Peter Krupa

The Devil Wears Prada fits in two genre niches: Fashion porn and Manhattan media scene gossip. If you’re not interested in either, there is little reason to watch it, which means I would not recommend the movie to the readership of this blog. Although I have to say, the acting of Meryl Streep as the wicked stepmother boss was so delicious, that it alone makes the movie worth watching. As a rental.

In a nut-shell, The Devil Wears Prada is a cautionary tale about how one shouldn’t let the New York fashion world destroy one’s soul with its shallowness, in-fighting, arrogance, ruthlessness, and arbitrariness. Instead, one should find peace in New York’s restaurant, art, and newspaper professions, which have none of those negative qualities (rim-shot please).

But seriously. I enjoyed it quite a bit now that I live and work in the aforementioned media scene. I got all the provincial references to New York City things, recognized the streets, subways, taxis, stereotypes, etc. The fashion montages were many, yet unnoticed by me at the time. Looking back, however, I can sort of imagine the pitter-patter of the female heart watching the heroine don $500 shoes and select a wardrobe from the “samples” room.

The male equivalent is that scene in action movies where the heretofore helpless and beleaguered good guy discovers his superpowers, or finds the back room with all the guns hanging on pegboard and the ammo piled up in kegs along the wall. Dude. Sweet.

But there were larger social issues. Oh yes. Social issues. For example: the failure of feminism. I know what you think I’m going to say, and I’m not going to say it. I don’t particularly give a shit about the 21st century feminist dilemma of family versus career.

What’s interesting to me is what “career” tends to mean in the life of a woman today. Consider the main character, Andy Sachs. Not only is she perfectly willing to be abused and vilely shat upon as a lowly assistant - she’s willing to be an assistant.

Look around the professional world and you find this type everywhere. The cute (but not hot) PR girl, the event planner, the editorial assistant, the personal assistant, all young, smiley, bright, educated women whose nurture instincts are turned on full blast.

These women in the professional world aren’t setting the agenda. They’re planning, organizing, and scheduling for their bosses, who are often men. They are screening calls for their bosses, who are often men. They are running errands for their bosses, who are often men. They are doing a job which you rarely find men doing, and which in former times had a much more pedestrian title: secretary.

Draw whatever conclusions you want about that. I’m just making an observation. Without positing a cause for the phenomenon (Nature or nurture? You decide.), let me just say it will be hard for women to close the gender gap while their best and brightest are content to play a supporting role.