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corner her in the woods, and she accuses them of creating robots out of the town's women. The men deny the accusation and ask Joanna if she would believe them if she saw one of the other women bleed. Joanna agrees and they take her to Bobbie's house. Bobbie's husband and son are upstairs, with loud rock music playing. The scene ends as Bobbie brandishes a knife at her former friend.
363:. While the script emphasis is on gender conflict and the sterility of suburban living, and thus the science fiction elements are only lightly explored, the movie still makes it much clearer than the book that the women are being replaced by some form of robot. Goldman's treatment of the book differed from that of Forbes, with the robots closer to an idealized
207:. The story concerns Joanna Eberhart, a talented photographer, wife, and young mother who suspects that something in the town of Stepford is changing the wives from free-thinking, intelligent women into compliant wives dedicated solely to homemaking. As her friends slowly transform, Joanna realizes the horrific truth.
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and the control they have over their bodies by allowing the readers to observe what happens in
Stepford when Joanna moves in. Before the women in Stepford turned into lifeless, docile robots, they were avid activists and successful career women who had lives outside of being a wife. However, the men
508:
The term "Stepford wife" entered common use in the
English language after the publication of Levin's book. It is generally used as a derogatory term for a submissive and docile wife who seems to conform blindly to the stereotype of an old-fashioned subservient role in relationship to her husband.
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rather than being murdered and replaced with robots. The script culminates in a twist ending in which it is a powerful woman (played by Glenn Close) who is the evil mastermind of the injustice perpetrated on other women, and features a "Stepfordized" male partner of a gay town resident. Unlike the
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In the story's epilogue, Joanna has become another
Stepford wife gliding through the local supermarket, having given up her career as a photographer because, as she puts it, "housework's enough for me". Ruthanne Hendry (a new resident and the first black woman in Stepford) appears poised to become
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As time goes on, she becomes increasingly disturbed by the submissive wives of
Stepford who seem to lack free will, especially when she sees her once independent-minded friends (Bobbie, Charmaine), fellow new arrivals to Stepford, turn into mindless, docile housewives, each time beginning after a
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At the end of the novel, Joanna decides to flee
Stepford, but when she gets home, she finds that her children have been taken. She asks her husband to let her leave but he takes her car keys. She manages to escape from the house on foot and several of the men's club members track her down. They
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franchise. The reason why the men in
Stepford make their wives into submissive robots is that they are afraid of losing control over their wives. The similarity between sex robots and the women in Stepford is that they are both lifeless and docile, hence the men do not need consent in order to
257:
As the story progresses, Joanna becomes convinced that the wives of
Stepford are being poisoned or brainwashed into submission by the men's club. She visits the library and researches the pasts of Stepford's wives, discovering that some of the women were once feminist activists and successful
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original novel and most of the adaptations, the perpetrators of the conspiracy neither die nor get away with their crimes; the victims are freed from their control programming and subject their husbands to a taste of their own medicine as restitution.
380:. In this film, instead of being androids, the wives underwent a brainwashing procedure and then took pills that kept them hypnotized. In the end, the wives broke free of their conditioning and a mob of them killed the mastermind behind the conspiracy.
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says: "not only a satire of male fears of women's liberation, but a savage view of heterosexual marriage. In this telling, a man would rather kill his wife and replace her with a robot than commit to equality and recognise her as a whole person."
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town of
Stepford, Connecticut and their fawning, submissive, impossibly beautiful wives. The protagonist is Joanna Eberhart, a talented photographer newly arrived from New York City with her husband and children, eager to start a new life.
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professionals. The leader of the men's club is a former Disney engineer and others are artists and scientists, capable of creating lifelike robots. Her friend Bobbie helps her investigate, going so far as to write to the
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romantic weekend with their respective husbands. All the women deny anything is wrong. Joanna's own husband, who seems to be spending more and more time at meetings of the local men's association, mocks her fears.
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to inquire about possible toxins in
Stepford. However, eventually, Bobbie is also transformed into a docile housewife after a "romantic getaway" with her husband.
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produced the 1975 version as well as all three of the television sequels. Scherick was credited posthumously as producer of the 2004 remake.
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in
Stepford were opposed to this, turning their wives into robots and reducing their only purposes in life down to serving their husbands.
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reversed and the men in the town being brainwashed by a female clinic director into being perfect husbands.
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Congregational Church. Additional scenes from the 2004 movie were filmed in
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has the women being transformed into carefully controlled
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The premise involves the married men of the fictional
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The Feminist Press at the City University of New York
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229:, Levin said that he based the town of Stepford on
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398:was made as a third television movie with the
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705:Maxwell, Kerry (April 28, 2003).
546:Arrow, Michelle (July 24, 2022).
677:"Definition of 'Stepford wife'"
279:The reaction of men to feminism
225:In a March 27, 2007, letter to
664:Adventures in the Screen Trade
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335:The Stepford Wives (2004 film)
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1081:American horror novels
519:Culture of Domesticity
493:Bedminster, New Jersey
392:A 1996 version called
1048:The Stepford Husbands
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888:No Time for Sergeants
681:collinsdictionary.com
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395:The Stepford Husbands
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343:with a screenplay by
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51:The Stepford Wives
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499:In language
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361:Tina Louise
325:Adaptations
216:2004 remake
203:" novel by
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473:New Canaan
445:Jon Lovitz
437:Faith Hill
433:Roger Bart
214:, and the
199:"feminist
195:is a 1972
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485:Fairfield
205:Ira Levin
197:satirical
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615:40004637
553:July 28,
524:Tradwife
513:See also
465:Westport
413:Frank Oz
235:Stamford
172:813/.5/4
82:Thriller
18:Stepford
579:May 25,
481:Norwalk
461:Redding
453:cyborgs
314:consent
308:Consent
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274:Themes
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