We Promise, You're Unhappy.mp3

00:00:02 Sometimes a work of fiction becomes so saturated in the culture it's impossible to escape its reach, even if you've never read the book or seen the movie it's referenced so repeatedly in the synthetic pop culture that comes from this handful of people in Los Angeles and New York.
00:00:18 That have dictated what's popular to the American people for so long that whether you like it or not, you understand the reference.
00:00:29 And it's stored inside your mind.
00:00:32 And then recalled.
00:00:33 Again and again and again each time it's mentioned.
00:00:36 By these same people, a perfect example of this is the feminist fiction the Stepford Wives, written by Ira Levin and released in 1972.
00:00:50 Ira Levin was the son of a wealthy Jewish toy importer and grew up in Manhattan.
00:00:55 He was also the author of Rosemary's Baby, a book about a satanic cult that kills babies and is hell bent on protecting the Antichrist, all set in Manhattan.
00:01:08 This book was also turned into a film directed by fellow Jew and convicted pedophile Roman Polanski in 1968, and Rosemary's Baby is also interpreted by many as being a feminist horror film, much like the Stepford Wives is.
00:01:24 But while the Stepford wives?
00:01:25 Demonizes life as a housewife.
00:01:29 Rosemary's baby demonizes motherhood, but we'll talk about that. Maybe some other day-to-day we're going to examine the 1975 version of the film The Stepford Wives, directed by Brian Forbes, adapted from Ira Levine's book by William Goldman and starring.
00:01:49 Catherine Ross, the Stepford Wives, opens with a shot of an unhappy and isolated woman.
00:01:57 Everything about her just radiates dissatisfaction and and unhappiness.
00:02:03 This is a reoccurring theme in Lovin' S books, and in feminist fiction just in general from the 70s, the protagonist is always a dissatisfied woman who wants more out of life and and and could have more if it weren't for the men in her life preventing her from reaching her full potential.
00:02:24 Books and films like this littered the book shelves and theaters all throughout the 70s. It was a constant stream of of heavy-handed, signaling, focused and directed at the minds of young baby boomer.
00:02:40 Telling them there's more to life than just raising a family.
00:02:44 There's more to life than than being a Good Wife and homemaker.
00:02:48 Even if you.
00:02:49 Don't know it yet.
00:02:50 You're being held back.
00:02:53 Ever feel sad?
00:02:54 They would ask these women.
00:02:57 Who, like all humans, have experienced times when?
00:03:01 They are sad.
00:03:04 That's why the voice would whisper.
00:03:08 And that's the voice these women in the audience were just beginning to be able to hear as they watched this woman all alone.
00:03:17 That woman was them.
00:03:20 Any time a film uses a shot where the subject is looking into a mirror, the filmmaker is attempting to get you to relate to that character directly on.
00:03:29 On a personal level, it's simple.
00:03:33 When you look at a mirror.
00:03:34 You see yourself, so when the reflection in the mirror is someone else.
00:03:39 You already.
00:03:41 You automatically associate that person with yourself.
00:03:43 You project yourself onto that person.
00:03:46 It's also why horror films will often use shots like this and then have something spooky suddenly happen.
00:03:54 You know, in the reflection it tricks your mind into thinking that spooky thing.
00:04:00 It's close to.
00:04:01 You it's happening right behind you because you've been mentally placed into the scene.
00:04:07 And you're living vicariously to this person, looking in the mirror.
00:04:11 So it's no accident that that's exactly how this film starts out.
00:04:15 The film makers let this moment marinate just long enough to make sure the women in the audience project themselves onto this image of this beautifully sad woman in the mirror.
00:04:28 And then we cut to a shot of her.
00:04:30 Sitting all alone.
00:04:32 In an empty house.
00:04:34 She's all alone.
00:04:35 And empty the tone has been set.
00:04:38 And now the story can begin.
00:04:42 Outside, we see that whatever her reasons for being sad, they likely aren't financial.
00:04:48 The empty home was apparently an apartment in Manhattan.
00:04:52 The doorman sees her and her two children to their car and she spots across the street.
00:04:57 A man with a mannequin.
00:05:00 A visual metaphor for what this film is all about, men treating women as if they're nothing more than objects.
