Sexism at the movies, but not on the screen: My viewing of Julie and Julia

Greetings, all! I saw Julie & Julia this weekend and absolutely loved it, but I’m not here to give a review of the movie. Instead, I wanted to share about the experience of a sexist asshole movie theater employee.

He was taking our tickets and commented to my fiancee on our movie choice, "Ah, J&J, don’t expect her to cook like they do in the movie!" To which my fiancee responds that I already do.

No problem, we get in to the theater and settle down. Before they start the previews, the real fun began.

The same usher comes to the front of the theater and gets everyone’s attention. He starts by surveying the crowd and saying, "Oh, this might be a record, there’s, one, two, three…twelve…A lot of men in the audience."

Here we go, I thought. It was a full house and here I was thinking that he was going to say to people to fill up the seats between you and everything.

He goes on, "My experience is that with men coming to movies like this, it’s for three reasons, 1) Their wives dragged them here 2) They’re going to the movie JUST TO GET LUCKY LATER and 3)…" I couldn’t even remember the last one because I could feel my blood boiling.

I couldn’t help myself, guys, and actually found myself shouting out over the laughter of my fellow patrons, "OR MAYBE THEY JUST LIKE THE MOVIE". *Sigh* Sometimes I can’t help but have such an inflammatory reaction to shit like this. I can’t believe this guy had the audacity to say something so ignorant to a crowd of people waiting to watch a movie!

Just a great example of the patriarchy at work, trying to shame men for wanting to see a ‘woman movie’. And if you have seen J&J it isn’t remotely like, say, Sex and the City or other more hyper-romcom fare.

It also made me think about how my feminism empowers me to try and address these types of issues vocally instead of just letting things slide. Yes, my outburst in the theater was certainly not going to change minds, but I’ve made it a policy of mine to address sexism, rape culture, victim-blaming, etc out loud. My little way of activism, I guess. And I will not apologize for it. How are people going to know what they’re saying is wrong unless they’re called out on their shit?