The Radical Romance

A Deconstruction Analysis of the manipulation of ideals in The Devil Wears Prada.

At first glance the movie, “The Devil Wears Prada,” looks to be the classic chic-flick underdog Romantic Comedy. It may very well fit into each of these categories, due to the general theme, but deeper issues support a deconstruction analysis of the hegemonic idealization of the world’s consumer society. With the celebration and idealization of material objects and beauty, the movie seems to resemble a massive commercial for every fashion industry name, product, and idea. Though the glamorized film supports the idea of capitalism, and being true to ones ideals will get you places, the underlying messages show and support Marx’s and Gramsci’s theory of culture and ideology, as well as Jean Baudrillard’s article, “The System of Objects.”

The Movie opens with a collage of images and a poignant song, “Suddenly I see what I need to be,” that foreshadows the events to come and puts emphasis on what the audience and main character needs to realize. Anorexic thin women get ready with stylish clothing, make-up and fancy lingerie, all the while juxtaposing the main character’s lack of style and lack of dependency on material objects to make her feel confident. Shoes, boots, and accessories flash across the scene while these women rush into cabs along New York’s busy streets. Each scene thereafter not only names designers, specific articles of accessories, food products or labels, but also exhibits a mass dependency in order for one to feel as part of a greater collective. Jean Baudrillard’s article “The System of Objects,” explains the “serial conditioning,” which consumers have been repeatedly programmed to follow. Baudrillard states that a ‘fixed’ class has been put in place based on the fact that products are created with the intention of classifying an individuals worth in society. The author states that it has become unique to follow trends and that everyone feels at comfort resembling everyone else. Under the section A Universal Code: Social Standing, Baudrillard states, “Within ‘consumer society,’ the notion of status, as the criterion which defines social being, tends increasingly to simplify and to coincide with the notion of ‘social standing.’ Yet, ‘social standing’ is also measured in relation to power, authority, and responsibility. But if fact: there is no real responsibility without a rolex watch!” (Pg. 415 Jean Baudrillard)

In the Movie, “The Devil Wears Prada,” Andrea, the main character, must realize that because her boss Miranda Priestley is Editor and Chief of the most prominent fashion magazine in the world, she has an enormous amount of power, and with power comes the ability to gain access to several things. Andrea’s situation only improves after she realizes she has to change her identity and gain material objects to improve her beauty before she will gain any respect at her job. Like Baudrillard’s statement the first assistant in the movie tells Andrea directly, “Working for Miranda for one year will give you the power to work for any magazine you want.” This not only entices Andrea to keep her job, but actually do well, so as she says in the movie; “I just have to stick it out for one year. And then I can do what I came to New York to do, be a journalist. But I can’t let Miranda get to me. “

Later in the article Baudrillard states that the actual purchasing of brands and items is a system and therefore a contrived notion. He states; “The act of buying is neither a lived nor a free form of exchange. It is a preconditioned activity where two irreducible systems confront each other…. This is not interaction but rather the forced integration of the system of needs within the system of products. Of course, together they constitute a system of signification.”(Pg, 411) In the movie, the audience can see that even the boss, the one who decides what the trends will be and what products will be placed and advertised in her mass produced magazine, also has a addiction to products such as Starbucks, Channel, Marc Jacobs, and Versace. Her constant grips of, “Where is my Starbucks coffee, and how hard is it to get my coffee, did she die along the way?” shows that it isn’t any type of coffee; it is the highly marketable brand of Starbucks that she needs. When one of the magazine designers tells Andrea she is in desperate need of Channel, this idea is directly evident. The entire population of the fashion industry exhibits a specific need of material objects for social standing, for identity and for the ability to feel acceptance. The clothing and free products make the employees of Runway magazine feel as though they too are apart of the dominant culture. Having the sold out two thousand dollars Marc Jacobs purse exemplifies ultimate power and social status, therefore the pressure of not being like all the other employees who strive to impress their fashion diva boss becomes too much for Andrea, and she too decides to change her identity in order to salvage her career goals.

Andrea chooses to change her identity because she was outnumbered by those who believed in the ideologies that the Runway magazine stood for. In order for her to find acceptance she gives up her corner rack off market brand clothing and chooses Channel and Gucci to express her identity. In Chris Barkers textbook, “Cultural Studies,” the theories of Marx and Gramsci express the belief that the structure of society has adopted the ideologies and views of the dominant class that rules over the working classes. Althusser, another theorist states that; “Ideology a system of representations is conceived as a practice that is lived and transforms the material world” (Pg. 63 Barker) This is clearly evident by the representations and images throughout the movie. Ideologies of how thin women should be are constantly presented. Andrea a very skinny size 6 female is often called fat, and mocked for actually eating carbs. The models nibble on nuts and salad, or often starve themselves until an event passes. She too realizes that if she wants to fit into the sample sizes she must loose weight. In a conversation between her and a male designer they state;

Andrea: So, none of the girls here eat anything?
Nigel: Not since two became the new four and zero became the

new two.
Andrea: Well, I'm a six.
Nigel: Which is the new fourteen.

In order for her to fit into the sample sizes available to the magazine workers Andrea must loose weight or wear the ugly clothing left over.

