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What's Your Number
Jul. 17th, 2014 10:31 pmSo recently I got together with an old friend from high school and we psyched each other up to actually watch What's Your Number, otherwise known as the Chris Evans Beefcake B-rated RomCom. As promised, Chris Evans was mostly naked for the majority of the movie. Nice. And, as promised, the story was horrible and made no sense. But it made no sense in a Very Special Way, so I want to talk about it briefly.
First, you need to know the plot (spoilers, but who cares). Girl who is obsessed with reading girl magazines (Cosmo-style stuff) reads an article that says an average woman has sex with 10 different men, and if they hit 20, they are unlikely to get married because sex lowers self-esteem. She's at 20, so she makes a vow not to sleep with another guy. Instead, she enlists the help of her neighbor to look up exes and see if they're now marriage material. Her neighbor is Chris Evans, who is a guy who has one night stands because he refuses to become emotionally attached. Of course through this process they fall in love, and after a "false choice" (nice rich guy who seems perfect), they get together and she accepts that he's #21 and maybe numbers don't matter actually. Then the final scene is one of her exes calling her and leaving a message saying that they didn't actually have sex, so she's technically still at the magic number of 20.
So what I found amazing/horrific about this movie is how it perfectly does the thing that women's magazines like Cosmo does: on the one hand, girl power, and on the other hand, complete subversion of that. The movie does some things really well -- the girl gets policed by her female friends and family -- slut-shaming, "you should want this," "he's not marriage material," "I'm so happy, (false choice) is so perfect for you," etc etc, and it's portrayed as negative and an impediment to her accepting of herself. Also, props to the 2 scenes where Chris Evans comes on to her, and she's like "no thanks," and he just backs off. In fact, the second time they'd already admitted to liking each other, and so they actually spend the night cuddling but not sexing. Similarly, despite all the Chris Evans eye candy, it's very much "hey, people are naked sometimes, no biggie. Want some Chines food?" The main theme is that this is a girl who tries too hard to live up to societal expectations (sneaking out of bed to put on makeup and then pretending to "wake up" perfectly coiffed, eating only dainty things when in fact she likes greasy food) and tries to be the perfect girlfriend. And she only finds happiness when she finds someone who she can be herself with. In the end, she rejects the "false choice" because he expects her to be pure and virginal ("I'm the only guy you slept with, right?" "Um, more like 20." "Ew gross, haha you're so funny.") Awesome messages about defying social expectations, right?
But then comes all the subversion. Throughout the whole movie, Chris Evans' one-night-stands are played as a joke (they have to get all these miscellaneous women to leave his apartment), but since a central part of the movie is about the societal disapproval around multiple sexual partners and the expectations of what a "good relationship" is, this character backstory woefully undeveloped. At the end she's like "You're my 21", and he's like "You're my three hundred forty..." and she stops him. It's like, (a) if the whole movie is about overcoming these societal expectations, why did she stop him? And (b) why is his 300+ totally okay but her 20 so damning? And of course, the movie also had to throw in the whole "he's #20 after all, phew" at the end. Also, the two people were able to get to know each other *because* she didn't sleep with him -- she didn't consider him boyfriend material and so didn't try to put on a persona, and because he didn't sleep with her, he felt okay not running away. So basically reaffirming the whole "sex corrupts a relationship" message. Also, even though it was supposed to be a friendship, they reveal that Chris Evans was still trying to date her (by keeping her away from False Choice guy from the very beginning.) So a thing that started out criticizing the number system and how ridiculous it is that she's bending over backwards trying to conform to all these expectations ends with her meeting all the expectations. :(
The movie's also bad for other reasons -- The main character isn't very sympathetic, Chris Evans' character is underdeveloped, the sister's wedding subplot was clunky -- but in the end, it was this whole "rawr women should be able to have sex with multiple guys and be herself and eat as much pizza as she wants" while at the same time "find a guy, get married, of course all guys want is sex, but don't give it to them until you've built a relationship first" messaging that really made this such a disappointing movie.
First, you need to know the plot (spoilers, but who cares). Girl who is obsessed with reading girl magazines (Cosmo-style stuff) reads an article that says an average woman has sex with 10 different men, and if they hit 20, they are unlikely to get married because sex lowers self-esteem. She's at 20, so she makes a vow not to sleep with another guy. Instead, she enlists the help of her neighbor to look up exes and see if they're now marriage material. Her neighbor is Chris Evans, who is a guy who has one night stands because he refuses to become emotionally attached. Of course through this process they fall in love, and after a "false choice" (nice rich guy who seems perfect), they get together and she accepts that he's #21 and maybe numbers don't matter actually. Then the final scene is one of her exes calling her and leaving a message saying that they didn't actually have sex, so she's technically still at the magic number of 20.
So what I found amazing/horrific about this movie is how it perfectly does the thing that women's magazines like Cosmo does: on the one hand, girl power, and on the other hand, complete subversion of that. The movie does some things really well -- the girl gets policed by her female friends and family -- slut-shaming, "you should want this," "he's not marriage material," "I'm so happy, (false choice) is so perfect for you," etc etc, and it's portrayed as negative and an impediment to her accepting of herself. Also, props to the 2 scenes where Chris Evans comes on to her, and she's like "no thanks," and he just backs off. In fact, the second time they'd already admitted to liking each other, and so they actually spend the night cuddling but not sexing. Similarly, despite all the Chris Evans eye candy, it's very much "hey, people are naked sometimes, no biggie. Want some Chines food?" The main theme is that this is a girl who tries too hard to live up to societal expectations (sneaking out of bed to put on makeup and then pretending to "wake up" perfectly coiffed, eating only dainty things when in fact she likes greasy food) and tries to be the perfect girlfriend. And she only finds happiness when she finds someone who she can be herself with. In the end, she rejects the "false choice" because he expects her to be pure and virginal ("I'm the only guy you slept with, right?" "Um, more like 20." "Ew gross, haha you're so funny.") Awesome messages about defying social expectations, right?
But then comes all the subversion. Throughout the whole movie, Chris Evans' one-night-stands are played as a joke (they have to get all these miscellaneous women to leave his apartment), but since a central part of the movie is about the societal disapproval around multiple sexual partners and the expectations of what a "good relationship" is, this character backstory woefully undeveloped. At the end she's like "You're my 21", and he's like "You're my three hundred forty..." and she stops him. It's like, (a) if the whole movie is about overcoming these societal expectations, why did she stop him? And (b) why is his 300+ totally okay but her 20 so damning? And of course, the movie also had to throw in the whole "he's #20 after all, phew" at the end. Also, the two people were able to get to know each other *because* she didn't sleep with him -- she didn't consider him boyfriend material and so didn't try to put on a persona, and because he didn't sleep with her, he felt okay not running away. So basically reaffirming the whole "sex corrupts a relationship" message. Also, even though it was supposed to be a friendship, they reveal that Chris Evans was still trying to date her (by keeping her away from False Choice guy from the very beginning.) So a thing that started out criticizing the number system and how ridiculous it is that she's bending over backwards trying to conform to all these expectations ends with her meeting all the expectations. :(
The movie's also bad for other reasons -- The main character isn't very sympathetic, Chris Evans' character is underdeveloped, the sister's wedding subplot was clunky -- but in the end, it was this whole "rawr women should be able to have sex with multiple guys and be herself and eat as much pizza as she wants" while at the same time "find a guy, get married, of course all guys want is sex, but don't give it to them until you've built a relationship first" messaging that really made this such a disappointing movie.
