Quote: (02-12-2015 10:43 AM)Seamus Wrote:
And this doesn't seem any more bluepill than normal anyway. The female lead is a huge slut, which isn't glorified at all (e.g. the homeless guy making fun of her for her walk of shame), the dad blasting monogamy in the beginning is pretty much how I feel as a man, and that last scene is a pretty great skewering of the modern female's approach to dating (disgusted by a nice guy who doesn't just want to pump and dump her).
Your post is a great example of why propaganda/subversive programming like this film works: most people simply can't recognize it. They don't understand how programming works. The think that because the behavior on screen "isn't glorified" (i.e. is often presented in a comedic fashion) that the behavior is therefore being condemned, and that the audience is internalizing this lesson. But this is absolutely not true. The reality is that when you show people visual images of behavior and accompany them with humor,
you are creating a psychological association of positivity in the viewer's mind. They associate the behavior with the good feelings they got from laughter. So far from not glorifying trashy behavior, films like this encourage it, not only from the direct onscreen example acted out by a sympathetic main character, but by the subliminal psychological process I just outlined (using humor to associate positive emotions with a displayed behavior).
There's also the fact that movies, especially of this type (female-marketed romantic comedies) have happy endings for the main character. This means that despite everything that happens to the woman in this story, everything is going to turn out well for her in the end. This also encourages the viewer to partake in her abominable behavior, because the message is that such behavior has no consequences: everything will go your way in the end. This gives young women a license to party, do drugs and whore around in their 20s, because they believe they can count on a Prince Charming to rescue them when the time is right. I mean, in this film that premise could not be displayed more blatantly - this obnoxious, ugly woman is asked out on a date by a very successful surgeon immediately after displaying her stupidity. The overall message of the film is very clear: "Ladies, behave like sluts, focus on your career and having fun above all else, and be assured that some wealthy man will be begging to marry you when you're ready."
And it's very obvious why John Cena and Lebron are in the movie (and featured in the trailer): to ensure that women are able to drag men along to the theater with them. Once there, in exchange for seeing their favorite sports stars on screen for a few minutes, the men will then be subjected to an hour and a half of programming that belittles them and encourages them to expect abominable behavior from women, because "that's just how things are these days".