Women and Matrimony: A Study of Mona Lisa Smile

Pei-Yu Chao; Ya-huei Wang

doi:10.24071/joll.v21i2.3122

Women and Matrimony: A Study of Mona Lisa Smile

Pei-Yu Chao⁽¹⁾, Ya-huei Wang^(2*),

(1) Department of Applied Foreign Languages, Chung Shan Medical University
(2) Department of Medical Education, Chung Shan Medical University
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract

This study intended to use the film Mona Lisa Smile (1993) as an example to examine how women in the traditional generation of 1950 were gender stereotyped and used to trade themselves off through marriage in consideration of a cost-and-benefit analysis. However, as the change of women’s gender consciousness from the conservative to the feminist in the USA of 1950, women began to realize their potential and subjectivity, hence questing for liberal spirit and autonomy to choose their career and husbands based on love. The researchers used the qualitative method, with both the primary and secondary data, to facilitate a latent-content analysis. After conducting a content analysis of the film and the script of Mona Lisa Smile, the researchers took notes regarding gender stereotyping and conventional gender norms in social interactions and conducted a literature review of Becker’s side bet theory and Homan’s social exchange theory to investigate how women in America in the 1950s were disciplined to meet the expectation of social norms to fit the notion of conventional matrimony, and how people, both men and women, while choosing their mates, seek the maximum interest and minimum cost. The film Mona Lisa Smile lets readers have a chance to see the transformation of a marital relationship from the old days to modern ones. With raised gender consciousness, women may now subject their choices to their own will and, hence, apply a different definition to the word “marriage.”

Keywords

matrimony; gender stereotype; gender awareness; side bet theory; social exchange theory

Full Text:

PDF

References

Allen, N. J., & Meyer, J. P., (1990). The measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative Commitment to the organization. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 63(1), 1-18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.x

Aranya, N., & Jacobson, D. (1975). An empirical study of theories of organizational and occupational commitment. Journal of Social Psychology, 97(1), 15–22.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1975.9923308

Babbie, E. (1995). The practice of social research. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Beauvoir, S. (1997). The second sex. Trans. H. M. Parshley. London: Vintage.

Becker, H. S. (1960). Notes on the concept of commitment American Journal of Sociology, 66, 32-42.

https://doi.org/10.1086/222820

Becker, G. S. (1973). A theory of marriage: Part I. Journal of Political Economy, 81, 813–846. https://doi.org/10.1086/260084

Becker, G. S. (1991). A treatise on the family. London: Harvard University Press.

Buss, D. M. (1984). Marital assortment for personality dispositions: Assessment with three different data sources. Behavior Genetics, 14 (2), 111–123. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01076408

Castro, G. (1990). American feminism: A contemporary history. Paris: Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques.

Friedan, B. (1997). The feminine mystique. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.

Granger, B. H. (1991). On final approach: The women airforce service pilots of World War II. Scottsdale, Arizona: Falconer Publishing Company.

Homans, G. C. (1961). Social behavior: Its elementary forms. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.

Fiore, A., & Swensen, C. H. (1977). Analysis of love relationships in functional and dysfunctional marriages. Psychological Reports, 40(3), 707-714. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1977.40.3.707

Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.

Goffman, E. (1977). The arrangement between the sexes. Theory and Society, 4(3):301–331. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00206983

Konner, L., & Rosenthal, M. (2002). Mona Lisa Smile [script]. Los Angeles: Columbia Pictures.

Kristeva, J. (1981). Woman can never be defined. Trans. Marilyn A. August. In E. Marks & I. Courtivron (Eds.), New French feminisms (pp. 137-141). New York: Schoken Books.

Lamb, V. M. (2011). The 1950’s and the 1960’s and the American Woman: the transition from the “housewife” to the feminist (Thesis). Toulon, France: University of Toulon.

Lawler, E. J. (2001). An affect theory of social exchange. American Journal of Sociology, 107(2), 321-352.

https://doi.org/10.1086/324071.

Millett, K. (1985). Sexual politics. London: Virago Press.

Mowday, R.T., Porter, L. W., & Steers, R.M. (1982). Employee-organization linkages: The psychology of commitment, absenteeism, and turnover. New York: Academic Press.

Newell, M. (1993). Mona Lisa Smile. Los Angeles: Revolution Studios and Columbia Picture.

O’Reilly, C. A, & Chatman, J. (1986). Organizational commitment and psychology attachment: The effects of compliance, identification, and internalization on prosocial behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71(3), 492-499. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.71.3.492

Wiener, Y. (1982). Commitment in organizations: A normative review. Academy of Management Review, 7(3), 418–428. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1982.4285349

The’baud, S., Kornrich, S., & Ruppanner, L. (2019). Good housekeeping, great expectations: Gender and housework norms. Sociological Methods & Research, 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124119852395

Tong, R. (1995). Feminist thought. London: Routledge.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/joll.v21i2.3122