The Social Network and Women

So I'm not really one to follow fads. In fact, I usually look the other way. Feathers in my hair... ummm no. Self-tanner... Pale in the new tan, says the Vampire Freaks... Jeggings... Give me a break. As a side note, it's easy to look too thin or too thick in leggings, so be careful.

So when The Social Network came out, I looked the other way, but sooner or later, aka, free at my parent's house, I watched the "sexiest geeks alive" complete their internet domination.

It's "cute" really, the way they framed the story around a woman... a woman who rejected geek Mark Zuckerberg and therefore inspired his drunken revenge. The only intelligent woman in the entire movie is the one who rejects him. Let me rephrase that, the other women in the film could be intelligent, but they are only portrayed as objects who lavish their attention on the newly rich geeks.

From Eduardo's psycho girlfriend, Christy, to the girls who give them blow jobs in the bathroom of the club, to the sexy waitresses in LA who look the other way as Sean Parker orders appletini's for obviously underage college kids, the women in the film fulfill part of the male fantasy of "being cool." The entire premise is that "if we're cool, everyone will love us, women will lavish us with affection, and we'll be rich." Even after Sean Parker admits he's poor from all the law suits, he uses his "cool power" to mooch off of businesses and sneak his way into the facebook company.

Erica, the only character (maybe besides Eduardo) with integrity, dumps Mark when he expresses disdain for the "obviously stupid" BU students, brags about his perfect SAT score, and obsesses about the social superiority of final clubs. Later in the film, Mark tries to talk to her and she still refuses, spurring him on to expand the facebook network until she can see how amazing he is. In a conversation with Sean Parker, Sean tells him that he'll get over it and won't think about her anymore, but till the end of the movie, Erica, aka, the only woman who stood up to him, remains in his mind. Towards the end of the film, Mark looks up Erica's profile but resists the urge to "friend" her.

In talking to a few guy friends, they expressed this romantically, as if Mark had done all this for her... but revenge and the desire to show off, or to prove that you're better, that you're the one she should be looking at, isn't romantic. The need to be the biggest and most bad-ass would just overshadow her if she gave in to his peacock preening.

For Mark, Erica acknowledging his fame would have just been another feather in his hat. He didn't love her, although perhaps he could have, but I do believe he respected her opinion and her intellect. His conceited bragging reminded me of the first proposal of Mr. Darcy to Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. He wants to adopt her into his world and shield her from other's prejudice, but what he doesn't see is his own pathetic, demeaning heart. Erica, like Elizabeth, and, I hope, all women, scoffs at the superficial and self-centered nature of the relationship.

Instead of transforming into a nurturing partner like Darcy, Mark settles for superficial relationships and status, in the end, still pining for the admiration of the one woman he can respect, perhaps only because she rejected him.

Throughout the film, women are portrayed through the eyes of college boys as either bitchy, ugly, controlling, and/or easy and attracted to fame.

While I acknowledge that the status of women isn't really the point of the film, the projection of women's affections and attention as the impetus and motivation for success and creativity is in this case a bit revolting, but also intriguing. It both raises and lowers the status of women to the inspiration for all art, and the most manipulated and naive of humans. What then is the power of beauty that it can even penetrate to the heart of the most seemingly sterile horizons of programming and business? How naive is she if she falls for the shallow lovers of popularity and hype? Sigh...  (Sorry business and IT geeks--the artistic nature of your vocation will have to be another post for another day).