Among the circles that I frequent on Twitter, I have noticed
a raised awareness and demand for equality among races, genders and gender
roles. People want to see more women and
people of non-Caucasian races in higher positions in movies, and more movies influenced
and featuring people who have sexual orientations other than heterosexual. And that is what is happening currently on a
small scale. The independent film world
is picking up on this demand and showcasing movies that aren’t of the strictly
straight white male driven kind.
It becomes troubling when a movie like Chicks Dig Gay Guys comes out.
This movie is a movie for straight white males that makes being gay a
joke. It does nothing to help further
the cause of equality. Instead, it sets
it back for the dudebro crowd who might not be on the equality train. Rather than showing people how gay people are
just like straight people, but with different orientation, it makes them into
cheap jokes and a way for straight people to get hot women.
There are a lot of different ways in which Chicks Dig Gay Guys manages to heed the
progress that much of society has been attempting to speed up. The story and humour found within it manage
to encapsulate what people are trying to prevent. With a few reasons, I want to explain to you
why this movie sets a bad example for the audience that it is looking for.
The premise is that
pretending to be gay will get you laid by “teh wemenz”
That’s right. The
entire premise of the movie is that two guys pretend to be gay in order to get
women. One of them, Scooter (Nathan
Anderson), is a womanizer who is looking for a way to break his dry spell. He discovers that if he pretends to be gay,
women will be more open with him. The
more open they are, the closer they get.
Eventually they will want to “turn” him (something that isn’t a real
thing, if you’re gay, you’re gay) and have lots of naughty, dirty sex with him
to do it.
The other main character in the movie, Brad (Brian Patrick
Murphy), is looking for a relationship.
He meets a woman in a bar and falls in love at first sight. When she doesn’t reciprocate her feelings, he
pretends to be gay in order to get closer to her. If he can’t have her, he can trick her into
being his friend. His best friend,
actually. Aside from Scooter.
Apparently, women are
automatically friends with gay men.
You know that cliché where all women want a gay best
friend? Chicks Dig Gay Guys plays right
into that idea. The reason that the guys
pretend to be gay is to get on the good side of the women. The first instance of this is when Scooter is
in a bar and gets shot down. He then
pretends to be gay. It doesn’t
completely work because he sounds like the stereotypical womanizer’s idea of a
gay man. The next time we see him in a
bar, he is dressing and acting the part, with women hanging from his arms.
When Brad is shot down by Rachel (Maitland McConnell) due to
her current boyfriend, he then decides it would be the right time to take on a
gay persona. This persona, Frankie, is
an immediate success with Rachel and allows Brad to become closer to her than
he would have been otherwise. All it
takes to convince a woman to let you into her life is to be gay. Why?
Because, as the title says, chicks dig gay guys. According to this movie, women want a gay
friend. And that’s what the guys
do. It works.
SPOILER: The guys get
the girls in the end.
In the most dickish writing manner, the two main characters
each manage to land a relationship after having posed as gay men. Scooter manages to end up with a woman who
has a similar personality to him without any problem whatsoever. She doesn’t care at all that he pretended to
be gay in order to get women into bed with him.
It means absolutely nothing to her.
In reality, it means that a man can get what he want by pretending to be
something he isn’t. Namely, gay.
Brad, on the other hand, gets into trouble for pretending to
be gay. Rachel takes offense to it. Not because he pretended to be gay. That doesn’t matter at all. It’s because he wasn’t who he said he
was. He could have pretended to be Santa
Claus and it would have had the same conclusion. Yet, all of the difficulties he has when he
reveals his true self are brushed under the rug at the end of the movie because
Rachel’s boyfriend is a lying, cheating asshole. Impersonating a gay man and making a mockery
of gay people isn’t a bad thing because at least he wants to be there for the
girl. Bleh.
Even the real gay
friend character is okay with it.
About halfway through the movie, a character named Bruce
(Espie Randolph) is introduced. As far
as I know, he is an actual gay character and not a character pretending to be
gay. In fact, there is evidence to show
he is gay, and no evidence against that stance.
This character has no issues with the two main characters pretending to
be gay when he finds out about their deception.
He actually becomes closer friends with them because of it, which seems
rather out of place in that kind of situation.
I feel the need to mention how he discovers that Brad is
gay. At one point in Chicks Dig Gay Guys, a good majority of
the movie’s characters go on a camping trip.
During one of the nights in camp, Bruce goes into Brad’s tent and
attempts to seduce him with various sex toys, in what feels more and more like
rape as the scene goes on. After
reaching a breaking point, Brad tells Bruce to back off and reveals (offscreen,
mind you) that he is really a straight man.
Bruce doesn’t seem angry about it the next day. He seems perfectly fine with this news.
The movie is based
upon reality.
The story that writer Nathan Anderson, the actor playing
Scooter, told through Chicks Dig Gay Guys
is based on stuff that he actually did in his own life. He would pretend to be gay to hook up with
women. That is a rather despicable thing
to do in order to pick up women, and to write a movie about it seems even more
morally corrupt. Shame on you, Mr.
Anderson.
Making things worse is all of the above in this post. The idea is bad, assuming that all women absolutely
love gay men is worse, and having your main characters getting full on
relationships in the end is the worst possible outcome. Why?
Because it instills an idea in the audience that this kind of behaviour
is alright. It isn’t. This is deplorable behaviour and only sets
back the momentum of equality that has been building in society.
Equality is an important aspect in the modern world. Women do as much for humanity as men. Every race of people can be as productive as
any other race. We can all be as
compassionate, as friendly, as intelligent, and as important as one
another. Our sexual preferences don’t
make us a completely different species.
A man who loves a man or a woman who loves a woman are no lesser humans
than a man who loves a woman or a woman who loves a man. So why are movies like this still being
made? Why do people think it is okay to
use communities in this way? Why is it
okay to make a whole sexual orientation into a joke for the movie and have no
real consequences stem from the actions?
I don’t know. What I do know is
that Chicks Dig Gay Guys makes fun of
gay people while also saying that it is okay for straight men to pretend to be
gay in order to pick up women. That’s a
terrible message.
A better message is in the form of these notes:
- Chicks Dig Gay Guys was suggested by @MarceloJPico.
- This is the interview where I found out that the movie was inspired by true events.
- Eric Roberts briefly appears in Chicks Dig Gay Guys. If you remember, he was also the voice of the cat in A Talking Cat!?!
- Mindy Robinson also makes an appearance in Chicks Dig Gay Guys, after having previously appeared in The Coed and the Zombie Stoner.
- Finally, Mara Marini was in Chicks Dig Gay Guys. She was also in a movie called Metal Man.
- Have you seen the movie Chicks Dig Gay Guys? Do you think it has as bad of a message as I believe it does? Did you like it? The comments section is here if you have anything to say.
- Have you seen any bad movies recently that you think I should cover? Tell me what movies and I might include them in a later Sunday “Bad” Movie post. You can put your suggestions in the comments section, or message them to me on Twitter.
- Next week, the movie I will be writing about is Skin Trade because why the hell not? Look at that cast! Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa, Ron Perlman, Michael Jai White, and Peter Weller. That’s something I need to see. I hope you’ll join me next week when I write about it.
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