29
May
Kinks & Quirks: i can tell i graduated from Duke.
i can’t just watch movies mindlessly anymore. today, i was watching that movie “What a Girl Wants”. you know the one with Amanda Bynes when she goes to live with her father who’s some kind of royalty in his English palace. this might sound a bit extreme, but that movie was propaganda. The American…
Hunni, I know exactly where you’re coming from. I saw bits and pieces of Think Like a Man and was disgusted. The entire time, I was picking the movie apart and exposing all of the ignorant, sexist, anti-feminist sentiments being expressed. Jess and I got into a heated debate about it. She can somehow enjoy it as light humor and nothing else, but the feminist in me wouldn’t allow me to do the same. Here are my issues with the movie (and consequently the book on which it is based, although I never read it):
- both suggest that men and women think in completely different ways, rather than acknowledging that people are people and that experiences with the media and society ultimately influence the way wethink certain people ought to behave (ex: the roles that men and women play in advertisements)
- “think like a man” suggests that women must learn “the way that men work” (which is assumed to be pre-established and uncompromising), and then adjust/alter their own behavior and/or thought process and be strategic in order to accommodate that, instead of emphasizing the importance of communicating your needs and standards to a potential / current partner.
- there are others, but 1) I didn’t /couldn’t/would not watch the whole thing and 2) I’m already giving it more attention/energy than it deserves.
I felt that it was totally irresponsible for Steve Harvey to create something like that and mask it as women’s empowerment. But Jess reminded me that Steve Harvey doesn’t have the credentials to advise anyone. He’s a comedian and hosts Family Feud, for crying out loud. So what he’s doing may not exactly make him “irresponsible” because as she puts it, he doesn’t necessarily have an obligation to use any of his nonexistent skills for good. But I think it’s still shameful to regurgitate the same, tired traditional bullshit that aims to keep men in one role and women in another. According to Harvey, there is a rule book. And rule books are dangerous because they leave no room for compromise with oneself and one’s partner.
Like I said, the feminist in me had muchas problemas stomaching the fragments I did happen to catch.
via yethathne
via modelsofcolor
via proczilla
