Devil Wears Prada

 

Female Leadership and 'Devil Wears Prada'

       David Frankel's 2006 comedy-drama film presents the audience with the struggles of a woman in the fashion industry, and forces the protagonist to question her ethics in order to get further in this world.  Anne Hathaway's Andy is a recent college graduate attempting to get her break in the world of journalism, but when presented with the opportunity of a lifetime she decides to take a job as the assistant of the illustrious editor of Runway magazine.  This editor, Meryl Streep's Miranda Priestly, is considered horrible by many of the people in the industry, but throughout the film we are presented with a lot of humanizing scenes that put her life into perspective.

       Andy makes the claim that Miranda is thought of in much worse regard than a man in her position would be, due to the fact that women in positions of power are often presented with more challenges when it comes to public perception.  Oftentimes people have unconscious biases towards women in the workplace, and thinking about this through the lens of a man in that role I do believe it would be seen fairly differently.  I don't think that this would dramatically change how I felt about the character though, as while she was doing incredibly well for herself in the world of fashion, she suffered all of the flaws that any person does.  

       There is a question to be raised about overworking employees in the film.  Are these assistants being presented with a fair workplace or are they being taken advantage of by their employer?  Miranda Priestly demands incredible punctuality throughout the film, and as the movie progresses Andy figures out ways to accommodate for this schedule and impress Priestly.  While this does come off as incredibly overbearing at times, Andy is always presented with the option of quitting the job.  I believe that Priestly was fair to the point that she made Andy chose between letting Emily go to the Paris Fashion Week or taking her spot.  We see throughout the film how this environment changes Andy, and she does eventually take her spot.  

       This cut-throat attitude is seen in many of the characters in the movie.  Emily does very little to help Andy during the beginning of the film, and she spends a lot of time telling her about the many other assistants that had come and gone.  While she acts like she is invincible in this workplace, it is quickly seen that Miranda would rather replace her with someone who will go above and beyond in their assistant role.  Out of all of the characters in the film I feel that Nigel got cheated the most, as he had been genuinely helpful to Andy throughout the film.  Although it wasn't the nicest assistance, Nigel was a guiding character for Andy that helped her understand what she wanted out of her job.  After working very hard for Miranda for years, Nigel gets unfairly passed over for a role at another company, one he had been hoping to get for years.

       Overall I felt like this film depicted an environment that consistently turned good people either cynical or broke them, and it was very refreshing to watch Andy get out of it towards the end of the film.  I think Miranda Priestly was a fairly tyrannical boss but not without reason, and her demanding nature was something that would probably be seen as a negative in almost anyone.