The Transformation of Women's roles in families from 19th Century to Now

Throughout the entire film, Katherine Watson contends with the theoretical adversaries of social convention and antiquated values. When she giving her lectures, she discovers her students thinking whatever anyone tells them to think, be it a textbook or society. She challenges her students through popular media advertisements to consider what future generations will think of what these women have made of themselves. Also, she denies through her own personal life that marriage, motherhood and home are honorable things to give your life to, and this is the bottom line of what she communicates to her students—following the traditional roles and simply doing what someone else tells you to do are not only restrictive, but also deny a woman her individual identity and personal fulfillment.

When Betty writes an editorial to attack Katherine, Katherine projects a series of images of American magazine advertising from the 1950s depicting women as appendages to men, children, homes and appliances. She includes a girdle advert that paradoxically restricts the body while promising freedom. In other words, she asks the students to consider if they are willing to conform to these dominant media stereotypes. It is also worth waiting to view the film’s final credits because they include a montage of clips from American television advertising and newsreels illustrating the restricted domestic role of women following World War II, when many had done men’s jobs in wartime factories.

What kind of role model does Watson provide? The character is an attractive, dedicated woman who loves her subject and wants to help her students as much as possible. One of her students characterizes her as “a seeker of truth beyond tradition, beyond the image”; consequently, she is a positive role model for today’s art history students— who are mostly female. At the same time, she is a rather sad individual because her teaching career takes precedence over her love life: in the film, relationships with two men fail and she leaves the College to travel to Europe alone rather than obey the management’s instructions to teach a standard syllabus and submit her lesson plans in advance for approval. Although she advises her students “you can bake your cake and eat it too” (that is, have a career, marriage, and children) it seems impossible as far as she is concerned.

Reference:

http://ambermonroe.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/mona-lisa-smile-character-analyses-my-take/

http://www.artdesigncafe.com/Mona-Lisa-Smile-film-review