Gender Norms In Mike Newell's Mona Lisa Smile

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Though common in today’s society, women during the 1950’s lacked in their own goals and professional careers. Mike Newell’s, Mona Lisa Smile begins his film with skepticism regarding the female students attending Wellesley College and Katherine Ann Watson, the art history instructor. The starting point of the film represents the female students as highly motivated but naïve. At the conclusion, the same Wellesley students uncover contemporary thoughts and feelings they were previously forced to repress. Despite the actuality of the characters in Mona Lisa Smile, the post-World War II era was a period of stereotypical gender norms, in which women were merely minions to their husband. Although the film’s main character is Katherine Ann Watson, …show more content…

Watson’s class, speaks about pursuing a Juris Doctor to become a lawyer. Mike Newell places this conception in his film to show that women had underlying goals. Giselle Levy states that Ms. Watson “practically filled out the application” for Joan, because although she thought about becoming a lawyer, Joan had not seriously considered the notion of pursuing Yale. Women in the Golden Age were submissive to society, in which their thinking was being controlled by everyone else. Freidman’s (1963) published article tackled the issue of women’s indistinguishable unhappiness. The paper details how women were pitted against one another. They were essentially taught to hate women who wanted to be different. Similarly, in Mona Lisa Smile, Katherine Ann Watson was unpopular for her unorthodox methods of teaching; for not following the syllabus. She was almost fired because of this. Although Watson struggles through it, not many women were as headstrong as her. Orleck’s (2004) paper further explained how being different meant being labeled as deviant and subversive. In other words, the 1950’s was an era of intolerance. Emphasizing back to women’s own ambitions, Friedman (1963) proposes that the young women of the 1950’s gave up their dreams so easily. In the film the female students, specifically Joan Brandwyn and Betty Warren, have become docile to the ignorant societal beliefs. Joan gives up on law school, and Betty follows by showing less interest in

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