Actually, You’ve Been Watching The Devil Wears Prada Wrong.
How the cautionary tale has taken on new meaning in the wake of hustle culture.
I can admit that I was a bit afraid of re-watching The Devil Wears Prada in 2021. Even though its a movie I adored when it came out 15 years ago, a lot has changed in our culture since then. “Actually [insert popular thing from the 2000s here] was super problematic!” has become a template of sorts when we millennials revisit the media we consumed during our formative years around the turn of the century. To be clear, I’m not complaining. Yes, a lot media from the 2000s is super fucking problematic and should be called out. It just stings a little to have to tear apart your nostalgic faves on a regular basis. R.I.P. America’s Next Top Model. Also, the film has already undergone a bit of a reexamination since it came out all those years ago.
Andy’s boyfriend, Nate, positioned by the film as a supportive partner, is now seen as the “true villain” of the film (a take so popular that even Adrian Grienar, the actor who played him, bought stock in it). The film’s stated antagonist, Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Steep, has also undergone a reframing of sorts. She’s now commonly seen as a misunderstood perfectionist, and a #GirlBoss having to make tough decisions no man would be called out for. So let’s just say, while I was confident The Devil Wears Prada hadn’t aged like Breakfast at Tiffany's, I wasn’t quite sure what this film had to offer to a post #IDoNotDreamOfLabor world.
I eventually bit the bullet and shelled out my $3.99 rental fee to Apple one rainy afternoon (I was hesitant to outright buy, lest my digital library be stuck with a problematic stain from the 2000s, like a tribal lower back tattoo). To my surprise, upon completion of the film I wasn’t upset that the movie’s problematic messages flew under the radar in 2006, to the contrary, I was surprised just how horrible most people’s media comprehension skills were. The film’s very clear message not to sacrifice your mental health and personal relationships to get ahead at work, seems to have gone over many people’s heads. So it’s time we get a few things straight and begin to correct this film’s legacy.
Actually, yes, Miranda is the bad guy…
When the opening credits began on this film I was reminded just how clever and efficient the script was. We see our main character, Andrea, as she gets ready for her morning. Her simple routine of chapstick and teeth brushing is cut against several other women’s, more involved, beauty rituals. It’s clear, with no words at all, that Andrea doesn’t prioritize her personal style or beauty and will likely not fit in at the fashion magazine where we all know she’s going to end up. As a writer in a visual medium, you’re always pushed to show and not tell, and this iconic opening sequence of the film lets you know right away to pay attention to not only what the characters say but what you see them do.
The pay off for paying attention comes almost immediately, because in the very next scene the entire office is scrambling to get themselves, and their surroundings, not in order, but in a specific order. In Miranda’s preferred order. In this scene, comfortable shoes suitable for being on your feet all day are swapped for flashier, more uncomfortable ones. One woman changes her lip color to something no doubt Miranda approved. One woman even rushes off the elevator as Miranda steps on. Its clear she prefers to ride alone. You see, Miranda isn’t a perfectionist as some would have you believe, she’s a narcissist.
Narcissism — selfishness, involving a sense of entitlement, a lack of empathy, and a need for admiration, as characterizing a personality type.
The film illustrates to us over and over again that Miranda has little faith in any of the people she’s hired and constantly undercuts and humiliates them in public. Perhaps the first half of the film’s most enduring moment comes when Miranda expertly cuts Andrea down in the middle of a run through. But what is often not remembered is the dismissive and abusive way Miranda treats everyone else in the room right before she targets Andrea.
Up until the 50 second mark of that clip, she’s essentially John Wick, emotionally mowing down her entire office. Mind you, this takes place just a moment after the film tells us Miranda has bumped the meeting up by a half an hour leaving her team with little time to properly prepare. The movie is not telling us that Miranda is a perfectionist who expects everyone to have their shit together. It’s telling us that her expectations are unrealistic and she regularly sets her team up to fail. The treatment of Emily is another example of this.
Throughout the first half of the film, Andrea receives pretty problematic treatment from Miranda’s first assistant, Emily (played by a baby-faced Emily Blunt). Its made clear to the audience that Emily’s job security is tied closely to Andrea’s success and it’s obvious she’s not happy about that. Who would be? If Andrea fails, Emily won’t be able to accompany Miranda to Paris fashion week, and literally the only thing we know about Emily is that she wants to go to Paris fashion week. Emily has also had to learn the ropes the hard way, and with little support. She recounts a story early on in the film about a former assistant Miranda fired for missing a phone call while seeking medical assistance for an on the job injury (literally illegal on Miranda’s part). Context clues also inform us that Emily, even with her years of experience working for Miranda, doesn’t have it any easier than Andrea, who just started. She faces the same day to day humiliation on the job, the same low pay, and outright states she only gets a 20 minute break.
Actually, Andrea’s makeover isn’t an evolution, it’s a setback…
It’s clear Miranda has a history of pitting her two assistants against one another hoping to inspire either or both of them to perform better. That’s why Emily treats Andrea as her competition early on. But what may be less clear is that while Emily is in competition with Andrea, Andrea is in competition with Miranda…to win her approval. This is illustrated several times throughout the film. It’s given a nod when Andrea challenges Miranda during her interview by showing some spirit after being dismissed, and we get that glamourous shot of Miranda removing her glasses.
But it begins in earnest during a scene with Nate after her first day at work. Incensed at Miranda after being humiliated during the aforementioned dressing down scene.
“She is not happy unless everyone around her is panicked, nauseous or suicidal…I can’t let Miranda get to me, I won’t.” Andrea decries.
We then see a montage of her taking everything Miranda has to throw at her as if she’s getting something other than a paycheck out of it.
