The Devil Wears Prada!

*** Possible Spoilers Ahead****

I watched The Devil Wears Prada today. I really loved the show. On the surface, it appears to be portraying the fast-paced and uncaring world of a fashion magazine company. A world where people get stomped on, crawl over one another to achieve success and basically have little fun doing what they do.

In comes little Andrea. Girl next door, basically a fashion idiot. In fact, she should be the first that the boss Miranda would kick out. (Kinda reminds me of myself. Basically banking on personal skills and qualifications, knowing zip about fashion.) Anyway, she somehow manages to pull off the impossible requirements her boss piles upon her (Kinda like how Asok from Dilbert gets oushed about) and gains her boss' grudging favour. In fact, she manages to surpass and effectively usurp Emily's position as the favoured personal assistant to the boss. Towards the end of the story, the boss does some heavy duty politicking to maintain her position as chief editor of the fashion magazine Runway, and effectively pushing her competitor into a (more lucrative) position as an editor-in-chief of another magazine. She manages to deny Nigel (a fashion advisor) his long-awaited promotion due to this maneuver. Andrea finally realizes that she is not cut out for this cut-throat world, and effectively thumbs her nose at the boss when she finally walks out.

I like this story because it is about being true to oneself. What Andrea pulled off in a year was more than Nigel achieved in 18 years because she knew what she wanted. Nigel was basically biding his time and letting the boss make all the moves for him. Andrea did that at first because she felt that she "had no choice". She realized later on that she did indeed have a choice, and that she was making choices even though she felt forced into making them. That's a fact of life anywhere, I suppose.

Miranda first appears as an imposing figure, almost like a Margaret Thatcher. She is strong, nonchalant and highly successful. She knows her powers and wields them to their fullest extent. However, we are exposed to her weakness mid-story, when she shows some emotion and rather drab fashion sense after having a hard time with her divorce. She's been through numerous divorces, apparently, and all possibly job-related. I guess this vulnerability helped awaken Andrea to the reality of what her boss is really going through. It's definitely paved a way for her to relate to her boss. Miranda suddenly seems so much more human.

In truth, Andrea is a lot more like Miranda than she realizes. Though she was never the sort to really enjoy the cut-throat world in Runway, she knows what she wants as surely as Miranda knows what she wants. And she is willing to take steps to get that. She denies apparent success in something she does not enjoy, and even stays loyal to the guy she loves (yeah!). Granted, this may seem rather overly dramatic, but it is what I've always wanted out of my life. Andrea never wanted to let the company get to her head, and made efforts to break away once she realized that she was becoming like the Clackers.

I have a fear. That fear is losing my self. One invariably changes with the times. However, how can one be sure that one is not changing her true nature just to accomodate success, society or any number of factors that taint one's life. I do not wish to encounter a day when I look at myself, and don't know who I am anymore. Worse yet, I don't want to know that I can't go back to how I was because I do not remember.