To all who have subscribed (or even casually followed) my blog - I'm sorry for the prolonged silence. Grad school and an unbearable work schedule have forced me to temporarily set aside any and all hobbies, including leisurely reading and writing.
Anyways, moving on to the latest societal factor that is making me twitch.
I have been inundated with commercials for an upcoming movie called "No Strings Attached." I can't escape them - they're literally everywhere. TV, radio, Pandora, Facebook, Netflix Instant Queue, even in the Center for Student Activities at OU. I understand that this is pretty typical for movie advertisements. My complaint is that I have no desire to see this movie - or even associate myself with it - and I simply do not have the option of clicking it off and ignoring it.
So, a bit of rage has begun to bubble...and rather than risk an aneurysm, I'll just blog about it.
As of this point, I know the ins and outs of the entire plot. Natalie Portman plays a successful and incredibly busy woman, whose best friend is the charmingly idiotic Ashton Kutcher. She decides to offer the proposition of becoming sex friends - friends that have sex casually whenever they feel the bodily urge, with no commitment and no feelings past the physical. The one rule to this arrangement is that they can't let their emotions get out of hand. One scene in the advertisement actually shows Portman and Kutcher in bed after sex, with Portman encouraging Kutcher to avoid snuggling afterwards in order to avoid making things weird. So, as one would expect, Kutcher ends up beginning to fall in love with Portman, and the advertisement ends with Portman shouting "Why can't we just have sex?!" before flashing to the opening date of the film.
How sweet.
At what point did we become OK with this? If a man were to tell a woman "Why can't we just have sex?", he would be considered a chauvinist pig. But if a woman goes down this path, she's liberated, successful and sexy.
Am I the only woman on the planet who sees a slight problem with this?
I'm currently working on getting through my Master's program with a GPA of 3.7 or higher. I'm also picking up multiple side jobs whenever possible, not just for the money, but for the experience and possible connections that they might bring. And despite all of the work that I will be putting into my degree, all of the late nights and early mornings, and all of the things that I will put on hold to make this happen - I am constantly barraged with disturbing statistics. Women will make, on average, 70 cents to every dollar that a man makes for the same job. Women typically only have a 50% chance of receiving pay when they go on maternity leave. And women are not given managerial positions nearly as often as men are.
So yeah, needless to say, movies that portray the epitome of a successful and beautiful woman to be one that wants nothing more than a sexual relationship where she uses another human being is a tad frustrating.
I understand that solely watching this movie is not going to encourage the female population to start having casual sex friendships while abandoning all other dreams. But the fact of the matter is, our pop culture defines our society. It defines the level of acceptability. Not only do I want more for myself than just a good job and a casual sex friendship with no emotional attachment, but I want my future daughters to aspire - no, demand - more than that. Women should aspire to be, amongst a myriad of other things, intelligent, strong, compassionate, beautiful, and yes, sexy. But it takes a lot more to make a woman of that caliber than just, well, sex.
Being a strong, successful woman is so much more than the ability to take off your clothes and enjoy sex with no societal pressure. And I'm so disgustingly disappointed to see that the majority of women simply don't care to understand that.
