Jessica's Blog
Friday, February 1, 2008
Hollywood Gone Feminist~*~
I noticed something yesterday that I had never noticed or thought of before. Father of the Bride (the 1995 version with Steve Martin) somehow temporarily made it's way into the VCR yesterday afternoon, I thought 'Oh, I haven't seen that in a while'. Thinking about the movie for a minute, I realized the difference between the old version and the new one. In the old Father of the Bride (with Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor), Kay (Annie in the new one) was just going to get married and be a wife and a mother. I couldn't exactly recall if that was stated in the movie, or if it was just assumed by the watcher. No, after I thought about it, it was just assumed by the watcher that Kay did not have a career to worry about... she was 'just' getting married. I don't even think that the movie was done where she had an interest in one, or talked about it in any part of the movie at all.Inevitably, the movie was remade, but what was the big change? The bride was suddenly a career woman. She wasn't going to quit or stop going to school simply because she was going to have a husband to take care of. In fact, that was a big worry on the parents part that she would end up stuck with a freelance working husband and four kids with nothing on her part.
Fast forward to the sequel of the newer version when Annie has her first baby, again what was the worry? That they were saddling themselves with a kid before her career had 'taken off'. To top the storyline, Annie is not only not going to stay home to take of her new baby (movie goers would cringe at the thought of that), she was offered a higher position, which was going to be the start the career she had always dreamed of.
I found the comparison very interesting. Back in the 1950's, unless a woman was a single mother, no one ever thought of a woman having a career outside of her home and marriage. That movie was a good old-fashioned comedy. After 40 or so years go by, it's no longer 'interesting' to the average audience to watch a girl get married and be JUST a wife and a mother. No, now they need to cater to the society that has come, the age of the woman in the office. After mentally scanning some old versions vs. new versions of movies, I found the same thing.
Again, I went down a quick list of movies that have come out within the last year, and in at least 90% of them, the central female character has a career ( if not an 'excellent' one), has her kids in school, or is single and just has a great job, is very very pretty, very well educated, ultra independent with a smart mouth. Or even worse, she is a half naked something-or-another-with-a-gun running around with a body so filled with muscles you'd think it was a man and not a woman. Those are just things in some of the movies that I have noticed, but you get the general idea.
Some of the best old shows done were based on the events of a woman in the house. One of my favorites, I Love Lucy. Even though Lucy sometimes thought that she wanted a job outside of the home, what did Ricky say he wanted? A wife to come home to, and a Mother for his children. I love all of those old shows....
~*~Jessica~*~