She finally stumbles when tasked with booking an impossible flight during a storm. However, what’s important to note is that this scene begins with Andrea sitting to dinner with her father.
He gives her money, because she doesn’t make enough to cover rent, and then questions her motives for staying at this low paying job that has nothing to do with journalism, the thing Andrea went to school for. But she insists, with little proof, that her motives for working so hard are to further her journalism career and that this job is just a stepping stone. The subtext of this scene is telling us that Andrea is either wrong (and doesn’t know it yet) or lying.
Subtext is any content of a creative work which is not announced explicitly by the characters or author, but is implicit.
There is a reason why, in this scene, Andrea’s father points out that this job has nothing to do with her future goals and doesn’t pay her a living wage. There is also a reason those assertions are treated as fact. This scene is telling us that Andrea is not motivated to work so hard by her potential future prospects, she’s motivated by her need for Miranda’s approval.
Anyways, after failing to secure the impossible flight, Andrea is brought to tears by Miranda who literally calls her a fat disappointment. But rather than quit, Andrea enlists Nigel’s help (after a truly gag-worthy speech about how fashion is more important than being a good person) to overhaul her look. Andrea reenters her office, hair flip in toe, and with a newfound appreciation for fashion, the evolution is complete.
So why is the movie still going?
Well, it’s still going because Andrea has not achieved anything. She’s sold out. She’s spoken at length, mostly in scenes with Nate (who we’ll get to), about how unimportant she views fashion and how her future means more to her than this job. Now she’s shelved all of that and decided to go all in. In her pursuit of Miranda’s approval, Andrea has now become the very thing she despises, someone who thinks fashion (and being a size 4) is the most important thing in the world. This isn’t a triumph for Andrea, it’s the beginning of a downward slope.
I’ll let the screenwriter, Aline Brosh McKenna, sum it up.
“She’s the one who says she’s a serious journalist. She’s the one who tucks her serious articles into her folder. She’s the one who wants to write about the janitor strike,” McKenna says. “And she just shoves all of that out the window very easily.”
Actually, Nate Is A Good Boyfriend…
Google “Nate from The Devil Wears Prada” and you will find a litany of formerly hot takes about how he was the true villain of the film, and an unsupportive boyfriend. And to be fair, going into this re-watch, this was one of the takes I was sure would hold up, mainly because I’d heard it repeated so frequently. Once again, the internet be buggin’.
From the start of the film, Nate does little more than support Andrea as she complains about her job. In fact, his chief sin according to the internet, was pouting because she didn’t show up to his birthday party, which she planned. Sure, Nate, along with her other friends, chide Andrea for giving out fancy gifts, overworking herself, and showing off her new clothes but within the context of who Andrea declares herself to be, they’re not wrong for doing this. They’re actually doing what friends should do, hold you accountable for your actions.
“He’s just pointing out that she’s being a hypocrite, which she is,” McKenna says…the audience then [when the film was released] understood Miranda is the devil. She is the devil, so that handbag she gave her friend is from the devil. So Nate is just pointing out, ‘You know she’s the devil and that’s whose phone calls you take. Just be clear on that’s what you’re doing. And you won’t admit that that’s what you’re doing.’
Look, I don’t have a lot here because frankly, the reading of Nate as a bad guy isn’t really supported by anything the text of the film gives us. Nate is a good boyfriend because the film tells us he is. That’s all.
“The devil’s finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist.”
― Charles Baudelaire
It’s clear what the film wants us to think of Miranda but a quick glance at the comments under any clip from the movie illustrates that the message isn’t really resonating anymore.
What leads to such off base readings of a character? Well, a lot of things. Some people just have a hard time comprehending media. It’s what lead to outrage over casting a little black girl to play…a little black girl in The Hunger Games. Also, Meryl Streep is a fantastic actress. She oozes charisma and that charisma can rub off on even the worst of characters. However, I’m going to go with what’s behind door number three. I think what's going on with this specific film, and this specific character, has less to do with the film itself than the culture that’s digesting it.
When The Devil Wears Prada hit theatres in the summer of 2006, the country was still living in the shadow of several large scale Wall Street scandals. Martha Stewart had just been convicted of insider trading the year before. The Enron trials would begin just weeks before the films release. In fact, the movie would predate the great recession by only a year and a half. So it’s safe to say the mainstream public was a bit more skeptical of the wealthy around this time. It was much easier to identify the virtues of serious journalism, anti-materialism, and prioritizing personal relationships over work in a narrative.
But sometime around the rise of Instagram, a subculture of celebrity that had always existed began to gain new heights of relevance. Influencer culture.
Suddenly wealth itself was credential enough for fame and admiration. And because wealth can’t really be admired unless the masses believe it is attainable, hustle culture was born.
Sidenote: I’m not suggesting any of this is new. Americans have admired wealth for as long as there has been wealth to admire, But social media definitely turned up the dial on this.
I don’t want to go too in depth on hustle culture as there is a ton of content in existence on it already. Check out Tiffany Ferg’s video on it if you want more. But, suffice it to say, the culture now consuming Andrea’s workaholic tendencies and poor work life balance admire these traits and see her well meaning boyfriend, Nate, as an obstacle to her pursuit of prosperity. They also see Miranda as an enviable perfectionist who is willing to sacrifice…everything for her work and expects everyone around her to do the same.
This reading of the film clearly isn’t what the writer had in mind.
“She’s being a hypocrite, and he’s right at the end,” McKenna says. “She goes to apologize to him because he was right…I think it’s interesting now that we’re so encouraging people to like, ‘Get what’s yours,’ that we don’t see that she’s Charlie Sheen in Wall Street…I think it’s really interesting… we prize success in a different way than we did even a dozen years ago.”
