(cross-posted at The Feminist Texican)
Basically every feminist website is avoiding this one like the plague, but I actually went and saw The Ugly Truth opening night. With my parents. Don’t ask.
The movie poster pretty much sums it up for you:
Abby (Heigl) is a producer at a floundering television network. Like all smart, beautiful career women, she’s also an overbearing cat lady with zero romantic prowess who hasn’t gotten laid in a year. Her assistant is even more pitiful, living vicariously through Abby’s occasional interrogations dates since she has no chance of ever finding a man of her own. As for Abby, her dream man is smart, handsome, well off, loves wine, and likes dogs, but prefers cats (she’s a cat lady, remember?).
At work, Abby’s production team puts on smart stuff that gets no ratings, so her boss ends up hiring Mike (Butler) to give “ugly truth” romantic advice on air in a last ditch effort to drive up the ratings.
During the first airing of the segment, Mike tells the (married) news anchors that although they put on a good show, it’s obvious they haven’t had sex in ages. Why? The female news anchor is earning more than her husband, thus emasculating him. To make up for it, she should shut up and just acquiesce to his manly desires whenever, wherever.
Though Abby is initially horrified by such depravity, she warms to Mike when he promises that he’ll help her win the love of the object of her affection (some hot orthopedic surgeon who loves cats).
Fast forward: Abby needs to be slightly slutty, give great head (and swallow), have long hair, wear see-through bras, know how to flirt, fake orgasms if she’s not having natural ones, and laugh at all the guy’s jokes in order to get her man. And since Abby’s desperate, she does it (the non-sexual stuff, at least, since she and Perfect Man are saving themselves for their perfect Lake Tahoe getaway weekend).
We also find out she thinks vibrators–and masturbation in general–are icky and unladylike. However, she needs to learn how to get herself off because “who will fuck her if she doesn’t fuck herself?” Mike gets her a pair of vibrating undies, which she accidentally ends up wearing to a business meeting. This, of course, is played for major laughs.
Blah, blah, blah, all of this works and she gets her man. But by that point, she realizes she wants Mike. Of course, Mike wants her too, “fuck if he knows why,” considering she’s all overbearing and shit.
Romantic, no?
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maybe the 'comedy' part is that the joke's on her because she ends up with a total jackass?
please send this to the female writers and the female exec producers (Heigl and her mom). Let them know how you feel about having wasted money on a film that just proves women can be misogynists too.
sad sad sad
Thanks for taking the bullet and letting us know this film is just as pathetic, degrading, and sexist as we all suspected when we discussed the trailer.
yeah, pretty much. It kills me though that Heigl, who always complains about the sexism in romcoms, continues to start in the most blatantly insulting ones. Boggles my mind.
I think the movie gives great advice!
If you do everything a sexist jackass would want you to do, then you'll attract a sexist jackass! It's a cautionary tale, surely.
this movie sounds worse than what even the poster and the trailer made it out to be ... WARN THE MASSES!
This is exactly why I refuse to see 98% of the "chick flicks" that come out. Do we really need yet another movie that shows a woman bending over backwards to try to win over some guy that doesn't deserve her anyway?
The ugly truth is people actually spend money to see this movie.
God, I hate this shit. 'Cause everybody knows: Dumbass sexist stereotypes are "the truth"! Hahahaha. Ha.
Agreed, thanks for the heads up. I figured from the trailer it would be terrible. I thought Knocked Up was awful, and I'm disappointed to hear Katherine Heigl has done it again and signed up for another degrading movie.
It's even more disappointing that like ALL the writers and producers are WOMEN for this movie!! FUCK ME!!!