Mona Lisa Smile Film Review

Mona Lisa Smile was about Katherine Watson who goes to teach at an all girl’s college, Wellesley College that is known for its academics. She goes in believing that this is an institution made to promote education and fulfilling a career. She is shocked to find out that this is merely a finishing school masked as a university. The girls are there only to find a husband. They are there for their MRS rather than a BA. Ms. Watson continues to promote education instead of overlooking those who are planning a wedding. Betty, one of the students who gets married, protests all of Ms. Watson’s efforts. In the end, they all respect Ms. Watson for defying the system and promoting women to be more than just wives and mothers.

The central thesis of the film is that women offer more than just being a housewife. We cannot continue to live passively while the men in our lives play the active roles. Women have more to offer and neglecting their potential is only detrimental to everyone involved. This film relates to the course readings in that The Feminine Mystique: “The Problem that Has No Name” talked of women not being considered feminine if they attained higher education or a career. How housewives have this problem called, “the housewife’s syndrome” where they can’t explain why they feel so sad and unfulfilled with life because they are constantly maintaining their family’s lives.

I liked this movie because it was about a piece of time that I really didn’t know much about. It was like watching history, but it was entertaining. It made you laugh, made you sad, and it made you feel inspired as a woman. The story also determined beauty by confidence and self-assurance of oneself. Ms. Watson was seen as more attractive to the male teacher than his students because of her confidence in herself. You can tell that she knew her worth and set standards of how she wanted to be treated rather than being used like the students. She was surer of herself and it made her more attractive.

The female students were determining their self-worth by getting married because the school and society were glorifying marriage and excusing absences for engaged and married students. They were putting the male’s needs before their own and Ms. Watson let them know that they should not feel valuable only from the love of a man. This was a big body image issue for the girls because they did not have self-esteem but it was only attained by the attention of a male. They were devaluing themselves and their potential.