Stepford Wives

In the beginning of Thomas Franks article, “Why Johnny Can’t Dissent” he discusses the system of conformity and what it means to descend for example in the 1950’s. I immediately pictured the movie Stepford Wives where a suburban neighborhood is filled with women who creepily conform to being a “housewife”. They completely go about their lives cleaning, doing laundry and cooking gourmet meals until we eventually realize that the real women have been replaced with robots. Franks indicates that, “The Establishment demands homogeneity; we revolt by embracing diverse, individual lifestyles.” To revolt against this rigidness in the 1950’s was much easier to do then than today, all you had to do at that time is listen to rock n’ roll and break rules. Present day is less conformed so to revolt is to attempt to go against everything that society is made up of, it’s more extreme as it’s difficult not to get caught up in some form of consumerism or another. This is why I find the Stepford Wives as a good metaphor for dissent because they are the depiction of “conformity” yet they are in actuality robots and a level of “perfection” that is impossible to achieve.