Oppression and Females’ Defending in the Devil Wears Prada

Abstract

Although the film industry has improved in terms of portraying female characters since the 1960s, there are still issues visible to the public, and one is the hidden objectification of females in supposedly feminist movies. Another popular opinion recently, especially on Chinese social media platforms, is that fashion acts as a tool of the patriarchy to force the male gaze onto women. However, this paper intends to discuss how the fashion industry acts as a non-patriarchal field that provides opportunities for females in terms of improving themselves. The movie, The Devil Wears Prada, will be analyzed as an example to explain how the fashion industry, in this movie, does not consist of the male gaze and propels the main character’s growth. The approaches used in this paper are Laura Mulvey’s gaze theory and analyzing specific scenes in the movie, The Devil Wears Prada. The scenes will be analyzed using the apparatus theory in films, explaining how the different types of shots influence the message conveyed in the movie. In conclusion, this paper reveals that even a feminist film like The Devil Wears Prada contains various circumstances of the male gaze; however, these circumstances of the male gaze influencing women do not appear because of the fashion industry, and consequently, the fashion industry should not be disapproved as a source of the male gaze, as it provides opportunities for women to improve themselves in terms of their career and wellbeing.