Clever Calendar Girls

In class, we have discussed extensively societal expectations and gender roles. Continuing in that vein, I wanted to look closer at the movie Calendar Girls, and examine not only the conflicts that arise from those expectations, but also, how the movie plays with them.

A major issue of the movie is the fallout from the success of Chris’ project. Her son, obviously not pleased that his mother is the leader and feature in a nude calendar, constantly rebels from the situation. Unlike her son, Chris’ husband accepts it well, telling her how he wanted her to have everything she achieved. The only quips he may have with the whole affair he unwittingly tells a disguised reporter. Even in this moment, everything he says he relates jokingly, or in the air of a conversation solely between two men, not in any way intended for a newspaper story.

What I like about the reaction of the husband is how it plays with audience expectations. So many movies focus on the split they assume will inevitably come when the wife and husband switch implied roles, the woman becoming more successful or profitable than the man. What’s more, the prevailing feeling is that the man must automatically be unhappy because he is no longer in the position of family prestige. In this movie, the husband is not typical, and tells Chris he never wanted anything different then what happened. In reality, the underhanded means of an unscrupulous reporter (arguably reflective of society) is the one ultimately responsible for all the conflict, exaggerating and distorting the husband’s feelings about the role reversal. This is a spin on what one expects, for the husband does not undergo some change of heart or learn to cope with her success, (or even try to fight it), but is actually comfortable with it from the start.

Also, many times, film has the man instigating the conflict, because it again assumes pressure to be the provider will finally cause in him to be the first to unhappily snap at the other. In Calendar Girls, all these assumptions are disregarded, and instead, here is a man who reminds the other man in his life (his son) to be proud of what his mother has accomplished. What is also interesting is how the movie further plays with the expectation, placing Chris as the one responsible for worsening the conflict in her marriage. Her husband’s jokes which end up on the front-page of their newspaper, he was tricked into giving. Upon seeing the story, Chris leaves for Hollywood without even speaking to him (and had she done so, would have easily resolved the entire issue). Society assumes women are communicators who always want to talk about the problem where as men would rather move on or ignore it. In this scene, here is Chris, the woman, being the anti-communicator, leaving the country without a word to her husband. In this way, where her husband before went against societal expectations by being unthreatened by her success, Chris too shuns the norm, not talking or making attempts to communicate what bothers her.

A brief ending comment: Perhaps the thing I like best about all of this societal expectation reversal is the fact that Chris’ husband is a florist (and I believe Annie’s was too). Floral arrangements and flowers are typically a women’s hobby, and I thought it was interesting that the movie made it their husbands’ line of work.