"Copying the Wife"-Women who were transformed into dishwasher robots because of their talk about choices

Jensen 2021-12-31 08:03:09

"Copying the Wife"

Introduction to the film: Joanna (Nicole Kidman) and her husband (Matthew Bradley) moved to the Steffi Country Estate due to a job change. Soon after, she discovered that the neighbors’ wives were abnormal and they were too perfect. Appears to lack emotion and personality, except for her new friend Barbie (Betty Miller), a writer and friend. Barbie is a crazy, bitter, and alcoholic wife, and obviously still has human nature. The two of them started investigating the truth about their neighbor's family, only to find that their husbands had colluded and replaced all of their wives with submissive and obedient copy robots.

For a while, the question "What kind of experience is it to be a woman in China" frequently appeared on the homepage of my Zhihu. Like most Zhihu questions, the answer contained various stories and principles. And this question is mostly negative answers in the face of it. For this reason, Zhihu even has a new question: Why is the answer in "What kind of experience it is like to be a woman in China" is mostly negative. This subject has faintly raised to the height of a typical social phenomenon.

Leaving the latter question aside, a high-voted answer from the former is a bit interesting. The answer quoted a passage from Professor Wu Zongguo of Peking University in the documentary "General History of China": Many people associate the Anshi Rebellion with Concubine Yang, which is a complete repetition. It is an excuse for Tang Xuanzong's ancient saying that confidantes are causing troubles. What kind of logic is this when men ruined politics and let women take responsibility!

Of course, this sentence has been said by many people. I didn’t check the true source. It just reminds me of Chen Kaige’s movie two years ago, "The Legend of the Demon Cat". Before I talked about "Copying Your Wife", I thought Let’s talk about "The Legend of the Demon Cat" first. Chen Kaige once personally interpreted "The Legend of the Demon Cat" in an interview, saying: "Love is to have to come, or to die"; "Women and teenagers have always been the subject."

The death of Concubine Yang Gui has always been a mystery in history. In my opinion, the answer is actually very simple. It is not clear how she died, but why she died. It's just that under the main theme, people don't want to believe in the love in "Song of Everlasting Regret", and how much politics and power take up. Just as the master behind the scenes in "Copying My Sweet Wife" strives to pursue the "pastoral" life of "men dominated, women favored, and happiness for life", and is unwilling to accept the reality of her husband cheating on young secretaries. In "The Legend of the Demon Cat", what I try to express is the great love possessed by weak women in the patriarchal society. In the Tang dynasty, it was in Hua'e Xianghui Tower; in contemporary times, in Stepford in the United States; in real life, in China; in these times and spaces, the problems seem to be different, but in essence they are unified.

Space and time are two important dimensions of human perception of the world. Taking "Copying Your Wife" as an example, the heroine's frustration in the workplace caused her to move from the fiercely competitive workplace in the city to the brisk and bright country town. Her social relations The competitive relationship and urban love relationship in the workplace have been transformed into a full-time women’s book club and family parent-child and marriage relationships. The focus of her life was forced to change from ratings, program planning, and hosting to mental health care, wearing floral skirts and shopping malls. Even she herself is trying to change, questioning whether the former strength is necessary and whether it violates the law of marriage or even gender to a certain extent, but this question is quickly denied by her consistent ideals and beliefs.

Such a transformation in space has transformed her from a seemingly free and equal society that respects women to a social network dominated by patriarchy and women as secondary sexes, and thus she staged a performance. To be more precise with men is to fight for the spatial rights of absolute patriarchs. For a long time, the strict division between the public domain and the private domain between men and women is a huge obstacle in the space that feminism suffers. Simon Beauvoir said that a woman must first proudly and painfully begin her internship in indulgence and transcendence—that is, freedom. Virginia Woolf said in her book "A Room of One's Own": "If a woman wants to write a novel, she must have money and a room of her own." This is the basis for the appeal of women's space. It is far from enough, but for now, it is still a problem.

"Copying Your Wife" also shows the conflict of feminism in the concept of time. The devil behind the scenes (forgive me for not remembering the name) She strongly hopes that love can return to the era of traditional gender concepts, so she has created her own Garden of Eden in contemporary American society, and all the experimental objects are the powerful women and them in the new era. The green leaf man under the red flower halo.

In fact, her original intentions and ideals are not wrong. Even in the current society, female independence does not mean that she must have a high level of professional performance, nor does it mean that she must be extremely free and easy to face emotions. In the view of a large number of so-called feminists, women's independence is almost equal to separation, and they almost cruelly demand that they restrain themselves from the so-called career or character success and strength. In my opinion, women’s independence is the right to choose the value of their own existence. A love-oriented person desires to be pampered, desires to be protected, and desires to rely on men to pursue life forever. This is not wrong, but the premise must be her own. choose. What she was wrong was making choices for others. No one has the right to set aside time to return a group of independent women who have a clear understanding of their self-worth to a patriarchal society.

