Depiction Of Female Power In The Devil Wears Prada
The Devil Wears Prada depicts female power through relationships, career, love and friendships in a complex and often inconsistent perception. The narrative focusses on women and women who are comfortable using power to compete with one another. Generally, female characters 'hold and use private power as wives, mothers, partners'. Whereas in the film, the female characters are primarily portrayed as career women who use that power to enhance their career and role within the workplace.
There are strong female roles in The Devil Wears Prada (2006) focussing on the roles within the fashion industry. The film's main character Andrea (Andy) is the narrative and the film follow her as she becomes co-assistant and struggles to keep up with her boss, the 'dragon' Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). The film revolves around the artificial world of Runway magazine and on the surface demonstrates the power of females but as the film progresses, we are introduced to new gender roles and the idealization of women. Generally, it is idealised that women must be attractive and dependent on the male in order to gain an acceptable life, however this female progressive comedy, starts to encourage conservative morals.
The film revolves around the inner workings of the fashion industry and the audience; not having industry knowledge are allowed to have their reaction cultured when it comes to the characters and the work environment that is showed. From the start, the film illustrates fashion and its industry as being consumed by females who are all in successful roles. The only important male role in the film is Nigel, who is the art director for the magazine. The women in the film surround Miranda and are obnoxious, feminine and gossip-driven, running themselves to the ground to complete errands for her. Miranda is clearly in the powerful role in the film and is painted as domineering the industry; a position that is attractive to feminists.
The main ideology in The Devil Wears Prada is that women should not follow a career if it takes away from patriarchal figures such as friends, family and partners. These figures all disapprove of Andy as she gains ranking in work. Her friends become less important to her and she finds less time for them. The film emphasises that a woman who puts her career first is not able to please her male partner. Andy and her boyfriend Nate become distant when she misses his birthday in order to gain more leverage in the journalism world. She later confides with Nigel to which his response 'That's what happens when you start doing well at work, your whole life falls apart'. This is also reflected by Miranda and her husband going through a divorce and Andy and Nate going on a break before she leaves for Paris. The film pushes the narrative that a non-patriarchal career does not suit women as everyone within their social circle disapproves of her decisions.
The film reassures the oppression of femininity at the hands of masculinity. Carol Clover says that 'gender identity is not restricted to a person's biological sex. Masculinity and femininity become fluid and are not always clear. The film outlines that those who have the power are masculine and those who are subordinate are feminine. Miranda has an irreplaceable masculinity when it comes to running the magazine and the audience is reminded over and over that the feminine roles in the workplace are liquid and 'a million girls would kill to work here' (Miranda Priestly) Andy moves up the ranks in the workplace when she becomes more masculine in her decisions and the film suggests that ranking and masculine leadership is more valued than the dedication of femininity to fashion.
When Andy secures a new job, it is because of hyper-masculinity as she resorts to the role of damsel-in-distress when tasked with the impossible. She finds help from male journalist Christian who she met earlier on in the film. Later on, in Paris, he reminds her she owes him one and later on in the film, they sleep together. When Andy leaves Runway and gains a job as a journalist, it is because of the letter of recommendation from Miranda and ultimately, she gets the job because of her success to masculine characters.
The film focussing on success in the workplace and how it is acceptable for the masculine characters to move higher up in a job at the expense of a female. Miranda becomes vulnerable when her job is at risk, however due to her powerful involvement in the industry, she moves people around, including Nigel, who takes on the stereotypical feminine role and respects the decision with no argument. Miranda; the masculine boss, saves herself by sabotaging her feminine subordinate's role. When Andy confronts Miranda, it is turned around on her as she took the dream trip to Paris from Emily in order to become more successful in her job role. This promotes masculine oppressing the feminine, showing the cold and masculine behaviour of the entire film.
The audience is forced to recognise the female with the predacious male gaze through editing and camera angles. Laura Mulvey argues that 'mainstream film audiences are unconsciously constrained to objectify female characters because women are grossly underrepresented in Hollywood production. Women composed 18% of all writers, editors, cinematographers, producers and directors in 2012. The director and editor for The Devil Wears Prada are males which has meant the film contains numerous revealing scenes, even opening with a sequence of women changing their clothes. In particularly we see Andy in close up shots of her breasts, stomach and pelvis and in a vulnerable state of nakedness after her and Christian have sex. This victimizing image that is in front of the audience depicts Andy as a sex symbol where hyper-feminisation is used to emphasise patriarchal ideologies. The audience is forced to objectify the female character regardless of gender, which overall diminishes the message of professionalism and feminism.
Patriarchal ideals are emphasised in The Devil Wears Prada along with the domination of the feminine gender role. The film enhances the ideal that women need to be attractive in order to become successful.
Andy still remains attractive within her new job after leaving Runway. The film highlights that masculinity equates to business success through the characters of Miranda and Andy. Andy finds herself not wanting to make decisions that would be seen as masculine or dominating the feminine, and this enhances to the female audience that for a woman to succeed she must keep her femininity. The film also puts across that women should value friendships more than their careers and that they should accept men supporting them, not to work against them all the time. Andy made the decision to work for a male boss towards the end of the film, indicating that men are less devilish bosses than females.
