Are Stepford Husbands Democrats or...?
On the DVD edition of last year's "The Stepford Wives," we learn that the term "Stepford Wife" has entered our vocabulary with a meaning created by the original movie. However, many people who've never seen the original know what the term means by use-context.
Each interviewee on the DVD's special features therefore defines the label a bit differently. And if you watch the movie, you learn that none of these contextual interpretations is really correct.
"Stepford Wife" means any person who lives in a persistent unfulfilled state, with an inability to adjust cravings and ambitions to the context of what life dishes up to you.
We live in a country which promises that all our ambitions can be realized, a perfectable society. If that's true, why are we not happy*?
Stepfordism is created by a rejection of imperfection. It's also created by what I guess you could call the exact opposite of a Zen state: perpetual uncenteredness. This state is what produced our dogged pursuit of technological happiness. Of course it's all a shadow. If happiness is the same as contentedness (and I say "if"), nobody can be happy in America. We define our success by our restlessness.
The best of our people are never satisfied and constantly pursue something 'better.' People who are "satisfied" are condemned by both right and left, liberal and conservative, as irresponsible slackers.
The new "Stepford" movie is witty and paced well, and functions OK as satire. When the film was over, though, I felt left with the saddest happy ending I ever saw. America's promise is a limitless horizon and the freedom to pursue your own idea of happiness, and the movie ends up with Larry King. How many wives has he had?
----
*If you're happy and you know it, my congratulations. You can read the rest anyway, if you want...
Each interviewee on the DVD's special features therefore defines the label a bit differently. And if you watch the movie, you learn that none of these contextual interpretations is really correct.
"Stepford Wife" means any person who lives in a persistent unfulfilled state, with an inability to adjust cravings and ambitions to the context of what life dishes up to you.
We live in a country which promises that all our ambitions can be realized, a perfectable society. If that's true, why are we not happy*?
Stepfordism is created by a rejection of imperfection. It's also created by what I guess you could call the exact opposite of a Zen state: perpetual uncenteredness. This state is what produced our dogged pursuit of technological happiness. Of course it's all a shadow. If happiness is the same as contentedness (and I say "if"), nobody can be happy in America. We define our success by our restlessness.
The best of our people are never satisfied and constantly pursue something 'better.' People who are "satisfied" are condemned by both right and left, liberal and conservative, as irresponsible slackers.
The new "Stepford" movie is witty and paced well, and functions OK as satire. When the film was over, though, I felt left with the saddest happy ending I ever saw. America's promise is a limitless horizon and the freedom to pursue your own idea of happiness, and the movie ends up with Larry King. How many wives has he had?
----
*If you're happy and you know it, my congratulations. You can read the rest anyway, if you want...
posted by John Bernat @ 6:07 PM
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