Prompt 11

The film, The Stepford Wives, explores not only the idea of technology and the body but also how people can use technology to take power and control over others. The film, made in 1975, is based around the ideas of male dominance and gender roles. While during this time period, women were gaining rights and independence slowly but surely after long struggles against male dominance, the film brings out a fear in the audience that one day technology could allow men to take control over women. The technology used actually transforms these women into the ideal stereotypical housewife. The fact that it is actually the men running this operation to change their wives, demonstrates how people can take advantage of technology and misuse its power. In this case, the men in Stepford use technology to take control of the women, taking it to the extent of almost manufacturing the women as if they were dolls or prototypes. Another question to think about is the extent in which technology played a role in this women dominance operation compared to the extent in which it was the ideals of society at the time which influenced the men's choices. Also, consider if it is the combination of the two that makes technology dangerous. Is it our faulty ideals as humans that make technology dangerous or technology itself that is dangerous. If technology weren't involved, would these men simply have found another way to achieve their goals?