They are the children of the middle class. They are smart, they preview their textbooks before class, and they argue about what art is. After all, they went to a women's college with a Yale application list. But they are smart, learn painting, learn etiquette, learn how to help her husband when he has a problem with his work in the future, how to entertain his husband's boss at a banquet so that his husband can be promoted, everything they learn is to be able to pay for the family well in the future, maintain live in the middle class. This concept is instilled in them from the family to the school. They are the daughters of school directors and executives. They go to college for the sake of their families and children. Half of them are married and the other half are getting married.
People are the product of their environment, and they are no exception. Feminism is impossible to germinate in such a place. Even the distribution of condoms among students will be criticized by conservative students in the school newspaper and expelled.
The avant-garde Catherine must have been unfit to come here. She has rejected 2 marriage proposals until she is 30 years old. It is conceivable that she is not a woman who focuses on marriage and family, so she gradually found out that this is actually a conservative She couldn't stand it when she was in the girls' school, she made an effort to guide them to think about what art was, take them to see modern art paintings, help top students apply to Yale Law Department... but this kind of effort seemed a bit ridiculous in the 1950s Yes, so she was slammed by married students in the school newspaper. At that time, she was furious and rushed into the classroom, putting up advertisements at the time, exquisite housewives posing at home, and letting women wear free corsets... These mainstream values that show that women are beautiful only in the family make her angry. She is a feminist. She believes that women should be free to pursue what they want, think about social issues, be independent, and can balance family and work. Giving up work for the sake of the family is always more important than the family, taking care of the children and the husband, and there is no need to enter the family too early. She is the kind of person who hopes to inspire students to come out and live out who they are.
But she failed, and reform is not easy, let alone fighting the most conservative values. She applied for Yale for Joan, but Joan finally gave up her further studies and only hoped to be able to take care of her husband and future children at home. She worked hard to instill avant-garde ideas in her students, but was eventually told that if she wanted to stay for the next school year, she would have to take traditionally taught classes, as the school required.
The students accepted her and respected her, but in order not to change herself for the environment, she still decided to leave and go to the Europe she had always longed for.
She is an intelligent and attractive independent woman with her own values and beliefs. Her students are also charming. They are like Baochai and Tanchun in the Grand View Garden. They are delicate and lovely. Even Connie, who is a little fat, looks so delicate and lovely.
So should women give up everything for the family, the play seems to give the answer. Betty's mother believed that after her daughter got married, she could not go back to her parents' house for the night. She should wait for her husband to come home. She did everything to make her husband feel at ease and enjoy family life. made. The older principal, with two long black eyebrows on his pale face and red lipstick, looked like a zombie.
But why let Catherine go to Joan again, and let Joan say that to Catherine after learning that Joan would not go to Yale for her family and leave in disappointment. Joan said she felt that taking care of her family was more important, which was a decision she made after thinking about it. She loves her husband and will take good care of the family in California after marrying him. Then asked Katherine if she thought she was stupid, if she despised all women who chose families, thought they had no self, thought they were stupid.
Catherine finally left. In this battle between feminism and conservatism, she lost. She was unwilling to accept those conditions so she chose to leave, but she also won. She won the respect and gratitude of the students. She let them Awake and think.
The movie doesn't seem to give an answer, just as the current argument between full-time women and working women is as fruitless. Because even now that feminism seems to be on the rise, in the middle class in the United States, there are quite a few women living on the bonuses given by their husbands. They come from good families and go to good universities, but in the end they also do The choice to depend on the husband to depend on the family. In fact, the film borrowed Joan's words, and the director said what he wanted to say, that no matter whether a woman chooses to be an independent person or a person who contributes to the family, as long as a woman makes a decision after thinking, it will be supported. . Whether it is a feminist or a traditional housewife, as long as it is a choice made after careful consideration, it should not be despised.
Respect women, respect women's decisions, this is the conclusion I came to after watching the movie.
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