Janette Fletcher
Professor Wexler
October 27, 2010
It’s More Than Sex
Sex comedies mean what they mean. While there is an emphasis on how man and women want sex, there’s also another meaning that’s hidden. As I was reading the “Romantic Comedy” by Tamar Jeffers McDonald, I looked for meaning to understand why it seemed women for the most part wanted to wait until marriage to have sex. “The sex comedy pits woman against man in an elemental battle wits, in which the goal of both is sex. Only the timing and legitimacy of this differs from gender to gender, with women wanting sex after, and men before or without, marriage” (McDonald, 38). I wasn’t born in the sixties or seventies but we did talk about it in class. This was the period of Sexual Revolution. What doesn’t get shed light on is the ending of these movies. Most sexual comedies have a narrative that focuses on sex, but there’s also that couple (s) who actually have a relationship. Media, however, doesn’t do the best job letting the audiences know that upfront. Instead people are portrayed as looking to have that moment of satisfaction. Evidence that supports this is a movie I thought fit perfectly. Wedding Crashers. It stars Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Isla Fisher, and Rachel McAdams. While the movie introduces two funny and charming guys, it gets down to the dirty deed. John Beckwith (Owen) and Jeremy (Vince) crash weddings to get laid. While this excuse is already lame within itself, the movie leads to one wedding that turns into real love in the movie. The guys go on their merry lives and lie to women to get them in the bed. Of course, the women fall for the excuse, right. Eventually, the guys want something a little more edgy. They crash Rachel’s father, US Secretary of Treasury, wedding. By mistake, they end up spending time with the entire family. Eventually, eyes lock between John and Claire (Adams). A relationship actually happens; not just for them but also Gloria (Fisher) and Jeremy. Sex comedies portray media representations of stereotypes in movies.
Images of women in (Wedding Crashers) show women as the harpy and the good wife (Chris Barker, 307-308). Barker claims, “A stereotype involves the reduction of persons to a set of exaggerated, usually negative, character traits” (307). While stereotypes can be offensive, some can also be true. The sex comedies have a habit of showing women as sexual creatures. And there is that double standard that still holds true to this day. Women are called a “bitch” for speaking too much whereas guys are called “sluts”, and that’s almost impossible to be called that. My point is that sexual comedies influence these stereotypes by portraying them in media. How we see these stereotypes in movies, versus reading about them in a book affects its audiences in different ways. The intent of the sexual comedies is meant to take favor of men having sex but not women. In McDonald’s book, she talks about things that influenced this period of the sexual comedy. One of them mentioned was Alfred Kinsey’s “Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female”. The American image of women staying virgins till marriage in the 60’s was a big issue. “It was shocking to the world to know that women have had premarital sex” (41). They also mention the magazine Playboy. Playboy is an example of a representation that is catching to men eyes, but it makes women look sex crazed. Till this day, women still pose completely naked, but men show only the chest. Why doesn’t a medium depict men this way? One last event that sparked attention was The Moon is Blue. It was a movie that showed a woman who openly talked about her sexual history. It was something big because it “was the first movie to mention “virgin” (42).
This relates to the movie, Wedding Crashers, because it does explore sex as “disguise and masquerade and hierarchy of knowledge” (45). One example of this is John and Jeremy; has an alibi with every girl. John told Claire that he was working for the environment, which was a lie. She believed him, fell for him, and later found out the truth. It follows the boy meets girl, gets girl, loses girl, and regains girl criteria. On the contrast, Jeremy tells Gloria his lie, but then she lies about being a virgin, so they both got played. She would be considered the bitch (Barker). I would just call her playful, because that word has such a negative connotation meaning. Hence, Jeremy and Gloria get hitched and John gets his girl in the end. It’s considered hierarchy of knowledge because we all know what’s going to happen. The player eventually finds that one girl that makes him choose a different path. Jeremy and John were going to move on to the next wedding but love caught them first. Gallagher describes representations of women in media, “demeaning, damaging and unrealistic” (310). And it’s true. They still do not have many roles that depict women the way they really are. While Wedding Crashers was funny, it downplayed the guys’ behavior as normal, but the women were shown in a negative light. For the women that got laid, they were helpless, clingy, and dingy. For Claire and Gloria, they were two simple minded sisters from Salt Lake City who actually got a commitment over sex.
Works Cited
Chris Barker. Cultural Studies Theory and Practice. Third Edition
Tamar Jeffers McDonald. Romantic Comedy. Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre.
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