1. Name: Angelica Ourri
Word Count :2111
Marxist Materialism
The Devil Wears Prada as a Capitalist Propaganda.
This essay will investigate the theory of Marxist materialism and its relation to
modern cinema using the screen adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's novel “The devil
wears Prada” by 20th century fox that will be analysed from a Marxist point of view. It
will also investigate how the film is used as a capitalist propaganda with emphasis on
labour exploitation and class division. The emphasis of the film analysis will be on
one of the main characters of the film, the chief in editor, Miranda Priestly, as her
character is believed to be inspired by one of the most powerful and influential
women in the fashion industry, the chief editor of the U.S Vogue, Anna Wintour. Her
character will be contrasted with the other main character of, Andrea Sachs who
portrays her personal assistant that comes from a more low class , less materialistic
world.
Karl Marx was one of the most revolutionary and important sociologists, economists
and philosophers of the 1800’s and he is still considered as one of the most
influential people in human history. His theories on society and the economy is
collectively called Marxism, and the ones who follow his ideas are called marxists.
Marx was a big supporter of the labour , communism, and believed that the power of
working class could change society.
To conduct the research on the subject of Marxism and get a better holistic
understanding on Marx’s theories I firstly used the book “Marx, A complete
introduction” by Gill Hands, to understand the basics of Marxism, giving emphasis on
chapter four titled Economic theory to investigate his views on how the economy
works and how it can be applied to today’s society. The book gave me an
introductory understanding on the foundations of Marxist theory focusing on the
subjects of surplus value/ profit and the process in which Marx identified how it’s
achieved by the Bourgeois,the themes of labour exploitation,alienation, the division
of labour and how the capitalist system work. For the basics, I also used the book
“Marxism and History” by Matt Perry to explore the timeline of Marxist writings and
ideas while also looking at Marxism and postmodernism. Furthermore I used the
book “Reconstructing Marxism Essays on Explanation and the Theory of History” By
Erik Olin Wright emphasizing on Part one of the book, to focus on historical
materialism .

2. Based on Marxism, society is divided into 2 parts, the base and the superstructure.
The base consists of employer and employee relationships and the overall
production relationships. The base is what shapes and determines the
superstructure which consists of culture , politics and regimes of power. however
often the two work in a vicious circle where one shapes the other.
Furthermore according to Marxist theory society is also divided in 2 classes, the
bourgeoisie,ruling class and the proletariat , working class, supporting that the
dominant ideas of each age are the ideas of its ruling class. Historical materialism
argues that history is determined by the conflict of the classes, how alterations and
conflicts in, technology ,labour, productive capacity otherwise known as material
condition shape society and the economy. With this term Marx viewed capitalism as
a transitioning stage,in contrast to Hegel that viewed it as an end to historical
development, as he believed the labour would protest thus contradictions and
conflicts of the 2 classes would lead to capitalism’s downfall. (Perry, 2002)
Before capitalism , in Feudalistic or slave societies, the circulation of commodities
was different than the one of capitalism. In chapter four of Das Kapital, Marx explains
how Commodities/Products would be exchanged for money to buy other
commodities one needed, creating what he called the C­M­C financial circulation
(C=commodities, M=money) , however in capitalism the model changes to M­C­M1,
the capitalist invests money in order to produce commodities which are then
exchanged for a larger amount of money than initially invested, resulting in surplus
value / profit.. (Marx, 1873)
Although the above was taken for granted Marx explored on what defines the value
of a product and how profit is created. His opinion was that the value of a product is
defined by the amount of labour that goes into in the making of a product and that is
what determines its exchange value. If labour is considered as a commodity however
then it should be exchanged for its value, meaning that the capitalist who employs
the labour should pay them their day’s value. Thus, making it impossible to earn a
profit, Marx found that the answer to how the capitalists are making profit lies in
labour power, which is nearly the same as the efficiency of labour. This creates a
difference between the amount the wage the worker gets and the value that is
created by his labour power, and this creates surplus value. In simple words, the
worker get a specific fixed amount for his labour power despite the profit made by
the capitalist from the sales of the commodity labour produce. It’s the difference of
the money the workers are paid versus the product value created by them. After
answering the question of how surplus value is created , since the capitalist system
is profit motivated, Marx moved on to how the capitalist increases his surplus value,
and resulted in two ways, by increasing the working hours, or by increasing the
working place efficiency, by increasing the efficiency it means the labour covers their
wage cost in shorter amount of time, leaving a bigger part of the day for the worker
to basically work for “free” and produce surplus value for the capitalist. Another way
that the capitalist increases profit by is division of labour, by dividing labour into

