The Devil Went Down To Paris in Chanel Boots
Femininity as a Tool of Agency and a Mechanism of Control
Tags: #TheDevilWearsPrada #Movies #GirlBoss #TheEarly2000s
We have established several times (e.g., here, here, or here) that mass media struggles with creating strong, multi-dimensional female characters. In the early 2000s, the birth of the ‘girlboss’ genre sought to introduce women defined by her independence, toughness, and ability to outperform men. Yet, rarely is her power linked to her femininity. Instead, she closely mimics masculine traits and her most memorable moments of empowerment often hinge on besting or gaining the approval of male characters. The archetype does not defy stereotypes; instead it neatly situates itself to satisfy the male gaze in a patriarchal capitalist society. We can see this with Sandra Bullock’s Miss Congeniality (Warner Bros. Pictures, 2000), Julia Roberts’ Erin Brockovich (Universal Pictures, 2000), and Alicia Silverstone’s Clueless (Paramount Picture, 1995).
Then came, The Devil Wears Prada (20th Century Studio, 2006), introducing the corporate girlies who must adapt to masculine traits to survive the office world and break the glass ceiling. Andrea Sachs, played by Anne Hathaway, is a freshly graduated journalist eager to make it in NYC. She lands a job at a fashion magazine as the assistant to the editor-in-chief Miranda Priestley (Meryl Streep). It is not the hard-hitting journalism Andy dreams of but the opportunity promises to open doors to the city’s most exclusive papers. What Andy does not anticipate is the intensity of Miranda’s world where perfection is not just expected but ritualized. Slowly Andy’s disdain is lost under the pressure to conform to the high expectations of the fashion industry.
The movie dismantles some of the ideas that women must reject femininity entirely to wield power. Fashion, typically dismissed as frivolous, is seen as a form of labour, an identity, and resistance within a male-coded capitalist system. Nevertheless, the characters must also perform within these structures, best epitomised by Andy’s fashion transformation. While the movie attempts to challenge some restrictive tropes, it ultimately reinforced the very hierarchies it seeks to subvert. Femininity becomes both a tool of agency and a mechanism of control within patriarchal capitalism where empowerment comes with a dress code and Chanel boots.
The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Still Image, Miranda Priestley
“Don’t be ridiculous … Everybody wants this. Everybody wants to be us” (Miranda)
Miranda Priestly represents the ultimate evolution of the girlboss archetype. She is the powerful, authoritative, independent, and successful woman. Depicted as emotionally detached and coded with masculine traits, she commands her empire with perfectionism bordering on cruelty. While she wears multiple hats – the mother, the boss, the fashion icon, the wife – she spares little energy for personal relationships beyond the bounds of her job. She reigns over the fashion magazine with uncompromised authority. Her assistants live or die by her whims. Her standard is absolute. Her empathy is rarely awarded.
The film positions Miranda as the antihero, the cautionary tale of women’s ambition taken to extremes. The literal girl boss is rarely portrayed in a positive light echoing wider cultural discomfort with women in power (Goudreau 2021). Her success is coded as threatening rather than admirable. Her marriage is failing, again. Her success is seen as ruthless rather than a skill she worked hard to achieve. Miranda’s brilliance is seen as intimidating, her authority scrutinised, and her accomplishments come at the cost of those around her.
Men in power are rarely demonized the same way. Men in power are framed as heroic and competent. Miranda, in contrast, is moralized differently. Her decisive action becomes coldness, her assertiveness cruelty, her confidence intimidation. She embodies the social costs of women wielding power: the need to perform an often unrealistic stereotype of toughness and masculinised leadership in order to be taken seriously.
Despite Miranda resists some societal expectations – for example, aging gracefully while maintaining her status – she also operates fully within the patriarchal capitalist system that defines her success in accordance with rigid performance metrics. Her characters reinforced a model of women’s achievement that is singular, exhausting, unsustainable, and unrelentingly competitive. Miranda demonstrates how women’s power is precarious and to succeed she must conform to certain expectations of toughness and authority yet those same traits means she will be judged more harshly than men.
