The Devil Wears Prada

Miranda Priestly, the iconic dictator of the fashion world, lives each day in a position of power with almost non-existent dissent. The world of The Devil Wears Prada and the real world hold surprising similarities when discussing power.

Andy, an aspiring journalist, enters the fashion world as Miranda Priestly’s new assistant. Not expected to last long in that job, Andy astounds everyone by thriving and making herself almost indispensable to Miranda. This is accomplished because Andy plays into Miranda’s demands as the person in power. Miranda uses a multitude of ways to invoke the power she places on everyone beneath her. As stated in Power and Participation, “One form of non-decision-making… may be the threat of sanctions, ‘negative or positive’, ‘ranging from intimidation…to co-optation.” (pg 14) Miranda manages to invoke fear in all of her employees, even extending as far as her co-workers.

This begs the question; how did Andy get out of Miranda’s power? It is safe to assume that Andy went through the “process of issue and action formulation [followed by]… mobilization of action upon issues.” Andy developed her own “resources – real and symbolic- to wage the conflict.” Andy realized that she was worth more than the value Miranda gave her, and decided to quit her job, which eventually paid off for her in the form of newfound respect from Miranda.

If Andy, a quiescent employee, could get out of the broad range of power that Miranda has, why can’t other people or societies accomplish the same thing? Personally, I believe the main reason people have trouble overcoming people in power is because of the fact that “consciousness of the relatively powerless, even as it emerges, may be malleable.” Once someone holds all of the bargaining power, everyone else slowly starts to change their mindset, automatically placing the person in power at the top of the food chain. It may even be possible that it goes further than that, with people “flaunt[ing] their allegiances while those at the top tried to carve out stances that would best appeal to particular demographics.” People’s mindsets have the potential to be altered, and by doing so they lose the mindset needed to contradict the people in power.