3. simple more repetitive tasks, the capitalist first saves money as there's not much
need for training its workers, this also increases the competition between people
looking for work which leads to a drop in wages increasing the profit even more and
lastly as small capitalists can’t compete they are driven out of business joining the
labour/workers.
Marxist theory is relevant today more than ever, especially with a huge class
division, where the 147 companies that own everything are controlled by just 4
parent firms, which consist of CME group, Barclays ,McGraw­Hill ,and Northwestern
Mutual (Coffey, 2011). Large Industries, such as the ones of fashion and media,
shape and control dominant ideologies as we know them. The power of said,
industries is depicted in one of the most successful 20 Century fox movies, The Devil
Wears Prada.
In the movie The Devil wears prada one can see a more direct comparison between
the two classes. The film follows the story of Andrea Sachs, the personal assistant to
the chief in editor, Miranda Priestly, of the “fashion bible” magazine, Runway.
Throughout the film, the viewer is constantly shown and reminded the difference in
class and power between the capitalist and the labour, Miranda Priestly and those
who work for her. From the different , outfits, lifestyle the movie stresses the
differences in class divisions that are created by money and materialistic
possessions.
Andrea, although originally a freelance journalist, because of extreme work
competition , she is left with not much of a choice but to work for Miranda as her PA,
for the minimum wage. However, the exploitation does not stop there as under
Miranda’s employability , she is forced to work outside work hours, and be available
at anytime to run errands for the capitalist. It could be argued that through Andrea
one can see the topic of alienation. Marx wrote a lot on the subject , which is much
more complex than the traditional sense of alienation that in his opinion is not
abstract but a concrete condition created by the capitalistic system. Because of
labour division and exploitation , the ways capitalists gain profit, Andrea ends up
doing errands that are not part of her work , or during work hours, while she is
constantly being shown how and when to work. On the other hand, the other
assistant Emily, although she wants the job she has, through her one can see how
division of labour promotes competition rather than co­operation In either of the
cases, one can notice that the capitalist system causes Alienation and exploitation of
labour. Andrea is practically forced to get this job in order to survive, she has little
interest in it, but still tried to gain Miranda’s appreciation and not lose her job.
(Hands, 2015)
However, Andrea only starts gaining Miranda’s appreciation after she starts
dressing, in branded clothing , and develops a “sense of style”. Branded items , such

4. as Prada, are shown to have extreme importance in the film. From the opening, the
viewer sees, close up shots of the process in which Andrea gets ready, compared to
how women already in the fashion industry do. One can notice from the very
beginning the contrast between the two, as the other women are shown to have a
large closet , in contrast to Andrea’s choice of clothes, with a model like style quality,
while Andrea quickly picks her clothes without any attention. The commodity of
brand clothing and accessories comes across as giving a sense of higher status to
those who own them. The above can be considered as commodity fetish, a marxist
idea that argues some commodities carry a value that makes them more valuable
than others , but is not related on exchange or use value, for example many
designer clothes are produced with a minimal production cost at developing
countries yet they are sold and bought at a much higher price because of the
“spiritual value” and status they carry. In the same way as money fetishism ,
commodity fetishism makes people thinking of their worth in terms of the
commodities they own, (Marx, 1867). Andrea tries to exempt herself from the
materialistic fashion world and fetishism , by not following the trends or designer
labels even though she works at a fashion firm. In one of what could argue the best
scene of the film, Miranda gets offended , when andrea calls the clothes and
accessories “stuff” , giving a monologue to her on how even if she tries there is no
exempting yourself from fashion industry or giants, in her own words “it’s sort of
comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion
industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the
people in this room. From a pile of “stuff.”(20th Century, 2007)
Furthermore , going back to the basics of Marxism, as mentioned before The
dominant ideas of each age are the ideas of its ruling class. This power of the
bourgeoisie is shown in very clearly in the film. Especially in the Designer preview
scene, Priestly expresses her opinion on the designer’s collection before they are
publicly shown, with simply her nods, one is good, two is very good, while in her
history as chief there was only one smile ever. Thus, the designer will act according
to her opinion. Interestingly enough, many famous designers, although asked,
refused to participate in the movie playing themselves, because U.S Vogue editor in
chief, Anna Wintour was thought to be the inspiration behind Priestly’s capitalist
character, thus appearing in the film would mean risking not appearing at Vogue
again, or getting on Wintour’s bad side. Wintour,like Priestly, is considered the most
powerful woman in the fashion world,making her able to define what’s fashion at the
current time. Thus, the power of the ruling class is in this way shown both in the film
and in real life. “​ So because she pursed her lips, he's gonna change his entire
collection?
You still don't get it, do you? Her opinion is the only one that matters.”(20th Century,
2006)
.

5. Moreover, one of the last lines of the film is “everybody wants to be us” , a line that
one could argue sums up what the movie has been about. In a capitalist system the
bourgeoisie, are the ones in power, the ones who control everything because of the
amount of money they have gained in expense of the labour. While many argued
that the capitalistic society is the end to historical development , Marx refused to
believe it. Marx did not take the way the capitalistic system works for granted, but
rather analysed it in depth , revealing the corruption in the system, and the
exploitation of the workers. He encouraged the labour to take back the power and in
the same way Andrea refuses to join Miranda’s materialistic, corrupted world at the
end of the movie and to continue being exploited by her, Marx believed the labour
would rebel, creating a conflict and bringing capitalism to its downfall.

6.
References
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[Accessed 17 May 2015].
Coffey, B. (2011). ​The Four Companies That Control the 147 Companies That Own Everything​. [online]
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