The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Still Image, Andrea Sachs
“Can you please spell ‘Gabbana’?” (Andy)
Initially introduced as a smart, polite, hard-working young woman, who is thrown into her first job in an industry that she does not understand. Despite this, she attempts to complete her tasks and meet Miranda’s expectations while maintaining her independence – by rejecting the pressure to conform to fashion standards. Because of this, her coworkers look down on her and dismiss her abilities, based solely on how Andy presents herself. After a stark confrontation from Nigel (Stanley Tucci), Andy starts to adapt to the desired femininity and begins to be rewarded and praised, signaling that her success is linked to gender performance, not skill.
Her social circle outside of work, however, criticizes Andy for succumbing to peer pressure for adopting a system they see as oppressive and performative. Despite this, they willingly accept the gifts she brings from photoshoots and designers, proving they themselves are susceptible to the influence of the fashion industry. As long as Andy’s transformation serves those around her in some way, she is lauded, but hypocritically, they view her external change as a failure to maintain her identity.
Throughout the movie, Andy must negotiate her identity in a patriarchal professional world which comes at significant costs. That is, to conform to acceptable embodiments of femininity within the fashion industry, she has to expend time and labour. Yet, when Andy rejects these ideals she is seen as the outsider or intruder who does not understand the industry. Her success, then, becomes legitimised within the system she attempts to navigate self-actualization and gendered constraints.
Is this conformance empowerment? There are elements of empowerment evident as her role at the magazine does open her doors for other papers. Nevertheless, it is reinforcing a structure that demands women to earn recognition through conformity. Andy does succumb to this pressure to satisfy the standards Miranda and the system perpetuates, but she does achieve a net gain. (She does ditch the real villain, her loser boyfriend.)
The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Still Image, Emily Charlton
“I’m just one stomach flue away from my goal weight” (Emily)
Emily (Emily Blunt) represents the mirror of Miranda’s ambition. She is highly successful because she conforms entirely to the gender performance demanded by her workplace. She has internalized the rules of the system and attempts to replicate Miranda’s perfectionism, emotional detachment, and rigid professional persona. But her success is tied to unsustainable ideals of appearance and behaviour. Diet culture, policing her own body, and perfectionism operate as currencies that reinforce the hierarchy rather than challenge it.
Emily’s behavior is a caricature of being a ‘girlboss’ while simultaneously highlighting the destructive ways imposed on women who seek power. She epitomises both the rewards and costs of performing gendered expectations perfectly. Her success is tied to exhausting performative ideals and fulfilment is rarely possible.
The film also exposes the systemic pitfalls of pitting women against each other: Once Andy begins to succeed in her own right, Emily loses some power because her status is under threat. Both women cannot succeed together; they begin competing for the power Miranda dishes out to her assistants in trips, clothes, and tasks. Andy receives help and guidance from Nigel, while Emily must succeed through conformity and self-discipline alone. The rate at which you can achieve success is influenced by the strategic alliances you can build within a system that sets women up for failure.
“Let me know when your whole life goes up in smoke. Means it’s time for a promotion” (Nigel)
The Devil Wears Prada encapsulates the vibes of early 2000s professional culture where women negotiated identity and ambition within patriarchal systems. The girlboss reveals the central paradox: performing gendered expectations can provide access to power and recognition. Yet, it simultaneously reinforces hierarchies that define women’s values according to appearance, behaviors, and competition. In a system designed to control women through performative femininity, success is governed by rules of the patriarchal game.
With the sequel, The Devil Wears Prada 2, releasing next year (not sponsored) and Tucci, Blunt, Hathaway and Streep all reprising their roles, what commentary on the fashion industry and its costs might we expect? How hard does Miranda girlboss with adult daughters around? Does Emily ever make it to Paris Fashion Week? Has Andy reunited with the loser boyfriend? (He’s not in the cast as far as we know…)
Sources:
Goudreau, J. (2021). The 10 Worst Stereotypes About Powerful Women. Forbes, 9 December, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2011/10/24/worst-stereotypes-powerful-women-christine-lagarde-hillary-clinton/