Mona Lisa Smile- Casey Page

The movie Mona Lisa Smile who stars Julia Roberts who plays a teacher named Kathern Watson (Julia Roberts)who comes to Wellesley College in 1953. She is a teacher who has very different beliefs then what her fellow colleagues belive in. Keep in mind that Wellesley College is an all female college. She took a position that was teaching Art History but in the end that is not what she wanted to teach these girls.

In the 1950's the dream for any girl was to get married and be the housewive and have kids and not have a career of their own. This is exactly what the girls at Wellesley College wanted to do. However, Katherine was wanting to change this outlook in her girls lives and wanting them to go to college and have their own career and not just be this housewife. Her students consisted of Betty Warren (Kirsten Dunst), Joan Brandwyn (Julia Stiles), Giselle Levy (Maggie Gyllenhaal), Connie Baker (Ginnifer Goodwin).

Betty was a very outspoken student who made her voice be heard about marriage was the only way to live her life after getting her college education. She does end up getting married, however from the beginning her marriage isn't good. On the other hand Joan is the pre-law student and is thinking about going to Law School, but she rather get married after she graduates. Katherine helps her in the application process to law school and she ends up getting in. Joan decides not to go to law school and gets married instead. Of course Katherine isn't happy by these decisions going on with the girls in her class. She wants her students to see more to life than being housewives, becuase of her outspoken beliefs she is warned about losing her job if she continues.

When it comes to gender, this film shows that males were very superior and were able to have the careers and do what they wanted with their lives. The females had to get married either before college or during college and then not have a career and just be a housewife. The women portrayed in this film had no say in how they wanted their life to go. When Betty discusses the idea of getting a divorce it was like the biggest problem and her mother did everything she possibly could do to tell her no. This film can be empowering representation of females because Katherine tried getting the girls to believe there is more to life than being a housewife.

I do consider this film to be a "feminist" film because its about fighting for the rights of the females against males. It shows the hard work of females in this movement. This film shows how far we have in today's world with females. If it wasn't for women like Katherine Watson in the movie, maybe just maybe the females would still be expected to be the housewife and not have a career.

I personally love this movie, one because it has some of my favorite actresses and two because it shows a movement that has been going on for decades. As I said before it shows how far we have come today. I cannot relate to their experiences because I want to have a career and kids at the same time. I would recommend this movie to anybody because it shows the reality of how the times have changed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa_Smile
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0304415/
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1807834463/info