The first relationship/scene we'll look at involves Hannah and Jacob. In this scene, Hannah's gendered role reversal of aggressively pursuing Jacob (by calling him out in the middle of the bar, stomping over and kissing him full on the mouth) falls apart outside of the bar scene. Once she finally goes home with him she starts falling back into a traditionally female gendered script. She starts acting like a "typical female" who is nervous/anxious about taking sexual advancement into her own hands, then relies on/blatantly asks Jacob to take charge and walk her through things. In the scene Hannah goes back and forth between admitting this and trying to maintain a confident counter-script where she is the sexual initiator, but she's struggling.
What's also interesting in this scene is Jacob's reaction to all of this. Instead of adhering to his typical and traditionally male gender script as the sexually aggressive one who makes all the decisions and dominates the conversation, as can be seen throughout the movie prior to this encounter, he follows Hannah's orders/decisions, submitting to her requests (like taking off his shirt and telling her about his "big move" as per Hannah's request) which ultimately allow him to fulfill more of a traditionally, take-charge masculine role anyways.
This ties into the Holz and Ivory (2009) article we read about 'Gendered Relationships on Television: Portrayals of Same-Sex and Heterosexual Couples'. It explains how we as a society view males and females through a "lens of gender" (Holtz & Ivory 2009). This is because the differences between women and men are considered to be natural, and therefore legitimized through the media's perpetual promotion and normalizing of gendered images of males and females (Holtz & Ivory 2009). So even though there is an attempted counter-script in this scene, it's depicted as "adorable" and awkward, and ultimately falls comfortably back into a "normal" gender script.
The next relationship/scene we'll look at involves Cal and Emily Weaver. Mrs. Weaver is actually the one who admits to having slept with someone else (the infamous "Dave Lindhagen"). While teary eyed and regretful of her decision, she's ultimately the one who chose sexual gratification over her monogamous relationship with Mr. Weaver, and also the one who asks for a divorce. It is Cal who actually is the one initially giving the heartfelt apology to her for the way things turned out while they're alone together in the hallway awaiting a parent-teacher conference.
What's interesting is that Emily's infidelity wasn't all because she was in love with another man and/or wanted to leave her husband to have a monogamous relationship with the other man either. Typically it is females who are thought to want/need to have a relationship. However, in this case Emily asks for an end to her marriage and rejects Dave's initial propositions to begin pursuing a stable relationship her once her husband has moved out.
What's also interesting is how much Cal is still so emotionally invested in his marriage and love for his wife even after what she did. Jacob is also perplexed by this as it's like a "pulling teeth" process to make Cal over into an attractive, confident bachelor. However, throughout the movie Cal is continually resistant to the idea of giving up all hope on his marriage to his one true love despite the advice of Jacob and the initial rejection from Emily.
The Kim et al. 2007 article we read in class speaks to these ideas regarding masculine and feminine commitment. With masculine commitment (MC) it is typically the males who want or need independence, as well as prefer sexual fulfillment over emotional intimacy (Kim et al. 2007). For feminine commitment (FC) it is typically the females who want or need to be in a relationship with a boyfriend or husband (Kim et al. 2007).
The last relationship/scene we'll look at involves Robbie Weaver and babysitter Jessica Riley. As the Weaver's babysitter, Jessica spends basically the entirety of the movie trying to be a good, respectable young woman by countlessly rejecting Robbie's relentless attempts at grand romantic gestures for her, and simultaneously stifling her huge crush on Mr. Weaver. Finally, after embracing her sexuality later in the film, she takes initiative in the final scene after Robbie's eighth grade graduation.
There isn't any explicit sexual content, but it's implied with the eighth grade graduation gift she gives him. Not going to go into full details. But spoiler alert: it's a nude pic (as revealed earlier in the film). For a girl hand a boy a printed picture of her naked while in public (surrounded by parents), let alone take the picture at all, is a pretty bold thing to do (not exactly something a "good girl" would do).
Regarding Robbie on the other hand, like the lead male characters, he ends the film on good terms with his female object of affection. However, in contrast to Cal and Jacob (who displayed lots of aggressive sexual advances at many points in the film), Robbie's sole strategy for winning over a girl was always through grand romantic gestures (which isn't typically expected from males let alone a young teenage boy). He's constantly frustrated with his lack of success too with this "romantic" approach that supposedly all girls long for.
These characters' relationship goes along with the Kim et al. (2007) article we read examining latent content through two main codes. The first code, the "Good Girl" analysis focuses on how it is the female who sets limits and is judged by her sexual activity (Kim et al. 2007). Babysitter Jessica Riley embodies this throughout the majority of the film as she continually rejects all of Robbie's advances. The second code the article discussed was sex as masculinity in which men are initiators and sexually aggressive (Kim et al. 2007). Where Robbie was more of a hopeless romantic in his approaches, he still adhered to this code through his relentless initiation of a romantic pursuit that was often laced with sexual undertones.
After many hysterical and heartbreaking encounters, everything seems to work itself out pretty well in the end (or at least the horizon looks hopefully in that direction). While with a more thorough examination of the film, there seems to be a variety of mixed messages amidst the undercurrent. However, the overarching message, as Cal so eloquently and spontaneously sums up in his speech, is that when you find the one you truly love you never give up on them. In the case of all these characters who at times seem to act pretty crazy and stupid, I agree with the notion that they're hearts were in the right place because they were doing it for love.
Reference:
Holz Ivory, A., Gibson, R., & Ivory, J. D. (2009). Gendered relationships on television:
Portrayals of same-sex and heterosexual couples. Mass Communication & Society, 12 (2).
Kim, J. L., C. L., Collins., Zybergold, B. A., Schooler, D., & Tolman, D. L. (2007). From sex to
sexuality: Exposing the heterosexual scripts on primetime network televition. Journal of
Sex Research, 44 (2).
