FINAL DRAFT: To what extent has the representation of women in contemporary Hollywood films changed for the better, with particular reference to ‘The Devil Wears Prada’?

What is representation? This is a common question asked, which indicates that it is a concept that is difficult to define and sometimes explain. Representation is the mediated versions of people, places or objects in the form of a re-presentation. “Films have been a mirror held up to society’s porous face. They therefore reflect the changing societal image of women—which, until recently, has not been taken seriously enough.”[1] Therefore it is argued that what we see in the media is an attempt to reproduce reality. Women in society have been perceived very differently throughout history and their representation has changed dramatically over the year. In many contemporary films women have started to be represented as being more independent and confident however this was not the case in the past. It is important to evaluate how women were portrayed in the past in order to see how, why and when these changes occurred. The text which will be explored primarily is The Devil Wears Prada (2006)[2] this film can be identified as a contemporary film which represents women as being independent however some elements of the film promote traditional ideologies and forms of patriarchy which oppress women as suggested by Gunter that ‘marriage, parenthood and domesticity were shown on television to be more important for women’[3].
Women prior to 1920 were represented in the media as being the typical women, this means that they were seen as undertaking the usual expressive role in the family. However after the 1920’s there was a defining moment in the history of women’s representation and women were portrayed differently. "Movies during the 1920s depicted what a new “modern” woman should be and served as an instructional manual for young women of the time”[4]. The movie ‘It’ (1927)[5] featuring Clara Bow indicated this change towards modernity through the way she appeared and looked; she had short hair and wore heavy make-up alongside the dresses and skirts having to be shorter. Motion pictures portrayed the birth of the new modern women in film, these women were portrayed quiet differently from the conservative attitudes normally expected to be present in women’s representations. “The motion picture industry not only depicted what as going on in the lives of women at the time; it also trained women in new fashions and social roles that were being promoted at the time”[6]. This was due to social issues during that era which was reflected in the media. Socially women were able to vote in the 1920s which was a great step towards women’s independence, and was a major transformation in the media because this social alteration was being portrayed in movies notably by the motion pictures industry. This links to the hypothesis showing that the representation of women has changed for the better. It could be suggested that this new variation in the appearance of women could be seen as elements of what has been termed as the male gaze started to come about, although it wasn’t until the 1970s when it was first explored by Laura Mulvey in her essay which claimed that ‘In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness’[7]. This can be seen as being an important factor in constructing the representation of women as it shows that on one hand women are given more presence on screen however their power is taken away by patriarchal society by portraying them as objects of desire. Mulvey’s findings can also be applied to The Devil Wears Prada, when Andy has a make-over and is depicted as being sexy; a tilting shot is used, the camera is being tilted up and down Andy emphasising her body and forcing the audience to look. This theory could be seen to be negative as women are objectified however women could also be seen as being in a dominant position and having the ability to lure men. Movies were most popular amongst the female audience during this era, the reason for this may be that they sought escapism and aspired to be like the women in the movies who were shown to be independent, “A Photoplay article in 1924 suggests that 75 percent of the audiences were women, and in 1927 Moving Pictures World stated that 83 percent of the audiences were women”[8]. These independent women would typically be shown as smoking, dancing, etc and would be referred to as ‘Flappers’. This image of women may be seen to be a positive aspect as they gain independence from it however it could also be damaging to their image as it would challenge the gender roles in society and led to behaviour which would be regarded as being deviant for a woman. Women are also the primary target audience for The Devil Wears Prada they would mainly be young females aged between 18-25 years and belonging to the C1, C2, D and E socio-economic groups. This may be the target due to the film dealing with issues such as women’s achievements and a female audience tend to gain escapism from their lives. Through these films women get to experience and undertake the role of an independent and successful woman through associating themselves with the character and adapting themselves with the representation that is conveyed through the film. The main protagonist of The Devil Wears Prada, Andy, would be the character that the audience would most aspire to resemble. This woman is depicted as being very independent, modern and career orientated showing the difference in the representation of women in this film compared to how majority of women in the 1920s represented as being housewives. This shows that the representation of women had changed for the better. However there were a great number of films that represented women as being profession orientated “The American Film Institute Catalog lists 49 sale clerks, 28 stenographers, and no less than 114 secretaries who appeared on the screen between 1921 and 1930. These films tended to glorify these professions…”[9] again this representation of women during this era provided them with escapism from their lives, which was revolved around housework through these films women got the opportunity to associate themselves with these new type of women in society as many women in film were shown moving into the workforce. Bertha the Sewing Machine Girl (1926) is an example that promotes the idea of women joining the workforce and gaining success, moreover it seems to be men making commercial gain from women’s domestic skills. However there still seems to be elements of patriarchy in the position offered to women in the workforce as these roles seem to be sub-servant where their actions are still governed by the greater power of men. The ideology that is being promoted is that men tell women what is acceptable for them to do, when considering The Devil Wears Prada the film could be seen as an alternative as the film seems to change the dominant ideology where Miranda being the women is the boss and is commanding everyone suggesting that the representation of women has changed for the better. The reception theory could be seen as playing a part for the audience to understand this strong representation of women because the audience may apply their own beliefs and experiences to the film.

