![]() ![]() ![]() She’s teased by her peers, who insinuate that she is a lesbian (which is a problematic accusation in its own right), and her younger sister is embarrassed by Kat. Kat, Junger’s “shrew,” is a second-wave feminist at her core. Though it came four centuries later, the well-loved 1999 teen rom-com adaptation is not as nice as it appears. Undoubtedly, this is a far cry from how women should be treated, nonetheless, Junger chose to repurpose the play for a modern audience. At the end of the play, Katherina gives a speech that advocates for wives to behave in a deferential, totally compliant manner with their husbands. Katherina is subject to emotional abuse and is locked away to starve until she changes. The New York Times writer Lauren Collins-Hughes writes that she “has always hated ‘The Taming of the Shrew.’” Shakespeare’s play follows Katherina, the shrew, as Petruchio “tames” her, forcing her to become truly a docile wife instead of the headstrong and irritable woman she is. “The Taming of the Shrew” has drawn resentment from some critics for what they call its regressive ideology. In her novel “Vinegar Girl,” a modern-day adaptation of “The Taming of the Shrew” that forms part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series, Tyler uses the plot to advocate for an inclusive feminism that directly contrasts with the message in both Shakespeare’s play and Junger’s film. Two, it has reinforced the idea that strong-willed women should change their strong-willed personality to something softer if they ever want boyfriends.įortunately, Anne Tyler has saved the day. One, it has shown scores of unknowing high schoolers the plot of a Shakespearean novel. Gil Junger’s “10 Things I Hate About You,” a 1999 high school romantic comedy starring heart throbs like Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, has done two sneaky things. Though it’s not entirely shocking that a play written in the 1590s would treat women as inferior, it is unfortunate that upon closer look it has been used as the basis for a conservative and post-feminist movie that many teenagers have come to love over the past two decades. Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” poses a problem for academics: It is perhaps the play of all Shakespeare’s plays that most troublingly touches on gender issues and reflects a problematic treatment of women. ![]()
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