Mona Lisa Smile and (un)Happiness: A Pedagogical Reflection

Sheila Gross

November 19, 2013

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 Sheila Gross

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 Dr. Lothian

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 ENGL 985: Archives and Feelings

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 19 November 2013

Mona Lisa Smile and (un)Happiness: A Pedagogical Reflection

¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 1 (Disclaimer: Watching 1950s advertisements may cause anxiety, unhappiness, and irritability)

¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 2 Let’s blow this pop stand and cruise back to the 1950s where women were happy housewives because using Ivory Snow laundry detergent (“99% pure with beauty glow”) made them feel like princesses. Don’t believe me? Take a peek for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChaRHzB2EpQ. Look at these thin, well-dressed, middle-class, heterosexual, white women enjoying doing the laundry. Don’t they look so happy? You can be happy too! And bonus… you can also be a princess! Convinced?

¶ 8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 3 It’s hard to believe in today’s day-and-age that a commercial like this was taken seriously. And who knows. Maybe it wasn’t by a lot of women. But anyone who has seen the film Mona Lisa Smile might entertain the idea that it was. (I realize I’m referencing a fictional setting as representation of the 1950s, but oftentimes books and films represent our idealized image of a decade. And that idealized image is what some people take as fact or history. This is obviously problematic, and Mona Lisa Smile, a film that takes place in 1953, is a useful context for analyzing and breaking down that idealized image). In the film, Julia Roberts plays Katherine Ann Watson, an ambitious new Art History professor at the conservative women’s college, Wellesley College. Though the trailer doesn’t do the film justice (it represents the film as too light-hearted), those of you who haven’t seen the film can at least get a sense of the overall plot by watching it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8_PFfQAfpI. Basically, Katherine hopes to influence a new generation of women to be successful on their own. Wellesley has a reputation as a training school, or an in between time, for young girls to find husbands. Many of the young women at Wellesley attend meetings on how to please their future husbands and how to raise a family. Issues such as birth control and lesbianism are dealt with in the film, and of course marriage and happiness.

¶ 9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 0 As I was reading Sara Ahmed’s chapter “Feminist Killjoys” in The Promise of Happiness, I found myself writing Mona Lisa Smile all over the margins, especially in the sections when she talks about the housewife. Out of all the texts in the course, I see myself using this nugget the most in my teaching endeavors. “Feminist Killjoys” is an accessible way to introduce students to feminism because it most likely addresses their view of it: that feminists are killjoys, that they ruin everyone’s happiness, that they are the ones around the dinner table who spoil the conversation. Ahmed poignantly compares the feminist killjoy to the female troublemaker:

¶ 10 Leave a comment on paragraph 10 0 The figure of the female troublemaker thus shares the same horizon with the figure of the feminist killjoy. Both figures are intelligible if they are read through the lens of the history of happiness. Feminists might kill joy simply by not finding the objects that promise happiness to be quite promising. The word feminism is thus saturated with unhappiness. Feminists by declaring themselves as feminists are already read as destroying something that is thought of by others not only as being good but as the cause of unhappiness. The feminist killjoy ‘spoils’ the happiness of others; she is a spoilsport because she refuses to convene, to assemble, or to meet up over happiness. (64-65)

¶ 11 Leave a comment on paragraph 11 0 Katherine is most certainly a feminist killjoy. She challenges the expectation that women will be happy and fulfilled only in marriage. Take this scene, for example. Katherine is upset that one of her students, Betty Warren, played by Kirsten Dunst, wrote a critical editorial in the school newspaper about Katherine advocating for women to pursue their careers. Here is the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQhAQQQ8VYg. This is a pivotal scene in the film for it’s the first of many where Katherine is able to bring awareness to the idealized image of a happy marriage. Betty Warren is one of the first girls to marry and finds out that marriage isn’t what it seems. She ends up divorcing her husband and considers applying to Yale’s law school. By the end of the film, Katherine is the most popular teacher on campus, but she is still resented as a feminist killjoy by the conservative college administration. The last scene depicts Katherine in a taxi followed by her students waving goodbye as she departs for Europe.

¶ 12 Leave a comment on paragraph 12 2 Like the target audience for the Ivory Snow laundry detergent advertisement, Mona Lisa Smile is a film about middle and upper class white women, which some may consider problematic. My justification in analyzing this film is that it is a useful stepping stone to introduce students to the feminist killjoy/female troublemaker, since Katherine is an obvious example. The film serves as a jumping off point to foster discussion about other issues such as race, class, and sexuality (though Mona Lisa Smile does touch on sexuality) in other more complex works dealing with those issues. After all, Ahmed tackles these issues within her “Feminist Killjoys” chapter. The Help would also be a great text to tackle the issues of happiness, feminist killjoys, race, and class.

¶ 13 Leave a comment on paragraph 13 2 As I started to demonstrate above, the “Feminist Killjoys” chapter is a useful lens for analyzing a variety of texts, especially those of popular culture. As you may have guessed, I am a lover of popular culture, and it’s an important part of my teaching philosophy. Hook in students with pop culture, whether it’s movies, advertisements, Twitter, songs, and get them to do some analysis. Then show them that they can analyze more complex works of literature and film. Ahmed’s chapter on “Feminist Killjoys” is one way I see myself fostering this connection with students. Pop culture and happiness, two things students can talk about.

¶ 14 Leave a comment on paragraph 14 0

¶ 15 Leave a comment on paragraph 15 0 Works Cited

¶ 16 Leave a comment on paragraph 16 0 “1950s Laundry Detergent Commercial.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.

