ok i know i just blogged today but take it as a makeup for not blogging for so long...

i just watched Stepford Wives (and i think i can hear leonard tsking in the background at me for having taken so long to finally watch it.) and after it finished i just had to come here and rant...

ok not that it's a bad show, it's brilliant really...

but.

here comes the long ranting post that i think some will find just tiresome. but well.

For what I see to be an otherwise quintessentially feminist movie, there are too many subtle details that undermine feminism. Major plot movements throughout the movie, while successful in sustaining interest and suspense, are thematically weak and perhaps even contradictory.

In a scene where Joanna confronts the men, for example, although she breaks the mould by going against stereotype and challenging male authority in Stepford, questioning their methods and treatment of their wives, she is ultimately shown to be after all, female, with the classic female weakness in love. The act of her kissing Walter could be seen as her final plea to him to show him that no Stepford Wife could replace her, but ultimately, she succumbs to her love for him and lets him make the final decision. In this alone the man is shown to be in power yet again.

Further down the movie the audience is shown that Joanna has not really become a Stepford Wife and has been merely playing a part to fool the town. However, a subtle statement is made by showing Walter to be in action, instrumental in dismantling the plot, while Joanna distracts Mike, and the movie falls to the standard stereotype of the man in action, saving the day. Although much could be said about Joanna and what goes on that is not mentioned in the movie, for example the exact circumstances leading up to her "transformation", it is ultimately true that she is somewhat reduced to from the woman who could have made a difference to Walter's sidekick.

Even in charcterisation there are minor details that seem to undermine the feminist thread running in the movie. For example, while it seems at first that Joanna is pitted against Mike, ultimately the "bad guy" is shown to be after all a woman. She is shown to be firstly, mad, driven insane by the shock of discovering her husband's infidelity. Then she is shown next to be scheming, planning to spread her skewed plans worldwide. Finally she is again a pitiful woman, whose weakness in love has brought her downfall and ultimately her death.

so yar thus ends my short sojourn back to the days when i could just launch and my pen would devour foolscap and produce 5 sides of essay material in 45 minutes...

i like to think i haven't lost it yet...