Thursday, February 11, 2010
Baby Face
What I thought was funny about this movie is the theme of all men wanting what they can't get. Most of the men that Lily becomes involved with have wives or other women that love them truly and purely. You would hope that a man would be able to tell true love over sheer lust and exploitation; and you would really like to hope that they would choose true love over lust, but they don't. Just what women have been complaining about for years and years, men want what they can't have, and Lily represents everything a lot of men can't get in a women: beauty, boldness, lust, sexuality. It's sad and funny at the same time that men do not change. Take her boss who killed himself for example. He had a wonderful fiance who loved him very much, and who he was very much in love with. But he kicked her to the curb as soon as Lily turned her eyes on him. Even before that, her old boss she got fired had a wife and kids and he didn't even care, all he wanted was to have the young and beautiful woman who was so obviously using him. No wonder Lily became so hardened and skeptical of love, because not only did she not love any of these men, none of them truly loved her, and even though they said they did, she knew they didn't. Some of them went crazy over it, but it wasn't crazy with true love, it was crazy with lust and infatuation and wanting what they can't have. This comes back to the whole dating strategy of playing "hard to get". Personally I get mind games when it comes to dating and love, and I'd much rather be straightforward and honest with a man. But it has been proven to me so many times, as it is proved in this movie, that a lot of times men will not want a woman if he can so easily have her. Men like a challenge, they want women to appear unnatainable so that they'll feel like a hero once they actually do attain her. It's sad but it's reality.
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I think another point on the 'hardened to love' point you made is that not only does Lily not love these men or they her, these men are all cheating on some significant other, AND are completely willing to -as you said- 'kick them to the curb' for her. So on top of the fake feeling she is already exposed to, Lily is witnessing -repeatedly- men, who claim (at least we hope) to love their wives and families, only to cheat, lie and leave those 'loved ones'.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the idea that men usually want what they can't have, and are willing to risk everything in order to obtain it. I also think it's pretty sad and funny that men have not really changed that much over the years. Even today, men in relationships lust for women that are different than the their current girlfriend/wife because they know they can't have them. I really hope men can one day be happy with what they have instead of leaving their families and loved ones.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I believe some women act the same way. While in relationships, many women lust for men that are different from the man they are currently dating. But it does seem like it is more common for men to act this way compared to women.
"Men like a challenge"--yes, and with Lily, the challenge is not so much getting her as keeping her. Her reserve and aloofness seems to attract them.
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