Powerful Women and Misogyny in Film
We all like to think that we are exempt from propaganda; that with enough education and self-awareness, we can side-step the negative impacts of social conditioning. Of course, this is never true, and much of our behaviors and cognitions are based on the propaganda we have been fed. There is, of course, no bigger force complicit in propaganda than film. For over a hundred years film has influenced and reinforced the way Americans perceive themselves and the world around them. This is unfortunate because American society has always been constructed and perceived through a male-centric lens- especially when it comes to the female purpose. This is why I want to analyze how films depict a topic that’s crucial to me: women in the workplace. To do this, I will be analyzing the representation of professional women in two films: the 1942 film Woman of the Year and the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada.
