What's wrong with Prada?

I haven’t written much lately, due to a lack of anything exciting. I joined Netflix, and bought the Burning Crusade expansion pack to the World of Warcraft online game. And they say Americans are gaining weight because we’re too sedentary…

Yesterday I got a Netflix delivery of The Devil Wears Prada. I hadn’t seen it yet, and was looking forward to some fabulousness. For about an hour and 45 minutes, I loved the movie. Then the ending came, and slapped you over the head with some right-wing family values, and left me rather angry. I hope I am not the only one to have noticed this. Andrea gives up the rising career at a hugely successful organization and a relationship with a successful writer who is captivated by her and is trying to connect her with some of his editor colleagues to further advance her career. She chooses instead the indie-grunge boyfriend who never supported her career choices, just sat at home whining about her long hours, and a job at a little local newspaper. And why?? The only reason the movie states is that the sleek choices are the “dark side”. That’s not proof, that’s an opinionated label. Salt of the earth isn’t better simply because it is salt.

As someone who has been on the wrong end of the family values stick for quite some time, I would like to know why her being a personal assistant with long hours is a relationship-killer, but his being one (if you’ve seen Top Chef or Iron Chef America, you know that a sous-chef is the cooking world’s version of a personal assistant) 200 miles away in Boston is something they can work out. Andrea makes the comment that successful men are praised while a woman in the same situation is vilified. The responding line in the movie is “You’re defending her?” Apparently the women are supposed to wear frumpy clothes and have menial jobs so they can spend all their time supporting the egos of the men. For a movie in 2006 to offer a job at a small newspaper organization as a good career move is insane. As subscription rates plummet nationwide thanks to internet news, print offices are going belly-up left and right. Couldn’t Andrea be a “happy” or “friendly” person while still wearing nice clothes, and working at a job with a future, and being with a successful boyfriend? Is it still 1954? What values is this movie really praising? The best friend sure snapped up the lovely bag fast enough, but whipped out an “I don’t even know you” the instant the status quo was threatened. Don’t even get me started on the shamed avoidance of gayness, in a movie about the fashion business! I did not read the book, so I can’t speak to that text, but the screenplay seems a cleverly disguised attack on whatever it is the red-state family values supporters are against.