I finally got around to watching The Stepford Wives this weekend. Nice work by Nicole Kidman. It’s always good to see Jon Lovitz working. The movie is a bit of a mess, as the critics have pointed out, but what bothered me most was its elitism.

Joanna Eberhardt, the Nicole Kidman character, is a big TV executive in the city making a ton of money and wearing chic black outfits. After she’s fired when one of her reality show characters goes bizerk, she and her family moves to Stepford, CT. Joanna meets the women of this town who dress in floral, pouffy dresses topped with Barbie hair. She’s horrified.

Not only do the Stepford wives dress badly, but they do THEIR OWN GROCERY SHOPPING. Horrors! With frozen smiles, they wheel their carts through the aisles (still without children) and buy eggs.

In the Ira Levin book, the pre-robotic women cleaned their homes and raised their children, they just did it badly. In this movie remake, the pre-robotic women had high powered careers and farmed out their duties to maids and nannies.

Is this the new ideal? A life without domestic responsibilities. Where the boring tasks of sale shopping and cleaning the microwave are passed onto others. A lifestyle that few can afford.

Russell Arben Foxwrote last week about his brother in law and his family who take great pride in the simple life. They take on jobs that most of us have delegated to others such as growing fruits and vegetables and knitting. As much as I find all that fascinating, learning to weave my own yarn doesn’t sound all that simple. I would rather use my time doing more noble pursuits — blogging and drinking — and delegate the scarf making to the little elves at Target.

I guess what we delegate and what we do is kind of arbitrary. But this movie suggests that the movement to delegate is growing.

In the movie, the men force their wives to assume the job of nanny and maid for unspecified reasons. Behind the scenes and covered by two way mirrors, I wonder if the servants were really the ones pushing the buttons and laughing as their employers do the work for a change.