00:05:09 She sees this as an opportunity to get some photos and takes out her camera, and if she were born a few decades later, she'd be uploading those photos to Instagram.
00:05:19 Her husband comes out and they begin to drive out of the city to.
00:05:22 Their new home.
00:05:24 In the suburb of Stepford.
00:05:26 Their new home is is a spacious and beautiful house in a wonderful neighborhood, a perfect place to raise a family.
00:05:34 But our protagonist Joanna.
00:05:37 Is still unhappy and dissatisfied.
00:05:41 The next day, the bus picks up her children for school at the.
00:05:44 End of their driveway.
00:05:47 But once again, she's alone and sad.
00:05:51 An older woman who writes for the local paper stops by to welcome her and and write an article to announce their arrival to the small town.
00:05:59 When asked to describe herself, she doesn't say she's a wife.
00:06:03 In fact, she seems annoyed when the woman asks what her husband does, as if what her husband does is irrelevant.
00:06:10 This older woman should be interested in her.
00:06:14 And in addition to not describing herself as a wife, she also doesn't mention that she's a mother.
00:06:22 She says she is a would be photographer, which, let's be honest, is the same as women today that call themselves interior decorators because they picked the furniture that's in their living room.
00:06:35 It's like she feels pressured.
00:06:37 To be something important and interesting.
00:06:40 But sadly, she doesn't see anything important and interesting about being a wife and mother.
00:06:46 When asked what she will miss most about.
00:06:48 The big city.
00:06:50 She says she will miss the noise.
00:06:53 This life in the suburbs and this beautiful home that her husband provided for her.
00:06:58 Simply isn't exciting enough when her husband comes home.
00:07:03 From work later that evening.
00:07:05 He tells her.
00:07:06 That he's going to join the local men's club.
00:07:09 She gets furious because he didn't discuss it with her first.
00:07:12 She's angry that it's strictly men only.
00:07:16 What is this?
00:07:17 The dark ages?
00:07:19 A few days later.
00:07:20 She meets another woman who is new to town.
00:07:24 They complain together that all the women in this town, they they seem to be happy as homemakers.
00:07:30 Their kitchens are are too clean.
00:07:32 And what's worse, nobody has a maid.
00:07:36 These women are doing all the cleaning themselves.
00:07:39 And then they complain about the men's club and their husband.
00:07:43 While they drink Scotch and smoke.
00:07:46 In the homes their husbands provided for them.
00:07:50 Later that day, her husband calls from the club and asked if she wouldn't mind if he brings some of the men from the club over to discuss some fund raising projects of their planning.
00:08:00 She agrees and he brings the other men from the club.
00:08:05 As the men discuss mundane details of the fundraiser they're planning, that really doesn't have anything to do with her whatsoever.
00:08:14 She's upset that they don't want her opinion once again.
00:08:17 She's isolated.
00:08:18 She's not included in this conversation and sits quietly, alone and sad.
00:08:24 However, one of the men does pay attention to her.
00:08:28 He quietly sketches her as the men discuss bake sales.
00:08:33 He shows her the drawing and she's impressed.
00:08:35 She's even seen his work before.
00:08:37 He's a famous artist.
00:08:39 In the fashion industry, nonetheless.
00:08:42 This is the first time we see her happy.
00:08:47 It's when an old man from the fashion industry.
00:08:50 Strokes her vanity by drawing a flattering picture of herself.
00:08:57 Only someone who realizes that it should always be about her.
00:09:02 Someone who who sees just how beautiful and interesting she is.
00:09:08 But that happiness is short lived.
00:09:12 After the men leave, she complains that they were all so boring and doesn't like any of them.
00:09:18 She says they're they're beneath her and and not nearly as interesting as their friends back in Manhattan.
00:09:26 She has pinned the drawing of herself up by the mirror and removes her make up as she scolds her husband for putting up with such boars and once again the mirror is used as a device to get women in the audience to project themselves.
00:09:43 Onto this woman.
00:09:45 Look at the beautiful drawing of themselves so large in the frame compared to how small her boring husband is.
00:09:54 Her boring husband surrounded on either side by images of this interesting and beautiful goddess.
00:10:01 He clearly doesn't deserve her.
00:10:04 Perhaps their husbands?
00:10:06 Don't deserve them either.
