I Am Not an Easy Man Feminist
Yous probably oasis't heard much nearly Netflix's I Am Not an Easy Human. The but reason I myself watched it was to learn French in a super lazy way after moving to Europe. Despite hating most romantic comedies, I actually liked this one though. The premise is clever and the jokes land well.
The second fourth dimension I watched, it pissed me off. And past fifth? Left me in tears, devastated. And I ain't no crier either!
I suppose what I am is a masochist of sorts because I cannot stop watching this movie.
Or thinking nigh information technology.
I as well can't see society quite the same anymore, despite being fully aware for decades already of just how sexist information technology is. I approximate it took watching a man experience what women experience daily to process how absurd information technology all is (hello internalized misogyny!).
Since the main character, Damien (Vincent Elbaz), is a man (and a white one!), he's born into boundless freedom and opportunity. And knows aught but this manner of life. So he'due south justifiably outraged when all those inalienable rights he's then used to only up and vanish. And even so, despite waking upwards, horrified, in a globe where men are considered the weaker sex activity and are abused by women constantly, he never one time questions how incorrect it is or blames himself. And he never doubts his correct to be treated like a human existence instead of belongings.
I tin't fifty-fifty fathom what that's like. Must be nice!
Despite being a feminist for decades at present, I still discover new, subtle ways I've been brainwashed to hate myself unnecessarily, shrug off men'due south terrible behavior, or bend myself into a pretzel to make them comfortable. No, information technology wasn't until seeing a human walk in our shoes for 96 tragically hilarious minutes did it occur to me just how much bullshit us women folk are still putting upwards with.
In the showtime eight minutes, we see Damien doing his privileged white male thing, Paris manner—being an arrogant middle-aged player who treats women similar holes, calls his friends' wives nags, and gaslights female coworkers who cartel to question his blatant sexual harassment. In short, he's an entitled misogynistic prick who actually thinks he loves women (don't they all!).
While he's catcalling two barely legal girls, though, he runs head-first into a pole, leaving him unconscious. When he wakes up, he finds himself in this bizarre new earth where the genders are flippity-flopped—women are the entitled, powerful pricks and men have to figure out exhausting ways to deal with it all.
Okay, #notallwomen, merely #most.
His adjustment to this hellhole is quite entertaining. Hither, women wearable suits (or any they want, really) and men habiliment what society tells them to—mini-skirts, burkas and everything in between. Sweatpants with "hot" written on the ass, neon pinkish shoes, pasties, and some inexplicable garment that makes men'due south assurance wait "perky." Damien before long learns one thing men tin't wear anymore though—white T-shirts. That merely encourages the women in his part (and it's ALL women at present, save for a few receptionists fetching the ladies' their java) who whistle and hoot at his titty difficult-on as he walks past them.
This is a earth where Queens trounce Kings in poker and dads fear losing their jobs every time they have another infant. By the way, women give birth standing up (finally) considering most doctors are women and they understand… well, gravity. Women control every co-operative of culture and daily life—healthcare and authorities, the media, work… all of it. Damien'south showtime "oh shit this really sucks" moment is when his (now female) boss tries to make him eat her out in exchange for a promotion, gives his projects to a woman, and gaslights him when he dares doth protest. Justifiably pissed by information technology all, he throws the bowl of tampons on her desk in her face.
She immediately fires him.
It would exist an understatement to say that this new world suuuuucks for Damien and all the men in it. They're constantly reminded that women are more of import, fifty-fifty in subtle fiddling jabs. The buildings and streets are named after women, the "classic" books are about, by, and for women (Of Mice and Women), and virtually billboards feature scantily clad men pouting or looking dumb to appear childlike and submissive. Movies and commercials only testify male nudity and every unmarried storyline virtually men portrays them as being needy fools desperate for women to beloved them.
Even Damien's friends act weird now, pressuring him to eat salads and worry about beingness fat or old (i.e. unfuckable). His father nags him about being unmarried, living with a cat, and not producing those obligatory grandkids a man owes his parents (and society!). Karma's merciless fate makes Alexandra (Marie-Sophie Ferdane), the woman he falls for, treat him exactly like he used to treat women who loved him—by playing games, keeping him at arm'due south length, patronizing him, and making him feel needy for wanting anything more than sex.
