Therapist Reacts to THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA

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Not only did Meryl Streep suggest "Everyone wants to be us", as opposed to the scripted "Everyone wants to be me", but she also proposed Miranda constantly speaking in a hushed tone, rarely raising her voice, causing people to have to lean in to hear her, symbolising how Miranda is the centre of the universe, pulling people into her orbit.

Apparently Meryl Streep based her performance as Miranda off of Clint Eastwood. She was like, "When he talks, everyone has to quiet down and lean in and listen carefully". What a brilliant idea!

"if you're being abused by your boss you can choose another path" thats not always true, especially if youre poor or struggling. there are so many people out there that endure the abuse because the alternative is homelessness, not eating or losing their kids

As a woman who constantly has to defend her fondness of dresses and make-up and high heels in front of beginning-of-the-movie-Andies, I think Andy deserved that speech. She entered a world she did not understand that is filled with people who work hard and are extremely passionate about this thing, and instead of trying to understand that, she has this holier than thou attitude and outright laughs at them. The Cerulian-Speech is really merely a reaction to Andy showing how unprepared she is for this job and how uneducated she is on the subject of fashion. It doesn't lessen her worth that she is not interested in fashion, that's totally fine, but it also doesn't increase it and this is the lesson that End-Andy learned.

The older I get, the less I sympathise with Andy's friends and boyfriend. They toss her phone around when her boss is calling, criticise her for dressing nicer, even though she has to make an effort when working at a fashion company, yet have no problem with accepting expensive gifts she gives them from work. Her boyfriend gets upset at her for missing his birthday, even though she had no real control over it.

Andi doesn’t go back to her old target clothing lifestyle. By the end of the movie she’s still dressing fashionably, even if she’s given the designer clothes to Emily. She’s grown to respect the fashion world and she’s chosen to take the knowledge she’s acquired through it with her as she pursues her true passions. She did change, as she needed to, not because she was worthless if she didn’t live up to Miranda’s standards, but because she needed to grow and expand her worldview for her own good.

Her boyfriend was unsupportive from the minute she took the job. He is completely awful, and while the job did cause her to sacrifice a lot, but he was not a good man. Actually he was unsupportive before that. He thought he was better than Andy at the beginning of the movie and he feels inadequate later. He can't even be honest why he wants out

Andy didn’t choose her clothes cuz they were simply and practical, she dressed like that cuz she believed herself superior to looks, as the unsupportive boyfriend said they “used to make fun of runway girls”. She doesn’t go back to ugly clothes afterwards, she looks damn good at the end. I usually love your reactions, but this was more an analysis to maybe miranda than the movie as a whole.

Miranda isn't a devil because she's mean; she's the devil because she tempts others to betray their morals. Andie betrays Emily at Miranda's behest. Andie quits because she realizes that Miranda is turning her into another devil.

The thing is, Andy's not wrong though when she comments that if Miranda were a man, nobody would be saying anything about her behavior. We're usually more likely to chalk it up to "CEO behavior" than any kind of neurological condition for men, collectively brushing it off that they "just be that way sometimes" as CEOs. Yet we STILL talk with morbid fascination about how downright cutthroat and narcissistic Miranda is and whether or not it's "appropriate" or "effective leadership", and often gloss over the fact that Miranda actually has the expertise to back up her holding the position she does. (Which is all the more fascinating considering Meryl based her performance off male CEOs.)

Miranda knows what she is, she is not delusional by any means. She is a highly successful woman, and like Andy says in the Paris restaurant scene, noone would bat an eye if she were a man. She is cruel and manipulative, sure, but if she was a narcissist she would have destroyed Andy for walking away. Instead she personally provides a reference and ensures Andy gets the next job.

I'm so glad you pointed out how overused the words "toxic" and "narcissist" is. Social media platforms like TikTok act like those are the only words to exist and it's incredibly irritating (and limiting).

Honestly, I was with Miranda in the belt scene. Not necessarily with the amount of scorn, but I understand how she couldn’t stand an ignorant and uninterested noob looking down on her industry like that. Glad Nigel then followed up and brought the point honestly in a gentler, more caring way, but without Miranda’s previous rant, Andy would probably never have listened to him.

Kinda bummed that none of them had any criticism for how the boyfriend could’ve been more supportive seeing as traditionally, women have to give up so much for their successful, male spouses. As for his point about integrity, Andy was very clear about her job. She wasn’t being fake, she was exhausted, getting more support from Nigel than her own boyfriend.

I almost always agree with your takes, but I disagree with this one. I don't think Andy abandoned her beliefs by dressing fashionably while she worked there, I don't think she lost her integrity by trying to please her boss while she worked there. She allowed her perspective to include the perspectives of others, and ended up keeping some of that influence in the way she dressed and carried herself professionally after. I also agree with Miranda's cerulean speech to Andy. Andy walked into that job interview and was very unprepared, doing no research on the magazine, basically telling Miranda to her face that she doesn't even want to work there, and then when Miranda hires her anyway, she openly mocks the job, again in front of her boss. Miranda creates a toxic work environment, no question, but Andy wasn't off to a good start either. She realized she that if she was going to do the job for a year, she might as well commit to it while she does. She removed herself from the situation when she found where her line was, and when the influence she was allowing herself to receive stopped being positive. And I think her friends and boyfriend were very judgmental, impatient, and unsupportive. She was never supposed to work there for more than a year, it was just something she had to suffer through to open some doors for her in her career, and she never changed her mind about that, she never considered working there longer. She wasn't screwing her friends over left and right, she wasn't becoming rude and judgmental of others, the way the Runway girls are, she was just less available. I'm not saying she didn't get a little too caught up in it, that she didn't make some excuses for certain mistakes or circumstances, but I also think their reaction to her behavior was more severe than the behavior warranted.

Nate was very immature and avoidant. Rather than own how neglected he felt, he projected like a child. He could have been honest about missing Andi, confess fearing the distance between them that grew as her interests changed and share how insignificant he felt. At least Andi would have the chance to empathise with him and potentially relate to him.

Andi's boyfriend was an unsupportive jerk who could not tolerate or respect his girlfriend taking her job seriously. He was constantly belittling what she did, even though he's a chef (so in other words, has no moral high ground on the importance of his work) and refused to move his birthday party even though he knew she had a work event, and then guilt tripped her for that. Good partners will encourage your passions, and Andi did have passion for her job (even though, yes, her boss was abusive). The right message would have been, 'I love seeing you have passion for fashion now. I just worry your boss does not respect your boundaries', and his message instead was 'ugh, I can't believe you're not around as much because of your stupid silly job'.

I think it's unfair to say that Andy went into the job "blindly thinking she can have it all". She really didn't - She had been clear with Nate that this was a one-year commitment and then she would be able to have the work-life balance she wanted. I just dislike the rhetoric around women's careers and not being able to "have it all", when it's rarely a theme explored in conversations around men's careers. We don't bat an eye when military wives support their husbands being deployed for years, but Nate can't even support his girlfriend's busy schedule for one year.

I just noticed how Andy’s hair changes throughout the film. She starts without bangs and then gets them as she’s starting to adapt to Miranda’s lifestyle. But in the car scene in the end, you can see the she has started to push her bangs to the side again and reveal more of her face, like she did in the beginning of the movie.