Life Lessons For The Sophisticated Woman

Ruth's boyfriend, Sean, is a master manipulator who wants her to learn sophistication to become the ideal hostess at soirees and dinner parties. Sean is a guru and lecturer in personal improvement for learning how to behave in social circles, the rules of etiquette in polite society. Yvonne, one of Sean's student, has doubts about his methods. Ruth meets Jeff at a soiree. Jeff believes that Sean is using a subtle type of coercive control on Ruth to turn her into someone she is not, and wonders if she is comfortable with Sean's program of self improvement. Sean, instead of being nasty, is overly nice and understanding of what he perceives as Ruth's shortcomings in social gatherings. She finds it hard to break from him because he is just so nice, but is it all an act ? Sean, Jeff, Ruth and Yvonne meet up at a dinner party where the host, Laura, says she no longer expects decent behaviour from her guests, as manners are no longer in vogue, and people can behave however they want. Ruth farts at the party and everyone laughs. Instead of telling her off, Sean is delighted that Ruth made a name for herself by farting at the party. Sean's controlling of Ruth is subtle and insidious. She finds it hard to break free, and cannot make Sean throw her out for misbehaviour. Yvonne suggests Ruth call Sean boring. This has a devastating effect on Sean and his controlling methods collapse. Ruth is able to leave him. Later, Sean repents his controlling ways to Yvonne, who teaches him how to become less boring and how to understand people better. Sean later apologizes to Ruth for the psychological damage he has done to her. Ruth has learnt the life lesson that she must be allowed to be herself, and no longer needs to pretend to be sophisticated.