef at a restaurant showing the different job status with Andy having a better job.

Heterosexual ideology is conveyed in the film as the film only include opposite gender couple romancing and making love.

Media Audiences
The primary target audience for the film is young women who are 20-30 years old who are career orientated because they can associate themselves and see themselves in Andy’s situation with their busy lives. The secondary target audience for the film would be a much younger audience aged 12-19 years who watch the film to gain escapism and be inspired to pursue a life like Andy’s.

Furthermore the film is generally aimed at women because the main focus of the film is on Andy as she is vulnerable to situations that only women can relate to because many women experience similar restrictions in work life which enables the audience to personally identify with the protagonist.

Men would possibly also watch the film and most of them who have a patriarchal view would be pleased to see that women are still prioritising their personal lives over their profession, people who like to view things in this view would be seen as traditionalists who want things to stay the same and don’t want women to come up. Men with a patriarchal perspective would see women who want to give women more importance and opportunities as rebels who wish to re-make the world in their image when they are innovators who wish to make their mark.

Representations of Femininity

Feminism has been a recognised social philosophy for more than thirty years, and the changes that have occurred in women's roles in western. Yet media representations of women remain worryingly constant. Does this reflect that the status of women has not really changed or that the male-dominated media does not want to accept it has changed?
Representations of women across all media tend to highlight the following:

• beauty (within narrow conventions)
• size/physique (again, within narrow conventions)
• sexuality (as expressed by the above)
• emotional (as opposed to intellectual) dealings
• relationships (as opposed to independence/freedom)
  

The representations of women that do make it onto page and screen do tend to be stereotypical, in terms of conforming to society’s expectations, and characters who do not fit into the mould tend to be seen as dangerous and deviant.

Discussions of women's representation in the media tend to revolve around the focus on physical beauty to the near-exclusion of other values, the lack of powerful female role models, and the extremely artificial nature of such portrayals, which bear little or no relation to the reality experience by women across the planet.

The problem is not that these women work in fashion - it's that they work, full stop. And this is what movies about the fashion industry always do: they make fun of or punish - or both - women devoted to a job they enjoy.

But besides the unacceptable idea of women working, there is the added crime that they work in an industry run, very successfully, by other women. Hence, fashion journalists in movies are depicted as childish, sniping about one another's weight and clothes. But fashion journalism is a multimillion-dollar industry and one that would be very hard to keep afloat if the editors sat around all day fretting about whether they're a size six or four.

Women are being underrepresented in the media

• as sex objects
• as subordinate to men reinforcing a patriarchal society.

Positive stereotypes:

• Women being more independent
• Women try harder at education than men

Negative stereotypes:

• Women belonging in the home
• Housewives
• Femme fatale
• Only men could do physical jobs such as mechanics

Changing stereotypes

• Women becoming more independent, active and self reliant
• Women no longer stereotyped as housewives
• Women playing as well and as much as men in sports such as football

Research on women and the media

The feminist revolution
The women’s movements didn’t suddenly arrive. Since the days of the suffragettes an increasing number of women had seen the need for equality with men.

Representation and stereotyping of women in the media
Feminist believe that the media is a contributory factor in perpetuating a narrow range of stereotyped images of women. For instance, women are always based in the home, they are inferior to men, they like men who are violent.

Film was one area of the media that could become a battlefield for the women’s movement. Film would be used as an ideological tool, which would counteract the stereotyped images of women presented by the male dominated media and raise women’s awareness of their inferior position in patriarchal society.

History of women in the media
In the late nineteenth century women were excluded from the film making process, during this time women did work in non technical areas such as being the make-up artist or production assistants. The early women film makers were in France and America and were none in Britain. The first women director was Alice Guy Blanchè from France who made her first one minute short film programs called The Good Fairy in the Cabbage Patch in 1896 after working 11 years in France she moved to America and found that there were greater opportunities in America.

Theories and Theorists

Kaplan (1983) - She comes up with an answer that opens a door for readings. She shows that women are not necessarily portrayed as an object of gaze; it is men who act on the desiring gaze. Both men and women can adopt dominant and submissive roles. She then goes on to explain ‘understanding our socialisation in patriarchy’. Women are constructed cinematically and this reading refuses to accept the naturalising process of patriarchal socialisation.

Linda Williams (1984) - ‘when the women looks’ (when the women became dominant) she usually pays for it often with her life. The Women’s Gaze is punished by narrative a process that transforms curiosity and desire into masochistic fantasy. So this ability to switch roles is not necessarily fortunate, it is potentially dangerous.

Thelma and Louise (1991) – was seen as a feminist film. Although a more cynical analysis of the film reveals that the women are filmed quite conventionally as objects of ‘the look’.

Patriarchy – ideas that support and justify male dominance
Laura Mulvey- Mulvey claims that there are two ways in which the audience looks at films and that is:

• Voyeuristically
• Fetishistically
  

Audiences who watch people on screen are voyeurs. This can lead to two effects:
-Objectification- female characters controlling male gaze and human characteristics being taken from them.
-Narcissistic identification-having an ideal image on screen

Gauntlett- argues that the media reflects the difficulty experienced in modern society and that is that gender roles are more complex. The female’s role models today are often glamorous as well as successful. He argues that this is due to the ‘rise in girl power’The reason women are represented poorly is due to lack of females in higher positions. Media is male dominated as a result woman are represented from their point of view.Film in particular sees women in an active role however they are being shown as eye candy and objectified.

Naomie Harris
“Film is such a male dominated industry”

• Men are in every level making it harder for women to get their feet in the door
• The way of working makes it difficult for women to succeed in the business.
• The responsibly of caring for a child and working in the media could be a lot of work to handle.
• Women are better organisers (producers) and males are more creative (directors)
• The role of a director is equivalent to raising a family
• Films have expensive and advanced equipment and so males understanding how and when to use it
• Being charge of 10 to 150 large men with heavy equipment is best carried out by a male
• When women just has a child, its easy for them to go back to being a producer, however its harder if you’re a director

Gunter (1995)-In the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, only 20% to 35% of characters were female. By mid 1980’s, women were in more leading roles but still there were twice as many men that women on television.

Gunter (1970’s)-Found that marriage, parenthood and domesticity were shown on television to be more important for women.

McNeil (1975)-Women’s movement had been largely ignored by television with married housewives being the main female role.He also found men to be dominant characters and the decision makers on TV. Men were more assertive (aggressive) and women more passive.

Gaye Tuchman (1978)-He argued that women were underrepresented in media fictional life. A term he sued to describe this was symbolically annihilated.

Gillian Dyer (1987)-Television was increasingly taken women seriously and there are a number of programmes that feature women in a more central role.

Rosen (1973)-The role of women in a film almost always revolves around her physical attraction

• 89% of adverts used a male voiceover
• Men were twice more likely than women to appear in adverts for non-domestic products.
• Housewife images began to decline slowly after the 1950’s

Greer (1999)-Much more pressure was put on women to impress with make up, high heels and wonder bras.

Walter (1998)-Attractive people earn more than their plain colleagues.

As Jonathan Schroeder notes, 'Film has been called an instrument of the male gaze, producing representations of women, the good life, and sexual fantasy from a male point of view'. The concept derives from a seminal article called ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ by Laura Mulvey, a feminist film theorist.