00:10:09 Next, read a garden party hosted by the President of the Men's Club at his palatial estate.
00:10:15 All of the women are dressed elegantly and modestly, but Joanna and her friend?
00:10:22 Decided to go a different route.
00:10:23 One of the wives begins to drink and act strangely, but not strange like they're drunk, but repeating the same line over and over and over again to everyone she encounters with a big smile on her face.
00:10:35 She just keeps telling everyone I'll just die if I don't get this recipe.
00:10:41 The President of the club notices the strange behavior.
00:10:44 And her husband quietly removes her from the party.
00:10:48 The next day, that same woman who was acting strange goes to apologize to all.
00:10:53 Of the neighbors.
00:10:54 She tells Joanne and her friend that she drank too much and hopes that she didn't ruin their good time.
00:11:00 The two newcomers the town are are astounded that she would be so degraded by the social pressures that she felt that she had to apologize and instantly blamed the men, despite being told by the woman that.
00:11:15 It was her idea to apologize to people and that she just felt ashamed for having bad behavior.
00:11:22 But didn't you know?
00:11:24 The modern woman should never feel shame.
00:11:30 They decide that this oppressive atmosphere is just too much. They talk about how they used to be active in the women's liberation movement when they were young and that they're going to breathe new life into the movement right here in Stepford.
00:11:44 The revolutionary spirit has been awakened.
00:11:47 They don't like the way these white suburban women seem so happy behaving.
00:11:51 So, so feminine.
00:11:55 And now it's time to explain to them how, how.
00:11:58 They're really unhappy.
00:12:01 And oppressed by the men.
00:12:04 The only problem?
00:12:05 Is the women in the town don't seem interested? The first woman they meet with explains that she's just too busy being a wife and a mother. She doesn't have time to join a woman's club.
00:12:18 They tell her that she should be upset, that the only organization in town is is run by men and ask her.
00:12:25 Isn't she upset by this old fashioned way of life?
00:12:29 No, she says.
00:12:31 The next woman they visit says she's not interested either.
00:12:35 The two are stunned when she tells them that she actually enjoys baking and being a good homemaker.
00:12:42 The third woman they see at a nursery and they tell her that she should join their club because her her life isn't exciting enough.
00:12:49 Doesn't she want to go out and have fun to which the woman says she?
00:12:54 Does go out.
00:12:55 She's out right now looking at flowers to plant.
00:12:59 This is fun for her.
00:13:01 The fourth woman they go to visit, they decide to just barge into her house without knocking.
00:13:07 And then they're shocked at how well kept the home is.
00:13:11 And then they're shocked even further when.
00:13:13 They hear upstairs.
00:13:15 The woman having sex with her husband. So the two of them having just walked into a stranger's house uninvited. Just stand there listening to her having sex upstairs with her husband like perverts.
00:13:28 And then sneak.
00:13:29 Off like giggly little girls.
00:13:31 But once the giggles die down.
00:13:34 They're upset because it seems that nobody wants to join their little feminism club.
00:13:41 But then they find another woman.
00:13:42 Is new to town.
00:13:44 Isn't it funny that the only people that seem interested in helping them subvert the established culture in Stepford?
00:13:53 Are the other new immigrants to the area?
00:13:57 They don't want to assimilate.
00:13:59 They don't care how happy the women look.
00:14:02 Or say that they are.
00:14:03 They have no respect for the established culture.
00:14:07 But instead, these newcomers who came to Stepford in the 1st place because it was a safe area.
00:14:14 Because people were happy.
00:14:17 Decide to subvert it.
00:14:20 And destroy it.
00:14:23 Turn it into a cesspool like the ones they came from.
00:14:26 With no regard whatsoever.
00:14:29 For with the native population who built this community?
00:14:34 Wants for their future.
00:14:37 This woman, like all the other wives she has an amazing estate provided by her husband, and she even has a maid.
00:14:46 The strangest dialogue of the entire movie actually involves this made.
00:14:53 The woman says, and I quote.
00:14:56 She's a German Virgo.
00:14:57 Their thing is to serve.
00:15:01 To which one of the women says, oh, that's why we won the war.
00:15:07 Honestly, this dialogue makes no sense at all.
00:15:13 Unless I'm missing, you know some kind of reference from the 70s.