Historical events that have occurred in society in the past have helped develop women’s representation in the media in a positive manner. In the 1920s women in the United States were allowed to vote due to the Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution this led to the suffrage movement helping women to escape the traditional way of living and giving them a new sense of courage. This led to women being shown in a positive light in the media, by them developing a new and independent representation. Marxist feminism ideology takes a feminist perspective viewing capitalism as a source of gender inequalities which affected women’s representation in the media; they were viewed as being there to produce the next generation of workers. As previously mentioned the Second World War had also influenced women’s representations because men were off to war and women had to take upon male roles in order to help society function properly.

The end of World War II during the 1940s also affected what was shown in the media; there was a dramatic change in society, during this period men were returning from the war and there was an urge to return to the traditional conjugal roles, this was also exposed in the media, “After four years of wartime instability, both women and men seemed to want to return to a patriarchal order, with women in the home”[10]. Women were taking the expressive roles by doing the housework whilst men went out to earn money and fulfilled the role of an instrumental leader. There was a sudden need to get women back into traditional roles because it was the absence of men during the war that led to women taking on male roles the return of men meant the return of the previous family structure. It could also be said that this was a form of patriarchy taking place as the men get to take on the dominant role which also indicates their sense of insecurity because women were fulfilling the role successfully. “The women who were featured in movies were limited to family roles. Women were shown doing housework and men were the beneficiaries of their work. On the other hand, men were employed, had careers, and were doing something outside the home”[11]. During this phase there was great amount of promotion of the institution of marriage; it was a women’s priority to get married in order to feel secure with a man, Picnic (1956) is a film that perfectly indicates this ‘Howard, meanwhile, drives a dejected Rosemary home, and she pleads with him to marry her, explaining that her life is utterly empty. When he refuses and asks for things to remain the same between them, Rosemary declares they cannot see each other again unless he intends to marry her’[12].

The 1950s was an era which again brought in a slight change to the representation of women from the 1940s; the shift towards traditional roles from the 1940s still was maintaining and these roles were being conformed to. ‘Many have claimed that pictures in the 1950s reaffirmed male dominance and female subservience, that women's roles were confined to sex role stereotypes of pretty, amusing or child-like’[13] The African Queen is a film which could be seen to portray this ideology as Charlie the hero puts his life in danger to save Rose this is also illustrated on the poster for the movie where again we see the hero saving the heroine whilst being surrounded by danger this is further emphasised through the long shot used which effectively portrays the danger in the background, the fact that the male protagonist is positioned over the female emphasises the dominance and superiority and also suggests that he is providing her with protection promoting the idea that women can not protect themselves and need a man. This representation of women being in an inferior position to men in the media was a reflection of real life, where men had a dominant role whilst women were adapting to housewife roles and motivation for women to join the workforce was lacking. The idea that women should be dependent on the male was further being reinforced by the media after gaining the basis from society. However the 1950s did bring a remarkable change in the representation of women ‘The way a woman could be portrayed in a film became more open’[14]. ‘In the early fifties the restrictions of the Hays code were loosened’[15]; this was a code before the 1950s which was controlled by Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) which specified how women should be represented in movies, and these restrictions had women portrayed as housewives, maternal and inferior to male. However loosening this code brought about change and women’s representation transformed they were now shown to be more independent. It led to women in modern film to be portrayed as independent which is also evident in The Devil Wears Prada as the character of Andy Sachs mirrors this representation through her commitment to her job and her being so career orientated.

