She’s Out of My League

SPOILERS

I saw She’s Out of My League yesterday. While the movie had some laughs it was pretty much just another, completely unrealistic nerdy guy (Kirk, a TSA employee with no realistic ambitions) gets with a super hot woman nearly perfect in every way just for being a “nice guy.” 

The twist is in this case not only does she have a ‘perfect body’ and an endlessly pleasant and accepting personality (including of the guy’s obnoxious family who he himself even tells off at the end) but she is also super rich. 

The main other woman in the film is Kirk’s ex girlfriend Marni, who is portrayed as a completely evil person for being a bit of a social climber when it comes to leaving Kirk for someone else. Never mind that the whole rest of the movie is about Kirk leaving Marni for someone else!

I am just sick of this double standard in comedies where the guy who has very little to offer and is always doing obnoxiously stupid things gets away with having a dream woman, while the woman still has to deal with sexism and rejection from the guy until he finally accepts her as being not too perfect.

What especially bothered me about this one is that not only is it sexist, it’s also classist. All of the working class supporting characters in the movie are portrayed as idiots. In the end Kirk says F u to his entire family– WTF? The only people portrayed as winners are the rich people. 

Why can’t working class girls who are not wealthy or glamorous or have Hollywood bodies ever be good enough in these comedies? Just the way that dweeby, awkward young white guys who don’t have much going for them can get the “hard 10″? 

As a guy, if you make me choose between the dream on a pedestal and the regular girl I will take the regular girl. Why? Because the latter is real, while the dream is just a figment of man’s imagination! She slips through my grasp every time just like Kim Novak metaphorically dissolving in the hands of James Stewart in Vertigo. If you’re in love with an illusion, whether you call it “Madeleine” or “hard 10″ you’re not really in love at all.