LITR 5439 Literary &
Historical Utopias
Research Posting 2009
Mary K. Boudreaux
Utopia in Film: Suburbawife--The Cinderella Sin-Drone
Imagine living in a community where there is no crime, poverty, or pushing. Women look their very best all of the time. It is the “family paradise”. As Joanna Eberhard states, “All the women are always smiling and having incredible sex in the middle of the day with their husbands.” She continues to use the phrase throughout the movie, “It’s not normal, Walter!” Can this type of Utopia exist without problems? Is there an American dream that there is a true “family paradise” without forsaking one of the genders, particularly the female?
Welcome to the tale of the Stepford Wives. Originally, the movie was made in 1975 and remade in 2004. The original book was written by Ira Levin. In this world of well-off suburbanites, men run the show, literally, from civic planning to the submissive robots that they desire and create in their own mixed-up world of Utopia. The two main characters Joanna and Walter Eberhard experience the utopian world of upper middle class to wealthy suburbanites in the rich tale. During the time in which the original book was written, women in the 1970’s were feeling oppressed by marriage and husbands. How unlikely would a book and later, movie of such magnitude and controversy cause a rush of feminist views that lead to the ostracizing of the male species as dehumanizing to the female spirit and mind?
Walter Eberhard states to his wife Joanna, “Ever since we’ve met you’ve beat me at everything. You’re stronger. You’re faster. You’re a better executive. You’re even better at sex. Don’t deny it!” He takes her out of an environment of cut-throat, back biting men and women to Connecticut where everything is laid back and slow-paced. He also takes her out of an environment where competition amongst and between the sexes exist. Stepford is a quaint little town where few people have traveled. The town is much akin to the description of the utopian town in Looking Backwards by Joseph Bellamy. Martin (1967) states that Bellamy portrayed his society in Looking Backwards not as a wish, but as already accomplished. Bellamy describes Julian, the main character’s world as consisting of peace, prosperity, and equality. His lovely Edith is described as his equal in all areas. She gets to sit on the top of the coach with him. Walter, in Stepford Wives, desires to be his wife’s equal. Julian plans a perfect life with his lovely Edith until the unimaginable occurs, his apocalyptic moment in which he falls into a deep sleep and wakes up 113 years later into the year 2000. As well, he has trouble sleeping at night and an obvious neurotic problem in which he has to become medicated under hypnosis by a physician. When he awakes he must adjust to a new society in the year 2000. Like Bellamy’s main character Julian, Joanna has a nervous breakdown which causes her to be taken to a mental institution and then to Stepford with her husband where she must learn to adapt to new social situations. Likewise, Stepford, Connecticut is a different world for Joanna. The conditions and policies of the town have already been established and the “perfect society” exists. Every decision that is made in the men’s society is for the greater good of the community and the men who make the rules. Joanna feels that her views are being ignored and that she is unable to voice her personal beliefs. Joanna struggles with the utopian male’s view of the role of the submissive woman. She struggles with being accepted by the women who are domesticated and have no views on politics. She constantly struggles with always wanting to be “in control” which is the reason she was fired from the television network show, “I Can Do Better” in which spouses ditch one another for hotter sex partners. She struggles with men running the show. Her aim is to change the people of the town, to liberate them, especially the women. She tries to convince her husband that there is something wrong with the women of Stepford. She believes strongly in individuality, rather than the Utopian view of the community as the center of all existence.
Like Joanna and the other women in Stepford Wives, Martin (1967) also exclaims that Julian in Looking Backward must undergo the drama of rebirth. Not only do the character(s) undertake a reformation or metamorphosis (Martin, 1967); they too must adapt to a social transformation (Martin, 1967). Joanna must die to her old self to fulfill the wish of her husband to live the life of tranquility, happiness and ultimately his American dream of a submissive domestic goddess. In this controlled environment where all the yards look alike and the trees are aligned perfectly, he feels that he has married a liberated woman that is overpowering, domineering, and a threat to mankind and most importantly, himself. The irony is that Joanna’s husband, Walter, chooses eventually to ditch her for a more submissive and hotter sex partner, the new Cinderella figure that has been created to perfection to replace her. She ultimately must make a choice to either conform to the new society or become divorced by her husband. Likewise, in Herland, the three men must make a choice to live in the community and conform to the rules of the society or leave. Gilman (1979) writes “…like Sir Almroth Wright, resents the professional development of women. It gets in the way of the sex ideal…” (p. 130).
Eventually, the question becomes, “Who wouldn’t want the freedom to watch their kids grow up instead of rushing off to work every day?” Society alludes to the fact that it is every man’s dream to have a wife that is devoted to housekeeping, sex, and loves to cook and bake. If a billboard existed to advertise the community of Stepford it would quote, “What a perfect world it could be if everyone could streamline their spouse into perfection!” In this utopian world women are devoted to their husbands in a masterminded community that promotes equality amongst families and the perfect life, without danger, struggle, or competition.
Unfortunately, the “Cinderella” cycle and syndrome does not work. The idea to transcend superficial beauty and transform a woman from drabby grey clothes (Joanna Eberhard) to a fairy princess beauty every day of her life is ideal, thus causing serious mental problems as witnessed by Terry in Herland. Eventually it is Walter who realizes that society cannot exist without individualization. It is through his own wife’s eyes that he begins to see that change is inevitable, but not drastically permanent whereas an identity is depleted. At the end of the day, Walter realizes that all he really has is the men’s society and a make believe world in which fantasy does not mean happiness.
REFERENCES
Internet Movie Database. (n.d.) [Review of the movie stepford wives]. Retrieved June 19, 2009
from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073747/plotsummary. .
Martin, J. (1967). Harvests of change: American literature, 1865-1914. New Jersey: Prentice
Hall.
June 19, 2009 http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,649278,00.
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