Why did we so look forward to reuniting with Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada 2?
One obvious answer is Meryl Streep. But it’s more than that.
Another possibility is that we’re fascinated by powerful women. Perhaps, except at the ballot box.
At the end of the original Prada, Miranda tells her assistant Andi, “I see a great deal of myself in you.” Andi resists. Perhaps you will resist when I suggest our fascination with Miranda is that we see a part of ourselves in her.
I may be biased — I am, after all, an employment lawyer — but I happen to think the real reason we’re fascinated with Miranda is her approach to the world of work.
Rather than being an archetype of how not to lead, as some on social media have suggested, I’d argue that she embodies several work-related qualities that many of us admire or even see in ourselves — especially in today’s often over-regulated, over-sensitive, and over-the-top corporate HR environments.
Here are three reasons why:
First, Miranda Priestly actually says what so many of us only think.
Who hasn’t wanted to say something like, “Please move at a glacial pace. You know how that thrills me?”
The virtue of patience is overrated! That’s why we experience such vicarious satisfaction when Miranda simply proclaims, “Go.”
While we cannot sear subordinates as Miranda does, perhaps we can plead a little less when we need things to get done.
Second, we, too, get frustrated with HR from time to time.
Let’s turn to the meeting in the sequel in which Miranda is unhappy with the suggestions she hears. She responds, “May my suicide be brief and painless.” After being admonished for her HR-unfriendly comment, Miranda responds, “I’m not talking about killing other people — yet.”
Her exasperation at HR is palpable. And relatable. We need HR to ensure that our work environment is civil. But sometimes HR overregulates.
I think of the manager who offended an employee by saying “homeless” rather than “unhoused.” And he was counseled by HR not to use the “offensive” term again.
Yes, Miranda is sort of an HR nightmare, but if HR overregulates what we can say, it becomes a bit of a nightmare, too. We need civility, not woke-approved sterility.
Third, many of us also love to work.
The final reason many of us can relate to Miranda involves an apparent ad lib by Meryl Streep at the end of the movie, where she says, with a wide smile, “I love to work.”
Like Miranda, many of us love what we do and in fact love working. But to say that is almost heretical.
Talk about feeling micro-aggressed in a toxic environment and you will have colleagues with beatific looks fawning on you to provide support. Talk about loving to work and you may hear, “You have no life.”
We often hear about work-life balance. So sorry, work-life management. The suggestion: Work is the antithesis of life. But in reality, work is a part of life and — gasp — it can actually be quite fulfilling.
Nigel has not stayed at Runway solely out of loyalty to Miranda. In his quiet and behind-the-scenes way, he loves what he does and is highly effective at it.
To quote famed newspaper publisher Katharine Graham: “To love what you do and feel that it matters — how could anything be more fun?”
What could be more fun than writing about a fun movie and relating it to work. I don’t always love work, but I, too, love to work.
I end the article with the obvious but necessary [cue Meryl Streep voice]: That’s all.
Jonathan Segal is Duane Morris’s Employment, Labor, and Benefits Partner.
The Citizen welcomes guest commentary from community members who represent that it is their own work and their own opinion based on true facts that they know firsthand.
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