00:15:17 But by itself it it sounds like some creepy comment about German virgins making good servants.
00:15:24 And you know, that wouldn't really make any sense unless.
00:15:30 So this new woman, who is just as degenerate as this dynamic feminist duo who just finished listening in on their neighbor having sex in their home uninvited, is interested in what they call a consciousness raising session.
00:15:46 And after drinking wine and making jokes about the erections of the neighborhood teenage boys, I'm not making that up.
00:15:53 She agrees to join their little club.
00:15:58 All they have to do.
00:15:58 Now is to get.
00:16:00 These other women, these these women who don't.
00:16:02 Know how miserable they are.
00:16:05 They need to get them.
00:16:07 To join the club too.
00:16:09 So in the next scene, one of the men from the men's club is visiting and asking Joanne to record her voice for a project he's doing.
00:16:16 He says he's doing a research project on how to identify accents geographically.
00:16:22 And she tells him that she will only do it if he convinces all the other wives that didn't want to join their feminism club to come to their first meeting.
00:16:32 Now, this part's interesting because while the man is half joking, he says this sounds like you're trying to blackmail me, to which she replies.
00:16:39 Well, that's how America works.
00:16:42 And it is especially when subversion is involved.
00:16:47 So he agrees.
00:16:49 And the women come.
00:16:51 But the meeting doesn't seem to go the way they had hoped.
00:16:54 The three women that wanted to join the club start complaining that their husbands don't pay enough attention to them and and how unhappy they are.
00:17:03 But the Happy Housewives seem completely unable to relate.
00:17:07 Instead, they began swapping tips on how to.
00:17:09 Save time, ironing and cleaning.
00:17:12 This drives the feminist women.
00:17:14 Easy and the meeting is a complete failure.
00:17:17 Their attempt to subvert this community.
00:17:20 Has been stopped in its tracks.
00:17:24 So because this is a horror film, of course a few creepy things happen the.
00:17:28 Men's club is.
00:17:29 Clearly up to something.
00:17:30 But what exactly?
00:17:32 Joanna can't tell.
00:17:33 But she knows something must be wrong.
00:17:36 She meets the husband of the woman that she was listening to having sex.
00:17:42 And she concludes there must be something wrong, because how could a man like that?
00:17:50 Please, his wife, this man, a successful owner of a a pharmacy, he couldn't possibly have a wife that beautiful, that enjoys having sex with him.
00:18:02 Has to be up, it just doesn't add.
00:18:05 That he could be with her.
00:18:08 He is clearly a useless nobody.
00:18:10 While she is a is a goddess and yes.
00:18:14 That really is.
00:18:14 The reasoning that her and her friend used to determine that something is amiss in Stepford? What deepens their suspicion as they find out, there used to be a woman's club.
00:18:27 And what's more, their neighbor, the oppressed wife that drank too much.
00:18:31 Used to be the present.
00:18:34 What had changed?
00:18:35 How could this town have been so progressive before?
00:18:40 But now full of housewives that enjoy their families, so they visit her and ask her what changed.
00:18:48 Doesn't she know how unhappy she is?
00:18:51 Doesn't she know that what she's doing really isn't enough?
00:18:55 She says of, of course, it's enough.
00:18:58 Her husband is successful and she feels that she's.
00:19:01 A part of.
00:19:01 That by being a supportive wife, her.
00:19:04 Kids are doing well in school.
00:19:06 And she feels that she's obviously.
00:19:08 Has a hand in that.
00:19:09 As well by being a good mother.
00:19:12 She says obviously it's enough.
00:19:15 Life is good.
00:19:17 I'm sorry to disappoint you, she says.
00:19:20 But I'm happy and that really says it all, doesn't it?
00:19:23 The progressive movement can only operate when people are unhappy.
00:19:28 That's why books and films like this had to be produced in the 1st place.
00:19:32 Women had to be told over and over and over again how unhappy they were being wives and mothers.
00:19:39 Because without a problem.
00:19:41 They didn't need a solution.
00:19:42 A solution that could never and would never solve the problems it created.
00:19:48 Women are more miserable now than they've ever been.
00:19:51 So much so that looking back at this film just made 45 years ago that attempts to depict the lives of these housewives as some kind of living hell.
