The Argument

The Argument between Alice and Bill is about Eve Syndrome and as the Bette Davis character in All About Eve keeps saying it's about women [commonly termed "secret wimmins business" after the famous Hindmarsh court case] and you men could not possibly understand [because women themselves hardly do].  It is simply about the orig Eve had it all but she HAD to stuff it up.

But simply doing a replay of Eve Syndrome is beneath the "art" of Stanley so he does it in a clever one-time-removed way by a parody of Germaine Greer's "mantra" in The Female Eunuch, the book that totally changed the [Western] world as we knew it pre 1970.  Here is Wiki on the book:

The Female Eunuch hit the bookstands in London in October 1970. By March 1971, it had nearly sold out its second printing and had been translated into 11 languages. The main thesis of The Female Eunuch is that the "traditional" suburban, consumerist, nuclear family represses women sexually, and that this devitalizes them, rendering them eunuchs. It is a "fitful, passionate, scattered text, not cohesive enough to qualify as a manifesto," writes Laura Miller. "It's all over the place, impulsive, and fatally naive -- which is to say it is the quintessential product of its time."

Here is Greer explaining her mantra basis, and for a better understanding of the Full Tragedy of Greer please read the full account from Laura Miller at salon dot com:

“When François Truffaut's Jules et Jim was released in 1962, it was an instant hit with girls like me, francophile, penniless and non-monogamous. In those days, when contraception was available if you were sufficiently guileful, there were a fair few sex adventuresses about, though nowhere near as many as there are now. Enough of us took Jeanne Moreau's Catherine as a role model to establish a fashion for heavy black eye-liner, pale lips, sloppy jumpers and flappy skirts. Some even went so far as to try the Jackie Coogan cap worn by Catherine when she is masquerading as Thomas. We could all whistle "Le Tourbillon de la Vie". Catherine seemed a woman after our own hearts, who followed her desires rather than the rules.”

Problem was Greer was the total opposite of the Catherine "Queen Bee" character BUT she based her whole mantra ON Catherine.  The truth was we young men back in the 1960s called her "Genetically Queer" because of her looks and her desire for manage a trois sex [even though Catherine herself did not resort to "three-at-a-time sex" but simply "managed her hive as a Queen Bee should"], and a sort of "pact" was made that we would only screw her if she put a plain brown paper bag over her head.  Thus the "Hell has no fury like a woman scorned" mantra took over via her book [following on from her Article "Lady Love your Cunt"] and by 1999 we HAD the American Beauty, ie the death of the Nuclear Family.

What Kubrick has done so cleverly is to take a Catherine "Queen Bee" type in Alice BUT have her act as Greer and not as Catherine herself, so this is perfect satire, as only Kubrick knows how, on the cover image of the book whereby Alice is wearing the same little number, kinda like the swimsuits Jules and Jim wear but with arms and legs cut out, and oh those Germaine "love handles" folks.  It is vintage Kubick in that his fan base always look for complex interpretations while he sticks to the Dr Lecter simplicity [to stop those lambs screaming].
 
Here is the book, and notice that Stanley even pulls in the rung in the "eunuch closet" [soonafter to be called the Ellen Degenerate (sic) closet] via the sash of the window behind Alice.

The main satirical tilt is that in the "Real World" by 1999 Greer herself did a 180 degree turn [see Laura Miller above] and became a self confessed pedophile shortly after with her obsession for pre-pubescent boys.

And Stanley seems to greatly dislike famous box-office Hollywood "stars" and loves to manipulate them in his movies. In EWS he obviously goes out of his way to cast Nicole as Alice, the all-Australian girl that will get her gear off "for art" - same as Greer did in 1970s.

For example the initial 15 second scene has no real purpose other than lots of footage of her ass [most for his private collection of course] almost to "test" her agreement to "do as I command" in rest of film.

But she KEEPS her high heeled shoes ON and there are several more pairs of shoes in background, and all the women wear high heeled shoes and are taller than Tom.

I am not a fan boy but I have read that she only ever wore flat shoes when married to him because of his "short man" complex, so Stanley rubs this in for the entire movie.

So in a way it IS "a non fiction account" but only in a clever "look closer" manner - another reason I think he and Mendes compared notes in these 2 "fin de siècle" movies from 1999, based ON a fin de siècle book from 1899.

To "quoth it lively" [apologies to John Lennon] from Wiki:

"Fin de siècle is French for end of the century. The term typically encompasses not only the meaning of the similar English idiom turn of the century, but also both the closing and onset of an era, as the end of the 19th century was felt to be a period of degeneration, but at the same time a period of hope for a new beginning. The "spirit" of fin de siècle often refers to the cultural hallmarks that were recognized as prominent in the 1880s and 1890s, including boredom, cynicism, pessimism, and a widespread belief that civilization leads to decadence.

The term "fin de siècle" is commonly applied to French art and artists as the traits of the culture first appeared there, but the movement affected many European countries. The term becomes applicable to the sentiments and traits associated with the culture as opposed to focusing solely on the movement’s initial recognition in France. The ideas and concerns developed by fin de siècle artists like Charles Baudelaire provided the impetus for movements like symbolism and modernism."

Seems that Kubrick was showing in EWS that the same "widespread belief that civilization leads to decadence" applied ALSO to the fin de 20th Century, specifically in New York, almost as if he KNEW the 9/11 gig was soon to be pulled there to make a mockery of any "period of hope for a new beginning".