This past week I went and saw the film I Don't Know How She Does It with my mother. I was grumbling the entire time because I knew I would be analyzing the film from a feminist's prospective the entire time, which can honestly be exhausting.
Basically a white, upper-class business women with a husband and two children struggles with finding enough time to "do it all". This character demonstrated that even with a supportive partner, who also had an affluent job, and a full-time nanny, it is still hard to find the balance between work and home. The entire time watching this, though I couldn't help but think of the single mothers who have two jobs and no nanny and they barely scrape by to feed their children. It's almost laughable that these two types of women could be compared. A big plot point is that this mom didn't have enough time after her business trips to make something for her daughter's bake sale. I thought about the moms who couldn't afford to get ingredients for a bake sale.
I will honestly agree that this film was a great representation of a certain type of working mother, one that rarely exists in reality. There was a lot of good points raised about women in the white-collared workplace that were somewhat executed, but the film felt very second wave-y in some capacities, which is unfortunate. The LA Times says, "The story lacks the wit to actually say something about double standards or gender politics in a crummy economy." (LA Times) It is too fantastical. My mother, who will love SJP forever, even thought that it was far-reaching and couldn't relate to having the problem of having children in private school and a nanny, but still feeling inadequate. 'I Don't Know...' tries, but just doesn't have a voice.
I agree with this that the character is shown in a wrong form. She seems to be a working mother with also a lot of disposable income. It is a misplacement in society. There is a small amount of women in society who have lots of disposable income and also work full time. (I haven't seen this movie but that's what it sounds like from the description). A movie like this just can't be related to by the masses because the majority are working class and not in the upper white collar area. This brings me to another movie with a great relationship to the masses. Erin Brockovich (2000). Julia Roberts won and Oscar for the film and all around it was accepted as a good movie. Nominated for awards around the globe. I believe this is partly due to the fact that the public could relate to a hard working working class single mother who is desperately searching for a job and has many battles including legal ones along the way. It is an "underdog" movie. No one wants to watch a movie where everyone gets what they want and has tons of money and they may work hard to get it but if there is no struggle then the mass public won't relate very well and the movie will do poorly.
ReplyDelete