Valentine's Day

A bitterness similar to that found in a feminist retelling of a fairy tale struck me during the movie “Valentine’s Day” which I saw with a few of my girlfriends last week. Although I really did enjoy the movie, mostly for its humor and cute witty comments made by Ashton Kutcher, I found one scene in particular very troubling. I will try to depict the scene as best I can without spoiling the movie for those of you who still intend on seeing it. As you can guess, the entire film takes place on Valentine’s Day, on which there is tremendous pressure for romance put on the holiday. Jessica Beil’s character has thrown an “Anti-Valentine’s Day” party for anyone of her age who does not have plans on Valentine’s Day. So there they were, a bunch of single women in their late twenties wallowing in their sorrows together and ranting about how they have all been let down by men. They talked about how their day has been “ruined” because some man who they thought was their knight in shining armor let them down, and now they are alone on Valentine’s Day. It is not until the end of the party, when a friendly acquaintance turns into a love interest for Jessica Beil, that she finally becomes content again.

I found myself wishing I could enjoy this scene for its comedic relief, as the women thrashed the piñata pretending it was each of their exes, but unfortunately I could not because I was so distracted by the pathetic characterization of these women. In this film, Jessica Beil’s character is gorgeous, physically fit, and has a successful career. She should be confident, enjoying life, and having her pick of the litter as far as I’m concerned. But instead, she is depicted as miserable, running on the treadmill to burn off the calories of the chocolates she is simultaneously consuming, and desperate for a man to come into her life and save her from being alone and miserable. In this way, he film was sending out a rather odd message, I thought. Instead of empowering women to be strong, career-seeking individuals who have a mind of their own, it says the opposite. It’s saying, if you are a woman and a man hasn’t come to seek you out by the time you’re 28, then there must be something wrong with you.

To make matters worse, at the very moment that Jessica Beil’s character finally experienced her blossoming love, Taylor Swift ‘s “Today was a Fairy Tale” swooped in to overwhelm us all with romantic mush, suggesting that it can’t be a fairy tale until the woman has finally been found by her man. Thank you Hollywood, for reminding us that Taylor Swift really understands true love. Don’t get me wrong, I actually really DID enjoy this movie, but certain scenes such as this one were a bit troubling, and I had wished they’d done something more creative with the idea of Valentine’s Day than to show women wallowing over the absence of prince charming from their lives. However, maybe it was more of a feminist approach than I thought, as some of the characterization, in its cynical and realistic nature, was reminiscent of the feminist retelling of fairy tales.