Pretty? Check. Skinny? Check.
Successful and smart? Check and check. This criteria makes up the modern day
“trophy wife.” The term was coined in Fortune Magazine in 1989 as, “a woman who
is a decade or two younger than her husband, sometimes several inches taller,
beautiful, and very often accomplished” (Friedman, par. 11). For the average
man, attaining a woman like this seems impossible. Getting a woman extremely
out of his league would be a massive achievement and elevate the man’s status.
This pursuit becomes the goal for
Gennarino, a communist, Sicilian deckhand who gets trapped on a deserted island
with a beautiful, wealthy woman in Lena Wertmüller’s film, Swept Away.
The object of Gennarino’s desires, Rafaella, comes from a life of leisure and
luxury as opposed to his lower class background. When stowed away on the island,
Gennarino abuses and assaults Rafaella multiple times in an attempt to make her
want him as a potential partner. He does not do this out of love, however, as
he, like many lower-class men, wants her as an object to boost his prestige.
Obtaining her affection is nothing more than a way to increase his confidence
and status rather than pursuing her for love.
At the beginning of the film, Gennarino
is a servant to Rafaella and her husband while on their yacht. She bosses
around Gennarino while she and her rich friends lounge, swim, and eat on the
deck of the boat. Rafaella has complete agency over the deckhand, at this
point, and does not consider him to be anywhere near as impressive as her own
wealthy, intellectual husband. Gennarino complains about Rafaella behind her
back, irritated by the fact that a rich woman has the audacity to boss him
around, and there is nothing he can do about it (Wertmüller, 00:08:50). He loathes the
pretentious, political conversations Rafaella has with her husband and shows no
fondness towards her whatsoever, since she represents something he knows he can
never attain.
There is a change of power, however,
once the two are swept away to an abandoned island in the middle of the
Mediterranean Sea. Gennarino finds himself in power since he is the only one who
knows how to perform manual labor and feed himself. Whenever Rafaella demands
help, he rejects her and forces her to do demeaning tasks to earn her food. He
is able to get away with things he would never have been able to do had they
still been on the yacht, such as forcing Rafaella to clean his pants (Wertmüller, 00:53:00) and kiss his hand (Wertmüller, 1:00:51). Although these are
traditionally flirtatious actions, Gennarino’s demand for such actions comes
off as him getting Rafaella to no longer consider him as a servant but rather a
master. He wants her to feel the way he felt when she was bossing him around on
the boat, such as when she complained about his pasta not being edible for her
(Wertmüller, 00:12:32). He does, however,
eventually go on even further than the point of just getting back at her for
the mistreatment. Anna Rudegeair compares Gennarino’s taming of Rafaella to be
resonant of Katherine in The Taming of
the Shrew. Both Katherine and Rafaella are considered challenges for their
male counterparts to pursue, with love and power being the prizes at the finish
line. Petruchio, Kate’s partner, “insistently flatters and threatens Kate
despite her protests” (Rudegeair, par. 3). Petruchio tries to tame Kate for the
purpose of winning her affection while Gennarino just wants to make Rafaella
his subordinate and elevate his status by getting her to do demeaning tasks.
Gennarino’s poor treatment of
Rafaella is out of frustration since she represents everything he detests about
upper society. While he beats her, he screams, “that’s for causing inflation
and not paying taxes and hoarding your money in Swiss banks instead… That’s for
the hospitals where the poor can’t even get in… That’s for raising the prices
of meat and cheese” (Wertmüller, 1:09:18). By putting her in her
place, he is able to gain revenge for the lower class and feel successful in
his status as a man by dominating her. There is a purpose to this domination,
however, as it not only allows for Gennarino to get revenge for his lower class
but also get Rafaella to look at him as a macho man rather than just a lowly
deckhand.
He continuously beats Rafaella like
a broken toy to the point of submission so that she wants him more than her
wealthy husband. In normal circumstances, Rafaella would never bat an eye at
Gennarino. On this isolated island, he finally has the opportunity to express
his masculinity and dominance without any repercussions. He believes that
breaking her down to the point where she sees how much bravado he has will show
Rafaella that just because he is some poor Sicilian deckhand does not mean he
cannot satisfy her. He is trying to prove that he is more competent and
masculine than her wealthy Milanese husband. Earning her affection would boost
his confidence and show the world that he is capable of wooing one of the most
unattainable and untouchable women in the world.
