The Stepford Wives

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In the book the wives have no interest in social gatherings and always keep to themselves. In the ’75 movie, there is one scene where Joanna and Bobbie get a group together, but all that happens is the women share cleaning tips. In this movie, there are multiple women’s groups in place before Joanna even arrives. Granted, the groups show how obsessed with housework and cooking the women are. But nonetheless, a key element of the book was the fact that the women never socialized at all except to say hi in the grocery store. Stepfordized Joanna So consumerism gets you in the end– and it’s as true today as ever. As the novel comes to a close, Royal Hendry knows it, too. His wife, Ruthanne – like Joanna – has her indulgent hobbies and interests instead of looking after her man-child husband with his taped-up spectacles. Ira Levin’s novel The Stepford Wives was published in 1972, several years after Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique in 1963 and founded the grassroots activist group National Organization for Women. The sexual revolution of the late 1960s and the strengthening of the feminist movement at the time forced broader swaths of society to examine the role gender played in their lives, often unequally, and Levin’s work recast those cultural anxieties with a surprising amount of empathy and consideration. The Stepford Wives — which follows protagonist Joanna Eberhart’s move to Stepford, Connecticut, and her quest to uncover why all the women seem like robots (it’s because they are) — is really about women caught between the social necessity of arguing for their rights and a capitalist culture that just wants them to buy stuff.

The Stepford Wives Quotes by Ira Levin - Goodreads The Stepford Wives Quotes by Ira Levin - Goodreads

It is bleak, dark and horrifying. If there is one thing I worry about, it is that some people, not having read this, and not having seen the original movie, will go into this thinking it's going to be a light funny book. After one of his Men's Association meetings, Walter comes home late and masturbates furiously in their bed, but acts ashamed when she catches him: His eye-whites looked at her and turned instantly away; all of him turned from her, and the tenting of the blanket at his groin was gone as she saw it, replaced by the shape of his hip (15). They have sex at her insistence, which ends up being "one of their best times ever - for her, at least" and she says, "What did they do...show you dirty movies or something?" (16). This is one of those moments where, in subsequent rereads, the reader wonders: did the members of the Men's Association indoctrinate Walter by showing him what they do to their wives, and did the possibilities of that excite him instead of horrifying him?Similarly, contemporary TV ads like this beauty advert, have real women rush onto the beaches in plus-size bikinis. Real women, the message goes, are flawed but fabulous. In the movie this character is shown briefly in the store, arguing with her husband, once again implying that she will be the next to change, though not in such an obvious way like the book. Minor Differences

The Stepford Wives movie review (2004) | Roger Ebert The Stepford Wives movie review (2004) | Roger Ebert

When Royal agrees to take the kids out of pizza, he has plenty of reason to be unhurried and amenable. He’s already booked in a weekend away with his wife. Her cards are already marked. Her time will come. Levin's first novel, A Kiss Before Dying, was well received, earning him the 1954 Edgar Award for Best First Novel. A Kiss Before Dying was turned into a movie twice, first in 1956, and again in 1991. THE STEPFORD WIVES is a creepy little satirical novella that proves (some) men are pretty shallow or really were afraid of the Women's Liberation Movement! It is important for people who are not familiar with the original Stepford wives to understand that this is not a comedy. It is a genuinely frightening novella that is fantastic but creepy as anything. Levin's best known play is Deathtrap, which holds the record as the longest-running comedy-thriller on Broadway and brought Levin his second Edgar Award. In 1982, it was made into a film starring Christopher Reeve and Michael Caine.

The satire at work here is an allegorical one that is deeply rooted in the countercultural revolution linking the 1950’s to the 1970’s. “Women’s Lib” came of age in the 1960’s and really took firm hold in the years in which Levin was constructing his novel. Betty Friedan’s book, The Feminine Mystique, was one of the bibles of the feminist movement and she plays a major role in the events which take place before the arrival into Stepford of the story’s protagonist Joanna Eberhart. Her speech on feminism at the Stepford Women’s Club initiates the demise of the particular social organization and the beginning of the Stepford Man’s Association. The movement to take that Disney World animatronic technology which just so happens to have a connection to the men of Stepford and exploit it for the purpose of subjugating their wives into totally compliant sexbots with a fetish for housecleaning directly stems from a fear of losing hold on the patriarchal grip of control over the womenfolk. Another change is that the movie shows the men more often. You are shown a scene of Walter talking with Corba, and then you see Charmaine’s husband leaving the association, clearly shaken up (the next time we see Charmaine, she has changed, making it obvious the men were involved). Along with other such scenes that make it undeniably clear that Walter and the other men are the cause for the way their wives are. Another scene with Walter is in the movie gives us some insight into his past and why he would want a robot for a wife at all. Joanna and he are arguing (something they do more often in the movie than in the book) and their kids see and ask why they are fighting. Walter tries to comfort his kids and tells them everything is fine. When they are out of the room he says how growing up he always heard his parents arguing, and he didn’t want his own kids growing up with that. No such insight is given in the book.