This movie made me laugh throughout because of its absurdity, only at that place were a few funny moments that stopped existence funny when they sunk in with each viewing.
For starters, women are brutes in this club, thanks to non being burdened with the male gaze or society policing their bodies or behavior. They burp, eat like shit, piss on the toilet seats and basically do whatever they want without whatever real consequence. And yet… they await men to follow strict gendered codes of conduct, like shaving every inch of their body below the neck. Plucking eyebrows, ripping off toe hair. Information technology'south painful to watch a man getting this done. And all and so they can wear revealing clothes that draw attending to his polish legs and dainty fiddling ankles.
In that location'due south 1 scene where a woman laughs at Damien, calls him a monkey, claims he's muddied for having a hairy chest, and refuses sex activity. Information technology's hilarious! Just what's not funny is seeing him the next fourth dimension, completely shaved, except for a landing strip patch of hair on his sternum. It'due south then weird looking… on a human. He would never exercise something so bizarre if women hadn't convinced him he'due south unfuckable and gross otherwise, despite women being completely unshaven.
Think about that. Fifty-fifty in 2018, women volition go boob jobs, lip jobs… to brand them DSL (dick sucking lips), Brazilian waxes, and fifty-fifty labia surgery to avoid that "deli meat" vagina men so oftentimes brand fun of. I've never done whatsoever of those things myself because I refuse to out of sheer principle. But goddamanit if I don't nonetheless trim and manicure all around my precious little peach anyways. Considering men, the media, and porn have convinced even the near feminist of united states that we should alter our bodies constantly to accommodate men'south idea of sexy instead of our own. Just like Damien, we want to exist attractive. And get laid!
We do what we must.
Dating for Damien in this bass-ackwards earth is horrifying to watch as a modernistic adult female. One lady takes him on a appointment… to a strip gild. He's so baffled by the sight of men straddling poles in a dark, smoky room of leering women that he bursts into laughter and tin can't stop. It'southward only and so ridiculous!
And therein lies the tragedy of this movie.
By seeing how absurd it is for men to act this way to please women, it forces you to realize that this bullshit is normalized when women are asked to do it.
Later, when the woman who chosen Damien a hairy monkey finally decides he's hairless enough (the mode just children are by the way), they have the almost ridiculous hook-up ever. This rough, jackhammer-style sex is funny at kickoff. Only when she forces a finger in his mouth and fish hooks him with it, things aren't then funny anymore. Men attempt that shit on me and I've always establish it insulting. But women are used to men trying this selfish, porno sex on u.s. these days.
He ain't having it though. And adept for him!
He hits his breaking bespeak when she orgasms, and then rolls off of him, non the least scrap concerned well-nigh his. Every bit an American adult female, this used to be standard operating process—walking abroad from disappointing sex feeling like my trunk was nothing more than than some man'southward right hand. Dissimilar Damien, though, it took me decades to realize I was entitled to orgasms every time. That it's my task to insist on them, really. Damien'south and so pissed, he throws his cat on her face and kicks her out.
I know few women who'd exist so assuming.
The real kicker nigh this motion-picture show is that you feel So BAD for this dude, despite the fact he was a full dick earlier he striking his head. A real mind-fuck!
I Am Non an Piece of cake Human is a mod, less impressive or eloquent version of Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Everything Damien experiences is painful for him to experience and women to sentinel because, unlike women, he knows he's in a cage. And that he doesn't belong there. Women still unknowingly embrace, celebrate, and even enforce being locked in our cages all too oftentimes. We know no other way of existing.
The but problem I accept with this movie (and it was a French man who pointed this out to me), is how lazy it is. A 100% reversal. I think a earth with women abusing power would look different. Non better or worse, just dissimilar. I'd similar to come across someone make that film.
In the meantime, I'll go back to watching I Am Not an Easy Man for a 106th time. But I refuse to call information technology a romcom anymore.
This is a goddamn horror movie.
Melanie Hamlett is a author, storyteller, comedian, and public speaker based out of LA. She's also regular on the Risk! podcast, created Slap-up Stories, and performs regularly when she'southward non sleeping in the back of her truck in the woods or living abroad.
Lookout I Am Not An Easy Man on Netflix
Source: https://decider.com/2018/09/11/i-am-not-an-easy-man-review-netflix/
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