The Stepford Wives

The film The Stepford Wives raises quite a few brows by not only feminists but by anyone who has watched either version of the film. In this film, women of different various backgrounds are reprogrammed to look, act and be just like the original women. The twist comes when the men have the robots become the “perfect” wife. The powerful, independent, and free willed woman has no place in there town. These women were strong and respected individuals in society and have succeeded in their own careers prior to the “Stepford” factor. This fact might be pleasing for a feminist to see as this is the kind of woman that was chosen to be a Stepford wife, an independent and self sufficient woman who has it all was not only equal to a man but posed such a threat that men would have to go out and destroy these women. The “perfect wives” clean the house, speak without cursing or yelling, cook for the man, have sex with their men whenever the men want to, and do as the men tell them to, or as they are programmed to.

Now, a feminist would be throwing things at the movie screen within the first half hour simply because it depicts the role of a woman as per the men who sought out to create the perfect wife. A feminist would also be angry at the way all the years of struggle for equality if it all led to a surgeon deciding to make a perfect world or neighborhood. I think in particular, one thing that a feminist will not agree with and dislike very much is the fact that the surgeon who started all this was a woman. Feminists would think that this type of women was left behind in the past and portrays everything that is wrong with the way society sees its women. Feminists would not agree with the idea that men should not act as women nor women as men, as this movie portrays.

In the scene where Matthew Broderick ends up in the room where all the programming for the wives are located, he plays around with the controls starting an irreversible “nano reversal” and deletion of the Stepford program from the wives’ brains. The re-born Faith Hill realizes what her husband has done to her. The rest of the wives follow and begin to take control of themselves and their husbands. Feminists would say that when it all comes down to who wears the pants in the relationship, that the woman wears them better.