Female Body in The Devil Wears Prada

The Devil Wears Prada is among the greatest "chick-flicks" or "girly classics" with its explicit, unique, and sensational touch on fashion, womanhood, and female identity. However, I recently rewatched it for my Popular Culture and Literature Class, and I saw the reality beneath the clothes, sassy quotes, and glamorous city lights.

The movie starts with extreme close-ups of female body parts without their faces being on the frame, with cuts from one to another with Size zero bodies, push-up bras, lingeries, g-thongs, and everything. From the first minute, the movie divides women into categories and objectifies them for the male gaze.

In the following scenes, as we get to know Andy, the protagonist, we see how she is portrayed differently from size 0 bodies who wear tight clothes with miniskirts and, of course, high heels. She dresses as if she is trying to hide her body with long skirts and sweaters. However, as you all know, this will all change if she wants to survive there.

Here, her failure against resistance begins as she refuses to eat, saying that all the girls on the Runway are size 0 while she is a size 6.

The funny thing is that she looks no different than the size 0 girls, and size 0 girls all look skinny, but they are always criticised for not being slim enough.

Emily is always trying to lose weight, and she is obsessed with her looks, her body, and her appearance. She refuses to eat, starves herself to look "slim" enough in Paris. However, she already is slim, and beautiful.

Miranda Priestly is always in search of the tiniest size 0, and she is strong and harsh when it comes to judging bodies and criticizing people.

Yeah, a real-life super model Gisele Bündchen, and Emily criticizing Miranda and acting as the devil's advocate.

There are strong scenes with food being put into the trash, people struggling to eat because of pressure, and Nigel calling Andy size 6.

“Size 6 is the new 14.” – Nigel.

Miranda calls everyone Emily and puts every girl into same category and deprives them of their individuality because they are there for the looks, not for the personalities.

As you can see the objectification is both internalized and externalized. The girls are objectifying themselves to fit the beauty standards and expectations. And they are okay with it. Somehow, they cannot fight against the circle because they are trapped in an endless circle of beauty, weight, looks and high-heels.

The devil here is not the girls who are trying to lose weight, but the system that makes them feel inadequate, never enough. The system is called capitalism, the system is called consumerism, but the system is actually called patriarchy, and the gaze that holds the power: the male gaze.