Gennarino is trying to add another
trophy to his collection, and he is aiming for the most difficult trophy in all
of Italy. She presents a challenge to Gennarino because she is the kind of
woman someone like him would never be able to have. Turning her into a
quasi-trophy wife would allow Gennarino to feel that “he has been able to snag,
in a sense, a spouse or a wife that other men are envious of” (Friedman, par.
26). No one amongst Rafaella’s rich socialite friends would be able to imagine
her with someone as grimy and plain as Gennarino, which only further motivates
him to get her to fall in love with him. She is unlike his ordinary Sicilian wife
back home because Rafaella is “highly educated, self-assured and able to hold
her own financially. She’s also not
afraid to intimidate any male” (Houghton, par. 7). These are qualities that
modern day men search for when hunting for their trophy wives; they do not want
just some plain Jane who does whatever he wants.
Women such as Amal Clooney, Michelle
Obama, and Melinda Gates are like Rafaella in their elite status amongst
society, intelligence, and ability to speak their minds. Rafaella’s verbal skills
become apparent in her debate with her husband and his friends about the
legality of abortion (Wertmüller, 00:04:18). She is able to carry
any intellectual conversation and defend her opinion without any worry (that
is, until Gennarino starts chasing her across the island). Dr. Dion Metzger, a
psychiatrist and expert in couples therapy, states that “powerful men
[search] for a trophy wife to accompany their wealth and prosperity” (Dixon,
par. 4). On the island, Gennarino finally gets to be the “powerful man”
(finally something prosperous for him) and claim Rafaella as his. The reaction
he would receive back in Italy should they remain together would flabbergast
his and Rafaella’s family and friends. The pursuit of Rafaella as a
personal trophy serves as a way for Gennarino to exert agency over her. She
represents everything Gennarino could never attain. Assaulting her and getting
her to refer to him as her “master” would prove to him that he is as valuable
and capable as all the elites who Rafaella associates with (Wertmüller, 00:59:44). The island is the
only place on Earth where the tables are turned and she is found begging to be
with him.
Leaving the island together was
supposed to be the final test to prove to the aristocrats of Italy that he is
just as masculine and desirable as they are by returning home with Rafaella. He calls this the “ultimate proof”
to have her show how much she wants him (Wertmüller, 1:37:58). The journey home would be the official
confirmation for Gennarino that he is as good, if not better, than the elite
men that Rafaella surrounds herself with. She is simply a tool for him to show
the world how much of a masculine, domineering man he is. For Gennarino, having
Rafaella tell her husband she prefers the Sicilian deckhand rather than her
wealthy husband would be the ultimate middle finger to the upper-class folk he
has been oppressed by for so long. It would put him on equal footing with the
wealthy men who treated him poorly in the past.
Rafaella has the opportunity to give
Gennarino the validation he craves should she leave her husband for him, but
she rejects him in the end. This rejection denies Gennarino of the satisfaction
and power he would have received if she chose to stay with him. Love was never
the end game for Gennarino – it was all about leveling his status with the
wealthy elites that have mistreated him for so long. It is understandable to
empathize with him for wanting to get back at the upper class, but Gennarino’s
conquest of Rafaella as the hunt for the most valuable trophy around is all for
his own selfish reasons.
Works Cited
Dixon, Carole. “The Modern
Day Trophy Wife Is All About Goals, Not Gold.” Bravo TV Official Site, 13 Oct. 2016,
www.bravotv.com/blogs/the-modern-day-trophy-wife-is-all-about-goals-not-gold. Accessed 1 Apr. 2019.
Friedman, Emily. “Blond and
Beautiful? What Really Makes a 'Trophy Wife'.” ABC
News, ABC News Network,
abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3372209&page=1. Accessed 1 Apr. 2019.
Houghton, Kristen. “The New
Trophy Wife.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 25
Jan. 2015, www.huffpost.com/entry/the-new-trophy-wife_b_6207364. Accessed 1 Apr. 2019.
Rudegeair,
Anna. “The Same Old Story: Tamed Women and Their Misogynistic Counterparts.” Blogspot. N.p. 28 Feb. 2018,
http://giantstepspress.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-same-old-story-tamed-women-and.html.
Accessed 1 Apr. 2019.
Wertmüller, Lena (Dir.). Swept
Away. Perf. Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato. Romano Cardarelli,
1974. Film. Accessed 1 Apr. 2019.
