The Common Ambi-emotional, or lack there of, disaster

As a result of the class's analysis of "Fight Club" and the subject of my S/A/R, I've been thinking about movies in a much more analytical and critical fashion. One realization that I came to today was the role that gender extremes play in the Ben Stiller comedy "Zoolander". "Zoolander" displays the awkwardness between the macho and sensitive extremes present in men to exemplify how unnatural it is live with out a balance of the two.


The most blatantly obvious sections that feature this strained relationship are those that involve Derek and his father. After Spending a day in the mines trying to be macho, Derek sits at a bar watching TV with his father and brother. A rather strange commercial featuring Derek as a "myrrh-man" comes on at the bar. Even before he calls Derek a disgrace to the family, Derek's father is obvious that he is disturbed by Zoolander's feminine qualities captured in the commercial. Another issue caused by this imbalance of of 'manliness' and sensitivity is the occasional violent swing from one the other. This is shown when Derek and Hanzel, both very emotional non-macho men, are trying to extract files from a computer. When their civil attempts at this task fail, they revert to primal, violent behavior such as letting out animal like screeches and beating the PC with blunt objects.

Birthday Blues

As I ws catching up on my favorite TV comedy, The Office, I couldn't help noticing the ridiculous amount of stereo-typing that was involved. One of the most prominent gender messages sent by the newest episode is that women are demanding, materialistic, and hard(if not imposable) to please. This stereo-type was brought to life on screen by Kelly, the girly girl of the office. In this episode it happened to be her birthday. Jim and Dwight by her cake and post "happy birthday' signs around the office, but kelly is upset, if not angry, that the cake is designless and that the decorations have no 'theme'. This shows that it's not the thought that counts, it
s the quality of the display. If this situation had happened to a male character, a reaction similar to Kelly's would have been used as evidence of his 'feminine' side or homosexuality.