Day 4,309—Distractions—

 

        I have been watching this show starring John Hamm that is on Apple with my wife. At first, we couldn’t finish the first episode, but now we’re both more engaged. Yet, all I could think about last night when we were watching it was how much the whole perspective was such an upper-class male centrist’s story. I didn’t have to look it up to know that it was written, created, and directed by men. All I had to notice was how underwritten all the female characters were, and for whatever reason, the male lead, John Hamm, is romantically pursued by multiple female characters for unclear reasons. One of the reasons we turned it on in the first place was that it started in a place of desperation for the male lead. His wife cheated on him with his best friend. He was unfairly fired from his job, so he turned to a life of crime. Yet, his wife doesn’t get a good reason to cheat on him. She also pursues a type of man that only men think that women like because so much of the show, I am just thinking, “No one’s motivation makes any sense!”  

        It made me reflect on stories from a female perspective and how they aren’t that different in how inaccurately they portray the opposite gender. The female lead always has multiple men romantically interested in them for unclear reasons, and she is just responding to the choices and complexity that are put upon her. In both types of stories, there are usually three archetypes of romantic partner. The one thing that both have in common is a disconnection with reality. In the male stories. Men are attracted to women whom they can save, and women are attracted to men who see them for whom they really are. My insight or frustration has to do with the complete lack of disconnect these characterizations have with reality, yet they both inform and influence how the opposite sex sees each other in a critical way. If we cannot, as a society, understand the basics about each other, what hope is there to have meaningful relationships?