Do you ever wonder what vanity really means? Spoiler Alert* (Diet culture warning)
Cami Davila (she/her) // Crew Writer
Alex Baidanuta (she/her) // Illustrator
In 2006, one of the most infamous movies in pop culture history was released, The Devil Wears Prada. This film follows idealistic journalist, Andy Sachs, who works for Miranda Priestley, the editor-in-chief of Runway, an important fictional fashion magazine in New York. American filmmaker David Frankel pulled together two of the generation’s most well-known and talented actors to perform in a comic story with meaningful layers.
How did Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway bring to the big screen a story that, to this day, shows us that vanity is nothing more than a form of control over women?
The word vanity comes from the Latin word vanitas, which means emptiness or worthlessness. It’s used to describe a person who cares excessively about their appearance and what others think of them. Vanity is shaped by society’s beauty standards, which in most cases, are unrealistic and unattainable. People have become so obsessed with reaching these expectations that they lose sight of everything else that made them who they are. Vanity, then, ends up being a means to control.
So, why do people want to fulfill this unhealthy dream?
This is precisely what The Devil Wears Prada explores. Focussed on her dreams of journalism, Andy Sachs’ seemingly last priorities and goals are based on the clothes and makeup she wears. In the first act, she doesn’t follow any specific trend or style—she probably hasn’t even stopped to think whether she has one or not—wearing little makeup. Nevertheless, as soon as she gets sucked into the toxic environment of Runway Magazine, she is hypnotized with the desire to fit in.
Many people—especially generations before social media—believe that meeting social standards only matters during adolescence. In reality, no age is safe from the pressure felt when individuals fail to meet the expectations promoted by vanity—especially when they are immersed in a toxic environment—whether as vast as culture and society or as close as the workplace or family.
Close your eyes for a second and imagine yourself in this scenario: You just landed a new job and you’re really excited about the opportunities it will lead you towards. It’s not quite what you wanted, but you know that this could look great on your resume, so you do everything you can to stay there. However, your boss and all her minions don’t see you as capable enough for the job and they constantly exclude you. Great! Now, you’re insufficient and rejected, just as Andy was in The Devil Wears Prada.
She needed this job and, even though she didn’t identify stylistically with the people in the workplace, she began to feel the need to belong. Eventually, vanity got what it wanted: she became obsessed with how she looked that she forgot everything else in her life. In other words, Miranda—who symbolizes vanity—ended up controlling Andy.
The American journalist and author Naomi Wolf said, “A culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women’s history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one.”
Wolf presents a terrifying idea of what vanity can lead to, introducing two new words: obedience and sedative. Consider this; what did all the women working at the fashion magazine have in common? They obeyed all of Miranda Priestley’s standards, seemingly hypnotized by her presence, while all other aspects of their lives were put on pause, as if numbed.
The Devil Wears Prada is not the only movie that has portrayed vanity as a mechanism to control women. In 2004, Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams co-starred in Mean Girls, a story about high school girls. Even though it has a completely different plot and setting, there is the one who controls—Regina George, the most popular girl in school—and the controlled—Cady Heron, the new student.
No matter how big the movie is—like Barbie, which follows a similar narrative and grossed approximately $1.44 billion worldwide, becoming a cultural phenomenon that marked a turning point in the film industry—vanity always ends up being the one in control. The same will happen with this article: you will think about the problem while reading it, but as soon as you turn the page, Miranda Priestley or Regina George takes back control of your life.