Oh man, I wish I had thought of this and watched the movie this way! I suuuuuuper hated it, in no small part because I found his repeated insistence on how completely, 100% unattracted to her he was really dickish (and also found the turn-on-a-dime WAIT JUST KIDDING I AM ATTRACTED TO YOU climax both unrealistic and also dickish) -- BUT if I had been watching it as a slash trope, I bet it would've been a lot more charming. Haha, people resisting being gay for each other is a lot more sympathetic than "your boobs are too small," I guess
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in no small part because I found his repeated insistence on how completely, 100% unattracted to her he was really dickish--yeah, when I was watching the movie, my main thought was "I bet other people hate this character, and I probably would too if I was not experiencing a really embarrassing wretched over-identification with this situation." (An over-identification completely separate from the "hahah, I read that fic" aspect, not to be wretchface and vague, but I think we've talked about that thing, right?) I think his character is a realistic portrayal of how a dude acts toward a woman who he is 100% convinced has no sexual attraction toward him. And that's the thing, I think that most straight guys (or at least most straight guys as portrayed in movies) assume on some level that all straight women could potentially be attracted to them. I think Jason's character makes a lot more sense if you pretend that he's confusing the Julie character with flesbian Jessica Stein
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HEEE, your dad is my favorite of all time. He DID do his strongest work on Party Down, that is just a fact. AND NO, I actually really had a zillion things to say about that movie but since I hated it I didn't want to be like, LOL GUESS WHAT HERE ARE ALL THE WAYS IT SUCKED at you, haha.
BUT. I totally agree with you re: his breakup with MJ and/or him confessing his feelings first. Because I felt like his whole relationship with MJ was another thing that made me hate him (and maybe the main thing), like, first of all, him deciding she was THE ONE based purely on her being hot was just, ugh. And also, like, YOU HAVE A KID, dating someone who is very clear about how she never wants to parent is just not okay! Especially when you then constantly hand the kid off to Julie so you can bang your hot girlfriend who hates kids! NOT OKAY, DUDE, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FIND THAT SHITTY PARENTING SYMPATHETIC? If the movie had textually treated that stuff as a character flaw that needed to be addressed it would've helped so much
Yeah, I think I liked it more because I HAAAAAAATED Kissing Jessica Stein, thus my expectations of Jennifer Westfeldt were set relatively low. And it's too bad, because I keep thinking of other really minor things that could have rescued the movie from its problematic gender roles. Like, the part where she's moving to Brooklyn and she says it's because she can't afford private school because she doesn't make as much money as he does and it implies this whole history of it being an issue that he makes more money than she does, and it's like, uh, wait, they both live in Manhattan in the SAME APARTMENT BUILDING, how disparate can their incomes really be
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I don't know if that's a comment on the evolution of acceptance of sexual fluidity or because no one's writing Sentinel smarm anymore) OMG I love this comment! Sorry, not much to say about the film but...yes :)
HAHAH. In my reply above I tried to expand a little more on the relationship between the big tent fandoms and WNGWJLEO, but really, it's all about Sentinel smarm.
OMG, it so is! Like I think they should have avoided the entire idea of bromance and just gone straight with the fannish smarm :D Some of the stories...especially in the policing of NO SEX, oh noes!!! But we're thrashing in ecstasy!!!
Though I read an essay on Lichtenberg's Sim/Gen series yesterday (former ST fanwriter turned original scifi) that described quite similar things...and to me the explicit prohibition of sexuality ois like the warning sign of what MUST be repressed bc it is so obviously already there...
1) YOU!!! POSTING!!! Always a wonderful thing to see, m'dear. I miss you on my friends list.
2) This is by the Westfeldt? Hrmmm... I'm now feeling a desire to pre-judge it, but since I haven't seen it yet, I'll try to behave. Is the guy resisting attraction to the woman actually queer? Based on your comments, I wasn't sure.
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BUT. I totally agree with you re: his breakup with MJ and/or him confessing his feelings first. Because I felt like his whole relationship with MJ was another thing that made me hate him (and maybe the main thing), like, first of all, him deciding she was THE ONE based purely on her being hot was just, ugh. And also, like, YOU HAVE A KID, dating someone who is very clear about how she never wants to parent is just not okay! Especially when you then constantly hand the kid off to Julie so you can bang your hot girlfriend who hates kids! NOT OKAY, DUDE, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FIND THAT SHITTY PARENTING SYMPATHETIC? If the movie had textually treated that stuff as a character flaw that needed to be addressed it would've helped so much
It's too bad, because ( ... )
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Though I read an essay on Lichtenberg's Sim/Gen series yesterday (former ST fanwriter turned original scifi) that described quite similar things...and to me the explicit prohibition of sexuality ois like the warning sign of what MUST be repressed bc it is so obviously already there...
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1) YOU!!! POSTING!!! Always a wonderful thing to see, m'dear. I miss you on my friends list.
2) This is by the Westfeldt? Hrmmm... I'm now feeling a desire to pre-judge it, but since I haven't seen it yet, I'll try to behave. Is the guy resisting attraction to the woman actually queer? Based on your comments, I wasn't sure.
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