The Stepford Wives Essay On Gender

Director Frank Oz’s film, The Stepford Wives, was published on June 4, 2004. In his film, Oz created a remake of the original 1975 film, showcasing a utopian place where women and men are both perfect and cannot embrace change, and includes a new ending to demonstrate gender inequalities progression. James Tiptree Jr.'s short story, The Women Men Don’t See, was published in 1973. In their novel, Tiptree showcased the struggles in genders in which both men's and women’s gender are defined in expectations and desires. Tiptree writes out that gender is a social construct by presenting white dominant males’ points of view to present a society where women are oppressed by white men. In creating his remake, Director Oz depicted progressive leader

In his movie, Oz presents a scene where the main character (Joanna) is taken to the spa by the other Stepford wives because it is the place where “the women go”. There she is told that they always dress perfectly because they can't imagine their husbands seeing them look unkept and do exercises that are connected to their household chores. Oz tried to demonstrate that in the eyes of men and women are merely objectified to be perfect in every way, especially in how they look. The women fear their husbands to see them in what they view as "unperfect" in what is their true selves because they may believe that being perfect and their role as husbands' wives is the only role that exists for them. It demonstrates that all women work besides keeping themselves tidy and occupying the spa to work on their looks, keeping the houses looking nice. The exercises are connected to their household chores, meaning women just spend the time functioning the house, cleaning it, doing food, etc. Gender performativity is demonstrated in Oz’s film as it showcases those men and women projected the “correct” women's role as sub-human who have no dreams or desires unless it is to fulfill their husbands. These actions and roles were normalized by the women in that they see women as pretty objects for their husbands and cleaning machines for their homes while men are seen as the head of the household and brains when working together at the