00:20:02 Instead, looks like a paradise in comparison to what the lives of the modern woman looks like today. And in fact, even the audience of 1975 had to at least have some kind of inkling of this, because one of the characters after this visit even says out loud.
00:20:20 Maybe we're the crazy ones.
00:20:23 Because the audience in 1975 would have to wonder what could be so terrible about this life, these these happy women are leading.
00:20:31 But Joanne is convinced that she's right.
00:20:35 There is more to life.
00:20:37 She is a modern and an exciting woman.
00:20:40 A photographer that the world should respect.
00:20:45 She goes to the city and and brings her photos to a gallery.
00:20:49 And as it turns out, her photos just weren't that great.
00:20:55 The gallery turns her down and she goes back to Stepford Hollow and empty.
00:21:02 Once again, next we see one of the more subversive aspects of the film.
00:21:07 It's a poison pill.
00:21:09 Delivered to every married woman in the audience and designed to sow doubt in their marriage, the two women decide that maybe there's something in the water in Stepford that's making the wives seem so happy.
00:21:25 And wouldn't you know it? Joanna's first boyfriend.
00:21:29 Is a chemist.
00:21:30 She talks about how she was so in love with him and that the only reason she married her current husband.
00:21:37 Was because he.
00:21:38 Was a lawyer and she thought he would turn out to be like Perry Mason, a fictional lawyer.
00:21:45 She describes him in a generic kind of way that most women in the audience will be able to relate to when thinking fondly of their first love.
00:21:54 She decides to visit him without her husband's knowledge to help fix.
00:22:00 Her unhappiness?
00:22:02 If this not so.
00:22:03 Subtle metaphor was applied to today's women.
00:22:07 It would be the equivalent of a wife looking up an ex lover on Facebook, finding some excuse to to chat with them.
00:22:16 And seeing if they can't revive that spark, she imagined they had.
00:22:23 So they take water samples.
00:22:26 Take him to her first love.
00:22:28 He tests the water.
00:22:30 And slips her a note saying that he's unhappy in his marriage.
00:22:34 Letting her know and the women in the audience that maybe this door wasn't shut all the way.
00:22:43 Maybe it's OK to explore this option of an old fling when your family and your husband aren't bringing you satisfaction.
00:22:53 Now, to her credit, she doesn't take the bait because you know, the filmmaker still want you to, to like this woman. And even in 1975, infidelity was probably.
00:23:03 Seen as a little more negative than it was to day.
00:23:07 So she doesn't take the bait, and she goes back to Stepford.
00:23:10 Time passes and she takes more photos.
00:23:13 This time, when she brings them to the gallery, the the curator thinks they're better than her older photos and ask what is she trying to get out of this?
00:23:23 She replies she wants to be famous.
00:23:27 She wants people to look at something and say that reminds me of an Ingles and then explains Ingles.
00:23:34 Was her maiden name.
00:23:37 The implication is clear.
00:23:38 She regrets her life as a wife and mother.
00:23:42 She wants to go back to when she was younger and people still desired her for her youth and her excitement.
00:23:49 She wants an interesting life, the life of a famous photographer.
00:23:54 She wants fame and recognition.
00:23:57 It's more important.
00:23:58 To her than being a wife or a mother.
00:24:02 Excited that the gallery didn't hate her photos?
00:24:06 And full of delusions that maybe she still can be the next famous photographer.
00:24:12 She goes back to Stepford.
00:24:13 To tell her.
00:24:15 Sassy feminist friend.
00:24:18 But something is wrong.
00:24:20 She's not dressed like a ******.
00:24:23 And isn't complaining about her life.
00:24:24 Her kitchen is clean.
00:24:27 And she's she's wearing makeup.
00:24:30 Something is wrong.
00:24:31 And I'm not editorializing here.
00:24:33 These are.
00:24:33 Really, the reasons?
00:24:35 That she thinks her friend has gone crazy.
00:24:37 Her friend says.
00:24:39 That she had a change of heart.
00:24:41 That she decided it wasn't fair that while her husband worked all day, she just drank wine and complained about life.
00:24:48 She decided that she didn't like that her husband had to come home to a dirty house because.
00:24:53 She had just been slacking off all day.
