So, I saw Knocked Up last night. It was bursting at the seams with feminist issues, but there's just one joke in the movie I want to call out. There's a part in the movie where a wife interrupts her husband while he's with a group of his male friends and demands to speak with him alone. As he is leaving the room to go speak with her, one of his buddies yells out:
Oh, I get it! It's funny, because having a vagina means being a woman. And being called a woman is an intolerable insult. Nobody wants to be a woman! Especially a husband -- a man who should be "wearing the pants" in the family. He should be telling her what to do! Not the other way around! Ha! *knee-slap*
If only I had a nickel for every time I've heard a male insult another male by calling him female. In a culture where women are socialized to be and to be seen as weaker, saying he's doing something "like a girl" or simply calling him a "pussy" is the best way to cut a man down to size. I was disappointed with the joke, but I can't say it surprised me. Art reflects life. And I suppose art cannot be free of misogyny as long as life is downright full of it.
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4 comments:
It's amazing how these things seem in so much that you hardly even notice them, anymore. These kinds of jokes are just a part of life, you know? It's really fucking sad.
Personally, I took the title alone as reason enough to steer clear of this movie--"knocked up" is just about the most insulting term for pregnancy I can imagine. Such disgustingly violent connotations. Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only person who thinks this way...
Yeah, I've been avoiding this movie for similar reasons as anonymous.
You know what's really confusing to me? When I hear women saying things like "you throw like a girl" or "crying like a girl" or whatever. I get that there's a lot of self-hatred out there in misogyny land (and I've seen a shitload of it this week) but these just seem so pointless somehow.
dewey: I know, I hate that, too. People say things like that so casually, too, and I doubt they even realize how insulting they are.
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