05-31-2014, 12:12 AM
This isn't just this one show, though. There's a whole culture of entitlement, and even if it has shifted from being about the guy with the biggest muscles to the guy with the biggest brain, it is still all about the guy. Screw that. Or not, in fact. The dynamic is still that the girl is a prize to be won, but the onus has moved to making her accept that role, and gratefully embrace it - and usually some sweaty loser with it. It is her problem if she doesn't want to, something wrong with her and her view of the world if she won't capitulate.
The 'Cinderella/Ugly Duckling' story only works if there is an inner beauty to be seen. Just being the lame underdog isn't enough. Wearing your dysfunction like a passcard, and demanding that somebody reward you for it, is not a healthy expectation.
(And so many times, the 'hot girl' in the equation has nothing else to her. She isn't particularly nice, or funny, or anything but some kind of shiny trophy to be waved in people's face. "I have sex with this person, therefore I am a Real Boy!")
But this comedy culture says that it is acceptable for someone to be stalked, pressured and generally guilted, their feelings as the object of desire are considered less important than those of the subject, because some fantasy social construct out of popular media dictates that they should 'give him/her a chance'. It is a scary place to be, on the wrong end of that. Nobody has the right to anyone else's time, attention or body, just because THEY want it.
The 'Cinderella/Ugly Duckling' story only works if there is an inner beauty to be seen. Just being the lame underdog isn't enough. Wearing your dysfunction like a passcard, and demanding that somebody reward you for it, is not a healthy expectation.
(And so many times, the 'hot girl' in the equation has nothing else to her. She isn't particularly nice, or funny, or anything but some kind of shiny trophy to be waved in people's face. "I have sex with this person, therefore I am a Real Boy!")
But this comedy culture says that it is acceptable for someone to be stalked, pressured and generally guilted, their feelings as the object of desire are considered less important than those of the subject, because some fantasy social construct out of popular media dictates that they should 'give him/her a chance'. It is a scary place to be, on the wrong end of that. Nobody has the right to anyone else's time, attention or body, just because THEY want it.