The Boston premiere of I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell happened in Cambridge last night. For those of you that haven't been following, (and I hope this applies to most of you), it is the film adaptation of a book, which was a based on a blog. The blog, in turn, is largely based around the exploits of Tucker Max (and here "exploits" is exactly the right word): getting women drunk, performing sex acts on them, and then writing about it. Many of the encounters detailed in the blog, book, and now the film, meet the legal definition of rape (this should come as no surprise). It is almost unbelievably predatory, so it should also come as no surprise that it was, for a time, very popular.
I first heard of Tucker Max a few years ago, but as I have yet to come accross a media personality named named "Tucker" that is not a complete asshole, I didn't pay much attention. It wasn't until Wednesday, when my boyfriend was alerted of a protest organized by NOMAS in response to the premiere of the film, that I really took a closer look.
Tucker Max' writing represents the worst sort of trend in American males. It's not enough to say that he doesn't respect women - it's that it would never occur to him to respect them. To disrespect them would be a conscious decision on his part (which he does sometimes make - at one point his friends dare him to say something insulting to a woman and he says, " I'm sorry, did you just call out Tucker Max? About disrespecting a whore? My friends know how to push my buttons, so fasten your seatbelts folks, good times are ahead...") - instead, what he exercises in is a complete denial of their personhood. And, of course, like all mysogynists, he is under the impression that this does not mean that he hates women. In fact, on his own website, he responds to accusations that his page is sexist, anti-women, and mysogynistic by saying the following:
"This always confuses me. For fucks sake, I originally put up a page dedicated to getting a date; how is that sexist? How in hell does that imply I hate women? I hate a lot of things... but nowhere on that list is women. I LOVE women. Now, do I treat some women like shit? Yes, sometimes, but I treat EVERYONE like shit, not just women. Sexism is treating one sex differently from the other(s). I treat people as individuals." Of course, it's a bit hard to swallow that he treats women as individuals when he refers to almost all of them, at some point, as a random whore.
I could go on, obviously, but it's no great shakes to prove that Tucker Max is a mysognystic douchebag. He pretty much takes care of that himself. So let's talk about the good news and bad news here:
Bad News: In this country, date rapists get book and movie deals instead of convictions. Tucker Max is currently finishing his second book, "Assholes Finish First." Indeed.
Good News: The aforementioned movie will, by all accounts and purposes, do terribly. It is starring no one you know except that guy from Bring it On. At the Boston premiere, the female lead was literally giving away tickets. No one is going to see this movie.
Interlude: the Boston chapter of NOMAS organized a protest at the Boston premiere of the film, a move which at first I questioned. We've all seen how a good religious protest can make an otherwise mediocre movie skyrocket to the top of the box office. However, those movies usually have press to begin with. Upon further reflection, I realized that it is important to call out this kind of mysogyny at every juncture, even if it brings more attention to the mysogynist in question. Because the fact that this movie can be made is proof that the conversation on mysogyny and definition of rape in this country is but nowhere. To wit: about ten to fifteen people showed up to the Boston protest (full disclosure: I was not one of them - I had class - but my boyfriend reported back). There was one woman there with her child, who was carrying a sign that said "Yes Means Yes." At one point, one of the guys in the line for the premiere got behind her with a sign of his own that said "She Said Yes!" with an arrow pointing down at the woman. The woman and her CHILD.
At one point, the female lead of the film, whose name I believe is Keri Lynn Pratt, offered the protesters tickets to the film. After respectfully declining and stating their reasons for doing so, she proceeded to try and explain to them that the film wasn't disrespectful to women. "Trust me," she said. "I'm a strong independent woman, and this movie is not disrespectful to women."
It's no surprise that mysogyny is still alive and well in this country, despite great strides on the institutional end. But what continues to discourage me is the degree to which we, as women, often collaborate in the sexism that is directed against us. There is a real problem in today's generation of young women misappropriating of feminist language ("strong, independent woman") while simultaneously engaging in anti-feminist behavior. This girl has convinced herself that there is nothing disrespectful to women about a movie about a man who has made his living disrespecting women. If that's not proof that feminism is still necessary, I don't know what is.
I'm not sure how one can really qualify the success of a protest: certainly not by box office take in this case since the movie was never going to make any money in the first place. My hope, however, is that simply showing up and providing a voice of opposition was enough to get people thinking, maybe to get that young woman thinking, about how we, as a society, think of women. If this experience has done nothing else, it has certainly reminded me that feminism is now more necessary, not less, in the lives of young women, if only because it will help them stay away from douchebags like Tucker Max.
(Here is the link to NOMAS - Boston: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=37491040940. For those of you in the area, please feel free to give me a shout-out of any other good feminist groups in the area. I moved here pretty recently, so I'm always looking to find more ways to be involved).
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Tucker Max = piece of shit
It horrifies me to no end that several of my friends - including my best friend, who is a woman - absolutely love Tucker Max and find his exploits hilarious. It enrages me to think about it.
a) What reason do you have to disbelieve Ms. Pratt? Your assertions as to what she is or is not are insulting.
b) Have you seen the movie? [I already knmow the answer, just pointing that out]
c)Let's see this supposed definition of rape. Really, exactly what definition of rape does it fall under? And if you are going for the phrase 'intoxicated' in the Masschusetts definition, you really misunderstand the purpose of the law.
