This is very astute. I’ve thought the exact same thing in just about any movie where Nicholson gets the girl. On what planet would that hottie fall for that obnoxious, ugly, old coot? So I totally agree with your summation.
And this. I do think it’s anonymity that affords people the opportunity to be silly, and I think your point is spot on. Sometimes, they’re trying to gain more recognition for the content of their post than for it to accurately convey their true feelings.
As for my overall opinion though, I do occasionally see a misogynistic underbelly in some of these guys’ vitriol. I have no doubt that, for them, it’s surely rooted in real life instead of them truly hating celeb X. Unless they’re like that asshole that killed Rebecca Schafer, than all bets are off.
I think you do have a point, exaggerating for effect might be part of it. So the contention would be, there is no actual anger at the actress in question, the posters are just ramping up the heat on their posts, exaggerating the actresses “ugliness” to make their point more powerful, and it’s not coming across purely as exaggeration as the intended.
And if you REALLY wanted to get a reaction from someone you could add “The fact you like X proves you’re legally blind, mentally incompetent, and a perv!”
Please. let’s not confuse the actor/actress with the role. Anyone can be made up and lighted to look more or less attractive than they actually are in real life. (Compare head shots with the film some day.)
If there is a mismatch between how attractive the role is supposed to be and how attractive the role is to you the problem might be your taste or the taste of the director/casting director. If you want to judge someone in real life, that’s different.
Except for character actors (and even for many of them) the base standards of attractiveness are pretty high. I’ve been in enough audition waiting rooms to know.
An interesting illustration of this can be seen at the end of the movie American Splendor, in which the real Harvey Pekar is shown with his real co-workers (at his retirement party). There was nothing outlandishly grotesque about any of them—but you don’t see people who look like that in movies, much.
As for the “men trash-talking female celebs” phenomenon: no one would be shocked by a claim that it’s a combination of things. One is, as Malthus said, that hyperbole generates responses whereas calm expressions of opinion may not. Two is, probably, that some males DO have a sense of entitlement: *I was born King of the World and cannot bear the insult of having a sub-standard female paraded before me! Off with their heads! *
Three, perhaps, is that males are more likely than females to preen and posture and assert their claimed place in the hierarchy. As in: I am so high in status that I can disdain women who’ve achieved movie-stardom! That’s how important I am!
As noted earlier in the thread, one doesn’t see all that many posts from female writers who are determined to make it clear that they deserve better than that revolting loser Brad Pitt (or whoever)…women don’t seem to be as concerned with letting everyone know how high in the pecking order they are, in that particular way, at least.
Because some people are psychotic jerks? I mean what sort of lunatic takes it as a personal affront that some celebrity doesn’t meet their arbitrarily high levels of attractiveness?
Maybe the mirror meant “fair” as in “sufficient but not ample”. Like yeah…Snow White’s sort of fair looking. Sort of like “who’s the most average looking in the land?”
I don’t disagree with any of these, but I think these guys are also picking up on the fact that being hot is a major part of a woman’s purpose in a movie: compared to men, women are less likely to speak and more likely to take their clothes off. Maybe that’s part of why they feel empowered to dismiss any actress who doesn’t meet their personal standards.
In addition, I think NDP makes a good point: part of the hostility is being expressed, not at the actress, but at the person who previously expressed an opinion.
Good point. After all, how telling is it that the Bechdel Test is so…undemanding? All it requires is two named female characters who talk about something other than a man…and yet the vast majority of movies fail it.
I agree (though to me it still seems to be part of the ‘drive to posture and strut’ phenomenon).
Well sure. We are talking about Hollywood standards. Its like complaining about the worst player on your favorite major league baseball team. He might suck in the context of a pro team but he is still probably a better athlete than you have ever met in your life. But you can still boo when he strikes out.
I’m the one who first used that phrase in this thread and I’m not a man either. I am also giving a woman’s point of view.
Helen Hunt going for the much older, uglier, and fucked up Jack Nicholson was weird. But in the film they pointed out many times that he was old, ugly and fucked up. They never pretended he was handsome. He wasn’t miscast.
Tough beans. That’s how I feel about them whether you feel it’s “sane” or not. I really don’t quite see how my feelings towards those people affect you.
Actually, I’m not. I was just giving you examples of female celebrities that I don’t find the least bit attractive. And here I thought “honesty is the best policy.” Guess not.
How about sour grapes? Poor, mediocre little man knows attractive women wouldn’t give him a moment of their time, so he fumes and works up a hate and pre-emptively rejects them before they can reject him! Sad little king with an imaginary harem.
Men getting together with women way younger than them is depressingly common in broadcast media, I agree. But the films/TV shows don’t usually act as if those men are unusually handsome when they’re not. It’s a different issue to miscasting.
I thought that was ridiculous, that Alicia looked yummy as Batgirl, and that her acting skills were up to the level of that movie. (I did feel sorry for Michael Gough who was pretty much slumming through it.)
I was pissed at the “daughter of Alfred’s longtime friend” back story instead of the Barbara Gordon one, as ordained by God.