Mona Lisa Smile (2003) is a movie
starring the very beautiful and talented Julia Roberts, and that is exactly who
her character, Katherine Ann Watson, is in the movie. It is a movie that
portrays the lifestyle of college women in the 50’s. While they were fully
exercising their opportunities to go to college and get an education, they sold
themselves short in many ways.
The
colleges back then (specifically Wellesley in the movie) only offered classes
to women that prepared them to become great housewives and mothers to their
husbands and families almost immediately out of college or even during. Back
then, it was nothing for a woman to drop out of college to get married. When I
said that Katherine Ann Watson was talented, I meant that she was a woman
capable of more than just cooking for a dinner party and cleaning the house
before the mister comes home; they all were. However, only Katherine Ann Watson
realized it from the beginning.
She
came from California to the East Coast to become an art professor at Wellesley.
I think that her difference in thinking and alternative artistic tastes is best
associated with her background. I think California was (and still is)
considered to be the “run to” state. Runaways wanted to go to California
because life was more rebellious and free, thus most hippies lived out there.
Right
away, her views were frowned upon. The female students and fellow teachers thought
she was completely crazy that she hadn’t gotten married or had a family yet.
One student in particular stands out, Joan Brandwyn played by Julia Stiles.
She, more so than the rest, seemed to show the most promise of being independent
as her own person and creating a life of more than just catering to others’
needs. She, being smart, desired to go to Yale to finish up her schooling at
the Law School, but halfway through the movie caves to the pressure from the
society outside. She ends up getting eloped to her husband who has no problem
getting his own education at Harvard. Her own personal love life gets tossed in
as a token, I think. There is something to be said for how scandalous yet
common cheating on your significant other was back then.
By the
end of the movie, Ms. Watson leaves the school to pursue another job. She is
followed by the newly graduated women that she taught riding bikes. They are
thanking her for all that she had done for them that year: changing their expectations
of themselves and seeing their full potential. The impact that she had on them changed
Joan’s mind about becoming just a wife. She decided at the end to go to Yale
while being married.
I
noticed many things that I had learned in class previously before watching the
movie. Things like: new appliances being bought for the new house in the
suburbs, the hairstyles, the clothes, and the unwritten rules and guidelines
for how to be a great wife.
The
movie was one of great inspiration. Though before watching it, I knew that I
could become whatever I wanted to be regardless of my gender. Gender roles in
society played an even bigger part in the 50’s than it does now. Thank God we
had women like Ms. Watson to confess their beliefs in women’s independence. (562)
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