It’s not strange to try and make sense of heinous crimes like what happened in Santa Barbara this past weekend. So its no surprise that critics and writers, much like anyone else, look to culture and art to see if there has been any influence. This is what Washington Post critic Ann Hornaday in her piece titled “In a final videotaped message, a sad reflection of the sexist stories we so often see on screen.” It’s a thought provoking piece, and one that has sparked much Twitter debate from all corners and rather than try and put my views in 140 character bursts, I figure I’d add some thoughts here.
I might as well start with my issues with the piece first, before moving onto my likes and other thoughts. My issue with this piece is that in attempting to create a broader conversation she nails herself down to the article being seen as a hit piece. In mentioning Neghbors and Judd Apatow specifically, she does what undoes many articles about mass cultural issues and puts a face to them that distracts from the actual issues at hand. Much the same way blaming Marilyn Manson and the Dark Knight films moved the conversation away from gun violence to media culpability, the singling out of two particularly powerful men in Hollywood has the ability to do here.
Neghbors, for all intents and purposes, is one of the worst examples she could have chosen for her argument. It is a film that doesn’t show the fraternity as this paragon of fun and awesomeness, in fact the frat and it’s leader played by Zac Efron is incredibly corrosive. Nothing about that group of people is fun or aspirant, Efron’s character has a gpa in the 1.0s and there’s only one guy in the frat that even has anything going in his life. In fact, its actually Seth Rogen’s character, the “schluby guy with a hot girl,” whose life audiences will come away wanting, he’s a working father and his wife, played by Rose Byrne, is the star of the movie. Where in this film does one find what Hornaday describes as an ” outsized frat-boy fantasies…and feel, as Rodger did, unjustly shut out of college life that should be full of “sex and fun and pleasure”?” What’s more problematic is that I have seen so many people come out of the woodworks to pile on this movie who haven’t seen the film. How is that furthering the conversation or analyzing any of the problems?
Has the Judd Apatow regime spit out some movies with questionable actions? Sure. But if you comb through his catalog, you will rarely find an alpha male (something Elliot Rodger specifically mentions he is in his manifesto) and Apatow has come out on many occasions, such as when he spoke at my school this past March, and said that the characters are acting in such a way that people shouldn’t. I have gone back and forth with friends about director’s intent vs. unintended consequences, and here is a great example of the latter.
Now this brings us to an issue I liked that Hornaday brought up that I wish she would have explored further was how even a lax attitude towards something can fester culturally. Elliot Rodger didn’t shoot those people because he wanted an Apatow film style life, he did it because he was the scum of the earth with a warped world view. But while I, a fully functioning adult, can see that the stuff Hollywood puts out shouldn’t govern my life, people like Rodger were certainly influenced by the media’s presentation of gender relations. Storylines such as the guy always getting the girl or the oversexualization of women, don’t inspire me to think that I am guaranteed someone if I act like they do in the movies or that women have to be a certain way. However, I am just one individual, and personal feelings aside, it’s not hard to see what Hornaday was trying to say.
Movies and TV are powerful tools at propagating societal norms/standards. Seeing beautiful women all the time ups the beauty standards and forces women to be judged more harshly. Guys always getting the girl is simple character wish fulfillment to me, however I often complain how the way media portrays relationships is actually harming everyday life (one day I’ll fully explain my feelings on Valentine’s Day). Even with Lena Dunham slanging good looking men left and right on Girls (and getting one of her best episodes from it), the portrayal of women in this fashion is minuscule in comparison to men of the same character/body type landing someone hot. So when analyzing this and the way even latent messages influence culture, I can agree with Hornaday.
I’ll end by saying that although I personally don’t feel that the films she listed contribute to sexist attitudes, we are doing ourselves a disservice if we don’t look at all the possible avenues for what kind of impact our industry has on the world. Ann Hornaday might have misstepped in naming those specific examples, but I’m happy for the dialogue she’s bringing forth about Hollywood’s impact.