Girl Boss Lesson: The Problem With The Devil Wears Prada (Gasp!)
The Devil Wears Prada follows the same Hollywood format we all know and love even if we have seen it a thousand times and in a thousand different ways. Our girl Andy, who we love in spite of her complete lack of fashion sense, finds something that she likes to do. She gets so involved that she forgets about cultivating relationships outside of work, until she loses it all. She then heroically decides to give up her dream career (that she’s super good at) and go back to her friends and boyfriend.
I mean, don’t we all wish we had that problem? Not all of us are lucky enough to nail our dream jobs and actually excel at it. And let’s be honest, we all might have a tiny problem with cultivating our outside relationships a little too much.
But let’s not focus on our problems, shall we? Let’s focus on the fact that The Devil Wears Prada doesn’t set a good example for young professionals! That’s right, I said it. There’s a problem with the holy grail.
Okay, first thing’s first. Andy’s friends were not acting very nice for a majority of the movie. Sure, they were happy that Andy got this crazy job, especially when she brought home goodies from the office. But when she couldn’t hang out at every single get together they had, all of them turned on her. They even gave Andy backlash for becoming someone who was suddenly so obsessed with fashion. Really?
So what? She found something she liked! And it seems like their support was very conditional. And ya know what? Nate also seemed to dole out conditional love every chance he got. He just loved it when she was sexy and dressed up in lingerie, but when she came home late sometimes, he used that very same quality to degrade her. Stop being a baby, dude! You can’t love her only when she fits the perfect housewife stereotype.
What’s so infuriating is that this isn’t a new concept. Like I said, we’ve seen it a thousand times. From a young age, we’ve been told that, women especially, can’t have their dream job and have an amazing home life.
I’m here to call bulls**t, ladies! It’s 2018! We don’t have to sit at home and cook for our hubbies and we don’t have to be that boss betch with no love in her life either. You can have it all. Repeat. You can have it all. It might take a while to figure out, but it’s possible!
What you need is to dump your friends if they act like Andy’s. That mean joke they played with throwing her phone around? Not cool. What are they, twelve?
Life is stressful enough when you’re just starting out; you don’t need to add bully friends to the ever growing list. Your friends are there to support you, not bring you down every time you get caught up at work.
And don’t even get me started on Nate. That boy just gets on my nerves. He always throws around that the food in their house is expensive but practically begs Andy to quit her job that doesn’t suit him. Nuh-uh, honey! You don’t get to do that.
Listen girls, if your boyfriend tries to make you feel bad for chasing your dreams, chances are, you two aren’t going to last. He’s clearly making that relationship all about him. Go for your dream, because if you don’t you’ll regret it.
When we’re just starting out in the world, it’s important to get our foot in the door. And we can’t have someone that close to us holding us back. Remember that if they truly love you, they’ll want what’s best for you even if that means that they don’t come out on top.
Cover image via Refinery 29