Contemporary Hollywood films portray many different representations of women in the movie The Devil Wears Prada. The audience gets to experience the different types of representations of women as there are two main female characters portraying the different representations of women in the media. ‘Finally in the Devil Wears Prada clip it shows several different women getting ready, by accessorizing, there is a lot of high fashion, which promotes the icon like status of the industry’[16]. The character of Miranda Priestley is shown as being extremely career driven that she has passed the stage where she has to choose between her personal and professional life because she has already made her choice and her career is her priority, this is typically a representation of a ‘ball buster’ where the demanding woman destroys a male’s confidence. She may be shown to be powerful and a superior women in the film but she is not as independent as shown, she mostly orders Andy to do most of her tasks for her ‘I need the new Harry Potter book for the twins’[17]. This choice she has made goes against the conservative expectations; her character is shown to have lost liveliness, joy and has a sense of emptiness which only a man can fulfil. In order to fill this emptiness she has to sacrifice her career but she eventually gets divorced by her husband ‘her boss let down her guard for the first time as she worries about the effect an impending divorce will have on her twin daughters’[18]. There is an ideology represented in the film that indicates that women who are successful in their career are actually not able to cope with their personal life as seen through the consequences that Miranda has to face. Moreover this problem could certainly also be applied to the character of Andy as we get to see that when she is experiencing increased success in her career she starts to drift away from her live in boyfriend. Miranda in the film makes a 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’[19], this shows that patriarchal ideologies are being portrayed where the male has dominance and things meant to happen according to their will. 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 thread’[20] 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’[21] the ideology that is being presented in the film is quite literally that when women have problems in their personal life it is due to them doing well at work because men would not accept the fact that women are doing well as it also goes against their values. He also adds that when your life goes up in smoke it means that it is time for a promotion suggesting that women need to destroy their personal life in order to pursue their professional life. Andy’s character could be seen as the Proppian princess who is the object of the villain’s scheme whilst Miranda’s character is seen to be fitting the conventions of Proppian’s role of the villain being portrayed as the ‘witch’. This illustrates Levi-Strauss’ theory on binary opposition as Andy represents good as the protagonist and Miranda portrays evil as the antagonist.

The Devil Wears Prada also influences positive feminist ideology when Andy has 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. Streep’s character also fulfils the expectation of genre, the film is partially characterised as a comedy and through Miranda Priestley’s sarcastic and unwise comments she introduces a sense of comedy for the audience. For example when there is a bad storm and her flight home is cancelled leading to no flights flying out, she expects to get home no matter what happens she also calls the heavy storms drizzling ‘Oh, please... it's just- I don't know- drizzling’[22]. This also influence the representation of women as they are represented as ridiculous and insensible bringing in the term bimbo giving women a negative representation. Women who are involved in the fashion industry are also represented in the film, as being devil like and evil, they show that these women start to build a harsh personality. This is also illustrated on the poster for the movie by having pitchfork as a heel on a shoe. This shoe is red which connotes danger and is surrounded by a white background which represents purity, this could be a symbolism of Andy as she is pure and innocent before joining the fashion industry but the industry starts to corrupt her. This message reinforces the idea that women are not suitable for work and become corrupt when they become excessively career orientated. Hegemony is being achieved by the institution as they are promoting their dominant values and their viewpoint becomes accepted by the audience.

