Lingerie or Granny Panties

As children, young girls tend to go in one of two directions, either they become tree climbing, fearless tomboys or dress up loving girly girls. In the movie, The Devil Wears Prada, the protagonist Andy is presented as a tomboy, which distinguishes her from the sea of women she works with. As the movie begins the audience sees the pattern of women in their normal routine of getting dressed. They begin by putting on their "sexier" lingerie, then their designer high heels, next their stylish business suits and finally applying make- up. This juxtaposes Andy who instead begins begins her process by putting on her "granny panties", clogs, less attractive suit and no make up. As the movie progresses the audience learns that Andy's style is unacceptable for a woman in the world of fashion.

Andy beings her journey as Miranda Priestly's assistant, very comfortable in her own skin and rather homely attire. She claims that she will not end up like the "clackers", or the ladies who walk around the office in their high heels making a clacking noise. Andy's colleague Emily suggests that Andy has no style and that she is heavier than all the others, through her smart remarks and laughs. In the beginning Andy did not let this break her, she still wore what she want, yet had trouble fitting in at her job. So at the start of the movie, girls who may be tomboys and not so much fixated with appearance would see that it is okay to be that way. Andy, at first, showed that as a woman you don't have to fit the gender role as a girly girl, that is slender, fashionable, with big boobs and long hair.

Although as the movie  goes on Andy begins to change. Because she does not fit and gets laughed at by the other workers, Andy morphs into the girly girl she so desperately wanted to stray away from. She began to wear designer shoes, clothes and make up. A friend of hers who also worked at Runway, Nigel informed Andy that by wearing her normal tom boy clothes she was not "trying" to do well at her job. And when she did change, she transformed into a non- outcast and became successful; even Emily began to notice.Andy had been promoted to Miranda's top assistant due to her new transformation and Miranda said that she could "go far" in the industry, all because she changed who she was. With the progression of the movie, the audience learns that being a tomboy and not fitting into a traditional female role is not acceptable and will not get you very far in life.

As the movie comes to a close Andy realizes how much she did actually change. She was able to reflect back on how her life became such a mess because of her transformation.

Throughout the movie, the audience sees the idea of sexuality as it "should" be according to gender roles. Andy could not be successful unless she removed her tom boyish ways and transformed into a girlier girl. Although, the movie does portray sexuality in a different way. Andy's relationship with her fiancee was not the typical patriarchal romance, and neither was Miranda's. In fact, both women were more successful than their significant others, which caused their relationships to deteriorate and end. In this way the movie showed that relationships will also be unsuccessful if they do not follow the norm of patriarchal relationships.

All in all, I see this movie as pushing the audience to succumb to society's rule; to fit in the roles it has set for us. If Andy had not become the girly girl she did she would  have still been a broke journalist looking for work.