Gramsci’s theory of ideology and hegemony expresses the belief that culture is made up of a combination of ideas that are put together by the ruling class. With the strongest social class creating all the decisions it is impossible for the lower classes to create their own identities because they are manipulated into following the hegemonic idealizations created by the ruling class. He states; “hegemony implies a situation where a ‘historical bloc’ of ruling- class factions exercises social authority and leadership over the subordinate classes this is achieved through a combination of force and, more importantly consent.”(Pg. 66). Within thirty minutes of the movie, Andrea realizes this ideal when she mistakenly makes a snide comment to her boss. Not only does her boss humiliate her in front of her entire staff but also expresses the entire social structure of the fashion world; (The Dialog is as follows)

“This… ’stuff’? Oh… ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don’t know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean. You’re also blindly unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn’t it, who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff.” (Miranda Priestley, Devil Wears Prada).

This scene truly encompasses the idea of hegemony within the consumer world. Consumers do not have free agency when selecting their own identities because the ideas that the populations comes to realize are formations invented by those designing the products. The American society is a huge example of how consumers are forced to consume products that they believe will better exemplify their unique personas and individualities. Though the consumers believe they are freely choosing to purchase an object based on its looks, like Baudrillard stated the consumer is only choosing the object to blend with others who believe it will create a sense of satisfaction. We buy starbucks coffee and buy bebe merchandise to feel like we can afford the brand. It is the need to feel like we are apart of the elite class that enables our spending habits. Marketers spend millions of dollars mass producing and advertising items that the consumers don’t truly need.

The need to belong and keep up with the culture of the time shows the forceful manipulation the media, and production industries have on the populations of the world. Barker states in chapter two that; “culture is held to be a production of capitalist corporations… They argue that cultural products are commodities produced by the culture industry. These commodities, while purporting to be democratic, individualistic and diversified, are in actuality authoritarian, conformist and highly standardized.” (Pg. 50). The film the Devil Wears Prada may show the alluring brands of Prada, Versace, Gucci, and Channel, and make it seem easily attainable if one works hard, but in reality the prices keep the availability so far out of reach for the average person that it creates a misleading representation of what is attainable.

Andrea is only able to gain these products because she is getting them for free. She is struggling to keep her job, so that she can move on and get a better paying job. The items on the other hand seem to control her persona. As the first assistant states when Andrea backstabs her and wins the Paris trip; “You sold your soul to the devil when you put on your first pair of Jimmy Choo's, I saw it.” Every one of Andrea’s friends notes the change in her persona since her identity changed, and she exemplified the idea of hegemony and that in order for one to gain acceptance they must conform to be like the masses. Barker states; “Hegemony is a temporary settlement and series of alliances between social groups that is won and not given. Further, it needs to be constantly re-won and re-negotiated. Thus culture becomes a terrain of conflict and struggle over meanings. Consequently hegemony is not a static entity; it is marked by a series of changing discourses and practices intrinsically bound up with social power.” (Pg.68) In order for the masses to continually fit in they must constantly follow the trends the fashion industry produces. The objects signify power and acceptance and in order to achieve this goal people must occupy the materials representing these ideals. It is because of constant competition that more and more products are being consumed. Since trends continually change the masses must keep up with the current culture and continues to purchase these objects. The cycle continues with each generation that falls into believing the ideologies created by the ruling class. Like Andrea most will find themselves wanting to fit in and be accepted, thus changing their identities to be like the masses, and losing any individuality they once had.

Barker, Chris. “Cultural Studies.” Sage Publications, Los Angeles. 3^rd

Ed. 2008.

Baudrillard, Jean. “The System of Objects.” In class text.

Frankel, David, “The Devil Wears Prada.” 2006.

Images of Plastic surgery..... and their effects on society.

Bordo states in her article that women are never really happy just being themselves, thus we change everything we can to make ourselves look and feel better because of specific ideologies of how our culture believes women should look. Our society is alarmingly undergoing procedures to change everything from our faces, our breasts to the amount of fat in our thighs and even the way our aged hands look. America has turned into a country where we are obsessed with looking perfect. An image determined by elitist and historical viewpoints on how women should look. The hegemonic standard place on mostly women has changed from each generation, whether wearing corsets to appear shapely to looking homely in dresses and high heels, to the Greek Goddess. Each generation through time has created specific standards on how women should appear.
Now our society has taken it one step further and included plastic surgery as a way of achieving acceptance. Bordo’s proof is that even Madonna, the once radical feminist and curve loving superstar changed her ideas and her appearance after she stated she accepted the way she looked because she did not believe that being anorexic thin was an appropriate way to promote herself. Though the Pop star has been widely known to take on new personas and become a chameleon at reinvention she has forced herself to continually change in order to preserve her marketability rate. By changing her image and by becoming a muscularly toned female she not only contradicted her earlier statements but made herself challenge the very beliefs she once represented.
New examples where the media has promoted the idea of plastic surgery is television shows such as “Nip Tuck, Extreme Makeover, The Swan, and 90210” Each show focuses on the ideas that the patient is undergoing specific procedures to fix something about themselves that inflicts unhappiness within themselves. By plasticizing themselves they are not fixing themselves from within but trying to fit a societal standard that will fix the identity they are seeking to fulfill. The question then remains can one fix things about their identities to in order to sooth the insecurities within their psyche? Is it possible to cut and paste ourselves into an identity we are more willing to accept or are we avoiding