Trust and the Two-Way Street

Working Girl is a classic study in class structures in a modern world. The amount of one-liners alone that represent the very strict appearance that the class structure represents is astonishing – “I’d love to help you, but you can’t busy the quarterback with passing out the Gatorade.” “You can bend the rules plenty once you get to the top, but not while you're trying to get there. And if you're someone like me, you can't get there without bending the rules.” “I'm not gonna spend the rest of my life working my ass off and getting nowhere just because I followed rules that I had nothing to do with setting up, OK?”

Okay, so maybe, as a film, it could have been better directed, and I, personally, could have done without Carly Simon. But throughout, the question of class saturated the plot. For instance, the concept of the two-way street: Katherine’s way of offering parity to Tess, at least ostensibly. Tess finds herself believing that she can move forward as long as she trusts in Katherine, whom she sees as her ticket to a better life. Yet unwittingly, Katherine inspires her with the idea that as long as she’s willing to make something happen and not wait for it to happen, her life will work out. Or rather, she’ll “get what she wants.” Yet it’s only when Katherine betrays Tess’s trust, lying about her radio idea, that Tess begins to really listen to the ideas that her upper-class guide put into her head. That’s irony, right there. Who doesn’t like irony?

And not only that, it applies directly to what we’ve discussed about the idea of “fitting in” with the upper class. Right off the bat, Katherine doesn’t seem to think that Tess, a lower-class secretary, could possibly have come up with a solid business idea. As she begins to accept that it was Tess’s idea, she nevertheless grabs it, and tries to run with it as her own. Even if Katherine really does believe that Tess’s idea won’t be accepted if it’s pitched as coming from her secretary, she’s really doing nothing to help Tess by pretending she came up with the idea on her own. This seems obvious to say, but I worry that there’s some argument that would say, “Well, if Katherine doesn’t propose it as her own, the idea gets canned, and nobody wins.” In a pragmatic reality totally devoid of any sort of ethics or principles, yes, I can see that, but...

I suppose I shouldn’t argue with myself, least of all about ethics.

In any case, some of us, myself included, have had some trouble reconciling the idea that there was an upper class lifestyle to along with the economic fact of being upper class, and that to move upward in class one would have to somehow become a part of that lifestyle. We’ve talked about the Fairy Godmother that guides one into their new place in life, and said that it would pretty much take that (a Fairy Godmother) to really be upper class. Yet in this film, the Fairy Godmother tries to screw Cinderella over, and Cinderella has to work her way in by herself. Or perhaps it’s Jack’s character that’s really the Fairy Godmother? What do you think? Obviously Tess’s business plan doesn’t work without Jack’s support, but the plan never happens at all without Tess’s initial ambition, and willingness to take a risk.

Another issue I ran in to with this film was the first and simplest question that it raises: how likely is this story? Can a lower-class person with a good idea have that idea heard, one way or another? Or do they need a liaison to the upper class? Have you ever experienced something like this, especially in the financial world? I don’t deal much in business myself, and find the white collar a bit itchy, but I’ve worked in food service long enough to know that there are very real disparities in the way the classes are perceived. Maybe it’s just me generalizing people, but I almost always have a good idea whether someone grew up poor, middle class, or upper-middle class. Could a story like Tess’s actually happen, or would she stick out like a drunk teenager (or, if you like, a sore thumb)? Jack seems to think that Tess is out of place when he first meets her at the open bar, although he doesn’t know, because she’s acting the part. She nearly slips up and blows her cover as she gets drunker (more drunk?), but she maintains a measure of presence of mind, and actively tries to hide her origins. Is her story at all likely? Why or why not?

A couple of things, in closing, to think about:

· Tess’s night-school degree marks her as lower class before fifteen minutes pass in the film, but isn’t brought up again at all, even when she’s exposed as being lower class.

· Tess’s character becomes more refined and, let’s be honest, attractive over the course of the film. Her hair changes, her jewelry changes, her accent starts to disappear, her clothes change. Why would the director make that choice while filming?

· Was that really Alec Baldwin?

· Katherine’s character carries the implication of having slept her way to the top throughout the film.

· We get very little background on Jack, but we’re obviously supposed to like him (has Harrison Ford ever played a bad guy?). He’s a hard-working guy who gets hung up on ethical questions – why vilify Katherine and glorify Jack?

· Is Katherine the only villain in the film? Why is she the villain?

· This is probably less relevant than I think it is, but did you notice that the people catering the wedding reception were all black? Another director’s choice – what does it say?