Well, I've seen this movie a number of times, too. And as a woman and a feminist in her early 40s with no children, rather than being anti-feminist, I consider it rather dated. It's like a portrait from a by-gone era.
But I totally disagree with the person who wrote, "Yes! Screw modern feminism, it's just another groupthink." Feminism is the doctrine that puts forth the belief (among others) that a woman's worth is not dependant on her ability to get and keep a man, bear children and negate her own needs. J.C. does none of those things in this movie.
I think the men in the movie come off more an dinosaurs than J.C. Wiatt come off anti-feminist. The men actually believe it's okay when a man doesn't know how man grandchildren he has if he's built a successfull business by sacrificing his relationship with his family. I'm sorry, if this was ever okay for anyone, it says something very sad about our culture.
The movie is dated when J.C. gets a call in the middle of a big meeting because the nanny can't make Elizabeth's bottle and this conference table full of men has to endure hearing the word "nipple" at the office, especially when you know each and every one if them says the word to each other or, at the very least, thinks it, every 15 seconds.
There is a similar scene in the movie "Kramer vs. Kramer," which is not played for comedy but which is equally dated when watching it with 21st Century insight.
So I think the movie is charming and I like watching it for the same reasons I like watching old movies from the 40s: it takes me back to a time (not so distant as the 40s) and shows me how thinking and attitudes about a subject have changed over the years.
We know that men have, can and, (under similar circumstances) should give up the rat race to become parents. That is okay.
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blue_blue
16 years ago
I agree with most of the people here saying it isn't anti-feminist at all, and I also agree with you. I remember when the movie came out, and I don't honestly think that most successful businessmen would have been like her bosses, at least once they got that successful and could rest easy with a bit of the security they'd amassed. And certainly it never made sense that any of them would describe their lives as "having it all" when they didn't even know anything about their wives and children. I think this movie shows what a lot of people were feeling by the latter half of the '80s: that the business world was not the only world in which success counted, and corporate culture had to change to allow for that---for everyone.
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The LA Baker (799)
2 years ago
" Feminism is the doctrine that puts forth the belief (among others) that a woman's worth is not dependant on her ability to get and keep a man, bear children and negate her own needs. J.C. does none of those things in this movie.
Women and men both have a place in society. Women think they can escape it through feminist ideology, but reality doesn't care about your ideology.
We all negate our own needs for the good of our family regardless of sex. Get used to it.
Women place the burden on men to make themselves "worthy" of being married, which is legit. You don't hear us bitching and moaning. We are nothing but potentially evolutionarily advantaged mates to women. Same as men.
Deal with reality.
Women are the ones who give birth. What is your alternative?
Feminists are often moronic.
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