The Devil Wears Prada is a film that also deals with issues that have currently created social chaos such as the size 0 issue ‘In this celebrity-worshipping, media-saturated age, concentration-camp chic is getting seared into our consciousness like an ahi tuna salad, hold the dressing and the fish.[23]’ The character of Emile is shown wanting to lose weight as she is slim as it is ‘I'm on this new diet. Well, I don't eat anything and when I feel like I'm about to faint I eat a cube of cheese. I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight’[24]. This again reflects upon the representation of women as they are shown to be so self conscious about their looks and maintaining their figure. This is the media whose role is to create an image and expect people to conform to this image which creates a big issue socially as people who do not live up to these representations are socially excluded. This shows that the audience have certain expectations of the way women should be portrayed demonstrating the active audience theory where the audience actively participate in the understanding of the text. This shows that this representation has not changed for the better, giving women a negative representation. Furthermore at the beginning when Andy approaches Miranda for a job she is criticised because she is not the appropriate size which according to Miranda would be a size 0 ‘I thought take a chance and hire the smart fat girl’[25]. There were also reports on how Anne Hathaway who plays the role of Andy went against the Hollywood industry ‘Anne Hathaway has slammed Hollywood executives for encouraging the size zero culture, insisting actresses should not be forced to slim down for roles’[26]. This shows how far the media goes to get a particular representation of women. ‘Finally in the Devil Wears Prada clip it shows several different women getting ready, by accessorizing, there is a lot of high fashion, which promotes the icon like status of the industry’[27]. The movie attempts to depict the fashion industry in response to this people have conveyed different views on how true this representation is. Booth Moore at Los Angeles Times described the film as ‘fine fashion fantasy with little to do with reality’ claiming that it portrays what other people think of the fashion industry and does not show what the fashion industry is really like. Additionally Hadley a Guardian writer complained the film was wash in the ‘sexism’ and ‘clichés’ that, to her, beset movies about fashion in general. However Charla Krupp the executive editor of Shop says ‘it’s the first film I’ve seen that got it right’. This shows the representation of women of the fashion industry being presented as backstabbing and sucking-up. It could also be argued that Andy takes on male characteristics to achieve success as she side steps Emily to be able to go to Paris, this illustrates that in order for a women to gain success they need to take on male qualities; this loses the real representation of women by giving them male characteristics showing that women’s representation has not changed for the better.

Erin Brockovich is a film that deals with similar issues to the ones in The Devil Wears Prada the character of Erin has her personal life on one side and her professional career on the other, she is a single mother of three children and has to support them. She later finds herself a boyfriend but situations start going downhill and she ends up in the same dilemma where she has to make a choice between her boyfriend and her career her boyfriend says to her ‘Erin what I’m thinking is that you got to find a different job or a different guy’[28]. This film is not a really recent film it had released in 2000 which shows that this issue with women either pursuing their career or taking on their personal life has been going on for some time.

Fundamentally women’s representations have changed vastly whereas first they were regarded as being virtually in no power and for them to be independent and self contained they had to face many hurdles during the process however the end result shows that it has happened for the better. Conversely there are hidden messages within the current representations women that suggest that women are only suitable for the conservative roles and should prioritise their personal life over their career. When applying it to The Devil Wears Prada the audience tend to get a mixed message where we have Andy electing for her personal life over her profession and on the other hand there is Miranda Priestley who picks her profession over her personal life. The audience are more likely to passively take in the ideology that women’s personal life is more important due to the audience personally identifying with the character of Andy as she tends to be the role model for the audience. Finally the representation of women have improved but there is still some stigma attached to women who are seen to be independent and powerful but considering how women were seen previously their representation have changed in a positive manner and for the better.
3876 Words
[1] Popcorn Venus: Women, movies and the American dream, Author: Marjorie Rosen, Publisher: Avon (1973)
[2] The Devil Wears Prada (2006) Dir: David Frankel
[3] https://www.msu.edu/~quattron/WRA140/page1.htm

[4] Women, Films and the 1920s
[5] ‘It’, (1927) , Dir: Clarence G Badger
[6] Women, Film and the 1920s
[7] Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975) Laura Mulvey
[8] https://www.msu.edu/~quattron/WRA140/page1.htm

[9] Women, Film and the 1920s
[10] https://www.msu.edu/~quattron/WRA140/page1.htm

[11] https://www.msu.edu/~quattron/WRA140/page1.htm

[12] http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=86664
[13] https://www.msu.edu/~quattron/WRA140/page1.htm

[14] http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a9003211/cheathouse/hollywomen.html
[15] http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a9003211/cheathouse/hollywomen.html
1.[16] http://blog.lib.umn.edu/puot0002/gwss3306/2007/01/

[17] The Devil Wears Prada
[18] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458352/synopsis
[19] The Devil Wears Prada
[20] The Devil Wears Prada
[21] The Devil Wears Prada
[22] The Devil Wears Prada
[23] http://www.frankwbaker.com/hollywoods_thin_look.htm
[24] The Devil Wears Prada
[25] The Devil Wears Prada
[26] http://www.actressarchives.com/news.php?id=4433
1.[27] http://blog.lib.umn.edu/puot0002/gwss3306/2007/01/

[28] Erin Brockovich