Distraction/Reaction

Last week while watching "O' Brother Where Art Thou" I noticed something I'd never caught onto before. My observation was that Pete, Everett, and Delmar run off into the woods after some loose women even though they have a very limited time to reach the "treasure" before it is unreachable. This presents a shift in priorities; their actions suggest that women, who they don't even know, are more important than large sums of money. If this is the case, why didn't the trio bust off the farm for the prospect of finding a mate before Everett mentioned the treasure? In fact, if Pete and Delmar truly valued the opposite sex so highly, wouldn't they have been willing to leave with Everett if they had known his real reason for escaping? I contend that in truth, Pete and Delmar do value money more than women. The real reason why they went off course so easily is that men are distracted easily; and among all the distractions that men have, the strongest is the prospect of meeting a woman. The peculiar aspect of this distraction is that when men think about it logically, they can't understand why they abandoned their original goal for the girl. This is the subject of conversation between Delmar and Everett at the restaurant the following day.

MAN! WOMAN! HUMOR!

Last week I commented on how shallow male characters are depicted in most modern film, name sitcoms. This week I'll be looking at the flip-side of this in relation to gender specific humor in 2 episodes of Seinfeld.
As we have concluded thus far, masculine and feminine traits are considered to be polar opposites. So, in this fashion, we would therefore conclude that if men a re shallow in their relationships, then women would be looking beyond physical characteristics into the essence of an individual for who they really are. This is indeed a stereo-type that is often placed on females; and it brings two episodes of Seinfeld to the forefront of my mind. The first one deals with George and his relationship with a woman who proclaims that "Looks aren't important to her." This statement then triggers a series of events that make the bulk of the episode. Now in another episode George gets involved with a bald woman, proving that he is beyond his former shallowness. He is then turned down by the bald woman due to his short stature.
The first incident produces humor when we see George's reaction, which is confusion and disgust, to the woman's idea that looks don't matter. The latter situation is funny because it portrays the exact opposite of the culturally accepted "norm" for an extreme case of irony.

Why What Nice Jeans You Have...

As I was watching "The Office" last night I took special care to look for a message about gender. The one that seemed to stick out the most was Micheal's shallowness and how it affected his actions towards different people in the office. Now, this in itself can be explained by his all around inconsiderate actions and not a specific message about gender, but consider the shows "Two and a Half Men", "Seinfeld", and "Friends". All of these shows have one or more male characters who view women for just their physical qualities and could care less about their personalities. This is, and has been, a common trend in film. Like any other stereo-type, there is no doubt that some men live with this self-centered usury as a way of life. But also like other stereo-types, it is merely assuming that everyone with a certain characteristic, in this case being male, acts in the same manner. Personally, I think that is it rather sad not only that some guys truly are like this, but also that this gender message actually effects the behavior of some women. It proves that even though our culture is highly entered on being an individual we let various forms of media dictate how we view the world.