Posing – inspired by three real stories. A housewife, a Yalestudent, a Chicagobroker: an interview. Of course: never, ever is something free and has to be payed. The stockbroker (her answer to her colleagues: "I pose for Playboy when you've posed for Playgirl") loses her job and is for ever on the black list. The same for the housewife: punished that she dared. The family business will never be 'after' what it was 'before'. The Yalestudent, against Playboy what it stands for and does, is banned by her professor-father, forbidding the publication His 'perfect' daughter answers: "It's too late". When she confronts him, why he doesn't answer her calls: "I don't take calls from strangers
("I'm your daughter, not a stranger") "
Not anymore. You are not a daughter anymore of mine." The stockbroker (behind her success-career is ' the fat schoolgirl') loses her work and wins love. The same for the housewife. For one single day she is not looked at. But seen and special: "I was flattered, who would't be" – not taken for granted as a furniture in her house, by neighbors and dear friends. Why did these three women do what they did? Beside their very own reason, being neglected of what they are, want to be and are not: they where pushed by society to do what the did. "But", as Janets mother asks, "there must be another way" and Janet: "Maybe, but it didn't come along." They saw suddenly a way out of their one-way-street: and made the deal with Playboy's devil. Society saw it as a joke, never believing they would do it. At stake was their image, their family, the career at work. The three turned the limelights beam on the veil. And the veil became transparent, everybody not looking but suddenly seeing behind. The settled every-day-housewife knew: with the birth of her children she was not special anymore, but 'a furniture' of the household. The success-money-broker, burdened by her image of the fat schoolgirl. And the Yale student remembers the five minutes that transformed her into the 'shining-perfect-example'. The moment at summer camp when her twin sister helped her stage frightened sister as a stand in: "It's amazing how five minutes can change a whole life." When, still against Playboy's values, she accepts their offered bait, she pretends the first moments to be her sister. The perfect Abigail, reconnects with her twin sister, sees herself on the same level, being suddenly imperfect. The housewife discovers that her husband subscribes Playboy. "For gods sake. I subscribe to a new magazine. What's the big deal. It's only a magazine". And to her friend: "Jimmy looks rather at a Playboy magazine than at me". As the other two, she knew that she crossed the line and had to pay - would she do it again? Without family: she would. Society's values, the values of the white, the normal, the values of men – the boy's club. The housewife to her boyish husband: "You look at me and do not see me. Where is the promise for better and worse?" Her best friend, believing all is a joke, that she never would do it, asks what choice they have as married women: if you choose this you must sacrifice that.
The message: when the stockbroker tells her mother what her daughter has done. "Why didn't you ask for the 500 dollars?" "Five hundred dollars I make at work in five minutes. I did it for me. Just for me." Her mothers values are questioned: "What do you want of me, my approval? Well, I can't give you that." And when her daughter asks for her just-once-understanding her mother, she herself an exploited piece of furniture, answers: "Alright. Help me understand." Her boss at work: "I'm not firing you; even if I want. I do not need a lawsuit. I don't think you are very happy working here from now on." Easy are other instruments that she quits of free will. Janet admits that she has today a better sense as a woman, that she had the courage to tell Michael what she wanted.
And that she knows: "The rules for men and women are very different. I learned it the hard way."
Described by Slavoj Zizek. It is the obscene other side, the dark side of the Superego. Rob Reiner has it in the movie A Few Good Men. Everybody knows the red code. But not allowed to pull it into daylight. Used when the ethic code of togetherness is in danger. The official, written Law vs the 'obscene' unwritten Law - the spoken traumas sound of the Superego. For a short moment the three "Few Good Women" limelighted the Behind behind the veil.
Disregarding the French Civil Code Book (1804) § 340 Scrutiny as to paternity is forbidden... But: ... § 341 Scrutiny as to maternity is admissible.The (fe-) male director Stephen Stafford, ends the TV-play with the following text "Altough inspired by three true stories, certain characters, names, places and events have been created or altered for (male) dramatic purposes."
Seeing recently, September 2015, the movie again together with my Colombian sister: we believed that the 'hollywoodending' was needed but: ... not necessary.
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