Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids was an instant funny favorite. The movie itself is hilarious, then add in the actors that are all very good comedians and what do you get? Hella funny!

This post is not about whether me and you agree on the number of laughs we each had, or about the plot itself. This post will address gender and how this movie helped women take a giant step in terms of gender equality.

My thoughts on GENDER…

First of all, without even having to look it up, I know that Bridesmaids was written by female writers. It is extremely rare to see a movie with a complete female cast. All of the main characters were women except for her love interest (the cop) who isnt even in the movie that much. For once in a lifetime, a woman lead the show and the man was the supporting actor.

Kristen Wiig is Saturday Night Live actor and must have some type of anger built up against gender roles. Now, I do not think that Wiig doesn’t agree that men play a certain role in life and women play a certain role. But I do think that Wiig sees a need for a change in Hollywood. Not only by creating and producing movies that are female lead, but by changing the way that people view women.

Bridesmaids was Kristen Wiig’s idea of: Women are not always what you think they are.

For example, in the beginning of the film, Wiig is having sex with her part-time lover…booty call for lack of a better word. They sleep together occasionally when it is convenient for him, typical male. Although the sex scene is unlike most becasue it is in the perspective of the female who is clearly not enjoying it. She is trying to let him know what he needs to do in order to satisfy her but he is completely oblivious. Meanwhile he is having a great time and the sex is working for him. Typical male. What this awkward sex scene portrays is the fact that women have needs too. Most movies have these amazing scenes where the man is in control and he is trying to hard to keep her satisfied. Sorry to say it, but in reality, this is not the case. Most of the time, the male has no idea or does not care to take care of the woman sexually. Unless the woman is either extremely forward with what she wants or she takes the control into her own hands, it is rare that the man knows exactly what to do every time to satisfy her. And lets be honest, men have no clue if the woman is “faking it” or not.

So, the cast of this movie is basically the bride getting married, her childhood best friend (maid of honor), her “new” best friend and the other bridesmaids. The bride grew up with Kristen Wiig in a normal, middle class neighborhood. But the bride is now marrying someone who is clearly in the class above her. As I talked about in my Titanic post, moving up classes is not easy and not common….but once you have, you become one of them. Now, I am not saying that the bride is a total snob or is rude to anyone. She just finally has money to blow on whatever she wants and has friends with the same luxury.

Helen is the bride’s “new” best friend now that she has money. Helen has been the rich wife for sometime and flaunts her money like it is nothing. This bothers Kristen Wiig because  as far as materials go, she has nothing. In the movie she even has to move back into her mom’s house and sleep on her old twin bed.

Both of the best friends want the bride to feel special for her wedding day, but also want the credit. Throughout the entire movie, these two girls are fighting.

All of the bridesmaids in this film play very different roles. There are conversations that go on between these women which are meant to make people think about women in a different light. For example, when two of the girls are talking on their way to Vegas, they are talking about sex. Normally women talk about sex in terms of, “making love,” but instead they are talking about it in a very masculine way. One girl is telling the other that it is absurd to get married as a virgin and that you need to experiment and have sex with a lot of different guys to figure out what you want. This conversation is masculine because of the illicit way they are referring to sex, as well as, the way they make it sound like they (women) are hornier than men sometimes.

^^This is NEVER addressed in movies. Men are always having issues with their women not “wanting it”. Men, we want it.^^

Kristen Wiig plays a weak female character. She has gone through hard times and it has made her very sensitive and vulnerable (most women). In her eyes, she has nothing except her best friend. She also meets a guy in the movie that she begins to like. And, for the first time in a lifetime, the man starts to really like her first, and SHE runs away. She turns him down. So, although Wiig might have played a very typical weak and broken girl…she still has some control over the man.

Gender is an interesting thing, especially the female gender. Although male’s are physically stronger, females have a strength bone inside of them that can cause them to act very vicious, and sneaky….they are strong when it comes to revenge and manipulation.

The two main bridesmaids in this film do this. Instead of focusing on the bride herself, it is way more important to them to get back at each other and one-up the last gesture.

So, although I think that Bridesmaids was a step forward with gender equality…I do think it was a step back in terms of making us look good. Obviously the movie was funny because of the girl fights…but that plot also made females look crazy, irrational and extremely vulnerable.