The Devil Wears Prada

Taylor Swift is currently on her Eras tour, starting in March of 2023 and concluding December of 2024. She has sold out stadiums across the world and oddly enough has helped the economy. 

Millions of people flock to see her perform, making bracelets, TikToks and wearing outfits matching her albums. She has diehard fans who listen to her albums the second they are released and she has fans who are casual listeners.

Despite all her success and all of the people who support and love her, there are more that hate her. 

What is it about a successful woman that people hate? All she's doing is being successful on her own terms and doing what she loves. Why is it so hard to just let people enjoy her music?

This world has a lack of successful women, in my opinion, and one of the strongest females I can think of is fictional.

Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada.

Brilliantly played by Meryl Streep, Miranda runs a magazine called Runway, a highly successful and influential fashion publication. 

Enter Andy Sachs, played by Anne Hathaway, who is so uninterested and naive to the fashion world that it peaks Mirandas interest to the point where Andy is hired as one of her assistants. 

Andy is so ignorant that he sees Miranda as a complete dictator, everyone vying for her approval and opinion and truly doesn't understand why her employees are basically killing themselves over a woman who doesn't care about them. 

The turning point for Andy in this movie is a conversation between her and Nigel, a longtime employee of Miranda's who might not approve of her methods but surely understands them. 

Nigel explains to her that Runway wouldn't be successful without her and that everything she does is for a reason. She doesn't coddle her employees because things wouldn't get done in time. 

I don't believe Miranda is a dictator, at all. She is a strong and successful woman who is the reason that these people are becoming better at their jobs. If the roles were different, and this was a sports magazine and in Miranda's place was a man, his actions would not be seen as dictator-ish. He would be the hero who saves the magazine and who everyone loves because he is so dedicated to his work.

Why is it that a woman who is dedicated to her work is overbearing, aggressive and hard to work with and a man who is dedicated is resilient, powerful and assertive?

A man who prioritizes work over a personal life is someone who is working hard to provide for his family and a woman is neglectful. Is this because people still have an unconscious bias that woman should be the caretakers of the home and the kids?

If Miranda was a man, all her actions would pretty much be justified in the eyes of the audience, but alas, she is not so everyone views her as the villain of this story when in reality, a very strong argument could be made that Andy's boyfriend is the main antagonist. 

In meetings, if Miranda doesn't like an idea or she shoots down a suggestion, I view that as being productive and effective. She doesn't waste time with trying to not hurt her employees feelings. 

Emily, Nigel, Andy and everyone else who works under Miranda are exactly that: her employees. Miranda has worked to get where she is, and she is physically and mentally on another level than these people. She doesn't treat them as an equal because they are not equals. 

Not that she doesn't have to be nice to them, but she doesn't need to worry about them liking her because that's not her job. Her job isn't to be liked but to get things done and that's what she does. 

The people that Miranda surrounds herself with aren't people that she thinks will fail. She isn't going to keep people around who are useless to her. Despite her actions, Miranda respects the people around her. Maybe not in the way people would normally show, considering she just flings her purse and coat on Andy or Emily's desk when she walks in, but she trusts them to do the work.

She wouldn't let just anyone into her home or to pick up her Hermes scarfs. Her employees prove themselves to her to gain her trust and respect, even if it isn't shown in the traditional way. 

Miranda is a wonderful leader. She's effective and efficient and that's what a boss should be. For me, it all boils down to one thing: if she were a man, this whole blog post would be different. No one would ever feel like they should defend his actions because they are justified. 

No one should have to justify Miranda's actions. Not because they're unjustifiable, but because she is doing her job. If the job gets done, as Machiavelli would claim, the ends justify the means.