JESSE POWELL writes:

I just finished watching the 1981 movie, The Incredible Shrinking Woman starring Lily Tomlin. The movie is rich in metaphor, the overarching theme being the diminishing role of the housewife, who shrinks and disappears with the introduction of all the new conveniences and household products of the modern age. 

As the movie starts out, Pat Kramer (the character played by Tomlin who becomes “The Incredible Shrinking Woman”) lives an idyllic family life as mother to several noisy rambunctious children, who are busy playing with their toys. The busy day ends in a happy scene in which Pat tucks her children in bed. 

The husband, who is the bread winner, is an advertising executive. His job is to come up with names for new products and put together the commercials peddling all sorts of wonders to the modern housewife. The fakeness of the new products and the fakeness of the ads are emphasized. All these things the company wants to sell to the housewife and the implication is that the housewife doesn’t need all these new toys and gadgets and little luxuries; it is all crass consumerism. Nevertheless, the husband’s job is advertising so he brings countless new products home to his wife for his wife to try out. His wife suggests which products she likes and offers ideas for what to call the latest inventions. 

Then, something goes wrong. Pat Kramer accidentally spills a new kind of perfume named “Sexpot” on her dress and on herself. Things seem okay at first but the next morning she senses something is wrong; she has started to shrink. She goes to the doctor to see what is wrong and he confirms the worst; she used to be 5’ 7” but now she is 5’ 5”; she really is shrinking! She is sent to an institute for the study of unexplained phenomenon, she is subjected to test after test, no one can understand why Pat is shrinking. Finally, the doctors have figured it out; it is because of all the new household products she is using! 

As the movie goes on Pat shrinks moreand more. She gets media attention and then becomes world famous. Maybe the public should be warned about the dangers of all these household products, that they cause women to shrink! But no, that would endanger her husband’s job; there is too much profit at stake. The public must not be told of the dangers in the new inventions. Then, some fiendish executives of the big household products company get together and figure if they can get a sample of Pat Kramer’s blood they can concoct a scheme to shrink the whole world where only they will be of normal size and then they will dominate over their shrunken captives.

As Pat shrinks and shrinks and shrinks she finds herself losing her role as wife and mother. After she is quite small she no longer has authority over her wild kids; after all, she is so small she can’t do anything to them anymore. Finally, at the end of the movie she is so small she simply blows away. 

Now, this idea that the role of wife and mother disappears due to new products and new inventions might seem absurd but it is indeed one of the main ideas of feminism; that once household work became easier due to things such as the washing machine there was simply nothing more for the housewife to do anymore and she would either become bored out of her mind or do something useful such as get a job. Oddly, in the movie, Pat functions just fine as a housewife and mother until she begins to physically shrink; there is no difference in the amount of conveniences she has at the beginning of the movie where she is normal size and fully functioning and towards the end of the movie where she is shrunken and tiny and can no longer function anymore. The disability Pat has due to being shrunken is completely contrived; it is simply because she is physically smaller. Metaphorically she has shrunken because of all her household conveniences but in the movie itself the household conveniences are irrelevant except in that they literally inflicted upon her a shrinking disease. 

The deeper idea of the “Incredible Shrinking Woman” however is very apt and very meaningful. Feminism has indeed led to the no longer able to function “Incredible Shrinking Woman.” The woman is so shrunken she is no longer able to care for her children; she has to send them off to day care. She is so shrunken, her ability to even have children has diminished and we have the declining fertility rate. She is so shrunken she can no longer please or hold onto a man; thus the ever declining proportion of women who are married. This huge and mighty shrinking of the role of women in society however is not caused by wealth and convenience, instead it is caused by the deliberate choice of the culture to degrade and insult the natural and traditional role of women. 

I will add, the “Incredible Shrinking Woman” leads directly to an accompanying incredible shrinking man. The man derives his power and energy and motivation from the woman. If the woman shrinks there is nothing useful for the man to do; after all the man’s purpose is to support the woman in her womanhood; if the woman no longer fulfills her purpose as a woman the man cannot fulfill his purpose as a man. 

If both men and women shrink and their ability to fulfill their natural roles diminishes, then what happens to children? What happens to our civilization? Perhaps in such a circumstance the civilization itself simply shrinks and shrinks and shrinks until it blows away.

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