00:24:57 Joanna tells her that whatever is changing the women in the town is is changing her.
00:25:03 Her friend explains that that nothing has happened to her, she just wants to look like a woman and and keep her house looking decent for her family.
00:25:12 That's that's really what she says.
00:25:14 And these simple basic norms for centuries, but completely normal thoughts.
00:25:22 The desire to be feminine and and to keep.
00:25:24 Up her home.
00:25:27 Sounds so crazy.
00:25:29 To the progressive feminist Joanne, she has a complete mental breakdown.
00:25:34 And almost runs over some school children and crashes their car.
00:25:39 Because her friend wants to look like a woman.
00:25:41 Have a clean house.
00:25:43 And have respect for her husband.
00:25:46 In the middle of her mental breakdown, Joanna screams at her husband.
00:25:50 And says that her friend has gone crazy because her house was clean.
00:25:55 Which of course sounds crazy so.
00:25:59 He tells her.
00:26:01 Perhaps she should go see a.
00:26:03 She agrees, but says she won't go see a male shrink.
00:26:07 She's going to find a nice feminist psychiatrist that will understand.
00:26:12 A feminist shrink that tells her to kidnap her children and hide from her husband until she gets back from a trip she's going on out of town because no matter how crazy her story sounds about her friend is now taken over by some evil force because she cleans her house and wants to look pretty.
00:26:33 This feminist psychiatrist says, yeah, definitely kidnap your children.
00:26:36 Don't tell your husband where you're going.
00:26:38 Just just leave.
00:26:39 Even though you sound completely crazy.
00:26:42 It's important that I believe all women.
00:26:46 And clearly it's your husband's fault because.
00:26:48 He has a penis.
00:26:50 So go kidnap your children.
00:26:52 And then try to contact me in about two days.
00:26:54 That's when I'll come back in the town.
00:26:56 So she goes home to kidnap her children and finds out that her kids aren't.
00:27:02 So naturally, she attacks her husband with a fire poker and demands another location of the children that literally until this moment.
00:27:12 Have played almost no role whatsoever in her life.
00:27:15 The entire movie.
00:27:16 This has been going on, her kids have been less than a prop in the film.
00:27:23 The children have been raising themselves as she wandered around town complaining about how happy everyone was.
00:27:32 The children that that are important to her now only because everyone else thinks she's bat **** crazy.
00:27:40 Hell, even her husband probably thinks she's crazy and and all she did was hit him in the face with a a fire poker.
00:27:48 So he tells her that the kids.
00:27:49 Are at the men's club.
00:27:51 And she goes to the men's club to go kidnap them and take them out of this nightmare of happiness.
00:27:57 Once there, she finds the President of the club, the the evil patriarchy Incarnate.
00:28:04 And that's when she discovers the true secret behind the women of Steppe.
00:28:11 The men have been replacing the women with robots.
00:28:15 That explains everything that the happy wives and mothers and their safe community.
00:28:20 That they were just robots.
00:28:23 You don't want to be a robot, do you? That's right. If you enjoy being a mother or a a Good Wife who cares about her husband's happiness and and the state of your home, you must be a *** **** robot.
00:28:34 You're not happy?
00:28:36 You've just been programmed to think you are by the men.
00:28:39 The men that turned you into a robot so you could never fulfill your dreams.
00:28:44 Is an Instagram model and now.
00:28:47 And now that robot has taken the place of of the exciting and interesting independent woman that you once were.
00:28:55 And you're damned to live life as a robot for eternity, just smiling and exchanging pleasantries in a supermarket in a homogeneous safe neighborhood with all of the other robots you have to escape this hell, this artificial life that has been programmed into you.
00:29:15 By the men.
00:29:16 So you can enjoy the life.
00:29:19 That we know will actually.
00:29:22 Make you fulfilled.
00:29:25 And happy.
00:29:28 For black pilled.
00:29:30 I'm Devin stack.
00:29:32 If you like my videos.
00:29:33 Make sure you like and subscribe. Make sure you share because the algorithm's not going to do.
00:29:36 That for us.
00:29:37 If you want to support my work, you can grab a copy of my book link in the description. It's available in audiobook and paperback also, and you can go to patreon.com/black Pilled or subscribe star or send a crypto to one of the.
00:29:52 Addresses below.