Lars and the Real Girl

Claire, Awesome, Zanzibar (who got punched in the face by an angry Mexican at a bar and has a swollen cheek! haha), Kathleen from Sociology, and I went to go see 'Lars and the Real Girl' at the Rag Tag last night. It was very different than what I thought it was going to be, and Zanzibar had the same reaction. He just thought that with there being a sex doll as the female lead the movie, it would go more in the 'Old School' direction. I thought it was going to be more lighthearted and funny. But it was wonderful.

I've been interested in the way masculinity is portrayed in the arts and media ever since we started focusing on it in Krew as well as my Critical Theory class. Because all of my classes assign similar paper topics, I've come up with a couple broad theories and bits of social commentary that I use and fit into whatever paper topic it is. One of the ones I've been thinking about is that people are dissatisfied with the social structure and rules that the consumerist materialist world has given them (which is that there are no rules - just buy more crap) and are searching for something more stable: a framework (however imperfect) that they can follow to avoid feeling fragmented and disillusioned. This applies especially in gender roles.

In Krew when we talk about what it means to be a man, it is because there is a general lack of knowledge on how to be a good one. Here's a scene from 'Lars and the Real Girl' that speaks to this (Gus is Lars' brother who is married and about to have a kid - Lars is 27 and single and socially awkward, Bianca's the sex doll that Lars ordered online):

Lars Lindstrom: I was talking to Bianca, and she was saying that in her culture they have these rites of passages and rituals and cermonies, and, just all kinds of things that, when you do them, go through them, let you know that you're an adult? Doesn't that sound great?
Gus: It does.
Lars Lindstrom: How'd you know?
Gus: How'd I know what?
Lars Lindstrom: That you were a man
Gus: Ahhh. I couldn't tell ya.
Lars Lindstrom: Was it... okay, was it sex?
Gus: Um. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's uh, yeah, yeah it's kind of - it's uh - no. Well, it's kind of sex but it's not uh, you know? I don't know. I don't know. It's - uh - good question, good question.
Lars Lindstrom: Yeah, but I have to know
Gus: [dryer buzzes] Hold that thought.
Gus: [in basement] You know, you should ask Dagmar
Lars Lindstrom: I did ask Dagmar. And she said that I should ask you.
Gus: Okay, you know I can only give you my opinion.
Lars Lindstrom: That's what we want
Gus: Well, it's not like you're one thing or the other, okay? There's still a kid inside but you grow up when you decide to do right, okay, and not what's right for you, what's right for everybody, even when it hurts.
Lars Lindstrom: Okay, like what?
Gus: Like, you know, like, you don't jerk people around, you know, and you don't cheat on your woman, and you take care of your family, you know, and you admit when you're wrong, or you try to, anyways. That's all I can think of, you know - it sound like it's easy and for some reason it's not.
(from imdb)

And in the rest of the movie Lars slowly tries to put these things into practice, telling a girl who likes him that he can't kiss her because that would be cheating on his woman (Bianca - the sex doll) and so forth. It's wonderful. I think it's really interesting that movies are discussing something like this. I asked my friend from sociology what she thought about the gender roles in the movie but we just talked about how Gus' wife fulfilled the typical gender role of cooking breakfast. We didn't get to talk more. I think it's all very interesting.