To label it as such cheapens actual rape.
Concern troll. Move along.
Sorry for feeding the troll, but this is a hot point for me, and one that I'm designing research about, so I have to respond.
What do you mean by "actual rape"? What is "actual rape"? If you mean "actual" = fits the definition of law, then yes having sex with a woman who is too intoxicated to legally conset is ILLEGAL. To deny it as such discounts the experiences of millions of women. If you're insinuating the the only "real" rape is the rape that happens when a psycho bad guy sees a poor helpless woman alone in a dark alley and attacks her, then you're feeding into a myth that is incredibly harmful and dangerous. The majority of rapes are perpetrated by someone who knows their victims--ranging from acquaintences to boyfriends and, yes, even husbands. There is no such thing as "actual rape."
Again, I apologize for answering probably in the exact way the troll wanted someone too. I just couldn't help it--there is no such thing as an ideal rape, and the belief that there is has hindered the prosecutions of so called "un-actual" rapes for decades.
My point has nothing to do with acquainatnce rape. Or to suggest that people aren't raped by being taken advantage of when too drunk to consent doesn't occur.
In otherwords, the fact that there is no 'ideal rape' doesn't address my point at all.
I mean instances where someone actually has sex without the other person's consent.
I never got the memo that any-drinking-whatsoever + sex = rape
"having sex with a woman who is too intoxicated to legally conset is ILLEGAL."
Find an actual instance where this occurs in any story by Max. Otherwise, this is simply libelous.
When a woman is drunk she cant give consent. Thats not a hazy definition. Perhaps youre drunk right now?
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Slow the fuck down.
1) Tucker Max is a super jerk and could/should probably be charged with rape.
but
2) Being Drunk does not automatically make you unable to make decisions about your body!!!!!! Does being drunk decrease you ability to make good choices, maybe but drunk sex does not = rape!
I have consented to sex while drunk!!!!
Before you go around telling people that they can't make choices because of a physical state they are in you might want to check your feminist cred at the dumpster first.
Sorry to come off as harsh but you are stilling my agency and I am not down with that.
* this is a reply to Gopher's post only.
Oh, and just so no one yells at me, let me say specifically that YOU CAN DEFINITELY BE RAPED WHILE DRUNK my only point was that just because you were drunk doesn't mean you were raped.
He needs to get girls intoxicated for him to have "sex" with them? And he thinks he's "the man"??
Tell me there are guys out that think that qualifies him as a loser!!
Not hoyaguy. Hoyaguy = bad PR for men.
Never in my life have I wished more that someone would get hit by a bus (except maybe those kids that tortured their cat on video and put it on YouTube).
I actually read a good half of "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell". It was purely disgusting. Tucker Max thinks that he has the right to have sex with any woman he chooses and that sort of mentality is dangerous. I remember a particular incident in the book where the female host of a party refused to have sex with him so he took a huge dump in the tank of her toilet (not the bowl, the tank; I'm sure you can figure out what kinds of problems that can cause). He also says that the women he sleeps with deserve to be disrespected simply for the reason that they have sex with him (or anyone at all for that matter; god forbid a woman actually enjoy and seek to have TEH SEX! or she gets labeled an instant whore). There's also a story in the book about him having sex with a "fat chick" whom he forces to climb out his bedroom window naked (after throwing her clothes out the window) so that his room mates won't know he had sex with her (even though he seemed to enjoy the sex, he felt ashamed and embarrassed to have sex with her because of her weight).
What disturbs me even more is that there are women out there who idolize him and actually want to fuck him.
Yep, he's an immature, shallow, narcissistic douchebag.(kind of along the lines of Joe Francis). Not only that but the writing sucks. I think the quality of the writing bothered me almost as much as the content. He also isn't funny. I read some of his book thinking that even if it offended me maybe it would be funny. It wasn't, and I don't mind obscene humor. From the reviews I have been reading, the movie is no better. I also think he makes a lot of his shit up and what he does come up with is not all that original. There are asinine guys like this all over frat halls. He pretends like he is some kind of social rebel when he really conforms to, and if anything, exaggerates all the worse stereotypes of what makes a man "manly", disrespect of women and how women should look and act. Interestingly, I used to use the book rating/review feature on Amazon and tried to review this book and for the first time ever they did not post my negative review or rating. I edited it, thinking that it would not be posted if it contained anything of a personal nature. I kept the review focused on the quality of the writing and stories only and still my review was not posted. In the message board section other readers posted that this had also happened to them when trying to negatively review this book. Negative reviews I posted on other books went up with no problem. I don't know what is going on, but it was really fishy.
I'm glad you mentioned his whole argument that because he loves women and his female fans love him, he couldn't possibly be a misogynist/anti-feminist too. ARGH not true.
On a different note, I saw the movie. It had pretty much all of the sexism and sizeism I was expecting, unfortunately :( I really liked the two female leads, and they both were nuanced, likeable characters with lots of screentime, but that was the only positive. And even that plus was kinda problematic: it felt like there were strictly two types of women...not madonna/whore, but more like smart girlfriend material deserving of respect/worthless whore deserving of ridicule. Ugh