¶ 17 Leave a comment on paragraph 17 0 Ahmed, Sara. “Feminist Killjoys.” The Promise of Happiness. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010. 50-87. Print.

¶ 18 Leave a comment on paragraph 18 0 “Mona Lisa Smile – What For?” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 27 Apr. 2010. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.

¶ 19 Leave a comment on paragraph 19 0 “Mona Lisa Smile [Movie Trailer].” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 11 Mar. 2009. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.

Categories:

Writing assignment 4: analytical reflection

You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

Comments

1 Comment on the whole Post

Kamal Salem November 23, 2013 at 3:18 am

Hello my dear Sheila, Could you send me your IUP E-mail please. since I haven’t received any comments or replies by your E-mail.!!.

Thanks.

Kamal.

Log in to Reply

Megha Baikadi November 28, 2013 at 7:14 am

Very nice!

I like the examples you’ve chosen to reflect on. The idealization of certain times or actions (often historical) is rampant, and it seems to be an important tool for disseminating happiness scripts, both those of perceived history and the now in which they are created and disseminated.

The female troublemaker and the feminist killjoy… I agree just the act of not enjoying, or not wanting the thing they are ‘supposed’ to want can be itself a killjoy (it doesn’t have to be starting arguments, though that’s fun too).

I’m not sure how much the subject (middle/upper class women) is simply problematic and how much it is simply the script, the happiness script of the culture. I think that probably didn’t sound right. I mean, given the racial, class and gendered nature of happiness scripts, I wonder if this film might be a site for finding problematic elements in the cultural happiness scripts, and not itself a problem choice for such a script because of its exclusions.

I can see how well you’d do with these texts – its really fascinating to me. popular culture is rich with layers of meaning, and so can be carefully analyzed… but it is also dear to students, so they should care (very much) about how it is analyzed. This combination can be a very powerful tool!

Log in to Reply

2 Comments on paragraph 7

Janelle Newman November 20, 2013 at 4:13 pm

Like the link inclusion!

Log in to Reply
Rob Welch November 21, 2013 at 8:08 pm

I would be remiss if I did not link you another link back. Hope you enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x92Pdf7LYJ4

Log in to Reply

3 Comments on paragraph 8

Rob Welch November 21, 2013 at 8:13 pm

As we discussed in Dr. Downing’s class, way back when, the change in perception about then-to-now has two sides (binaries!) in that we tend to put space between the bad old times and our current, obvious enlightenment, drawing the conclusion that social justice has been achieved. All of which obscures residual chronic persistence of cultural conflicts. I think, from our readings, that Cvetkovich addresses this most fully. At the same time as I admire her championing every ill, I sometimes feel like the result of it is not a recognition of the human condition, but particalizing of humanity into subsets of ills.

Log in to Reply
1. Megha Baikadi November 28, 2013 at 7:24 am
  
  Addressing the first part of your comment, there is a binary between bad-old times and good enlightened now, but I think there’s another possible binary between the good, golden past and the present troubled times. I mean, so many historical moments get romanticized, likely because those past things were good to some, and those who would or think they would benefit are those who romanticize them.
  
  And yeah, looking at every ill does sometimes does come across as polarizing all groups into subsets of ills. It becomes too difficult to speak generally, then.
  
  Log in to Reply
Lauren Shoemaker November 22, 2013 at 9:38 pm

I went to see this movie in the theater with my mother, and in the car ride home we talked a lot about the character Julia Stiles plays. Her character gets accepted to Yale law school but decides not to go and to get married instead. She asks Katherine to respect her decision. I couldn’t get over her decision when such an opportunity was available to her! (I know this judgment is unfair; I was a college freshman.) I haven’t seen the movie in a really long time, but it strikes me now as a great companion to the feminist killjoy chapter as you’ve explained here.

Log in to Reply

Lauren Shoemaker November 22, 2013 at 9:49 pm

I had put The Help on syllabi in the past thinking of it as a text that includes intersections of race into the critique of the family (or home in particular) as a source of nostalgia and happiness. I’ve come across quite a bit of backlash against the book and film recently that I thought you would be interested in. Perhaps there are connections to Ahmed’s analysis of the angry black woman and her role as a feminist killjoy. This is one statement I found useful about The Help:

http://www.abwh.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2%3Aopen-statement-the-help

Log in to Reply
1. Megha Baikadi November 28, 2013 at 7:30 am
  
  Yeah, when we read it in class some of these critiques came up. They have a lot of textual support, too.
  
  But that doesn’t mean its not a good text to tackle issues with – actually, it may be the best way to deal with them. after all, we can sometimes get the best critiques out of texts we *don’t* agree with. It really shows how the cultural scripts differ from the actual truths.
  
  Log in to Reply

2 Comments on paragraph 13

Janelle Newman November 20, 2013 at 4:19 pm

So is this going to be your final paper? Sounds like a great candidate. I’ve never seen the film, but your links and explanation help me to understand your points. I wonder if there is another current pop piece (maybe not movie, but commercial or sitcom) that actually still demonstrates the principles of the 50s commercial so students could see how the times haven’t changed so much.

Log in to Reply
Rob Welch November 21, 2013 at 8:18 pm

I really think that the primary advice for any pedagogue, no matter the medium in which they choose to express themselves, is to recognize how legitimately affected you are by your subject matter. From this text, and from the discussions in class, we all know that this speaks to you, personally. The energy of passion cannot help but incite your readership, your students, regardless if they agree with you opinions. Arousing an interest is the first and most important step in learning. We might think of learning as activism, in this sense.

Log in to Reply

Archives and Feelings

Contents

Search

Special Pages

Table of Contents