Why 'Mary Poppins Returns' returns with a fresh dose of misogyny
Mary Poppins has ‘returned’ and I cannot make up my mind whether I must applaud the movie for its great songs, magic realism and colour, or over-emphasis on filial bonds — harping energetically throughout on the-family-that-shares-together-stays-together metric, or if I should be a trifle indignant over the subtle subtext that women working outside the home invariably are the irresponsible type, while domestic peace is restored when stay-at-home-women — mothers or nannies, all the same really — descend with emphatic intent!
When I first read the book in school and then travelled to the movie, I adored it and the magical storyline unfolding in vivid audiovisuals.
Much later, as I had an extended diet of Disney movies, I applauded this obvious departure made by the Movie Moghul for creating something other than a Princess story with hard-to-live-up-to-stereotypes and predictable endings. For once, I was glad to see a normal woman literally descend into a dysfunctional household, and with decided attitude, take the Bank-Bulls by their horns and get them into shape.
Thank God there was no slim-waisted, blond haired, pretty-as-a-picture nanny doing her job and being the romantic interest of some rich, noble and handsome patriarch.
Many years later, as an adult and mother, I revisited Mary Poppins again and voila, my point of view changed. Suddenly the subtext wasn’t so subtle anymore.
Sitting with my brood, it rankled me a bit. Mrs Banks — a feminist — is strong and successful for the world outside her home, but within her home, she is hardly a ‘success’. She makes the staff sing Sister Suffragette energetically and then hands over the children and their needs to nannies — complete strangers, willing to bring up children in exchange for some pennies.
So, the key lesson for a family to be happy and together — can’t have mothers working outside and sloganeering. The latter is a complete no-no. At home, women better be a Mary Poppins and show off all their skills — real and magical. Being a mover and a shaker outside the home isn’t going to fetch any woman any bouquet.
Women who are aspirational and want to conquer the professional space, here's the real deal — financial independence, increased social visibility and a feeling of empowerment get nullified with the effects of the 'double burden' (a term used to describe the load of people who work to earn money, but who are also responsible for significant amounts of unpaid domestic labour).
So, smashing the glass ceiling alone won't do much, for, in the final analysis, every woman has to carry within them a Mary Poppins.
Move over Mrs Banks. Take a Poppins break. Tuck those revolutionary ideas into apron pockets, pick up the ladle and mop, churn out the baked and cooked delights. Slog, slog, slog! Be invisible, be the nanny and voila — a happy family picture stares you in the face!
You’d have to be Mary Poppins and Mrs Banks all at once to be considered an asset. Whew!
Not seen Mary Poppins? No sweat. Turn on the television and view the advertisements that come between programmes. You will spot indigenous Mary Poppins-es everywhere.
Armed with a microscope, they show you how to hunt for those invisible germs or ’keetanu’ — our homegrown Mary Poppins is eternally on a germ-fighting mission! They have the perfect solutions, too, which they are eager to share.
So doctor Mary Poppins or nutritionist Mary Poppins or Dentist Mary Poppins will show you items that promise to sanitise your home and clothes, they can talk to you about a whole lot of parenting ideas which invariably (magically?) end in packaged products. And thus, peace reigns in the backyard, even as our Marys engage just as hard at work, proving they are better than the Micheals or Martins of the world.
Our Marys are everywhere, pretty much like Travers’ character — dealing with domestic chores and problems and magically finding solutions. Yes, the real and the fictional are impossible to distinguish at some rudimentary level.
Miraculously, both Marys are always four octaves ready — one singing their way out of any domestic disturbance or upheaval, and the other singing those catchy jingles that stay with us and are crucial to the ‘brand recall’ component.
This, in short, is the anti-feminist text where women are relegated to home chores and congratulatory notes are given out only on the basis of how well they have tackled the invisible mites and quelled hunger pangs and scrubbed clothes to milky white brightness. This, while the fathers are out there in telly-land making things large, larger, largest.
And the man with the 'largest' gets to make decisions over big budget spendings and drives around in swanky cars, announcing his success in well-earned holidays atop pristine mountaintops.
Telly-land apes reality, and while new voices are finding their way out of the stereotyped clamour, there is largely a lack of coherence and consistency. A watch advertisement telling women to flaunt their flaws while the next one telling them to get their complexion right is confusing.
This swinging from one philosophical point to another makes all women mildly schizophrenic — unable to make up their mind if they want the social bouquet at the cost of personal angst.
Mary Poppins and the latest Returns avatar have their elements right, and Julie Andrews or Emily Blunt have sunk their teeth into their roles with conviction. There is a lot of singing and dancing — and growing up on Hindi movies, for the most part — I adored the angelic nanny and her seamless flights from one octave to another.
Maybe as an adult, the experience was different — undoubtedly enjoyable but different. It made me more aware of things that slunk beneath.
Despite the old feud between a homemaker and a professional, one has to give it up to Walt Disney for not ramming our gullets with feeble princesses who see no way forward till the advent of the prince. That, in itself, makes Mary Poppins worth a watch.
Feminists weren’t looked at with much regard then and things haven’t radically changed now. But let’s dwell on that another day. For now let’s listen to nanny Poppins sing in her heavenly voice and let’s slip into the magical world of no double burden, anxiety attacks and piercing guilt pangs before ugly reality finds us lounging and thrusts itself on us.