The Stepford Wives

It’s pretty clear to audience how throughout the film, The Stepford Wives that men are seen as being more superior and dominate to both their wives and other women throughout the community. This kind of mentality is similar to that of the 1950s and 60s. This mentality is where a women’s job in life is to take care of both her husband and children, while being both happy and content about doing so. This mindset made Betty Friedan write “The Feminine Mystique”. In “The Feminine Mystique”, Friedan talks about the unequal treatment of women. Which is exactly what the viewer sees throughout the film.

This constant theme of unequal treatment towards women is repeatedly seen throughout the film. The first time the audience members are given a sense of the film’s mentality is in one of the opening scenes where Joanna expresses how she’s tired of her husband, Walter, making all the decisions, like their decision to move to Stepford. This scene tells the viewer that Joanna is capable of more than her husband thinks. This is exactly the type of mindset talked about in “The Feminine Mystique”. In a line from the article it says, “she was afraid to ask even herself the silent question – “Is this all?”” This line expresses how women feel there is more to their life than just taking care of their husband and children. That Joanna is just as capable of making decisions as her husband.

Women are seen as less than equal to their husbands and are often times just seen as pretty models. In Friedan’s article, “The Feminine Mystique”, it says how “”If I have only one life, let me live it as a blonde,” a larger than life sized picture of a pretty vacuous woman proclaimed from newspaper, magazine, and drugstore ads.” This type of view resembles how the men of Stepford see their wives and other women throughout the community. It is made pretty clear to the audience that the men see the women as just pretty looking housewives. This view is made clear in the scene when Walter and Joanna have men over from the Men’s Association. Joanna can barely get a word in the men’s conversation. The entire time she is admired by the men while Diz draws her like a beautiful model. This scene depicts to the viewer a time of when women bodies were not respected and that they should in the presence of men be silent and look pretty.

Originally Joanna feels as if she the only one in Stepford who has these feels of wanting more out of her life. This feeling of loneliness passes when she meets Bobby. Joanna is relieved that she’s not the only one feeling this way. In “The Feminine Mystique”, Friedan says, “…two of the woman cried in sheer relief, just to know they were not alone”. Joanna is able to cope with these feeling of emptiness knowing that someone else feels exactly how she feels.

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