ipl-logo

Analysis: The Stepford Wives

1622 Words7 Pages

Robot or Stepford? By: Hiba Tabbara Imagine living in gated town, grass on every lawn, mansion-like houses, and big busted women who follow their husbands’ orders. Now, imagine that a place like this is controlling the citizens’ lives. This is Stepford. “The Stepford Wives” by Ira Levin, published in 1972, shows an anti-feminist point of view where women are portrayed as “perfect” housewives who worship their husbands and do what is supposed to please them. This book was made into two movies, one in 1975 and the other in 2004. Although both movies are similar, their genres differ. The 1975 movie of “The Stepford Wives” shows the horror of having a town made of robots whereas the remake gives it a more comedic side. In the 2004 …show more content…

Men have a “Stepford Men’s Association” at the very top of a mountain where they get together in order to play video games, have a drink, or even discuss their wives. This association is related to “All That Is Solid Melts into Air” by Marshall Berman. Modernity has been affecting our lives in many ways which we are able to see in the movie, “The Stepford Wives”. The Stepford Wives The Stepford Wives sum up almost every man’s “perfect” image of a woman. These women are controlled by a remote their husbands can turn on and off. This remote can enlarge a wife’s breasts, shut her down, allow her to rewind, and focus only on one thing: keeping the house clean and maintaining her body image. We get to see how women are portrayed in a Bourgeoisie society. “The basic plot of The Stepford Wives concerns men who discover the ultimate method of controlling women. The men create robot duplicates of their wives, which have no will and become men 's sexual and domestic slaves.” (EJumpCut). Mike, the men’s association ring leader, was able to convince most of the men to enhance their wives. …show more content…

They visit the Simply Stepford Day Spa. As Joanna and Claire, Mike’s wife, walk into the day spa, we see a group of ladies holding brooms in the center of the room. Surprisingly, these ladies sound like robots answering Claire. Joanna realizes something is wrong when she sees all of the wives dressed to their very best while exercising. Claire snaps back at Joanna saying that women always have to look their very best for their husbands no matter when it is. Claire exercises these women by acting out daily household chores which she calls “Clairobics”. These robot-like women have been manufactured in such a way to fit expectations set by men. One might think where the harm in that is, it’s still exercising. In this movie, women are transformed into an “American Dream” lifestyle for all men. Before these women were turned into robots, they had outstanding jobs such as being a CEO for an airlines company, a well-known judge, lawyer, etc. These women had it all. Their husbands felt ashamed at how a woman, their wife, is able to get a top notch job while they barely do any work. Later on in the movie at the men’s association, the Stepford husbands tell Joanna their jobs. We see that every husband had a job at well-known companies such as Disney, NASA, and the Pentagon. Although these husbands were also payed highly for their jobs, they always seemed to be less superior to their wives. This goes back to the anti-feminist role

Show More
Related
620 Words | 3 Pages

Every once in awhile, shows such as Leave It to Beaver or Father Knows Best come up while surfing the tv guide. While these are two examples of remarkably popular television shows of the mid 1900’s, they also portray the gender normalities of the time period. Gender roles were simply and precisely defined. Men went to work and made the money, while the women stayed home to take care of the house and kids. However, as humanity enters the sixteenth year of the twenty first century, this precision begins to blur.

Read More
949 Words | 4 Pages

Real men are another matter.” Leonard Pitts ended the article with a powerful statement about men. He leaves the reader hanging, which influences the audience to come to his beliefs using the evidence provided. It impacts their view on the authors

Read More
801 Words | 4 Pages

In the nineteenth century, woman had no power over men in society. They were limited in their freedom, as their lives were controlled by their husbands. Some women did not mind this lifestyle, and remained obedient, while some rebelled and demanded their rights. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, are short stories that exposes the lifestyle women lived in the nineteenth century. The protagonists from both stories, Jane and Georgiana, similarly lived a male dominated lifestyle.

Read More
1172 Words | 5 Pages

For many centuries in our society women have been confined into a stereotypical idea of a patriarchal society. In today 's society the idea isn’t as much viewed upon with all the rights women have been given, but the concept still lingers in some of men 's minds. More so, than today, in the 19th century women were obligated to abide to the principle of gender roles and a male dominated culture. Women were seen as to be a slave and to act a certain way towards men as well as be able to gratify man 's lust of expectations of a perfect woman. These presumptions of women had been very much portrayed in short story , The Chaser by John Collier, in which a boy name Alan Austen seeks for a love potion from an old man, for a girl he likes name Diana.

