On “Mona Lisa Smile”

                                        by QiXia

Katherine Watson teaches art history at Wellesley College, a conservative girls college. She wants to inspire her students, many of whom are intelligent, talented girls, to question their traditional social roles as women. She believes women should not simply get married and have children, that there is "more to life" than motherhood. The issue presented by this movie is still significant in many women's lives today.

After watching this movie, the most impressive message I have got is: Don’t misunderstand “feminism”.

Joan, one of Katherine’s student, is pre-law, but plans on getting married, like many other students in that all-girl college. Katherine encourages Joan to apply for law school, telling her that “you can do both”, which is what she even never considers. Joan struggles to choose between engagement and submitting the application to Yale Law School. However, Joan eventually chooses marriage, which disappoints Katherine deeply.

Feminism, if it is what Katherine holds, should mean that a woman has the right to choose. Then, I think Katherine, who considers Joan is wrong, is being extreme. To Katherine, being a housewife is hard to bear; to Joan, it may not. Joan has the right to choose. She can be a lawyer if she wants; she can be a housewife if she wants. Real feminism should be based on the idea that no woman should be blamed for her choice in life, since it is her own choice, not anybody else’s.

In China today, the situation is a little bit different than the old times. I don’t know too much about the situation in the countryside, but most women in urban cities don’t stay at home. In order to survive, they have to go out to work. Chinese women keep their own family names after getting married, instead of taking their husbands’ family names. The have the same rights to finish college and pursue careers. Speaking of the housework and children care, they don’t need to take all; their husbands often share with them.

However, they still face sexual discrimination and pressure, in terms of culture. Women in China have to go out to work, just like their husbands. At the same time, they should also take care of the family and the children. A woman who is successful in career may be scolded for her irresponsibility for the family care; a woman who doesn’t have success in career may be abased for her dependence. What a dilemma!

In both East and West, male children are preferred over female children.

Girls are taught to be obedient.

In terms of jobs, women concentrate in such fields as education, nursing, retail sales, and service jobs, in which they work as waitress, hospital attendants, cleaning women and hairdressers and so on. In job hunting, females are facing serious discriminations. Males, who are no more talented than them, can easily find good jobs they dream of, especially in fields such as economics, physical sciences, IT, engineering and law.

Few women succeed in politics.

These years, a serious problem does exist in China, that is, girls with an M.A. degree are not happy in pursuing romantic love. Boys tend not to fall in love with a girl who has an M.A. degree. Possible reasons are: First, they like their wife to be inferior to them in almost every way, including degrees and career. Second, they think a woman who can get an M.A. degree must be strong-minded, iron-willed and even proud. Third, a woman who has already got an M.A. degree must be more than 24, who is not young and beautiful enough for a man. It is even harder for a woman with a Ph.D. to have a happy family. This is perhaps why Joan, in this movie, cannot “do both” as Katherine has told her.

When a woman cannot “do both”, what is her decision? Katherine will choose “career”; Joan will choose the opposite. Neither of them is right or wrong.

Feminism holds the idea that women have the right to pursue success in career. But it does not mean that women should force themselves to be career women, if they do not want to.

One of my classmates said to me, “I dream of that kind of life, that I don’t have too much pressure in career, that I enjoy myself at home. I like housework better than career. Am I a loser?”

My answer is “of course not”.

Katherine suggests that there is "more to life". I also suggest that there is “more to life”. Katherine means that marriage and children are only part of life; I mean that career is also part of life, and you can choose which part to be emphasized.

Most of us measure our value by our success at work, by how much money we earn, by what position we sit, and so on. That is to say, our success in life is measured by the achievement of wealth and status, through work. Don’t you think it too limited? Why don’t we put emphasis on other things? Women should have a reevaluation of their traditional social role; human beings should also have a reevaluation of their traditional value of life.

Women do face discrimination. But does it mean that women cannot be happy before all discriminations against them have vanished? In what way should we face discrimination? We should struggle for our equal rights, without the false idea that we should gain everything existing in the world.

As a female myself, I really do not mean that women should not struggle for our equal rights. I just want say that we should have a clear idea about what we really want. We struggle for our rights to live, not live to struggle for out rights. We pursue our success in career in order to live happily, not pursue our success in career to prove that we are better than men.

Don’t misunderstand feminism. Feminism means that women have the right to choose what they really want. Being a career woman or being a housewife. They can choose both or choose which to be emphasized. And they can also choose other things to pursue.