Adam's Rib

The two main characters in Adams Rib are trying to answer the age old question question, “Who wears the pants”. While both match each other in job title it is clear that this is not the norm in society. In fact this abnormal relationship is further exacerbated by the fact that Amanda is better paid and educated while Adam works for the city. The only other women seen in places of employment are either secretarial or that of a housekeeper. Alternately for men employment is seen everywhere with lawyers, press, and judges just to name a few. A lack of women in places of power kept women in unfulfilling marriages as with the example of the defendant Doris Attinger. This is not the case of Katherine Hepburn's character Amanda Bonner. In this comedy of remarriage the story starts after happily ever after with the very real threat of divorce if they fail. We see the comparison of the Bonners and the Attingers as couples. The Attingers as the extreme example of incomplete incompatible people marrying. Mrs. Attinger as the nagging unintelligent housewife and Mr. Attinger as the wife beating adulterer. Amanda Bonner is an intelligent,confident, and successfully employed; not only does she have this sort of fulfillment alone but she is in a fulfilling marriage with Adam Bonner. This marriage is one of mutual benefit and love, they are married because they want to be not because they have to be. Adam accepts the modern woman in the private sphere and is even proud that he is married to such a competent partner. However in the traditionally male public sphere Adam is not comfortable when the modern woman has him lifted into the air by a strong-woman and publically humiliates him.

When the court case of Doris Attinger shooting her cheating husband is presented, Adam Bonner sees it as a simple open and shut case case. His opinion is that no one should have the right to be a vigilante, no one should be able to take the law into their own hands. This is the view of a man who has never faced the reality of second class citizenship. Adam Bonner is correct, in a just system everyone should abide by the same laws but the fact is the cards are stacked for the advantage of men. When Amanda Bonner reads the case she feels more sympathy for the woman and insists that if the case were reversed if it were a woman cheating on her husband and she were shot the view would be different. Amanda poses that if it were a man on trial he would be seen as protecting his home against the onslaught of another man, he would be protecting his property and his family. This view is confirmed to Amanda when she asks her secretary about the difference between men and women stepping out of their marriage. The female secretary responds that it isn’t as bad for men to cheat on their wives as it is for women to cheat on their husbands.

Adam Bonner is represented as the average man of 1949, an honest man who respects the law as it is at the time; and because of this social lens it is easy for him to maintain the argument that the law is the law and everyone must follow it. Amanda sees more room to move in the law and takes more circumstance into account. In the court case both defend their point of view, in the end the women's side wins. Through out the case Adam and Amanda battle in the court room but still maintain a certain affection with each other at home. As the case goes on the tension in their relationship mounts finally resulting in Adam leaving the apartment they share after Amanda embarrasses him publically. He claims that she has manipulated the law and that he has lost respect for her, at one point she asks him if she can do anything to make him stay pleading with him not to leave. This scene shows that the cost of power for women is that they lose their desirability to men. The film maker shows that Amanda winning the case was her choosing between work and her husband and how it negatively effected their marriage. This portrayal of men and women says even if women win court battles they did it by twisting the law and taking advantage of loopholes. That the only reason that Adam lost was because of Amanda's trickery and manipulation, not her abilities as a lawyer. This scene also shows that when women put lots of effort into their careers their home lives suffer greatly. A similar scene is the one in which a saddened and tipsy Amanda is talking to her slimy client across the hall. Throughout the movie the slimy client has tried to subtly woo Amanda and if not truly interested in her sexually he behaves inappropriately with her. After the marital spat Amanda is seeking comfort and just as she is dipped for an uninvited kiss Adam bursts in with a gun. This situation is an obvious reverse of the position that Amanda's client was in earlier. Amanda tries to reason with him as he angrily comes forward, she then begins yelling at him telling him that he doesn't have the right to do this. That NO ONE has the right, he then stops her and takes a bite out of the licorice gun. Adam bested the feisty Amanda and with that made her victory in court seem hollow. This scene implied that even though women may win victories on technicalities won through manipulation at the end of the day men still wear the “pants”.