Read More
861 Words | 4 Pages

This distinct view of women isn’t only used by men but also by women themselves. They’ve been boxed into these standards for so long that they pass it along to their daughters and normalize it. Lola’s own mother says that this is what she’s supposed to be doing because she’s the daughter, illuminating how all of these duties are placed solely on the women. Taking care of not only the house but, the men of the house is what makes her the “perfect”

Read More
880 Words | 4 Pages

The 1970s Is known to Be the golden era of British sitcom, There were sitcom That attempted to find humour in racial or ethnic misunderstandings, but in later years the content was criticised. In the 1980s alternative comedy started to emerge onto British sitcoms, alternative comedy Is a style of comedy which rejected established stereotypes and sometimes they also had a political component. alternative comedy was also found in cartoons, one of the first alternative comedy sitcoms to come on the British television was The Young ones and then carried on with BlackAdder.

Read More
540 Words | 3 Pages

Pat and Mike is about Pat Pemberton a skilled athlete unless her fiancé is around, but wants to follow her dreams, and seeks out the help of Mike Conovan a manager. Throughout the movie there are several cultural issues addressed, positive and negatives of how the women are portrayed in the movie. In Pat and Mike there are cultural issues of women becoming professional athletes, women seen as property, and men are being over controlling. First issue is Pat Pemberton a woman that is aspired to become a professional athlete in golf or tennis which is fairly new.

Read More
967 Words | 4 Pages

History has repeatedly given men privilege due to their physical advantages; yet it is these same advantages that have developed into “rules” or expectations that all men should conform to in order to prove their manhood. Michael Kimmel’s essay, “‘Bros Before Hos': The Guy Code” outlines the “rules” where men are expected to never show any emotions, be brave, act knowledgeable, be risk takers, be in control, act reliable, and be competitive, otherwise they would be showing weakness which is analogous to women. It is humiliating that men associate weakness with women; they should focus on the potential of the individual rather than their gender. Most insults toward men attack their masculinity because society finds it shameful for men to be

Read More
557 Words | 3 Pages

In the 1970’s women were expected to stay at home and take care of the household. They were usually not expected to further their education, but instead take care of the children or tend to their husbands’ needs. In 1972 Judy Brady decided to let the readers of Ms. Magazine know how she felt about her “duties”. In her short essay, “Why I Want a Wife,” Brady uses pathos to connect and appeal to the reader’s emotions while explaining why she wants a wife.

Read More
445 Words | 2 Pages

The stereotypical housewife portrayed in the media such as June Cleaver in Leave it to Beaver, displayed

Read More
1394 Words | 6 Pages

He also explains how the world can change men and how values and ideas change men. People fear these changes are affecting the society and lives of other people that they show a bad image to what manhood looks like. Some men do not mind these changes while men do. In some parts of the article, the author talks about the changes in men and how it is

Read More
1209 Words | 5 Pages

Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), presents several controversial yet realistic themes that can be linked to many social justice issues in today’s society. One central point that is highlighted throughout the novel is the objectification of women. In Atwoods novel women transition from normal citizens in society, to baby birthing machines. Women no longer acquire the respect, authority, freedom, and power that men have in the world of Gilead. This objectification that the handmaids are exposed to can be seen all throughout our environment, and there is no limit to where it can occur.

Read More
1304 Words | 6 Pages

The Handmaid’s Tale Essay-How does Atwood’s portrayal of women compare to modern conceptions of women? “I avoid looking down at my body, not so much because it’s shameful or immodest but because I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to look at something that determines me so completely” (Atwood pg.82). This is a quote that the narrator and main character of the book (Offred) says as two other women give her her bath. How hard does a woman’s life have to be that she wouldn’t even want to look at her body.

Read More
891 Words | 4 Pages

Trophies are not always made of gold, or even placed on a high pedestal. That’s right, housewives can be trophies as well (at least, that’s what men thought during the early 20th century). Unless they wore an apron, had food in hand, and maintained an hourglass figure, society forced women to believe that this was the only way the could be housewives, and deserved to be married to a husband. Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie featured Amanda Wingfield, a housewife that is unfortunately a victim of societal pressures.

Read More
720 Words | 3 Pages

Both share characteristics of family-orientation and domesticity, as stay-at-home mothers and main caretakers of their households, often performing “female-stereotyped chores (doing dishes, cooking, cleaning)”. While their husbands act as the source of income, Claire and Gloria are “neither shown on job nor mentioned an occupation”, strongly promoting this as the normalcy between the genders. Furthermore, more focus is put on the women’s feelings than it is on the men’s, portraying females as more emotional, even irrational, “although crying and whining are behaviors exhibited by men and women” (Signorelli). In the Dunphy family, Claire and Phil admits several times how their son Luke might not be the brightest child. Yet in the

Read More

More about Analysis: The Stepford Wives

Related Topics

Open Document