The
film, The Stepford Wives, is a parody that stems out from the idea that
housewives were machines rather than humans. These Stepford wives were expected
by their husbands to be beautiful and obedient. This parodies the misconception
that many men in the 1950s had of women and how society sought to make sure
that women remained in the house, while men were the ones with jobs.
The film takes
place in a fictional town of Stepford, Connecticut, where white
upper middle class men owned beautiful homes and their “perfect”
wives. Things change when Joanna Eberhart, a successful photographer from New York City arrives with
her husband and children, to start a new life. Joanna begins to notice the
robot-like, submissive Stepford wives, especially when she sees her independent
friends turn into submissive housewives overnight. Her husband, who seems
to be spending more and more time at meetings of the local men's association,
mocks her fears because like the rest of the men living in Stepford he attended
these meetings in order to turn his wife into a robotic- housewife like the
rest of the women living in Stepford. Therefore, this film parodies how men in
the 1950s wanted to women to remain submissive and not have minds of their own.