"Knocked Up" is a movie about a 23 year old Jewish Canadian man's struggle to come to terms with the fact that he will soon be a father, because he accidentally got a women pregnant on a drunken one night stand. Ben Stone's (the main character) situation is made all the more difficult by the fact that he has basically nothing in common with Alison Scott (the women that he impregnated), but that appears to be the norm through out the movie. In fact it appeared to me that every couple in the movie had nothing in common with one another, whereas every guy in the movie seemed to get along famously with one another. After some consideration, I decided that this phenomenon could only be explained by the fact that this movie portrays women in a rather sexist fashion in comparison to men.
For example, when Alison discovered that Ben didn't really read the baby books that he promised to read she confronted him about it. However the ensuing argument left her looking like the bad guy because after Ben explained that he was sorry and that he simply forgot to read the books she was still upset. But she had a good reason to be angry, because Ben was being an irresponsible person, and that scared her because it made her question whether Ben could ever be a good father to her child. Similar instances occur through out the entire movie time and time again as we watch the "fun-loving, goofy, and lovable" guys slip up and get yelled at by the "humorless and uptight" women.
Over this last weekend I saw "Notorious," a movie detailing the life and times of the famous rapper Christopher Wallace (a.k.a. "Biggie Smalls.") The film creates a complex and dynamic view of what it really means to be masculine as we watch Christopher grow up and learn what it really takes to be a man.
At the beginning of the movie the audience is provided with an impoverished young man's perspective of what it means to be masculine as we watch the little Chris Wallace grow up in Brooklyn. Biggie's father left him and his mother when he was only a baby and his mother never remarried. As a result of never having any father figures around as a child Biggie had to learn how to become a real man on his own by watching and learning from other men around him, but all he saw on the streets of Brooklyn was drugs and money. Therefore, Biggie thought that having a lot of cash would make him a real man, and that belief became clearly evident to me as I watched the young little Biggie Smalls make money by selling crack of the streets.
After the (not yet) Notorious B.I.G. found out that he was going to have a baby his view of masculinity changed slightly. At this point in his life he was still selling crack to economically prepare for the birth of his first child. However, before his daughter could even be born, he was arrested for possessing a firearm, which his best friend, "D-Rock," took the fall for. After that event Biggie realized that being a real man meant taking care of his daughter, which he couldn't do from a jail cell, so he stopped selling crack and started rapping professionally under the guidance of Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs.
Once Biggie released his first album and got rich his view of masculinity changed yet again. As Biggie's fortune and fame grew he became an idol. Therefore he was viewed as an ideal portrait of masculinity by many young males who were trying to learn how to become real men. The now rich and famous Biggie Smalls began living out his dream. He lived how he always thought that a real man would live. He did whatever he wanted, he bought whatever he wanted, and he got all the women he ever wanted.
At the end of the movie, after his divorce with Faith Evans and after the death of his long-time friend Tupac, Biggie had an epiphany while sitting in a club in Los Angeles. He realized that being a real man meant taking care of your own responsibilities. He realized that being masculine meant spending time with your kids, taking care of your mother, and always treating women with respect. Sadly however, Biggie Smalls was gunned down and killed later that night after leaving the club. Christopher Wallace died young, at the age of 25, but not before he learned how to be a real man.
