Today I watched a trailer for Tucker Max's movie "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell." Instead of just focusing on the content, I want to tie the film to the larger topic of (Un)feminist guilty pleasures*. First, I'll describe how while I mostly like feminist-friendly media now, my guilty pleasures tend to be things from my youth, and then I'll go into how this trailer complicated that dichotomy.
I tend to be fairly critical of the media I consume today, and if something strikes me as misogynistic, racist, homophobic, etc, it usually makes my skin crawl. However, it hasn't always been this way. As an illustration, I'll share a recent example. A few days ago I walked into the living room, and asked my roommate what he was watching. He responded by saying "Enchanted. I think you'd really like it." This prediction was 100% understandable, given the fact that I have a Twilight poster in my room and several disney princess movie soundtracks on my iPod. (I know Twilight isn't that old...but I did read the first book ~2 years ago, and I'm only 21...so it seems like a long time ago :P). However, while I still enjoy those movies/books from my past, it's not that I actually appreciate or like their themes, but rather that my nostalgia usually wins over my feminism. With "Enchanted", there was no nostalgia, only nausea.
Now, about Tucker Max. Although he might seem pretty far removed from Disney princesses, he too was someone I liked when I was younger: I started reading his website when I was 15. For those of you not familiar with his work, he wrote online stories and later books about his various drunken adventures, usually involving lots of sexism, fatphobia, ableism, etc. I loved them. There were numerous occasions where strangers would look at me funny after I burst out laughing while reading his stories in public. So, I did just about the same thing as my roommate: when I found out Max was making a movie based on one of his stories, I thought, "A Tucker Max movie. I think I'll really like it."
Not so much. The first scene in the trailer depicts Tucker Max trying to pick up a girl by joking about how a fat girl across the room needs to die, since "Everyone knows fat girls aren't real people." It was difficult to watch. It was a weird moment where I felt a familiar comfort in his brand of humor, however I could still discern how horrible it was. I think I felt both reactions at the same time because although the trailer content was strikingly similar to that of his stories, the switch from writing to film made it seem new enough that my vision wasn't clouded by memories.
"I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" comes out in September, and I'm excited to read more articles/posts about the movie as the date draws nearer. I'm also interested to see if any other feminists have read (maybe even enjoyed) his work.
*Thanks to Miriam to introducing me to this term.
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Oh God. They actually made a movie from this crap? I have plenty of unfeminist pleasures and like some really offensive things but Tucker Max is not one of them. Sorry, I can't understand the appeal of Tucker Max at all. It isn't just that he is a mysoginist arrogant asshole who reminds me of certain frat boys I tried to avoid, it is also that I think his writing is weak and simply not funny. (He has also been known to use people to filter out negative reviews of his books). Every other line practically screams "look at me, I'm so bad and offensive! Let me tell another demeaning story about some dumb chick!" It makes me so angry that he has profited from this (though I doubt much of his garbage is even true). The same anger I feel every time I hear about Joe Francis. I am already dreading having to see the obnoxious trailers and having to listen to guys my age who go to see this movie and then steal lines from it or think it is funny. (though I guess it will be a good way to filter potential dates). Seriously, I am so sick of Tucker Max already, does he really need to show up here as a guilty pleasure?
"I am already dreading having to see the obnoxious trailers "
Or having to listen to the stupid reviewers who'll call it "a breath of fresh air," "so un-PC" or "tells it like it is."
An honest misogynists view! You know, he's just like, honestly being an honest version of a misgynist.
Oh God. They actually made a movie from this crap? I have plenty of unfeminist pleasures and like some really offensive things but Tucker Max is not one of them. Sorry, I can't understand the appeal of Tucker Max at all. It isn't just that he is a mysoginist arrogant asshole who reminds me of certain frat boys I tried to avoid, it is also that I think his writing is weak and simply not funny. (He has also been known to use people to filter out negative reviews of his books). Every other line practically screams "look at me, I'm so bad and offensive! Let me tell another demeaning story about some dumb chick!" It makes me so angry that he has profited from this (though I doubt much of his garbage is even true). The same anger I feel every time I hear about Joe Francis. I am already dreading having to see the obnoxious trailers and having to listen to guys my age who go to see this movie and then steal lines from it or think it is funny. (though I guess it will be a good way to filter potential dates). Seriously, I am so sick of Tucker Max already, does he really need to show up here as a guilty pleasure?
Wait....I'm sorry but I don't understand how you can enjoy his work at all. It is not a surprise to me that his movie is/will be crap. I read one article out of curiosity of all the hype about him and instantly regretted it. It was misogynist and quite frankly, disgusting how he views women.
Not a fan.
I'm unfamiliar with him but from the one joke you repeated here ("fat girl needs to die because they're not real people") I don't think I need to be familiar. I mean, yeah, I admit, I count calories and work out religiously and all that, but that just seems so cruel and harsh. I don't understand what's funny about that.
Some things aren't unfeminist they're anti-feminist. Tucker max qualifies as the latter.