Box office sales for ‘The Iron Lady’ are exceeding expectations across the UK, haven taken £2,146,045.06 in its opening weekend alone. Evidently not everyone shares my opinion that it just isn’t worth paying the money to see a biopic of Britain’s first, and so far only, female Prime Minister; whether this is because the viewer is looking forward to another stellar performance from Meryl Streep, or curiosity is just getting the better of people, is something we can only surmise. It seems unlikely that the movie, based on the story of Britain’s staunch conservative leader of 1979-90 and a woman who remains a hate figure for many, could ever turn out as apolitical as the director claims to have intended.
Maggie without her politics is a story that garners sympathy. A woman who played a man’s game rose through the ranks and overcame the inherent sexism of the British elite, before plummeting into decline with an illness as horrifying as dementia. A character who relied on her sharp and ruthless intellect slowly being stripped of it sounds like as good a premise as any for a classic Hollywood tearjerker. Team this with the inevitable scenes of driving through angry picket lines (necessary for a bit of gravitas) and you seemingly have a heroine. Meryl Streep has admitted herself that she did not care for Thatcher until she was presented with the story of the woman as opposed to the national figure.
The film’s release has caused quite the stir. Blogs, newspapers and comment sections are overflowing with damning, outraged reviews of the Golden Globe-nominated portrayal of a monster, portraying her in the main as a woman tragically compromised by one of the most debilitating diseases possible.
But where the Left struggle to be heard in general, we are pretty irrelevant when it comes to being film critics. What did people really expect? No story revolves around a villain. Maggie could only ever have been an anti-hero at best. Remove context and that ‘anti’ goes out the window. David Cameron was obviously so moved by the film that four days after its release, he called for more films to be produced. I’d wager he’s even pre-ordered the DVD.
‘The Iron Lady’ may not have been set out to be a political statement. But the fact remains that when a hate figure is taken, airbrushed, and set in a sympathetic light, a political statement is made nonetheless.
One repercussion of the release that the Left must tackle is the emerging debate surrounding a ‘new’ Free Market feminism. Thatcher’s victory over the miners helped to usher in the age of neoliberalism we still live with today, with everything up to and including women becoming commodified. Further to this, the Conservative party remains pro-marriage, anti-abortion and continues to impose savage cuts that will unfairly hit women hardest, this really is a baffling concept. The Fawcett Society estimates that twice as many women as men are expected to lose their jobs due to government cuts proposed over the coming years. This notion of a ‘true blue sisterhood’ must be exposed as the farce it is. Third wave feminism may allow for an explosion of divergent understandings, but no strain of feminism can work specifically to the detriment of women while remaining in the same ideological constituency.
Margaret Thatcher was clear in her own determination that she wanted nothing to do with feminism. She saw herself as there to do a man’s job, and by God would she do it. In her eleven years in office she failed to appoint more than one other female to her Cabinet.
Thatcher didn’t attempt to raise consciousness around women’s oppression. She didn’t understand the need for female solidarity, nor did she fight for social equality. However, as Natasha Walters wrote “No British woman this century can come close to her achievements in grasping power. No one can ever question whether women are capable of single-minded vigour, of efficient leadership, after Margaret Thatcher”. And for this reason Tories are jumping at the chance to reshape their former leader’s image into one a little more savoury. With a feminist rebirth taking place globally amongst young women, this comes as little wonder.
It is vital to acknowledge that, while it is not always necessary for a woman to consciously identify as a feminist in order to think in a progressive fashion, Thatcher openly denounced the feminist movement, famously claiming “I owe nothing to Women’s Lib.” Not only this but she actively acted against the ideals and policies promoted by the women’s movement at the time of her rise to power. In a similar, though less iconic way, Theresa May and her female colleagues cannot claim the feminist marker while acting in direct contradiction to its mantra.
Maggie didn’t seek to be seen as a feminist and feminists certainly don’t want her counted as one, so who exactly is behind this new rosy portrayal? Can we blame Hollywood entirely? Should Streep be made to suffer for her award-nominated performance? The Left should know better than to allow frustration over capital-controlled culture to debase us from our key objectives. These are not the questions to focus on. Instead we should strive to defeat the idea of ‘Free Market Feminism’ and deny the Conservative party and its female MPs any legitimacy on this issue.