I think, now I know how women feel about sloppily written female roles
I watched a movie last weekend. Romantic comedy. Script written by a woman, based on the novel of another woman.
The protagonist is a successful, red-blooded woman in her mid-30s. She's single, because she's very picky about men. Then comedy-stuff happens and she needs to find a guy she can front to her parents as her fiance. NOW!
Half-way into the movie she meets this guy in a bar, he's a friend of a friend. He's tall, good-looking, just the right amount of muscles. She sees him from across the room and immediately falls in love with him and approaches him.
What seemed weird to me was, that there was almost no dialog during the whole sequence that followed, just romantic starring.
In a later sequence, they went on a date. The guy had this weird sparkling gaze and this aetheric drugged-out smile the whole time, but again, he had almost no lines! (I guess he had to look at her like he was fascinated or in love.) He was pure emotionless eye-candy while she did the talking and had the emotional transformation. I felt the strong urge to shout at him:
"DUDE! YOU ARE ON A DATE! SAY SOMETHING!"
She really loved that guy. Then comedy-stuff happened, lies were exposed and he put a break on their relationship, so she could get her family problems in order. And at the end of the movie, when everything is fine again, SHE COMPLETELY FORGETS THERE'S A GUY OUT THERE SHE LOVED AND WHO MAYBE STILL HAS FEELINGS FOR HER!
It was weird.
What's weirder is that we accept this plot as standard if the gender-roles are switched:
He's in his mid-30s and a notorious single. Then comedy-stuff happens and he tries to find a girlfriend. He meets a girl that's way out of his league and she becomes his girlfriend. We learn next to nothing about her, save a lovable quirk. She's a static, sexy, super-cute, human-shaped husk while the plot revolves about him evolving emotionally. Then comedy-stuff happens and they break up.
At the end of the movie, the guy has become a better person in one aspect, but is still the same guy overall. He reclaims the girl, which has opted not to change or to have second thoughts or to find a better boyfriend while he was on an epic, time-consuming adventure with his slacker-friends.
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