From the perspective of the timeline of history, no matter how unwilling we are, we must understand that the existence and long-term existence of a patriarchal society has its historical development inevitability, which is the same as the development of cultural society and the development of physiological anthropology. There is a close connection. And it can be said that this historical fact is the necessary social condition for the development of feminism. In fact, "Copying Your Wife" is a product of the feminist movement in the 1970s, and it is quite radical in terms of artistic expression. Although after more than 30 years of precipitation, modern elements have been added, the main theme remains unchanged. I believe that life itself is the most exaggerated script, but the exaggerated approach of "Copying Your Wife" still explores the issue of women's power in the last century. On this point, I must mention another feminist masterpiece "The hours" (Chinese translation "时时刻") starring Nicole Kidman.

Based on Woolf's novel "Mrs. Dalloway", the film "The Moments" cleverly sets the plot in the day of women of three different eras, the female writer Woolf in 1923, the housewife in 1950 and 2001 New York contemporary women in the 1970s, the husbands and lovers they met, although melancholy and paranoid, were mostly tolerant and kind. But the inner loneliness and bitterness of women are difficult for men to communicate. The psychological connection of the three women makes them look like images in a mirror, reflecting each other across different time and space, thus metaphors the long journey of women's spiritual independence. This film shows that after 30 years of research, feminism has changed from radical to calm and calm thinking. Women’s repression is no longer only from patriarchal pressure, but more from self-confidence and struggles with emotion and power. loneliness.

Regarding the radicalization of feminism, I would like to add a few points: Many people will try to distinguish between feminism and feminism. In fact, the two are the two domestic translations of the term feminism. The early feminist movements were more similar. Political rights are closely linked, such as voting rights and education rights. It can be said that feminism is the historical term of the first stage of feminism. Later, feminists noticed the importance of the relationship between the sexes for the development of women, which is a kind of progress from the public sphere to the private sphere. They began to discuss issues such as gender roles and gender violence.

Going back to the movie "Copying My Sweet Wife", in addition to presenting the conflict between feminism in space and time, there are also conflicts between the gender ideals of two characters. The pursuit of the supremacy of patriarchy and the second sex of women led by the female boss behind the scenes; and the pursuit of women's economic independence led by the heroine and the ideal of love and independence for women. I have never experienced marriage, and I don’t want to talk about the right and wrong of the two here. It’s just that at the end of the film, the "male housewives" are whispering in the mall and the hostess orders not to talk to each other, although there are elements that can be funny. Yes, but in my opinion, it makes the concept of the film become thinner. In fact, what we need to argue about is not who owns the decision-making power, but whose decision-making power is. There is a scene in the film that makes me unforgettable. When the heroine Joanna and her husband face to face arguing whether to implant a chip to transform it, the heroine is a begging gesture, and the decision is entirely in the hands of the husband, and the heroine The bargaining chip is the feelings of the two people and the tears of the heroine. Although the husband's final choice was touching and applauding, we have forgotten that he is not actually in his own decision-making power. What's more, in this family, the person who plays the role of the backbone of the economy is the wife.

This reminds me of the 2017 suicide case of a pregnant woman who committed suicide by jumping from a building. When public opinion condemned her husband, Ma Baonan, and her mother-in-law for being vicious, we should discuss who should sign the word. This is often seen in costume dramas. The issue of “protecting the big and protecting the small”, who is the most direct benefit of this decision, is the pregnant woman herself, and she was deprived of this decision-making power. I think this is not a purely personal issue. As well as the online ride-hailing incidents that have continued to occur since last year, accidents and accidents are often inevitable and sad from a historical perspective. I have seen so-called ride-hailing drivers’ unremarkable evaluations of female passengers. If it weren't for breaking the news, the passengers would not be able to see this information at all. Of course, the right to choose in the online car-hailing commentary incident is not just for women, but it just happens that women are still the first to bear the brunt. This is no coincidence.

If I say that my gender expectation, in this respect, in myself, is the full respect for the understanding of self-worth and the right to decide on self-selection that a female individual hopes to obtain.

This is the third year of my junior year because I was writing this article because of the gender culture course of Sister Mizhi. I accidentally saw this movie on TV today, so I changed it a bit and sent it out to listen to everyone’s opinions. "Copying Your Wife", about feminism.

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Extended Reading
  • Elliot 2022-03-26 09:01:08

    I want to be loved beautifully

  • Olen 2022-03-26 09:01:08

    CCTV6's best films are not good at all.

The Stepford Wives quotes

  • Claire Wellington: [at the Stepford Bookclub, Claire is discussing a book on Christmas] Now Bobbi. We all realize you're probably feeling a bit uncomfortable with this weeks book because...

    [Frowns]

    Claire Wellington: what's the word I'm looking for

    Additional Stepford Wife: New?

    Sarah Sunderson: Scared?

    Roger Bannister: Cranky?

    Claire Wellington: [remembering] Jewish.

    Bobbi Markowitz: [smiling] Same thing.

    Claire Wellington: [to all] But the Heritage Hills series is very inclusive. In fact there is a whole chapter,

    [to Bobbi]

    Claire Wellington: about Chanukah

  • Dave Markowitz: Hey, Kresby-man.

    Walter Kresby: Hey Dave.

    Joanna Eberhard: How do you know each other?

    Dave Markowitz: Men's Association.