In high school, He’s Just Not That into You was a film I would turn to any time I needed a cozy movie night, or a feel-good flick.
I also always admired the film for its honesty and its no-nonsense message. It was empowering…or so I thought.
Last week, on a rainy Sunday night, I met up with a few girlfriends for some well-needed chill time. Not having seen HJNTIY in over four years, I figured it was time to reunite with it.
The problem is, this time around, I noticed things I had never noticed before. My friends and I were flabbergasted, borderline horrified. The film (almost) cut our appetite for our popcorn and wine.
Who was I kidding for all these years? The film is just another typical mid-2000s Hollywood white heterosexual rom-com dripping in gender and race stereotypes.
The film, which was released in 2009 and directed by Ken Kwapis is problematic in several ways.
Firstly, the cast is one boring unrealistic homogenous lump. Bradley Cooper, Ben Affleck, Justin Long, Kevin Connolly—the main male actors are all white, good-looking and athletic. No surprise, same goes for the leading women: Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Ginnifer Goodwin—all white, all beautiful, all slim.
The main cast alone represents one of the biggest ongoing critiques of Hollywood: constant white heteronormativity at the forefront of narratives on “real” people and their “relatable” lives.
What is real about interlacing several stories of couples who all look the same way, and abide to the same highly-privileged relationship and love norms including marriage, house renovations, and hanging wall art?
Whenever the film does include black, Hispanic or Asian actors, they are all performing stereotypical roles, or speaking in stereotypical ways. The two black women on a park bench who talk about getting “dumped” talk about buying some fried chicken to soothe the soul. The workers doing renovations on Janine’s (Jennifer Connelly) and Ben’s (Bradley Cooper) home are all Hispanic.
But possibly the thing that irked me the most are the roles the movie forced upon the women. Especially when it comes to Gigi, played by Ginnifer Goodwin. Goodwin’s character is a caricature of the “desperate woman waiting for a phone call.” Her “crazy girl” behaviour is supposed to spark laughs, but it just infuriated me.
We wonder where name-calling and slut-shaming comes from. Gender stereotypes are so deeply rooted in North American entertainment culture, we have become blasé to it, accustomed to it.
In the films, the writers and director have Gigi flailing around the city, desperately hanging on to every man she encounters, in the hopes that he could be her kind of prince charming.
Connelly’s character Janine is desperate for a perfect home with a perfect husband, while her husband’s character just wants a cold beer and TV after work, and an affair with a blonde yoga instructor. Jennifer Aniston’s character Beth refuses to believe her seven-year-long relationship means anything unless she has a ring on her finger. It is all so disgustingly clichéd.
While times have changed a tad, and I would like to believe many aspects of the movie wouldn’t fly anymore, 2009 is a mere eight years ago.
Also, the women in the film don’t stand up for each other or give each other tough love, all blinded by their quest for love. Gigi’s friends don’t tell her to take a chill pill. Johansson’s character Anna has no consideration for Ben’s wife or relationship.
The only positive thing I got out of re-watching the film, all these years later, is that I realized that something I once deemed progressive and empowering, I now see through clear lenses. I can only hope this is thanks to an increased education on societal issues and media and arts history and criticism, but also to a changing Hollywood. A Hollywood that has luckily shown signs of progress in terms of diversity and representation over the past five years.
So next time you are watching your favourite Hollywood rom-coms, keep your critical eye peeled, and speak up. Let’s keep a conversation going, so that Hollywood and the global film industry can one day truly show the real world through a lens.