singleton

Perhaps my perpetual single-ness is beginning to cause misfirings in my brain, or perhaps I am entering into the early stages of crazy-spinster-cat-lady-ness, but I have recently been thinking a lot about what it means to find someone to like and care for you. Notice, I am not thinking about "love", but instead its awkward cousin "like".
If you are currently in a happy, healthy relationship with someone, I suggest you read no further as I know my ramblings will only prompt you to send me a list of all the things wrong with my ramblings. Save yourself the trouble and read this.


Ok, now that those people are hopefully gone, here is what I have to say. In the past day or two, I have decided to take an interdisciplinary look at relationships. I have decided to combine two of my passions, movies and self-loathing, and see how one has caused the other, but I won't tell you which one (as a small hint, I highly doubt my self loathing has inspired anyone to pick up a camera).
In taking an inventory of the films that pop into my mind when I decide to take inventories, I have realized that girls and boys are packaged to us in very different ways. There are four basic types of films that most "young people" (and by "young" I mean people who do not know what slap-bracelets are) are going to fork over $10 for. As you may have guessed, I am going to outline these movies for you right here:

1. Hot Girl who is Awkward/Smart/Quirky but not really - This successful genre usually begins with an unambiguously beautiful girl of 15-25 years depending on the MPAA rating who has some unexplained trouble attracting the opposite sex. She is supposedly socially awkward around men and although we are never really given much evidence of this, we relate to her because we want to be just as beautiful as she is. Soon, a devastatingly handsome male lead who is looking for that exact quality she possess (rumored awkwardness / stunning beauty and a hot body) sweeps her off her feet, plants her firmly on to the back of a motorcycle, and shows her how to love and be loved. She is uncertain, but by the end they are together forever. They may have things to talk about, but we really only see their mouths moving during a montage where Michelle Branch music is played in the foreground.

2. Ugly Girl with cool personality - Remove Glasses and Ponytail and see "Hot Girl who is Awkward/Smart/Quirky but not really". The best part of this really is mostly the makeover scene.

3. Awkward Guy who has the option of being too skinny, too fat, or too ugly - We fall in love with him because he is unreasonably pathetic (we practically ask to carry his children if he is a virgin). He stumbles throughout the movie vying for the affections of an unreasonably hot girl. Usually in tow are two quick-witted best friends with possibly the worst suggestions and hilarity ensues. Hot girl eventually sees boy for who he "truly is" and they walk off into the sunset together. One of the best friends is usually left making out with a goat or senior citizen of some sort.

4. Hot Girl/Hot Guy - This movie probably has a lot of cars and guns. That's all you really need to know.

What I'm trying to point out here is that when it really comes down to it, girls get incredibly short-changed. I'm not trying to be some crazy feminazi when I say this, but it saddens me when every girl in every film that people actually see is pretty much the same. Sure you can say that there are really deep characters for women to play and I do not deny this, there are many parts for women that have changed the way I see the world. But my concern is that when an awkward 12 year-old girl goes to the movies and realizes that she isn't as obviously pretty with or without her glasses as most girls in the movies, what hope does she really have?

It is true that we go the movies to escape, to live for a breif moment in an alternate reality as a voyeur. We want the guy to get the girl so bad that we'll accept whatever flimsy foundation their attraction is supposedly based on aside from their obvious hotness.

I think i'm not sure what I'm trying to say, but I hope that there is something I'm missing. What is one to do if their fantasy is getting in the way of dealing with their reality?