MovieChat Forums > The Stepford Wives (1975) Discussion > Women aren't allowed in the Men's Associ...

Women aren't allowed in the Men's Association...UM SO WHAT?!!!

posted 12 years ago by fiatlux-1
14 replies | jump to latest

In the book & movie, Joanna and some of the others get enraged that they are not allowed to join the Men's Association.
Um....that's kinda why its called the Men's Association!

I am a woman, and am a big believer in equal treatment for women, but I completely disagreed with Joanna & the ladies here! The men (never mind what they're REALLY up to in the town, that's another story) have every right to have their own organization and not have to include women.
Ditto if they had a Women's Association!

"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."

[–] orchidclub 12 years ago

I don't think Katharine Ross was upset because the Men's Association didn't allow women to join. She was upset because her husband proposed it to her as if asking her permission when, in fact, he'd already joined.

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[–] zyggums 12 years ago

Also it was the 70s the womens movement was different than today. After being kept in the kitchen for so longthere was more of a hard line attitude to be granted acess to mensworld. Women have more freedom today than the 70s so there is more middle ground in feminist attitudes.

[–] DisturbedPixie 12 years ago

I think a problem is that it's a way for the elite in the town to get together, and the only elite are men. So to a woman who fought for equal rights, knowing her husband wants to be involved with that, it hurts. It's a slap in the face.

Though it seems her solution was to just have a women's club, and leave it at that, after first being bothered only that he acts like he is considering things, and discussing the pros and cons with her, but in actuality, he is prepping her for what's to come.

I know my husband and I don't do guys nights and girls nights, because we don't get the idea in trying to escape the time we get together. We truly are best friends. So if my husband wanted to join a He-Man Women Haters Club, I'd think our marriage was ending... or he was trying to turn me into a robot. Either way, bad.

[–] drxcreatures 10 years ago

A good point with how he asked her about moving, when he'd secretly already decided it and pretty much got a house on his own.

http://www.cgonzales.net & http://www.drxcreatures.com

[–] rockmail 11 years ago

Yeah. Your attitude is what makes the movie scary. You'll soon be gone, so society can progress.

[–] gribfritz2 11 years ago

Actually, it's YOUR attitude that is slowly ruining the world. You seem to prefer a world where women can have women-only things (Curves gym, for example) but everyone must have free access to men-only things. You probably love the idea that white-only clubs are outlawed, but it's perfectly okay to have an African-American-only function and bar whites from attending. Eventually, you and your ilk will wake up and see that discrimination is discrimination no matter what the group is. Maybe then there will ACTUALLY be some equality in the world instead of resentment.

[–] puirt-a-beul 9 years ago

gribfritz2, you make an incredibly important point, one that gets brushed aside so frequently. In trying to address one kind of gender blindness, we seem to have entrenched a different one, no less insidious. Worse, we've also entrenched cultural sanctions against even questioning the situation.

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

[–] kaskait 9 years ago

You are missing the point.

The only civic group in town was the Men's association. ALL the associations that were just for women or for both sexes were disbanded.

THAT was why Joanna was pissed off about it.

[–] DodgersRule 9 years ago

Not only that but the Men's Association was BIG and kind of "creepy". It pretty much decided who was going to be successful in Stepford. It even influenced the police department. Remember the cop watching over the MA building? That along with all the PineSol Princesses walking around who only lived to serve their men -- Something odd was up with that group. I'd be furrowing my brow at them too.

[–] InherentlyYours 9 years ago

No point was missed. The hyper-paranoid females with a sense of entitlement is the problem. Regardless of what film it is, some sexist females will impose their pseudo-feminists delusions on the rest of us. Women like that have a license to play the victimization-card, but men are gradually wising up to it, fortunately.

And I like how people talk about the 70's, as if they existed then. The 70's were not about poor-stay-home-wives with no rights. If they were not there in the 70's, they would not know, unless their mother was a pushover pushed around by her husband.

[–] kaskait 9 years ago

The hyper-paranoid females with a sense of entitlement is the problem.

No, dear, this is entirely your problem.

Joanna was angry because the only civic association in town was the Men's Association and they only accepted men. If you come from a normal town that allowed both sexes to decide the future of their community, people would be well within their rights to be angry if the new town they lived in only allowed men to plan the town's future or only women.

[–] InherentlyYours 9 years ago

It's my problem for a woman not being allowed to join a Mens' Association. Wauuuuugh! If that's the only "civic association" in town and so devastating, move. And if the town only had the YMCA, you'd be telling men that was their problem too. But if the town only had a YWCA, all would be cool.

If you came from a NORMAL town --and state of mind-- you'd not be writing essays so you can dig deep, analyze, analyze. Let's find some sexism, let's go, get that anger out...you can do it. Twit

[–] MissMargoChanning 8 years ago

Whoah!!!!!!

It's my problem for a woman not being allowed to join a Mens' Association. Wauuuuugh! If that's the only "civic association" in town and so devastating, move.

We ARE talking about women not being allowed to join the only civic minded group in town! This novel WAS written in the early 70's with the whole women's movement in mind. Joanna and Walter were most likely married sometime in the early to mid 60's and believe me, men did make most of the decisions.... one of them was where they live. She was just getting started with her photography now that her children were getting older. He was a lawyer. He had probably expected her to continue to be the little housewife and mother. Most men at that time still did expect their wives to continue to assume that role.... their mothers did that! This is how it really was in the late 60's... early to late 70's.
Hell! my boyfriend at the time freaked when I decided to join the Army in 1975!
Sorry... At 19 I wasn't ready to settle down and be the little woman of the house.
This book came out when many women wanted more out of life and that threatened the whole idea of what men expected of women.

It wasn't out of the ordinary back then for the man to make the decisions of where to move his family. She went along with that up to a point and then she is hit with dull neighbors and this Men's association and ...
you say, "if it was so devastating, move".
After getting settled and realizing that the situation was far more disturbing than she had even imagined she DID plan a move!
Her only mistake was that she came back for the kids. They would have been just fine. She should have left.

Ira Levin wrote a great little horror story. It was more frightening because it was a sign of the times.

"Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night"

[–] MissMargoChanning 8 years ago

And I like how people talk about the 70's, as if they existed then. The 70's were not about poor-stay-home-wives with no rights. If they were not there in the 70's, they would not know, unless their mother was a pushover pushed around by her husband.

Many who weren't there probably did hear about it from their "pushover" mothers....

Unfortunately many women in the 70's and even some in the 80' still were as you so eloquently put it, "a pushover pushed around by her husband." While most were older, many husbands were still the breadwinners and expected their wives to stay home and keep house and raise the kiddies. Many still made the financial decisions. The mortgages were in the men's name. Do you know of many women who could get a home or business loan on her own in the 70's?
Women had only scratched the surface in the 70's when it came to equal rights and respect in the workplace.... and what about the right to abortion and birth control? What about being able to say "no", even to our husbands? Yeah.... Rideout ring a bell?
We are still working on equal pay.

"Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night"