Voices: Half-Full of It
(D)icky Santorum thinks devaluing working moms is going to get him reelected. Sen. Sherwood's fan club doesn't get how misrepresenting himself (a.k.a. hypocrisy) should subtract from the public's trust. Dove's recent ad campaign featuring normal-sized women's bodies has caused uproar of controversy.
Yes, the latest news has been bleak. The freedoms of the fairer sex are in greater danger than we ever imagined possible. The only sane reaction is to retreat into fantasy.
But wait - could the conservative vibes possibly infiltrate Hollywood's liberal propaganda machine? I decided to analyze the box office smash Wedding Crashers for signs.
OK, so maybe it did start as a desperate ploy to escape from the office last Thursday. It's not like Gene Padden is going to deconstruct the movie from a feminist perspective. Someone's got to be the watchdog. And if ec/dc doesn't wave a good pop culture analysis in front of your nose once in a while, well let's face it - you just might forget what it smells like.
Turns out the movie boasts an impressive and obviously calculated checklist of redeeming qualities that easily win over the most defensive female audience members.
* The movie's trite and outdated assumption that women are turned on by the mere notion of marriage is corrected when Claire Cleary (Rachel McAdams) breaks into giggles at her sister's ridiculously hokey wedding vows. Oh, how that moment melted the icy shield surrounding my cold feminist heart!
* And then, she gets to play football. Not that she's any good at it. John (Owen Wilson) has to fix the game so she can score, but hey... we haven't come that long a way, baby.
* It's no wonder that as divorce attorneys, John and Jeremy (Vince Vaughn) might be a little disillusioned with conventional romance. Your grandparent's dating structure doesn't make much sense in today's world. Gee, give me a nervously calculated tier with ever-changing rules of etiquette or the breathtaking romance of spontaneity.
* Plus, these guys put some serious time and effort into the art of wooing a woman and showing her a magical time. I'll give them points for that. Hint: aloof equals boring.
* If you're not a size zero with implants, you have no right to be offended because there's no chance either one of these guys would try to pick you up anyway.
* The movie's definition of soul mate - "your soul's recognition of its counterpoint in another" - implies equality. That's all we ever asked for.
* I may have started out asking, "why is the redhead always the crazy one?" but I ended up fascinated that Jeremy turned the tables on tradition by not falling for Claire (Isla Fisher) until he finds out she's got a more promiscuous past than she initially let on.
* Champagne is the boys' drink of choice.
* Karma punishes the guy who has no conscience. As Jeremy is put through hell, the female audience is spoon-fed revenge against every womanizer who made her feel just as insignificantly anonymous as every other belt notch.
* The movie's most erotic line is "I'm going to tell her the truth."
* But in the 21st Century we would hope that women have come far enough a long to establish themselves as special without the endorsement of a man's commitment.
* The greatest love in this movie is between these two friends - Jeremy and John. The triumph isn't really that they get the girls; it's that they restore their friendship and evolve to the next level together. Because people can and do change and sometimes it's a scary thing, but it's not a bad thing. That's cool - men shouldn't be too macho to love each other.
* Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn may have looked old enough to be the fathers of their romantic interests, but on closer inspection it turns out that both Fisher and McAdams were born in '76, making them less than a decade younger than their co-stars. So they just look like teenagers.
* You couldn't blame McAdams or Fisher anyway. What actress in her right mind would turn down the opportunity to flesh out such a promising shell of a character? And both ladies really held up against their significantly better paid male co-stars.
Feminists relax. You can go see the movie and laugh just as loudly as everyone else.
-- alicia grega-pikul, 28 July 2005
Send email to: apikul@timesshamrock.com.
