Elegant Distractions

Sat with the Writer and Director-Daughter to watch the painful attempt to force Dead Poets Society into Wellesley College. The movie seemed like nothing so much as a desperate attempt by feminists to stem the flood of professional women who are abandoning their jobs in favor of raising families. The theme presented is that women are all smart and nearly perfect and men are dogs.

First of all, Julia Stiles? Please, no. Just stop hiring her, OK? She has the personality of a flounder. There must be other young, blonde actresses (oops, female actors) with some shred of talent to take these roles.

Julie Fiona Roberts plays Katherine Ann Watson, a pathetic quitter who is supposed to be the inspirational teacher leading the young women in her charge out of the girdles of 1950's oppression into the liberation of modern opportunity. First of all, Katherine is overwhelmed on the first day of class when the students have read the entire text for the term. Oh, what a crisis this presents!

The primary deficit of this story is that the antagonist seems to be Madison Avenue. The great culminating scene shows Katherine running through a series of slides of advertisements aimed at women while yapping about the injustice of it all. The horror! How did anyone survive?

In the end, instead of being fired a la Robin Williams, the writers took the daring risk of having her hired back. But Katherine has made her mark, you see, so her work is done and she is free to run off to "find herself". Apparently one graduating class is enough to satisfy her teaching jones.

The didactic messages of this film are:

1. All men cheat. Get used to it.
2. Only a job provides fulfillment. That must be why men work, I mean, if it wasn't fulfilling why would they do it?
3. Women are only trampy because of #1. Tramps should be accepted since it isn't their fault.
4. Fight for what you believe in.
5. But only a little while.
6. Then its OK to run away.
7. Only working women are valuable to society.
8. All men cheat. Get used to it.

Ever the trend-setter, Writer was an ardent feminist in the seventies and she led the charge from the workplace to the fireplace when she quit her job of thirteen years to raise the kids. She discovered the great secret: men don't work because they love their jobs (most of the time) but because there are no more wooly mamoths to kill.

There is no secret satisfaction to working, it is a means to the end of survival and (hopefully) prosperity. Men work to better their rivals and to make the Spousal Unit happy. If those things could be solved without a job, every man would take it (see Athlete, Professional).