Most scenes together: Katherine Watson & Bill Dunbar (6), Betty Warren & Bill Dunbar (4), Katherine Watson & Betty Warren (3)
Don't disregard our traditions just because you're subversive.
Don't disrespect this class just because you're married.
Don't disrespect me just because you're not.
Come to class, do the work, or I'll fail you.
If you fail me, there will be consequences.
Are you threatening me?
I'm educating you.
That's my job.
Ms. Watson, can you get me in touch with your friend at Greenwich Village?
What do you need at Greenwich Village?
An apartment. I filed for divorce and since you know I'm not welcome in your house. You remember Giselle Levy. What did you call her? A New York ****, that's it. Well, she and I are going to be roommates.
Hi. [going to Betty] Are you ready?
Yeah.
You ok. [Betty nods] Greenwich Village.
For a while. Then who knows, maybe law school. Maybe Yale.
She's smiling. Is she happy?
The important thing is not to tell anyone.
She looks happy. So, what does it matter?
Don't wash your dirty laundry in public.
All her life, she had wanted to teach at Wellesley College. So, when a position opened in the Art History department, she pursued it single-mindedly until she was hired. It was whispered that Katherine Watson, a first-year teacher from Oakland State, made up in brains what she lacked in pedigree. Which was why this bohemian from California was on her way to the most conservative college in the nation.
I was in California once. How do you get any work done with all that sunshine?
We tan in class.
Charlie Stewart My parents say my future is right on the horizon.
Tell them the horizon is an imaginary line that recedes as you approach it.
And, it was perfect, romantic, we stayed up all night, talking.
We stayed up all night, too. Not talking.
The psychoanalyst again.
Divine exhaustion.
Whatever you do, don't put the boss's wife next to your husband.
Why not?
She's screwing him.
It was my choice... not to go. He would have supported it.
But you don't have to choose.
No, I have to. I want a home; I want a family, that's not something I'll sacrifice.
No-one's asking you to sacrifice that, Joan, I just want you to understand you can do both.
Do you think I'll wake up one morning and regret not being a lawyer?
Yes, I'm afraid that you will.
Not as much as I regret not having a family, not being there to raise them. I know exactly what I'm doing and it doesn't make me any less smart.
I didn't say that.
Sure you did. You always do. You stand in class and tell us to look beyond the image, but you don't. To you a housewife is someone who sold her soul for a center hall colonial. She has no depth, no intellect, no interests. You're the one who said I could do anything I wanted. This is what I want.
Katherine Watson: Slide. Contemporary art.
Now that's just an advertisement.
Quiet! Today you just listen. What will the future scholars see when they study us? A portrait of woman today? There you are ladies. The perfect likeness of a Welesley graduate, Magna **** Laude doing exactly what she was trained to do. Slide. A Rhodes scholar. I wonder is she reciting Chaucer while she presses her husband's shirts. Slide. Heh, now you physics major's can calculate the mass and volume of every meat loaf you ever make. Slide. A girdle to set you free! What does that mean?... What does that mean?... What does it mean? I give up. You win. The smartest women in the country... I didn't realize that by demanding excellence I would be challenging... what did it say?
what did it say? um... the roles you were born to fill
is that right? the roles you were born to fill?... It's, uh, it's my mistake.
Well, look around you. [beat] Who wasn't?
Pre-law? Well... have you decided which law school you're going to?
Well, I haven't really thought much about it. After Wellesley, I plan on getting married.
And then what?
A girdle to set you free. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!
Dear Betty, I came to Wellesley because I wanted to make a difference. But to change for others is to lie to yourself. My teacher, Katherine Watson, lived by her own definition and would not compromise that, not even for Wellesley. I dedicate this, my last editorial, to an extraordinary woman, who lived by example and compelled us all to see the world through new eyes. By the time you read this, she'll be sailing to Europe, where I know she'll find new walls to break down, and new ideas to replace them with.
Does he pay you... for sex? I mean at the rate you're going, you could make a fortune.
I don't think I can go a year without a hot plate.
