After seeing Blue Jasmine this past Saturday, I noticed a not-so uncommon thread between Jasmine and other New York women. Unfortunately, there are many ladies in Manhattan who do not work, lack education, but have hit – what some call – “pay dirt,” where they ride on their husband’s coattails, set for life (or so they think). However, if anything goes wrong – whether it be via divorce, fraudulent funds or any other white-collar crime – reality knocks on their door and they are forced to drastically change their lifestyle.
Although this may seem like a trivial problem for the rich and powerful, because they brought it on themselves, there is an endless debate that is always brought up when it comes to men and dirty money: did the wife know? Very often, women are blamed for their husband’s indiscretions. This is often unfair because if women like Jasmine are, as written above, uneducated, then how could they possibly know anything about their spouse’s financial stupor? I, myself, a young, educated woman living in New York City, know very little about economics. I’m sure if my significant other were conducting any illegal business, it would go completely unnoticed.
Unlike most of these women, however, Jasmine did know about her husband’s financial games and. Though, something else we must remember is that Jasmine is a very extreme case of this kind of New York woman. And, fortunately, it is very rare that this happens, even on a small scale. Nevertheless, we cannot fail to wonder why these modern-day Marie Antoinette’s take the blame for their husband’s errors.
Image credited to Cate-Blanchett.com